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 ...

Kerry M. Olitzky is an Associate at Mersky, Jaffe & Associates, a firm that specializes in financial resource development and executive search solutions for the nonprofit community. He has previously been the Executive Director of Big Tent Judaism (formerly known as the Jewish Outreach Institute), a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

independent organization dedicated to bringing

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

interfaith Interfaith (also called "interreligion") may refer to various ways of relating between beliefs, creeds, ideologies, faiths, or religions: * Interfaith conflict (disambiguation) * Interfaith dialogue, also known as interfaith cooperation * Interfai ...

families and the unaffiliated.

Education

He was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, Pennsylvania (1954). He earned his undergraduate Bachelors of Arts (1974) and M.A. (1975) from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg and Sarasota, ...

. He received his

M.H.L. A Master of Letters degree (MLitt or LittM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. Ireland Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University offer MLitt degrees. Trinity has offered them the longest, owing largely to its tradition as Ireland's ...

from

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

in 1980, where he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1981 and earned a D.H.L. in 1985.

Career

Formerly, he served as vice president of the Wexner Heritage Foundation, an adult Jewish education and leadership program in North America. Previously, he was national Dean of Adult Jewish Learning and Living of the

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

where he served on the faculty and administration for 15 years following his tenure at Congregation Beth Israel in

West Hartford, Connecticut West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region. The population was 64,083 at the 20 ...

. Rabbi Olitzky is a leader in the development of Jewish education, particularly for adults. He has shaped training programs for

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

of all faiths, especially in the area of pastoral care and counseling in the Jewish community. He has done pioneering work in the area of Jewish Twelve Step spirituality, as well as Jewish

Gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, culture, cultural, psychology, psychological, cognitive, and biology, biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Ancient Greek, Greek ('), meaning "o ...

Commentaries

Together with professor Leonard S. Kravitz, Olitzky has authored a series of Tanakh commentaries. Their commentaries draw on classical Jewish works such as the ''

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

'', ''

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

'', ''

Targum A targum (, ''interpretation'', ''translation'', ''version''; plural: targumim) was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ) that a professional translator ( ''mǝṯurgǝmān'') would give in the common language o ...

s'', the ''

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

'' literature, classical Jewish bible commentators such as

Gersonides Levi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as ''RaLBaG'', was a medieval French Jewish philosoph ...

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

and

Abraham ibn Ezra Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (, often abbreviated as ; ''Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra''; also known as Abenezra or simply ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167)''Jewish Encyclopedia''online; '' Chambers Biographical Dictionar ...

, modern-day rabbis, and higher textual criticism, but are not academic books using source criticism to deconstruct the ''Tanakh''. The authors claim that they do not follow either the path of classical Reform scholars or more secular projects such as the Anchor Bible series. These books are distributed by Behrman House. Commentaries in this series now include Ecclesiastes, Esther, Jonah, Lamentations, Proverbs, Ruth, and the Song of Songs. The Olitzky-Kravitz writing team has also done commentaries on Pirke Avot and Shemonah Perakim, along with a collection of source material on Teshuva called "Journey of the Soul."

Works

Olitzky is a former contributing editor for ''Shma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility'' and is also the author of over 75 books and hundreds of articles in a variety of fields. Among his publications are: *''The Littlest Candle: A Hanukkah Story'', with Jesse Olitzky (Kalaniot Books) *''The Candy Man Mystery (''Kalaniot Books) *''An Invitation to Passover'', written with Rabbi Debra Biden Cohen. (Kalaniot Book

*''Where is the Potty on this Ark?'' (Kar Ben Publishing) *''Welcome to the Seder'', A Passover Haggadah (Behrman House) *''The Book of Job: A Modern Translation and Commentary'' with Leonard S. Kravitz (Wipf and Stock) *''The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal'', with Dan Judson (Jewish Lights); Shorter articles include: *
Public Space Judaism
' ''Contact: The Journal of the Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation''. Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. Fall 2009: 10–11. *
Keep Our Shuls Safe But Still Friendly
', with Edward M. Feinstein, Jewish Journal, September 17, 2008 *
Synagogue: A New Concept for a New Age
', Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Vol. 62/No. 1, 1985.
and more

External links

The Library and Studio of Kerry Olitzky

Olitzky's article
at the

Berman Jewish Policy Archive The Stanford University Graduate School of Education (Stanford GSE or GSE) is one of the top School of Education, education schools in the United States. It offers master's and doctoral programs in more than 25 areas of specialization, along with ...

Ten Principles of Big tent JudaIsm
Olitzky's outreach organization (which has since closed)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olitzky, Kerry American Reform rabbis Jewish American non-fiction writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American rabbis American male non-fiction writers