Ismar Schorsch (born November 3, 1935 in
Hanover, Germany) is the
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
emeritus of The
Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and the
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
Herman Abramovitz Professor of
Jewish history.
[Ismar Schorsch]
aculty page Jewish Theological Seminary. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
Schorsch served as the sixth Chancellor at JTS for approximately 20 years, from March 1986 until his retirement in June 2006. He was succeeded by
Arnold Eisen
Arnold M. Eisen, Ph.D. (born 1951) is an American Judaic scholar who was Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He stepped down at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Koshland Pr ...
.
Books
*''Jewish Reactions to German Anti-Semitism, 1870–1914''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
*''From Text to Context: The Turn to History in Modern Judaism''. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1994.
*''The Sacred Cluster: The Core Values of Conservative Judaism''. New York: The Department of Communications of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1995. (Outlining what he calls the seven clusters of
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism, known as Masorti Judaism outside North America, is a Jewish religious movement which regards the authority of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions as coming primarily from its people and community through the generatio ...
.)
*''Canon Without Closure: Torah Commentaries''. New York: Aviv Press, 2007.
*''Leopold Zunz: Creativity in Adversity''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Personal life and education
He is the son of Hanover Rabbi
Emil Schorsch Emil Schorsch (born January 12, 1899 in Hüngheim, Germany; died 1982 in Vineland (New Jersey)) was a German Rabbi.
Life
Emil was the son of businessman Isaak Schorsch. In 1907 he was placed in an orphanage, and from 1915 to 1920 he trained to be ...
. They both experienced the so-called "
Reichskristallnacht" in
Nazi Germany a different manner. Schorsch escaped to England in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940.
Schorsch graduated from
Ursinus College in 1957 and was ordained by JTS in 1962, holds master's degrees from JTS and
Columbia University. He was awarded a PhD in Jewish History from Columbia University in 1969. He and his wife, Sally, have three grown children (Jonathan Schorsch, Rebecca Schorsch, and Naomi Stein) and eleven grandchildren (Ada, Livi, and Nathaniel Moses, Emanuel, Michal, Gedalia, Nava, and Jacob Schorsch, and Eve, Emmett, and Ruthie Stein).
Honors
*
Leo Baeck Medal (2015)
References
External links
alemannia-judaica to family Schorsch and the synagoge in Hüngheim/Germany">Hüngheim">alemannia-judaica to family Schorsch and the synagoge in Hüngheim
/Germanybr>
The Sacred Clusterby former JTS chancellor Ismar Schorsch
1935 births
Living people
American Conservative rabbis
American people of German-Jewish descent
American religion academics
Heads of universities and colleges in the United States
Columbia University alumni
Jewish Theological Seminary of America people
Ursinus College alumni
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
20th-century American rabbis
21st-century American rabbis
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