Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world. An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations. Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know."

My Newest Seasonal Hero

October 9, 2024September 17, 2024 by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Learning to take accountability

Kill Them All, Blame Bibi, and Other Responses to an Especially Terrible 48 Hours

October 9, 2024September 5, 2024 by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Standing at the intersection of painful humility and profound possibility.

Right or Wrong: Necessary but Insufficient Questions

July 25, 2024July 24, 2024 by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Let’s try a thought experiment—an easy one, actually—because it invites us into a moment in which we all have found ourselves many, many times.

Send, Send For Yourself, Send To Yourself

June 27, 2024 by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

In an era of identitarian politics and a general fascination with identity writ large — be it racial, religious, gender, sexual, ethnic, or another — I keep returning to the words written by Pete Townshend and belted out by Roger Daltry on the title track to The Who’s 1978 album, Who Are You.

As the wine steward said to Pharaoh in Genesis 41:9, “I declare my sins now.” The sin I declare now is my tone-deafness to the significance of this week’s solar eclipse. I just didn’t understand why it was such a big deal to so many people, including to many of the Rabbinic Fellows in Clal’s LEAP program, run in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.