Background
He was born in the United States to Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch (born 1926) a Reform rabbi who founded that movement"s Religious Action Center in Washington, District of Columbia His mother is Bella Hirsch. He has two brothers and a sister.
He was born in the United States to Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch (born 1926) a Reform rabbi who founded that movement"s Religious Action Center in Washington, District of Columbia His mother is Bella Hirsch. He has two brothers and a sister.
Hirsch spent his high school years in Israel, serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a tank commander. He speaks fluent Hebrew. He received rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, in 1989.
From 1992–2004 Hirsch served as executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the Israel arm of the North American Reform movement.
He was also a leader in the struggle against Israel"s Orthodox religious establishment – which he called "the monopoly" – to recognize the Reform movement in Israel, and was influential in the successful lobbying effort to change Israel"s Conversion Law to recognize conversions performed by non-Orthodox rabbis in Israel. In 2004 he joined Stephen Wise Free Synagogue as Senior Rabbi.
He lives in New York City. In 2000 a literary agent introduced Hirsch to Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman, an Orthodox rabbi and Talmudic scholar, with the idea of collaborating on a book airing the Reform and Orthodox viewpoints on various issues.
Their email correspondence over the next 18 months resulted in the book The book was denounced by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America and the heads of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey, where Reinman received his rabbinic ordination.
Reinman subsequently pulled out of a 14-city promotional tour after two appearances, leaving Hirsch to continue the tour on his own.
An ardent Zionist, he guided ARZA to accept a new platform embracing Zionism in 1997. The book was hailed by the religious left as a breakthrough in Orthodox recognition of religious pluralism, while generating criticism in Orthodox circles for Rabbi Reinman"s willingness to conduct an official rabbinic dialogue with Reform.
He went on to earn an Bachelor of Laws Honors law degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and became a member of the New York State Bar in 1985. Hirsch is also an officer of the New York Board of Rabbis and a member of the Partnership of Faith, an interfaith body of New York religious leaders.