CLAL Faculty
Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, CLAL President
Brad Hirschfield has a history of stirring provocative thought. An
acclaimed thinker, speaker, rabbi, and commentator on religion, society and
pop culture, he offers a unique perspective on the American spiritual
landscape and on political and social trends to audience nationwide.
A sought-out media analyst, Hirschfield has often been quoted on topics
ranging from religion and violence to the changing role of religion in
America. The co-host of the popular weekly radio show, Hirschfield and
Kula, airing on KXL in Portland, OR one of the top 25 markets
nationwide. Ranked No. 37 in Newsweek’s “Top 50 Rabbis in
America,” he is the only rabbi to be featured on “Nightline UpClose.” A
frequent guest on Court TV, he has appeared on ABC, CNN, PBS, MTV, and
NPR, and was a regular on WWSB-TV (ABC affiliate) in Florida. Featured in
PBS-TV’s “Frontline: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero” and “Religion & Ethics
Newsweekly,” he can often be heard on Westwood One and Air America
radio networks, and is frequently quoted by the press.
Hirschfield is the President of CLAL–The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership, a leadership training institute, think tank and
resource center. Recognized as one of the nation’s leading Preachers and
Teachers by Beliefnet.com, the Web’s most popular religion website, he
conceived and is featured in a first-ever 18-part interfaith series with
religious leaders entitled Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on
the World Today, airing on Bridges Television (American Muslim TV) in
2006-2007. The series, reaching more than 2 million viewers, addresses the
divisiveness amongst the traditions.
Never one to shy away from a tough topic, Hirschfield challenges people’s
long-held opinions, assumptions and beliefs. A leader for pluralism and
interfaith dialogue, he says that we must own the dark side of all our
religious traditions or we risk the same kind of hatred that destroyed the
Twin Towers. “Religion drove those planes into the buildings, but it can
also provide the catalyst for building a better world.”
A speaker at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and Colloquium in
Morocco and the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona, he
was featured in the acclaimed documentary, Freaks Like Me, where he
explores our fear of the “other,” and helps us grapple with “difference.” He
is presently co-producing a film on religious fanaticism in America entitled
The Fierce Believers.
Hirschfield has addressed audiences at the Aspen Institute, the Washington
National Cathedral, the Islamic Society of North America, and at many
leading universities and religious institutes. Author of the forthcoming
book, You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith
Without Fanaticism (Harmony, January 2008), he conceived and is the editor
of Remembering for Life (CLAL, 2006), a new book on the challenge of
Holocaust memory in the 21st century, and is the co-author of Embracing
Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL, 2003). An
Orthodox rabbi, he received his M.A. and M.Phil from the Jewish Theological
Seminary, and his B.A. from the Univ. of Chicago.
Email: bhirschfield@clal.org
Articles by Bradley Hirschfield
Brad Hirschfield, Jewish American Playmate: Is a Nude Jewish Centerfold Really a Watershed for American Judaism? -interview/reprinted from Beliefnet (12-12-01)
Brad Hirschfield, War, Ethics and Values: An
Interview with Brad Hirschfield
Brad Hirschfield, Our Response to the World Trade Center Attack (9-13-01)
Brad Hirschfield, Public Life, Public Confession and Yom Kippur
Brad Hirschfield, Washington is our Shushan, Purim is our Day
Brad Hirschfield, Havdallah at the Reichstag
Brad Hirschfield, It's in the Cards
Brad Hirschfield, When Words Collide: Lessons in Pluralism from a Palestinian Poet
Brad Hirschfield, There is no Story Here
Brad Hirschfield, Reviving the Prophetic Imagination, Sharing the Temple Mount
