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Shalom Hartman Institute’s new initiative, the "North American Scholars Circle," held its inaugural meeting in New York, January 4-7, 2010. The scholars met in a formal setting for the first time (see photo below), studying together and hearing from distinguished peers on the program’s inaugural theme this year: Ikarim: Foundations for Contemporary Judaism in North America.

 

The Scholars Circle is a select group of acclaimed thinkers convening to address essential questions and challenges facing North American Jewry. Highly accomplished in their fields, the scholars are on the teaching faculty of a wide cross-section of esteemed North American universities and Judaic studies programs, rabbinic schools, and educational institutions. The group includes several rabbi-PhD’s who serve both as pulpit rabbis and academics.  

 

Each scholar represents a special field of expertise, and will be collaborating with the rest of the group in a pluralistic framework facilitating intellectual synergy and cross-pollination. The January meeting in New York served as the first roundtable session following biweekly study and discussion meetings since September 2009 via teleconference.

 

In the course of the year, the scholars will study and debate different responses to questions such as: What are the core elements necessary for Jewish life in the current North American reality? How can Jewish life today be re-grounded in our tradition’s fundamental principles, such as the versions of the sages of al shlosha devarim haolam omed; or the 13 Principles of Maimonides? To what extent do North American Jews have a shared culture and language?

 

A highlight of the January conference was a special presentation by social scientist Michael Walzer on the anomalies of Jewish identity. Walzer is author of several significant works including Spheres of Justice and Just and Unjust Wars. An avid participant in the Hartman Institute’s Philosophy Conference for more than 10 years, Walzer has worked in close collaboration with many of the Institute’s scholars, including co-editing the multi-volume series The Jewish Political Tradition, with Menachem Lorberbaum and Noam Zohar.

 

"The Hartman Institute Scholars Circle has already begun to achieve its unique goal," said Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, the Institute’s Director of Lay Leadership Education and Co-Director of the Scholars Circle. "The scholars are influencing not only each other’s thinking and engagement in scholarship, but are beginning to construct a new vocabulary and potential core ideas for a more thoughtful North American Jewish life."

 

The members of Shalom Hartman Institute’s North American Scholars Circle are pictured at their inaugural meeting in

New York, January, 2010.

 

Top row, left to right: Elliot Cosgrove, Park Avenue Synagogue, Leon Morris, for Adult Jewish Learning and Temple Adas Israel, Eliyahu Stern, Oxford University and Yale University, Gordon Bernat-Kunin, Milken High School, Don Seeman, Emory University, Yehuda Kurtzer, Brandeis University and Hartman Institute, Donniel Hartman, Hartman Institute, Or Rose, Boston Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School, David Myers, UCLA, Ari Y. Kelman, UC Davis, Moshe Halbertal, Hartman Institute, Hebrew University, Wendy Zierler, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Daniel Lehmann, Boston Hebrew College, Jeremy Dauber, Columbia University.

 

Seated, left to right: Rachel Sabath Beit Halachmi, Hartman Institute, Alfredo Borodowski, Hartman Institute, Naomi Seidman, Graduate Theological Union and UC Berkeley, Laura Levitt, Temple University, Joel Hecker, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Stanford University. Not Pictured: Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University.