David Hartman (rabbi) - Career

Career

After serving as a congregational rabbi in the Bronx, New York, from 1955–1960, David Hartman became Rabbi of Congregation Tiferet Beit David Jerusalem in Montreal, where he had a profound influence on the lives of many of his congregants, some of whom followed him to Israel when he moved there in 1971. While in Montreal, he also taught and studied at McGill University and received his Ph.D. in philosophy.

In 1971, Hartman immigrated to Israel with his wife Barbara and their five children, a move which he viewed as an essential part of his mission to encourage a greater understanding between Jews of diverse affiliations – both in Israel and the Jewish diaspora – and to help build a more pluralistic and tolerant Israeli society. In 2008, Rabbi Hartman received an honorary doctorate from Weizmann Institute "in recognition of "his life's work to revitalize Judaism and strengthen Jewish identity among Jews the world over; above all, of his gift of vision and action, faith and scholarship, toward building a more pluralistic, tolerant, and enlightened Israeli society." It is with this vision that David Hartman founded the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem in 1976, dedicating it to his father. In 2009, David Hartman was named Founding President. His son, Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, was named President of the Institute. At the institute, Prof. Hartman has led a team of research scholars in the study and teaching of classical Jewish sources and contemporary issues of Israeli society and Jewish life. His work emphasizes the centrality of the rebirth of the State of Israel – the challenge as well as the opportunities it offers to contemporary Judaism. His teachings draw upon the tradition of Orthodox Judaism and emphasize religious pluralism, both among Jews and in interfaith relations. As his views often align with Conservative Judaism, some have asked whether he should be considered Orthodox. Elliot Dorff has characterized Hartman as "Orthodox but close to the right border of Conservative Judaism."

In addition to the institute he has opened the Charles E. Smith High School for boys that is resident on the Institute campus and, more recently, a girls' high school, Midrashiya, in central Jerusalem.

Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught for over two decades, Hartman was also visiting Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of California, Berkeley during 1986/1987 and at the University of California, Los Angeles during 1997/1998. His involvement goes beyond the academic fields, in which he has published extensively, and his influence has also been felt in Israel’s political and educational arenas: from 1977–1984, he served as an advisor to Zevulun Hammer, former Israeli Minister of Education, and he has been advisor to a number of Israeli prime ministers on the subject of religious pluralism in Israel and the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora.