CLAL Faculty
Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, Ph.D.
Tsvi Blanchard is a catalyst for change. Longtime social advocate,
psychologist, teacher and rabbi, Blanchard has been in the forefront of
promoting inclusive, vital Jewish communities in the 21st century. As
Director of Organizational Development at CLAL-The National Jewish Center
for Learning and Leadership, Blanchard helps steer the organization
programmatically, as well as provide faculty, board and community
development.
“We all live in a web of relationships,” says Blanchard. “Individuals and
communities alike are part of larger circles. As Jews, we are also
Americans. We are part of the mainstream. Those connections, formed within
our own community and within the broader world, are what CLAL’s work
embraces. Through the development of new ideas, and with a spirit of
openness, we can find our common ground.”
Connecting ideas to people’s lives is something Blanchard should know about.
In addition to being an ordained Orthodox rabbi, he holds Ph.D.s in
Psychology and Philosophy. He has been a professor of philosophy, director
of the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, and a practicing clinical and
organizational psychologist. He has taught at Washington, Northwestern and
Loyola Universities, as well as the Drisha Institute for Women, the Jewish
Theological Seminary, and the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
“We Jews have the great gift of having an inherited wisdom to offer
spiritual guidance,” says Blanchard. “But spirituality is also about how you
organize society--what are the values and principles that underlie the
creation? Are you building inclusive, expansive communities, where many
voices can speak fully, or are you defining the terms of what is admissible
and what goes outside of the line?”
In addition to Blanchard’s work on issues of ethics, healing, spirituality
and the environment, he is an active voice for CLAL’s mission of religious
pluralism and diversity. A popular speaker, he has appeared on numerous TV
programs including “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Eye on Religion,” as well
as in the press. In 2006, he was featured along with Elie Wiesel in a new
documentary, Turn to Me, by Academy Award nominee Murray Nossell on
the gift of volunteering, released by the Jewish Board of Family and
Children's Services. A 2003 Reisman Award winner for “Article of the
Year“(Journal of Jewish Communal Service), he is the co-author of
Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL,
2003). Blanchard’s stories and parables have been widely anthologized.
Publications include “How Stories Heal,” “Joining Heaven and Earth,” and
“After Eden: The Search for the Holy in a Consumer Society.”
Email: tblanchard@clal.org
