Renewing Our Spirit Volume III
In Memory of Nathan Noteh Krauss z"l
Speakers

		Program Summary
		Schedule
		Speakers

Rabbi Michael Broyde
Rabbi Pini Dunner
Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm
Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes-Cardozo
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman
Ms. Bracha Rutner
Rabbi Michael Skobac

Rabbi Michael Broyde

Michael J. Broyde is an Associate Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law and the Academic Director of the Law and Religion Program at Emory University. His primary areas of interest are Law and Religion, Jewish law and ethics, and comparative religious law. Besides Jewish law, Michael

Broyde has taught Federal Courts, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Secured Credit, Bankruptcy and other courses. He received a juris doctor from New York University and published a note on the Law Review. He clerked for Judge Leonard I. Garth of the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. In addition, he is ordained (yoreh yoreh ve-yadin yadin) as a rabbi by Yeshiva University and is a member (dayan) of the Beth Din of America, the largest Jewish law court in America. He was the Director of that court during the 1997-1998 academic year while on leave from Emory.

Michael Broyde published more than 50 articles in various aspects of law and religion and Jewish law, and a number of articles in the area of Federal courts, including an article in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy on the impeachment process. His first book, The Pursuit of Justice and Jewish Law was published by Yeshiva University Press and his second, Human Rights and Judaism by Aronson Publishing House. He is the author of a recent article in the Connecticut Law Review entitled "Cloning People: A Jewish View;" his most recent book is Marriage, Divorce and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law: A Conceptual Understanding of the Agunah Problems in America, 2000.

mbroyde@law.emory.edu
Phone: 404-727-7546
Fax: 404-727-3374

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Rabbi Pini Dunner

Pini Dunner is the founding rabbi of the Saatchi Synagogue in London, England. Rabbi Dunner has a Master's degree in Jewish History from the University of London. His book "Rebel Rabbi: The Life and Controversies of Joseph Shapotschnick" will be published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

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Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm

Dr. Norman Lamm,  a distinguished rabbi, philosopher, teacher, and author,  was elected president of Yeshiva University in August of 1976, succeeding Dr. Samuel Belkin and Dr. Bernard Revel. He is the University ' s third president and the first native-born American to head the nation ' s oldest and most comprehensive institution of higher learning under Jewish auspices.*

Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1927, Dr. Lamm received his elementary and high school education at Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath. In 1945, he entered Yeshiva College where he continued his Jewish learning and undertook a liberal arts program with a major in chemistry. He graduated summa cum laude in 1949 and was class valedictorian.

Upon graduation, Dr. Lamm pursued advanced scientific studies at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn while continuing his Judaic studies and rabbinic scholarship at Yeshiva. He was ordained as a rabbi by YU ' s affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1951, and earned a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from the University ' s Bernard Revel Graduate School in 1966.

During the 17 years preceding his election as president, Dr. Lamm served on the Yeshiva University faculty, culminating in his appointment as the Erna and Jakob Michael Professor of Jewish Philosophy in 1966. He has also been spiritual leader of The Jewish Center in Manhattan, rabbi of Congregation Kodimoh in Springfield, MA, and assistant rabbi at New York City's Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun.

Dr. Lamm, author of ten books, has gained wide recognition for his writings and discourses on interpretation of Jewish philosophy and law, especially in relation to problems involving science, technology, and philosophy in the modern world. His major work, Torah Lishmah , published in Hebrew in 1972 and updated and translated into English in 1989, deals with the religious philosophy of Hasidism and their opponents, the Mitnaggedim, in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe. Torah Umadda , published in 1990, explores the University's cornerstone: the integration of Torah learning and secular knowledge. The same year, his book in Hebrew Halakhot ve'Halikhot (Jewish Law and the Legacy of Judaism: Essays and Inquiries in Jewish Law) was published.

In 1998 he published his ninth book, The Shema , in which he explores the relationship between spirituality and law in Judaism drawing on a wide range of traditional sources as well as his own reflections on the Torah's ringing declaration of monotheism.

His latest book, The Religious Thought of Hasidism: Text and Commentary , presents a selection of the writings of the masters of the early Hasidic movement, and charts their central ideas in their ideational context. This volume won the coveted 1999 National Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought.

Other works by Dr. Lamm include: The Royal Reach: Discourses on the Jewish Tradition and the World Today (1970), Faith and Doubt (1971), A Hedge of Roses: Jewish Insights into Marriage and Married Life (1966), and The Good Society: Jewish Ethics in Action (1974). He has also edited or co-edited over twenty volumes, including The Library of Jewish Law and Ethics , and written a great number of articles that have appeared in magazines, journals, and the Encyclopedia Judaica Yearbook . He was the founder and the first editor of Tradition and associate editor of Hadarom , a journal of Jewish Law, and founder of The Torah Umadda Journal .

Dr. Lamm ' s writings and teaching on Jewish Law have been cited in two landmark decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court -- the 1966 " Miranda decision" regarding police interrogation of suspects held in custody and a 1967 case involving guarantees against self-incrimination. Also in 1967, Dr, Lamm testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on the right of privacy from the perspective of Jewish law.

Over the years, Dr. Lamm has lectured extensively in the United States and in nearly a dozen other countries on five continents. In 1986, on the occasion of the University's Centennial, he delivered an historic address to 1,000 YU alumni in Israel in which he condemned religious extremism and called for moderation. Sadly, he was forced to revisit these and related themes a decade later in remarks both preceding and following the tragic assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a religious Jew.

In December 2000, Dr. Lamm was awarded the 12th Jerusalem Prize for Communal and Spiritual Leadership. He was cited for his advancement of Torah Umadda and groundbreaking guidance of generations of Orthodox Jewry in America.

Within University circles and beyond, Dr. Lamm is credited with saving the institution from bankruptcy in 1980 by adopting a sweeping debt-restructuring plan. He then launched a successful campaign to repay some $35 million in loans in 1982. He has since presided over a development effort that has increased YU's endowment from $25 million in 1986 to $930 million in 2002. Under Dr. Lamm ' s leadership, enrollment has increased and academic programs have been upgraded, reinvigorated, and expanded. He also founded two Honors programs, one at Yeshiva College and one at Stern College for Women.

Dr. Lamm is married to the former Mindella Mehler. They have four children and seventeen grandchildren. Dr. and Mrs. Lamm reside on Manhattan's West Side.

Yeshiva University traces its origins to Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, which was founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), which was founded nearby in 1896. The two institutions merged in 1915 and created a liberal arts college in 1928. Yeshiva attained university status in 1945, and RIETS became an affiliate of the University in 1970. Together, they enroll approximately 6,400 men and women.

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Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the author of Judaism On Trial: An Unconventional Discussion about Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel and Thoughts to Ponder: Daring Observations about the Jewish Tradition.

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Dean of the David Cardozo Academy for Jewish Studies and Human Dignity, lectures regularly at over fifty institutions of Jewish and secular learning around the world. He is often hosted by programs with affiliation ranging from the Orthodox Union and Union of Sephardic Communities to Oxford and Harvard Universities. Regarded by many as a type of ambassador of conscience, he has, over the past twenty-five years, attracted a large number of students with his unconventional style. His fresh approach to many topics of social concern and his unswerving honesty continue to engage Jews and non-Jews alike.

Rabbi Cardozo studied at the Center for Advanced Rabbinical Studies of Rabbi Unterman and at the Mir Yeshiva, receiving rabbinical ordination from Gateshead Talmudic Academy. He also holds a Doctorate in philosophy. Author of The Torah as God's Mind, The Infinite Chain, Between Silence and Speech, and The Written and Oral Torah, Rabbi Cardozo pens many essays on Judaism and prepares a popular weekly Internet column called "Thoughts to Ponder." He resides in Jerusalem with his wife, children and grandchildren.

You can view Rabbi Cardozo's website at: www.cardozoschool.org or email him at: Cardozo@UrimPublications.com .

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Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Reinman is a respected Talmudic scholar, historian, author and lecturer. His analytical study of the philosophy of Talmudic contractual law, Shufra Dishtara, is a standard text in yeshivos. He is also the author of the recently published and much discussed One People, Two Worlds.

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Bracha Rutner

Bracha Rutner is the Yoetzet Halacha at the Riverdale Jewish Center and a Talmud and Halacha teacher in Yeshiva of Flatbush. She has given numerous lectures on the interface of halacha and various women's issues such as gynecology, infertility, women's health, family dynamics and sexuality, and other halachic issues throughout the New York area. She completed her Yoetzet Halacha training in Nishmat's Keren Ariel Women's Halachic Institute in Jerusalem. Ms. Rutner is a graduate of the Bruria Scholars Program in Midreshet Lindenbaum, a graduate of the ATID Fellowship Program in Jerusalem and is completing her MA in Talmud from the Hebrew University.

View Ms. Rutner's Resume

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Rabbi Michael Skobac

Rabbi Michael Skobac was educated at Northwestern University and Yeshiva University. He has been involved in informal Jewish education and outreach work since 1975. Rabbi Skobac was the founding director of Kiruv, the campus outreach arm of the Rabbinical Council of America, and has worked as a campus professional with Hillel groups in Philadelphia, New York and Toronto. He has specialized in counter-missionary work since 1983, establishing the New York branch of Jews for Judaism and serving as a consultant to the New York Jewish Community Relations Council Task Force on Missionaries and Cults. Rabbi Skobac is currently the Senior Counselor and Director of Education for the Canadian branch of Jews for Judaism.

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