Gershom Scholem once wrote that “Zionism has never really known itself completely—whether it is a movement of continuation and continuity, or a movement of rebellion.” The same could be said for many forms of modern Judaism. Jewish communities often find themselves caught between holding onto the past we've inherited and trying to imagine something new. In this class, we’ll explore the political and theological stakes of that tension and read texts that try to find a way through it.

Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Yehuda is a leading thinker on the essential questions facing contemporary Jewish life, with a focus on issues of Jewish peoplehood and Zionism, the relationship between history and memory, and questions of leadership and change in the Jewish community. He is the author of Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past, the co-editor of  The New Jewish Canon, the host of the Identity/Crisis podcast, and the author of dozens of articles and essays about contemporary Jewish life.

As president of SHI, and formerly as founding president of SHI North America, Yehuda has helped lead the Institute’s rapid growth as a leading research and educational center for the leadership of the Jewish community, and as a trusted voice for thought leadership on the questions of the day. Yehuda designed and launched several major national initiatives in Jewish and Israel education, and teaches in the Institute’s many platforms: for rabbis, lay and professional leaders, teens and college students, and leaders of other faith communities.

Yehuda is trained as a scholar of ancient Judaism and rabbinics with a doctorate in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and previously served as a member of the faculty at Brandeis University, where he held the inaugural Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation.

He lives in New York with his wife Stephanie Ives and their three children.