Judah David Bleich (born August 24, 1936 in
Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...
) is an authority on
Jewish law and
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
, including
Jewish medical ethics Jewish medical ethics is a modern scholarly and clinical approach to medical ethics that draws upon Jewish thought and teachings. Pioneered by Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits in the 1950s, Jewish medical ethics centers mainly around an applied ethics draw ...
. He is a professor of
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 ...
(
rosh yeshiva) at the
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS ) is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Named after Yitzchak Elchanan ...
, an affiliate of
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.["About YU]
on the Yeshiva Universi ...
, as well as head of its postgraduate institute for the study of Talmudic jurisprudence and family law. At Yeshiva University, he holds the Herbert and Florence Tenzer Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics. He also teaches at
Cardozo Law School
The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the Law school in the United States, law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Associate Just ...
. He is married to Dr.
Judith Bleich, a historian of 19th-century European Jewry.
Bleich brings an Orthodox perspective to governmental deliberations on
bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...
. For example, in 1988 he served on the
NIH
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research Panel and testified before Congress on the Pain Relief Promotion Act. In 1984, New York Governor
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as ...
appointed Bleich to the Governor's Commission on Life and the Law.
Early life and education
Bleich is the older of two sons of Rabbi Manning H. Bleich and his wife Beatrice.
He attended public elementary school and received private tutoring on Jewish subjects. Later, he studied in
Yeshiva Torah Vodaath
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas (or Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath or Yeshiva Torah Vodaath or Torah Vodaath Rabbinical Seminary ) is a ''yeshiva'' in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
History
The yeshiva was conceived in 1917 and f ...
and
Beis Medrash Elyon, under Rabbi
Elya Chazan. From 1958–1962 he attended the Kollel in
Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Radun.
He received a bachelor's degree from
Brooklyn College in 1960, a master's degree from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1968, and a PhD from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
in 1974.
Bleich is a
Woodrow Wilson Fellow
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) is a nonpartisan, non-profit based in Princeton, New Jersey that aims to strengthen American democracy by “cultivating the talent, ideas, ...
, a postdoctoral fellow at the
Hastings Center
The Hastings Center is an independent, nonpartisan bioethics research institute and think tank based in Garrison, New York. It was instrumental in establishing the field of bioethics and is among the most prestigious bioethics and health policy i ...
, and fellow of the Academy of Jewish Philosophy. He received
rabbinic ordination
Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination.
The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 C ...
from Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, and advanced ordination ("''Yadin Yadin''") from Rabbis
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein ( he, משה פײַנשטיין; Lithuanian pronunciation: ''Moshe Faynshteyn''; en, Moses Feinstein; March 3, 1895 – March 23, 1986) was an American Orthodox rabbi, scholar, and ''posek'' (authority on ''halakha''—J ...
and
Mendel Zaks
Menachem Mendel Yosef Zaks ( he, מענדיל זאקס; 1898–1974) (commonly known as Rabbi Mendel Zaks) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Belarus and the United States, best known for being the '' Rosh Yeshiva'' of the Raduń Yeshiva and being th ...
.
Bleich was a close student of the late Rabbi
Yaakov Kamenetsky
Yaakov Kamenetsky (February 28, 1891 – March 10, 1986), was a prominent rabbi, rosh yeshiva, ''posek'' and Talmudist in the post-World War II American Jewish community.
Biography
Yaakov Kamenetsky was born at a folwark called Kalyskovka owned b ...
.
Publications
Bleich is the author of
Contemporary Halakhic Problems' (seven volumes); ''Bioethical Dilemmas: A Jewish Perspective'' (two volumes); ''Jewish Bioethics'' (a collection of essays, which he co-edited with
Fred Rosner
Fred Rosner is a professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
and the director of the Department of Medicine at Queens Hospital Center. He is also the chairman of the Medical Ethics Committee of the State of New York. He is, moreover ...
); ''With Perfect Faith: Foundations of Jewish Belief''; ''Time of Death in Jewish Law''; ''Judaism and Healing''; ''The Philosophical Quest''; and ''DNA in Halakhah''. He has written a book about the blessing on observing the sun return to the original position it occupied at creation (''Bircas Hachamah'', updated in 2009: ). In Hebrew, he has published ''Be-Netivot ha-Halakhah'' (four volumes). His Ph.D. thesis is ''Providence in the late medieval Jewish philosophy'' (NYU, 1974). He has written extensively on the applications of Jewish law to contemporary social issues and on the interface of Jewish law and the American legal system. He serves as the long-standing contributor of the survey of halakhic literature for ''
Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought''.
Yeshiva University
Bleich holds the position of rosh kollel for the Yadin Yadin Kollel (Institute for the Study of Jewish Monetary Law) in Yeshiva University. Additionally, he gives a Chullin/Yoreh Deah course (Jewish dietary laws) in RIETS, as well as a few courses in Jewish Philosophy in IBC.
The Yorkville Synagogue
Bleich has been the
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
(Jewish spiritual leader) of the Yorkville Synagogue, located in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
for over 45 years. He teaches
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 ...
classes on
Shabbat. He also teaches Jewish halakhic or philosophical issues in a program every other Sabbath. The topic usually is related to the subject matter of the weekly Torah portion.
References
External links
Rabbi Bleich's recorded Torah lecturesArticles by J. David Bleichon the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological SeminaryYorkville Synagogue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleich, J. David
American Haredi rabbis
Brooklyn College alumni
Columbia University alumni
New York University alumni
Beth Medrash Elyon alumni
Yeshiva University rosh yeshivas
Jewish ethicists
Jewish medical ethics
People from Tarrytown, New York
Living people
1936 births
Authors of books on Jewish law