Daniel Gordis

Daniel Gordis
Daniel Gordis, 2018
Born	(1959-07-05)July 5, 1959 New York City,New York,U.S.
Education	Columbia University(BA) Jewish Theological Seminary of America(MA) University of Southern California(PhD)
Occupation	Author
Employer	Shalem College
Parent	Leon Gordis(father)
Relatives	Robert Gordis(grandfather)
Awards	National Jewish Book Award(2009, 2016)

Daniel Gordis(born 1959) is an American-born Israeli author. He is Koret Distinguished Fellow atShalem CollegeinJerusalem,where he previously was Senior Vice President and Chair of the Core Curriculum.

Gordis is the author of a dozen books onJudaismandIsrael.He has received theNational Jewish Book Awardtwice, including Book of the Year forIsrael: A Concise History Of A Nation Reborn.The Forwardhas called Gordis "one of the most influential Israel analysts around."

Biography

Gordis was born on July 5, 1959, inNew York City,and was raised inBaltimorewhere he attended public high school. His father wasLeon Gordis,an epidemiologist at theJohns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.His mother, Hadassah Gordis, was a clinical social worker. His grandfather was RabbiRobert Gordis,a noted biblical scholar and one of the leaders of the Conservative Movement. His uncle (his mother's brother) was ProfessorGerson D. Cohen,who served as Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Gordis himself was once recognized as a leadingConservativerabbi, but is no longer publicly associated with that movement.

Academic career

Gordis earned a bachelor's degree fromColumbia Universityin 1981. He then received amaster's degreeandrabbinic ordinationfrom theJewish Theological Seminary of America.Gordis and his wife moved to California in 1984, and while there, he received hisPh.D.from theUniversity of Southern California.Heimmigrated to Israelin 1998.

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

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

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 firstliberal arts college.

Writing career

Gordis has written forThe New York Times,The New Republic,The New York Times Magazine,Moment,Tikkun,theJerusalem Post,HaaretzandConservative Judaism.He is now aregular columnistfor the Jerusalem Post, for which he writes a regular column called "A Dose of Nuance," and forBloomberg View.

In 2016, Gordis won theJewish Book of the Yearfrom theJewish Book CouncilforIsrael: A Concise History Of A Nation Reborn.

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 RabbiSharon Brous), having insufficient love for Israel (RabbiJill Jacobs) or being a traitor to the Jewish people (Peter Beinart). He has also extended this assessment to rabbinical seminaries and their students.

Published works

Books

• God Was Not in the Fire: The Search for a Spiritual Judaism(Scribner, 1995)
• Does the World Need the Jews: Rethinking Chosenness and American Jewish Identity(Scribner, 1997)
• Becoming a Jewish Parent: How to Explore Spirituality and Tradition with Your Children(Random House, 1999)
• If a Place Can Make You Cry(Crown, 2002)
• Home to Stay: One American Family’s Chronicle of Miracles and Struggles in Contemporary Israel(Random House, 2003)
• Coming Together, Coming Apart(Wiley, 2006)
• Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End(Wiley, 2009)

The book won the 2008National Jewish Book Awardunder the Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice category.

• 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 criticStephen Daisely"the gold standard text inBeginstudies ".Critics beg to disagree, such asSamuel Thropewho 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-Gurionand Begin] is a caricature that does not do justice to either figure. "

• Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn(Ecco/Harper Collins, 2016)
• We Stand Divided(Ecco, 2019)
• Impossible Takes Longer: 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?(Ecco, 2023)

Articles

• 'E-mail from an Anxious State,' inThe New York Times Magazine,September 30, 2001, pp. 42–47.E-mail from an Anxious State
• 'Needing Israel,' inThe New York Times,Op-Ed Page, April 13, 2002, page A17.Needing IsraelSubsequently entered into theCongressional Recordby RepresentativeAnthony Weiner(D-NY) on April 17, 2002, Volume 148, No. 43, pp. H1401-1403.
• 'Taking Risks After the Gaza War,' on theNew York Times On-Line Opinion Section,January 12, 2009,Taking Risks After the Gaza War
• He's a Religious Leader, Not a Diplomat
• Forcing Clarity on Israel
• 'The Tower of Babel and the Birth of Nationhood,'inAzure40 (Spring 2010)]
• 'The Shape and Meaning of Biblical History,'inAzure45 (Summer 2011)]

Films

Gordis participated in the documentary filmIndestructibleabout a man suffering fromamyotrophic lateral sclerosis,in which he discussed theological explanations for human suffering.

External links

• Daniel Gordis: Dispatches from an Anxious State
• Indestructible - A Story of Survival
• Arianna in Israel