This past Sunday, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield was invited to address the congregation at Fairmont Presbyterian Church in Kettering, Ohio. Honoring ten years of Rev. Dr. Brian Maguire leading the congregation, Brad discussed covenant as a methodology for both personal and global transformation. In addition to being the senior pastor of Fairmont Church, Brian serves as a faculty member at United Theological Seminary, where his wife, Rev. Dr. Lisa Hess – also an ordained Presbyterian minister – serves as a full-time professor of theology. Clal’s Stand and See Fellowship was initially created when Lisa invited Brad on a trip to Israel with her students. Brian was also on that trip, and as a result of both his deep knowledge and passion for the land of Israel, and a shared vision of nurturing covenantal leadership for America, Brian became Clal’s senior-most Christian teacher on Stand and See trips. Clal is proud to celebrate Brian’s ten years of service and the incredible partnership we have had with Brian and Lisa over the years.
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.”