Background
Arnold M. Eisen was born in 1951 in the United States.
1 College Ln Hall Room 1, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Eisen received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK
Eisen studied at Oxford University and became a Bachelor of Philosophy.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Eisen graduated with a Ph.D. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Arnold Eisen
Arnold Eisen
Arnold Eisen
(What does it mean to be a Jew in America? What opportunit...)
What does it mean to be a Jew in America? What opportunities and what threats does the great melting pot represent for a group that has traditionally defined itself as "a people that must dwell alone"? Although for centuries the notion of "The Chosen People" sustained Jewish identity, America, by offering Jewish immigrants an unprecedented degree of participation in the larger society, threatened to erode their Jewish identity and sense of separateness.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253313651/?tag=2022091-20
1983
(Jews, like other Americans, have both benefited and suffe...)
Jews, like other Americans, have both benefited and suffered from the fraying of traditional loyalties that has come to characterize modern American culture. In Taking Hold of Torah Arnold M. Eisen offers a personal plea for - and a vision of - the revitalizing of American Judaism through a renewed relationship to Jewish tradition and the strengthening of Jewish communities.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253333148/?tag=2022091-20
1997
(Arnold Eisen here calls for a fundamental rethinking of t...)
Arnold Eisen here calls for a fundamental rethinking of the story of modern Judaism. More than simply a study of Jewish thought on customs and rituals, Rethinking Modern Judaism explores the central role that practice plays in Judaism's encounter with modernity.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226195287/?tag=2022091-20
1998
Arnold M. Eisen was born in 1951 in the United States.
Eisen received a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Eisen studied at Oxford University and became a Bachelor of Philosophy. Eisen graduated with a Ph.D. from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Arnold M. Eisen, one of the world's foremost authorities on American Judaism, is the seventh chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Since taking office in 2007, Chancellor Eisen has transformed the education of religious, pedagogical, professional, and lay leaders for North American Jewry, with a focus on graduating highly skilled, innovative leaders who bring Judaism alive in ways that speak authentically to Jews at a time of rapid and far-reaching change.
In 2015, Chancellor Eisen announced that JTS would undertake a major project to re-imagine its Morningside Heights campus, aligning it with JTS’s mission to be a center of inquiry, conversation, and inspiration for the Jewish community of North America. The 21st Century Campus Project, now underway, will create a physical space designed to foster innovation, learning, and collaboration, and to strengthening JTS as a hub of focused inquiry and high-level discussion about the transformation of our tradition and our community.
During his tenure, Chancellor Eisen has placed significant emphasis on strengthening Jewish learning in our communities, creating programs that extend the reach of JTS’s scholarship and resources beyond the campus to Jewish learners around the world. These programs include expanded access to the treasures of The JTS Library through increased digitization, a new JTS Fellows program to increase opportunities for adult learning, and the development of JTS Torah Online, a rich menu of videos, podcasts, and Torah commentary.
Chancellor Eisen’s initiatives also include the new Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts; programs to strengthen early childhood, experiential, adult, and Israel education; the Arts Initiative; the interfaith Center for Pastoral Education; and the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue.
Before coming to JTS, Chancellor Eisen served on the faculties of Stanford, Tel Aviv, and Columbia universities. An award-winning writer and advocate for the Jewish community, the chancellor's many publications include Rethinking Modern Judaism, and most recently, Conservative Judaism Today and Tomorrow, a collection of personal and passionate essays that explore essential matters of Jewish belief and practice from a Conservative perspective.
He contributes regularly to print and online media, including the Wall Street Journal, The Jewish Week, Huffington Post, Tablet, and Fortune, and he discusses Jewish education, philosophy, and values on his blog, On My Mind: Arnie Eisen. He is a lifelong and devoted Conservative Jew.
Arnold M. Eisen explained his deep attachment to his subjects in Rethinking Modern Judaism (1998). While attending a Sukkot ritual in a synagogue, he says, “I could not help but wonder, despite my familiarity with the rituals of the holiday, what on earth these people were doing and why they were doing it. A few moments later, no less incredulous than before, I had joined the march.” It is from this personal place that Eisen explores the faith and practices of American Judaism, an approach that has made his writing accessible and interesting to a wide audience.
Eisen published The Chosen People in America: A Study in Jewish Religious Ideology in 1983. The book’s premise is that the biblical idea of the Jews as God’s chosen people was more difficult to maintain in America where Jews were much more a part of the larger society than they had been in the European ghettoes. Eisen’s particular focus is the transition from modem Judaism’s “Second Generation,” which he dates from 1930-1955 to the successive “Third Generation.”
Galut: Modern Jewish Reflection on Homelessness and Homecoming (1986) received the 1987 National Jewish Book Award and is one of Eisen’s best-known works. As its title suggests, Galut confronts the Jewish problem of living both apart from and within the society of others. The question of exile and return, and its bearing on American Jews especially leads Eisen into a discussion of home, loss of home, and the discovery of a home that lies somewhere other than the place in which one lives. Three major aspects of Jewish life and how they relate to this complicated topic are examined: religion (Judaism), ethnicity (Jewishness), and nationality (Israeliness).
In Rethinking Modern Judaism, Eisen looks at modem Jewish ritual, considering the effects of modernity on Judaism, even among orthodox Jews, and concluding that Judaism is constantly evolving by incorporating re-invented traditions.
(What does it mean to be a Jew in America? What opportunit...)
1983(Jews, like other Americans, have both benefited and suffe...)
1997(Arnold Eisen here calls for a fundamental rethinking of t...)
1998Eisen believes that American Jews feel connected to Jewish ritual but maintain autonomy to decide what to practice and thus many do not attend synagogue regularly.
Eisen is a recognized expert in religious change and the modern transformation of Jewish religious belief and practice. He is also one of the world's foremost experts in the sociology of American Judaism. For the past twenty years, he has worked closely with synagogue and federation leadership around the country to analyze and address the issues of Jewish identity, the revitalization of Jewish tradition, and the redefinition of the American Jewish community.
Eisen is married to Dr. Adriane Leveen, a professor of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) at the Reform Judaism movement's Hebrew Union College. They have two children, Shulie, a recent graduate of Brandeis University, and Nathaniel, a student at Stanford University.