Arthur Green ( he, אברהם יצחק גרין, born March 21, 1941) is an American
scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...
Neo-Hasidic
Neo-Hasidism, Neochassidut, or Neo-Chassidus, is an approach to Judaism in which people learn beliefs and practices of Hasidic Judaism, and incorporate it into their own lives or prayer communities, yet without formally joining a Hasidic group. O ...
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
. He was a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at
Hebrew College
Hebrew College is a private college of Jewish studies in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Founded in 1921, Hebrew College is committed to Jewish scholarship in a pluralistic, trans-denominational academic environment. The president of the colleg ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, where he still teaches. He describes himself as an American Jew who was educated entirely by the generation of immigrant Jewish intellectuals cast up on American shores by
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Biography
Arthur (Art) Green grew up in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Camp Ramah. He describes his father as a "militant atheist," but his mother, from a traditional family, felt obligated to give her son a Jewish education. He was sent to a liberal Hebrew School in the congregation of Rabbi
Joachim Prinz
Joachim Prinz (May 10, 1902 – September 30, 1988) was a German-American rabbi who was outspoken against Nazism and became a Zionist leader. As a young rabbi in Berlin, he was forced to confront the rise of Nazism, and eventually emigrated t ...
. Later he attended the synagogue of Max Gruenewald in
Millburn, New Jersey
Millburn is a suburban township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's population was 20,149, reflecting an increase of 384 (+1.9%) from the 19,765 counted in the 2000 Census, which had ...
. At Camp Ramah, his introductory
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, ...
, where he went through a crisis of faith and sought new approaches to Judaism. It is there that he encountered mystical Judaism. Green's professors at Brandeis included Nahum Glatzer and
Alexander Altmann
Alexander Altmann (April 16, 1906 – June 6, 1987) was an Orthodox Jewish scholar and rabbi born in Kassa, Austria-Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia). He emigrated to England in 1938 and later settled in the United States, working productive ...
. During his college years, he also met Rabbi
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014), commonly called "Reb Zalman" (full Hebrew name: ), was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue.
Early life
Born Meshullam Zal ...
, who became a lifelong friend and mentor.
After college, Green trained for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied privately with
Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish T ...
.
Green returned to Brandeis in 1967, earning his doctorate with Professor Altman. His dissertation became his book ''Tormented Master: The Life and Spiritual Quest of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav''.
In 1968, Green founded
Havurat Shalom
Havurat Shalom is a small egalitarian chavurah in Somerville, Massachusetts. Founded in 1968, it is not affiliated with the major Jewish denominations.
Havurat Shalom was the first countercultural Jewish community and set the precedent for the ...
, an experiment in Jewish communal life and learning that became the fountainhead of the
Havurah
A ''chavurah'' or ''chaburah'' (חבורה Hebrew: "fellowship", plural ''chavurot'') is a small group of like-minded Jews who assemble for the purposes of facilitating Shabbat and holiday prayer services, sharing communal experiences such as life ...
movement in American Jewish life.
Between 1973-1984, Green taught in the Religious Studies Department of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. In 1984 he became dean, and then president, of the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Associa ...
in Philadelphia. In 1993, he was appointed Philip W. Lown professor of Jewish Thought at Brandeis, inheriting a chair that had been created for his mentor Professor Altmann. In 2003 he was invited to create a new non-denominational Rabbinical School at Hebrew College.
Green has published both academic works on the intellectual history of Jewish mysticism and
Hasidism
Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Judaism, Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory ...
, as well as writings of a more personal theological sort. ''Radical Judaism'', said to be his most important theological work, was published by
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
in 2010, based on a series of lectures he delivered at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in the Fall of 2006.
Green is also known as a translator and commentator of Hasidic sources and is a key figure in the articulation of a Neo-Hasidic approach to Judaism. His two edited volumes (together with A. E. Mayse) ''A New Hasidism: Roots and Branches'', appeared in 2019, published by the Jewish Publication Society.
Green's works have been translated into seven languages, including Hebrew. The Hebrew version of Tormented Master (''Ba’al ha-Yissurim''—בעל היסורים) was an influential best-seller in Israel, where Green visits and lectures frequently. An expanded Hebrew version of Radical Judaism (יהדות רדיקלית: פתיחת שער למבקשי דרך) appeared in 2016.
American Jewish Historical Society
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...