Clal Faculty

Connecting ideas to people’s lives has always been part of Blanchard’s work. An ordained Orthodox rabbi, he holds Ph.D.’s in Psychology and Philosophy, was a professor of philosophy, and director of the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago. 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. The Director of Organizational Development at Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, he is a practicing clinical and organizational psychologist New York.

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, and a participant of the Center for Christian–Jewish Understanding. In 2007, he joined a small delegation of bishops and rabbis for a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome (his second meeting). Additionally in 2007, he was invited to the renowned Humboldt University School of Law in Berlin by Professor Bernhard Schlink, the pre-eminent German author (The Reader), lawyer, judge and jurist, and was named the Meyer-Struckmann Professor of Jewish law at the University. Also an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, Blanchard teaches Jewish law and a continuing legal education program based on his work in Germany.

A popular and speaker and consultant, Blanchard has appeared in the media on such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Eye on Religion. His most recent articles are "In My Flesh I See God: A Neurobiological Perspective on Being Human," (Tikkun); "Law and Redemptive Narrative: Genesis as a Cultural Resource in the 21st Century," (Hebraic Political Studies); and a chapter in Why Study Talmud in the 21st Century. In 2006, he was featured along with Elie Wiesel in the documentary Turn to Me. A participant in Psychoanalytic Perspectives: A Journal of Integration and Innovation’s (2006) roundtable discussion on psychoanalysis, spirituality and religion, he is a Reisman Award winner for his article "How to think about being Jewish in the 21st Century." Co-author of Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to Palliative Care (CLAL, 2003), he wrote the introduction for photographer Frederic Brenner’s acclaimed book, Diaspora: Homelands in Exile (Harper Collins, 2003).