Ismar Schorsch (born 3 November 1935) is the

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and 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 t ...

Herman Abramovitz Professor of

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

.Ismar Schorsch
aculty page Jewish Theological Seminary. Retrieved 2016-12-06. Schorsch was born in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, Germany. He served as the sixth Chancellor at JTS for approximately 20 years, from March 1986 until his retirement in June 2006. He was succeeded by Arnold Eisen.

Books

*''Jewish Reactions to German Anti-Semitism, 1870–1914''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. *''From Text to Context: The Turn to History in Modern Judaism''. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1994. *''The Sacred Cluster: The Core Values of Conservative Judaism''. New York: The Department of Communications of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1995. (Outlining what he calls the seven clusters of

Conservative Judaism Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movements, Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations ...

.) *''Canon Without Closure: Torah Commentaries''. New York: Aviv Press, 2007. *''Leopold Zunz: Creativity in Adversity''. Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press, also known as Penn Press, is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. History The press was originally incorporated with b ...

, 2016.

Personal life and education

He is the son of Hanover Rabbi Emil Schorsch. They both experienced the so-called " Reichskristallnacht" in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in a different manner. Schorsch escaped to England in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940. Schorsch graduated from

Ursinus College Ursinus College is a private liberal arts college in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869 and occupies a campus. Ursinus College's forerunner was the Freeland Seminary founded in 1848. Its $127 million endowment supports about 1, ...

in 1957 and was ordained by JTS in 1962, holds master's degrees from JTS and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He was awarded a PhD in Jewish History from Columbia University in 1969. He and his wife, Sally, have three grown children (Jonathan Schorsch, Rebecca Schorsch, and Naomi Stein) and eleven grandchildren (Ada, Livi, and Nathaniel Moses, Emanuel, Michal, Gedalia, Nava, and Jacob Schorsch, and Eve, Emmett, and Ruthie Stein).

Honors

* Leo Baeck Medal (2015)

References

External links

alemannia-judaica
to family Schorsch and the synagoge in Hüngheim, Germany
The Sacred Cluster
by former JTS chancellor Ismar Schorsch 1935 births Living people American Conservative rabbis American male non-fiction writers American people of German-Jewish descent American religion academics Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Columbia University alumni Jewish Theological Seminary of America people Ursinus College alumni Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century American rabbis 21st-century American rabbis Historians of Jews and Judaism Jewish American academics Jewish American historians Jewish American non-fiction writers {{US-academic-administrator-1930s-stub