Spotlight on CLAL
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RABBI BRAD HIRSCHFIELD NAMED AS CLAL
CO-PRESIDENT
New Structure Created for
CLAL’s Leadership
On January 1, 2007, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield will be named President of
CLAL ─ The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Formerly Vice
President, he will share the mantle with CLAL President Rabbi Irwin Kula.
The decision, made at CLAL’s November board meeting, is in recognition of
the exemplary job he has performed, as well as an official acknowledgment of
the organization’s continued growth in building new relationships and
generating fresh ideas for both the Jewish community and contemporary
American life.
A leader in nurturing interfaith relations, Rabbi Hirschfield has gained a
reputation for building bridges amongst the traditions. Working with Bridges
Television (American Muslim TV Network), he conceived and is featured in a
national 18 part-series on religion in America, with leaders from the other
major faith traditions. A guest speaker in Morocco at the Fes Festival of
World Sacred Music and Colloquium, and in Barcelona at the Parliament of the
World’s Religions, he has brought CLAL to the forefront of promoting true
pluralist interreligious communities.
Bringing Jewish wisdom to the American marketplace of ideas, Rabbi Kula,
through his new book, Yearnings; Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life,
and the national public TV special, “The Hidden Wisdom of Our Yearnings,”
presents the insights of Judaism to the broader culture. Helping people on
their own spiritual journeys, both inside and outside of American Jewish
life, he has made CLAL a leading address for using the tradition’s wisdom as
a resource to enrich contemporary life.
The joint leadership, shared with Donna M. Rosenthal, CLAL’s Executive Vice
Chairman, recognizes the strengths that both Rabbis Hirschfield and Kula
bring to the organization. “This structural change is very much in keeping
with what CLAL teaches that leadership is not a zero-sum game,” said Rabbi
Hirschfield. “In this case, the whole really is greater than the sum of the
parts.”
Rabbi Kula continued, “CLAL will only benefit from this move and, as a
result, our ability to create cutting-edge programs for individuals,
families, and communities will be enhanced. Working ‘outside of the box,’
CLAL is able to remain innovative, sparking new ideas and programs to foster
dynamic American Jewish life for today and tomorrow.”
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