CLAL Faculty

Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, CLAL President

An acclaimed author, lecturer, rabbi, and commentator on religion, society and pop culture, Brad Hirschfield offers a unique perspective on the American spiritual landscape and political and social trends to audiences nationwide.

Author of the powerful book, You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism (Harmony, Jan. 2008), he is the co-host of the popular weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula, on KXL in Portland, OR (one of the nation’s top 25 markets), which offers a new way of approaching the issues dividing our country and world. Ranked three years in a row in the "Top 50 Rabbis in America" in Newsweek, he was the only rabbi featured on ABC’s "Nightline UpClose," and is a frequent commentator on Tru-TV (formerly Court TV). His many media appearances include CNN, PBS, MTV, and NPR, and a regular spot on WWSB-TV (Florida ABC affiliate), as well as PBS-TV’s "Frontline: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero" and "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly." His blog, "Windows & Doors," appears on Beliefnet.com, the web’s most trafficked religion and spirituality site, reaching over three million individuals a month. He also writes for a column, For "God’s Sake," for the WashingtonPost/Newsweek.com’s "On Faith," and is often quoted in 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, he conceived and hosts a landmark interfaith TV series entitled Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today, airing on Bridges TV (American Muslim TV Network). Entering its third season, the series reaches more than three million households. His new series, American Pilgrimage, bringing viewers into the homes and mosques of Muslim leaders across the country, will begin airing in July 2008.

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 film, Freaks Like Me, where he explores our fear of the "other." In 2007, under the auspices of the U.S. State Dept., he joined a mission to the Middle East to build global citizenship.

Hirschfield has addressed audiences from the Aspen Institute and the Washington National Cathedral, to the Islamic Society of North America, and many leading universities and religious institutions. A Scholar-in-Residence for the JCCA, he is the editor of Remember for Life: Holocaust Survivors’ Stories of Faith and Hope (The Jewish Publication Society, 2007). A contributor to Three Times Chai: 54 Rabbis Tell their Favorite Stories (Behrman House, 2007), and A Dream of Zion (Jewish Lights, Jan. 2008), Hirschfield is a 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 University of Chicago.

Email: bhirschfield@clal.org