Daniel Gordis
Daniel Gordis, 2018
Born (1959-07-05) July 5, 1959
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationColumbia University (BA)
Jewish Theological Seminary of America (MA)
University of Southern California (PhD)
Occupation(s)Author and columnist
EmployerShalem College
Parent
RelativesRobert Gordis (grandfather)
AwardsNational Jewish Book Award (2009, 2016)

Daniel Gordis (born 1959) is an American-born Israeli author and speaker, who is best known as a passionate advocate of Israel. He is Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem, where he previously also served as Senior Vice President and Chair of the Core Curriculum, until his retirement from those positions. The author of a dozen books on Judaism and Israel, and twice awarded the National Jewish Book Award (including Book of the Year for his history of Israel), The Forward has called Gordis "one of the most influential Israel analysts around." Gordis is also the author of the blog and podcast, Israel from the Inside, which is published on Substack.

Biography

Gordis was born on July 5, 1959, in New York City, and was raised in Baltimore where he attended public high school. His father was Leon Gordis, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. His mother, Hadassah Gordis, was a clinical social worker. His grandfather was Rabbi Robert Gordis,[1] a noted biblical scholar and one of the leaders of the Conservative Movement. His uncle (his mother's brother) was Professor Gerson D. Cohen, who served as Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Gordis himself was once recognized as a leading Conservative rabbi, but is no longer publicly associated with that movement.

Academic career

Gordis earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in 1981. He then received a master's degree and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Gordis and his wife moved to California in 1984, and while there, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He immigrated to Israel in 1998.[2]

Gordis was the founding dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism, the first rabbinical school on the West Coast of the United States.[2]

From 1998 to 2007, he worked at the Mandel Foundation and the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem. He joined the Shalem Center in 2007 as Senior Vice President and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College.[3]

In 2007, after nine years as vice president of the Mandel Foundation and director of its Leadership Institute, Gordis joined the Shalem Center to join the team founding Israel's first liberal arts college.[2]

Writing career

Gordis has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Moment, Tikkun, the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and Conservative Judaism. He is now a regular columnist for the Jerusalem Post, for which he writes a regular column called "A Dose of Nuance," and for Bloomberg View.

In 2016, Gordis won the Jewish Book of the Year from the Jewish Book Council for Israel: A Concise History Of A Nation Reborn.[4]

Positions

Gordis has been harshly critical of American Jews who criticize Israeli government policies, sometimes publicly accusing them of either betraying Israel and the Jewish people (as in the case of Rabbi Sharon Brous[5]), having insufficient love for Israel (Rabbi Jill Jacobs[6]) or being a traitor to the Jewish people (Peter Beinart[7]). He has also extended this assessment to rabbinical seminaries and their students.[8]

Published works

Books

The book won the 2008 National Jewish Book Award under the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice category.[9]

  • Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa (Stanford U Press, 2012)
  • The Promise of Israel: Why Its Seemingly Greatest Weakness Is Actually Its Greatest Strength (Wiley, 2012)
  • Menachem Begin and the Battle for Israel's Soul (Nextbook, 2014)

The book has been called by UK-based freelance writer and critic Stephen Daisely "the gold standard text in Begin studies".[10] Critics beg to disagree, such as Samuel Thrope who writes "The book is a paragon of overweening pride: smug, self-satisfied, convinced of its own conclusions, and disdainful of its presumed critics" and that the "black-and-white picture of [Ben-Gurion and Begin] is a caricature that does not do justice to either figure."[11]

Articles

Films

Gordis participated in the documentary film Indestructible about a man suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in which he discussed theological explanations for human suffering.[12][13]

References

  1. ↑ "Dr. Leon Gordis, longtime chairman of epidemiology at Hopkins, dies". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  2. 1 2 3 Sachare, Alex (Winter 2013). "Core Curriculum Knows No Borders" (PDF). Columbia College Today. Columbia Club. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "About". danielgordis.org. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  4. ↑ "Michael Chabon, Daniel Gordis win National Jewish Book Awards". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2017-01-11. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  5. ↑ "When balance becomes betrayal".
  6. ↑ "E-mail Spat Shines Light on Volatile Israel Debates After the Fire".
  7. ↑ "Daniel Gordis: Peter Beinart is a 'traitor' to the Jewish people".
  8. ↑ "Rabbi Sharon Brous vs. Rabbi Daniel Gordis: Betrayal or compassion?". 29 November 2012.
  9. ↑ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Archived from the original on 2020-03-08. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  10. ↑ Stephen Daisely: "The Most Jewish PM", review of Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul in Commentary April 2014.
  11. ↑ Samuel Thrope (7 March 2014). "Daniel Gordis' Begin biography teaches liberals and leftists can't be trusted". Haaretz. Retrieved 18 April 2015. -- OR try this [full text] URL: http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.578340?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.216%2C2.218%2C
  12. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2009-10-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ↑ "Indestructible (2007) - IMDb". IMDb.
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