Old Wine in New Bottles: Rethinking the 21st Century Rabbinate

Please join me for this virtual class. You will have to register (below) to get the link for this free zoom class.

Wednesday, Dec 20 at 8-915pm EST: Old Wine in New Bottles: Rethinking the 21st Century Rabbinate.

Early in the 19th century, a modern rabbinate began to emerge in Central Europe and then the United States, spawning a new type of rabbinic school as well as professional religious organizations. By the end of the 20th century, feminism, mysticism, and technology were radically reshaping the rabbinic office.

Rabbi and scholar, Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D., will share his insights, research, and experiences about the state of the rabbinate at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A specialist in American Jewish History, Sussman is the author of a number of books in his field, including the seminal biography Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995). Most recently, he published Portrait of an American Rabbi: In His Own Words (2023), a collection of his sermons and writings from the last twenty-one years. (The book can be purchased at your local bookstore or on Amazon.)

Sussman has taught at Princeton University, Binghamton (SUNY) University, and Hunter College, among others, and has also served as Chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College. Some of his more light-hearted lecture titles include “How Lox Became Jewish: A History of the American Jewish Deli” and “Walk Softly and Carry a Big Schtick: Teddy Roosevelt and the Jews." He is currently Vice President of both the North American Board of Rabbis and the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis and is the Senior Scholar at Roots of Reform Judaism.

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