Yakov Meir Nagen (; born June 17, 1967) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

- Israeli rabbi and author. Nagen is a leader in interfaith dialogue and in particular interfaith peace initiatives between

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 ...

and

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. He is the Director of the Blickle Institute for

Interfaith Dialogue Interfaith dialogue, also known as interreligious dialogue, refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religion, religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spirituality, spiritual or humanism, hum ...

and the

Beit Midrash A ''beth midrash'' (, "house of learning"; : ''batei midrash''), also ''beis medrash'' or ''beit midrash'', is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall". It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth knesseth''), although ...

for Judaism and Humanity. Nagen also teaches at

Yeshivat Otniel Yeshivat Otniel is a hesder yeshiva located in Otniel, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. It is co-headed by the Rabbis :he:בנימין קלמנזון, Benni Kalmanzon and Re'em Ha'Cohen, who also serves as the settlement's rabbi. It began i ...

and has written extensively about

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

and

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 ...

Biography

Early life

Nagen was born in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

to Ahuva and Azriel Genack. After completing high school in the

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 ...

, he studied in Israel at

Yeshivat Shaalvim Yeshivat Sha'alvim is a hesder yeshiva, a kollel and a yeshiva high school for boys, located in Kibbutz Sha'alvim. It is one of the most prestigious Yeshivas in central Israel. History Yeshivat Sha'alvim was founded in 1961 by Meir Schlesinger ...

. Nagen returned to the US to study at

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.

where he received a bachelor's degree in Judaic studies and a master's degree in Jewish history in addition to

rabbinic ordination ''Semikhah'' () is the traditional term for rabbiinic ordination in Judaism. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 CE. Si ...

. In 1993 he moved to Israel and studied at

Yeshivat Har Etzion Yeshivat Har Etzion (YHE; ), commonly known in English as "Gush" and in Hebrew as "Yeshivat HaGush", is a Hesder yeshiva located in Alon Shvut, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. It is considered one of the leading institutions of advanced T ...

and in 1997 joined the faculty at Yeshivat Otniel. In 2004 Nagen received a doctoral degree in Jewish philosophy at

the Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

. His dissertation dealt with the interplay between

Halacha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mi ...

and

Aggada Aggadah (, or ; ; 'tales', 'legend', 'lore') is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic texts that incorpora ...

, Kabbala and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

in the context of the holiday of

Sukkot Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths, is a Torah-commanded Jewish holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which Israelite ...

. Nagen's interdisciplinary approach towards Talmudic literature is developed his books: "Water, Creation and Revelation – Sukkot in the philosophy of halacha (Geloy, 2008) and "The Soul of the Mishna - a literary reading and search for meaning" (Dvir, 2016)

Interfaith activity

In 2006, Nagen traveled to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in the context of his research about the relationship between Judaism and eastern spirituality. Nagen see Judaism as incorporating elements both of Eastern and Western philosophy, as he presents in his book "Waking up to a new day – a renewed reading of Torah and life" (Maggid, 2013). In 2019 the book appeared in English as "Be, Become, Bless – Jewish Spirituality between East and West" (Maggid). Nagen is a leader in interfaith encounters in Israel and the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

between Jewish and Muslim leaders. In wake of his colleague, Rabbi

Menachem Froman Rabbi Menachem Froman (also spelled ''Menahem'' and ''Fruman''; ‎; 1 June 1945 – 4 March 2013) Note: Birth date is 1 Jan – 4 Mar 1945 based on 1) year known as 1945, 2) age known to be 68, 3) date of death known to be 4 Mar 2013. w ...

, Nagen believes that as religion is at the heart of the problem in the conflicts in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, religion must also be part of the solution. Through the

Interfaith Encounter Association The Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) is an Israeli-based non-profit organization founded and directed by Yehuda Stolov. Its primary purpose is to foster dialogue between different religious groups within the Holy Land (specifically Jews, Mu ...

(IEA) he coordinates a group of

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

rabbis that meet regularly with Muslim

sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

s and

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

s, mostly from the

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

and

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

areas. He is the co-chairman of the board of the Abrahamic Reunion (AR). The Abrahamic Reunion composes of representatives of four

Abrahamic religions The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

- Jews, Muslims, Christians and

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

- dedicated to promoting peace in the Middle East. Nagen was a representative of the organization at the

World Parliament of Religions There have been several meetings referred to as a Parliament of the World's Religions, the first being the World's Parliament of Religions of 1893, which was an attempt to create a global dialogue of faiths. The event was celebrated by another c ...

in 2015 at

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. Nagen is also active in the

United Religions Initiative The United Religions Initiative (URI) is a global grassroots interfaith network. It has local and global initiatives through more than 1100 member groups and organizations, called Cooperation Circles, to engage in community action such as confli ...

(URI), and was one of Israel's representatives at the annual conference for the Middle East, held in

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

in November 2017. A photograph of Nagen hugging Haj Ibrahim Ahmad Abu el-Hawa appeared in Google's "Year in Search 2014" After the murder of the Dawabsheh family in Duma, Nagen was an organizer of the prayer vigil for the victims and outcry against the violence. In March 2016 Nagen visited

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and

Fayyum Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally f ...

to promote mutual respect between Islam and Judaism. In 2016 Nagen was profiled in

Tablet Magazine ''Tablet'' is a conservative American magazine focused on Jewish news and culture, featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, and essays. It was founded in 2009 by editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse and is supported by the Nextbook foundation ...

as one of the 10 "Israeli Rabbis You Should Know". Nagen is active in spreading Judaism in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in the context of the "Shofer from Zion" organization. Many of his writings have been translated into

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

and in 2017 he gave lecture series in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. In 2020 Nagen was appointed as the director of the

Ohr Torah Stone Ohr Torah Stone (OTS) () is an international Modern Orthodox organization that aims to develop Jewish life, learning, and leadership. The organization is led by Rabbi Kenneth Brander. OTS was founded by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin in 1983. As of 2020, OT ...

network's Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and the Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity. In 2022 a compendium of the research in the Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity, was published as “His Name is One – Healing the Relationship between Judaism and World Religions". The book creates a new paradigm for Judaism’s halakhic and philosophical approach toward other religions. Nagen envisions a rapprochement between Judaism and Islam parallel to the processes that have taken place between Judaism and Christianity such as in

Nostra aetate (from Latin: "In our time"), or the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions, is an official declaration of the Second Vatican Council, an Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. I ...

(“In Our Time”), the 1965 declaration of the Second Vatican Council in Rome regarding Judaism. He is also part of the N7 initiative which seeks to broaden and deepen normalization between Israel and Arab and Muslim countries, in which Nagen focuses on the interfaith component. Nagen is also a member of the Tzohar and Beit Hillel organizations, rabbinical organizations that focus on the relations between the religious and secular communities in Israel.

Personal life

In 1993 Nagen married

Michal Michal (; ; ) was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David (), who later became king, first of Judah, then of all Israel, maki ...

, head of the Tzahali pre-army seminary and daughter of Professor Uriel Simon. The couple lives in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and have seven children.

Published works

* 2007 "The Soul of the Mishna - window to the inner world of the Mishna", Geloy (in Hebrew) * 2008 "Water, Creation and Revelation – Sukkot in the philosophy of halacha, Geloy (in Hebrew) * 2013 "Waking up to a new day – a renewed reading of Torah and life", Maggid (in Hebrew) * 2016 "The Soul of the Mishna - a literary reading and search for meaning", Dvir (in Hebrew) * 2019 "Be, Become, Bless – Jewish Spirituality between East and West", Maggid (in English) * 2019 "Life as Story - Seeing the World with New Eyes", Geloy (in Hebrew) * 2020 "The Soul of Mishna", Maggid (in English) * 2021 "Loving the World - Stories of Judaism and Humanity", Geloy (in Hebrew) * 2022 "His Name is One – Healing the Relationship between Judaism and World Religions", Maggid (in Hebrew)co-authored by Rabbi Sarel Rosenblatt and Dr. Assaf Malach * 2023 "Healing the Middle East: Interfaith Initiatives for Peace and Coexistences", Blickle Institute (in English)

External links

For West Bank rabbi, a rare and risky trip to Cairo’s ivory tower of Islam
April 15, 2016
Walking the Green Line - ‘Isaac and Ishmael are brothers’ – Otniel yeshiva and The Field, Gush Etzion bloc, Winter 2015

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

Scholarship Needs Spirituality, Spirituality Needs Scholarship: Challenges for Emerging Talmudic Methodologies
October 7, 2013

ynet Ynet (stylized in all lowercase) is an Israeli news and general-content website, and the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronoth'' newspaper. History Ynet launched on June 6, 2000, in Hebrew, following other Hebrew outlet's website launches ...

, October 9, 2014 * Yakov Nagen
The Abrahamic Union: A confederate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

times of israel ''The Times of Israel'' (ToI) is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012 and has since become the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist Dav ...

, May 29, 2017 * Yakov Nagen
From Other to Brother: Tales of Ramadan from Hebron and Jerusalem

, June 16, 2017 * Yakov Nagen
Religion and Reconciliation on the Temple Mount/Al Aqsa

, Aug 27, 2017
interview with Professor Alan Brill about Judaism and Eastern Spirituality
September 3, 2019
Peace will only come when the faiths of Jews and Arabs are acknowledged

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

, September 22, 2020 * Yakov Nagen
The evolving Jewish-Christian-Muslim trialogue

, February 21, 2021 * Yakov Nagen
It’s time to heal Jewish-Arab relations in Israel

, April 4, 2021 * Yakov Nagen
For God’s sake, Islam and Judaism can make peace

, May 23, 2021 * Yakov Nagen
Rosh Hashanah: Closing a circuit of life and love

, September 3, 2021 * Alan Rosenbaum
Interfaith dialogue: Making religion part of Israel's Middle East peace

, February 4, 2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagen, Yakov Israeli rabbis 1967 births Living people Religious Zionist Orthodox rabbis Yeshiva University alumni Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni