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David Hartman

David Hartman

1931 CE–2013 CE · Modern · Brooklyn (NY)

Rabbi David Hartman (1931–2013) was a Modern Orthodox philosopher and the founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Born in Brooklyn and ordained by R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik at Yeshiva University, he served as senior rabbi in Montreal before moving to Israel in 1971 and joining the philosophy faculty of the Hebrew University.

In 1976 he founded the Shalom Hartman Institute, which became Israel's premier center for pluralistic Jewish thought, training rabbis and educators across denominations. Hartman developed a covenantal theology drawing on Rambam and Soloveitchik but emphasizing Jewish religious diversity and the legitimate presence of multiple ways of being Jewish in the modern state. His best-known works are *A Living Covenant* (1985) and *A Heart of Many Rooms* (1999).

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Stop 1 of 31931–1960Born

Brooklyn (NY)ברוקליןNew York, USA

What they did here

Born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn; studied at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and was ordained at Yeshiva University under R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, then served as a rabbi in the Bronx.

About Brooklyn (NY)

Brooklyn, coextensive with Kings County, is one of the five boroughs of New York City. It began as the Dutch village of Breuckelen, chartered in 1646, remained an independent city until it was consolidated into New York in 1898, and is today the most populous borough. Roughly a fifth of its residents are Jewish, and since the mid-twentieth century it has been a world centre of Orthodox and Hasidic life: Chabad-Lubavitch has had its headquarters in Crown Heights since 1940, Satmar is centred in Williamsburg and Bobov in Borough Park, alongside many yeshivas and Modern Orthodox congregations. Several American Buddhist teachers, among them Bernie Glassman and Bhikkhu Bodhi, were born in Brooklyn.

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with David Hartman’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Works(4)

A Heart of Many Roomsלב של חדרים רבים

Jerusalem · 1999

1999 reading of rabbinic literature as warrant for theological pluralism across the contemporary Jewish landscape.

Full text not yet available in our corpus.

A Living Covenantברית חיה

Jerusalem · 1985

1985 covenantal-pluralist theology of Modern Orthodoxy emphasizing Israel, mitzvot, and the diversity of legitimate Jewish religious expression.

Full text not yet available in our corpus.