Michael Lerner (rabbi)
Encyclopedia
Michael Lerner is a political activist, the editor of Tikkun
, a progressive
Jewish interfaith
magazine
based in Berkeley, California
, and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun
Synagogue of San Francisco.
". While he has written that he appreciated "the immense beauty and wisdom of the Christianity to which [he] was being exposed", he also felt religiously isolated, as the child of passionate Zionists who attended Hebrew school three times a week, while at the same time being heavily exposed to Christian-oriented cultural activities in school. At his own request, in the 7th grade he switched to a public school in the Weequahic neighborhood of Newark, where his peers were, in his estimation, 80% Jewish. He graduated from Weequahic High School in 1960. Lerner received a B.A. from Columbia University
. In 1972 he earned a PhD in philosophy from University of California, Berkeley
. In 1977 he received a PhD in Clinical/Social Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. Lerner was married to Nan Fink until 1991, and married Debora Kohn in July 1998.
, chair of the Free Student Union, and chair from 1966-1968 of the Berkeley chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society
. After teaching philosophy of law
at San Francisco State University
, he took a job as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington
and taught ethics
, social
and political philosophy
, philosophy of literature and culture, and introduction to philosophy. Angry at the SDS group called Weatherman
, which had introduced violence into the anti-war movement
in response to police violence
, Lerner created a new organization as an alternative, called the Seattle Liberation Front
. After a major demonstration that his organization had called in protest turned violent, he and others were arrested for inciting a riot. The subsequent trial was the second nationally known federal trial against anti-war
activists and became known as the Seattle Seven.
Federal agents testifying at the trial later admitted to having played a major role instigating the violence and the riot, charges relating to the riot were eventually dropped. However, during the trial, which culminated in a courtroom riot with punches being thrown (Lerner was the only defendant to remain seated) the presiding judge sent the defendants to jail on "contempt of court" charges. Lerner was sentenced and transported to Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary
in San Pedro, California
, where Lerner served several months before the 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court ordered Lerner released (despite the claim made by J. Edgar Hoover
in a public statement repeated on radio and television that Lerner was "one of the most dangerous criminals in America" though he had never engaged in any act of violence). The main charges were eventually dropped by the Federal Government after the 9th Circuit overturned the conviction for contempt of court. Meanwhile, Lerner's contract was not renewed and the State of Washington Legislature had passed "the Lerner act" requiring that the University of Washington never hire anyone "who might engage in illegal political activity," a law later overturned by the Washington Supreme Court.
where he served as professor of philosophy at Trinity College
until 1975, when he moved back to Berkeley, joined the faculty at the University of California in the Field Studies program and taught law and economics until 1976 when he accepted a position at Sonoma State University
for one year in sociology
, teaching courses in social psychology
. Meanwhile, he completed a second Ph.D. in 1977, this one is social
/clinical psychology
at the Wright Institute in Berkeley
.
In 1976 Lerner founded the Institute for Labor and Mental Health to work with the labor movement and do research on the psychodynamics
of American society. In 1979 he received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health
to train union shop stewards
as agents of prevention for mental health disorders, and he simultaneously extended his previous study of the psychodynamics of American society. With a subsequent grant from the NIMH he studied American politics and reported that "a spiritual crisis" was at the heart of the political transformation of American society as well as at the heart of much of the psychic pain that was being treated in individual therapy
.
His writing reflects a transposition of this analysis to economics too, viz. "This focus on money and power may do wonders in the marketplace, but it creates a tremendous crisis in our society. People who have spent all day learning how to sell themselves and to manipulate others are in no position to form lasting friendships or intimate relationships... Many Americans hunger for a different kind of society—one based on principles of caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity, and communal solidarity. Their need for meaning is just as intense as their need for economic security." :
(now defunct) in San Francisco
, Lerner and his then-wife Nan Fink created a general-interest intellectual magazine called Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society
. Tikkun was started with the intention of challenging the left
for its inability to understand the centrality of religious and spiritual concerns in the lives of ordinary Americans. With his associate editor Peter Gabel
, Lerner developed a "politics of meaning" to speak to the hunger for meaning that was characteristic of the thousands of people that Lerner and his colleagues were studying at the Institute for Labor and Mental Health. Tikkun was formed to educate the public about the findings of the Institute and to develop some of the implications of that work. However, because it also had an interest in being an "alternative to the voices of Jewish conservatism
," Tikkun was criticized by some Jewish groups.
In 1993, First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton
included the "politics of meaning" in her synthesis of political and social philosophy she was forming.
Later in 2002, Lerner organized a group called the Tikkun Community among readers of Tikkun magazine and those who share its editorial vision.
in 1995 through a beth din
(rabbinical court) composed of three rabbis, "each of whom had received orthodox rabbinic ordination". According to j. the Jewish news weekly, "mainstream rabbinical leaders of the Reform
, Conservative
and Orthodox
movements" have questioned private ordinations such as Lerner's, arguing that non-seminary ordinations risk producing poorly educated or fraudulent Rabbis. Similarly, some rabbis have challenged Lerner's decision to not be trained for the rabbinate in a classical Jewish Seminary (although Lerner did spend time as a student at Jewish Theological Seminary). Lerner has been quoted in Jewish Weekly as saying that the nonseminary track is one that "every Chabad rabbi takes, & every ultra-Orthodox rabbi". When Lerner attacked seminaries for being "more interested in producing organizational men for Jewish life than spiritual leaders connected to the deepest spiritual and social-justice minds", rabbi Alan Lew said "That is arrogant nonsense... I spent six years in extremely rigorous, round-the-clock study in the classic texts of our tradition. Authentic Jewish spirituality is in the texts, not in some fancy New Age ideas or watered-down kabbalah"
Lerner is the spiritual leader of Beyt Tikkun
synagogue in Berkeley and a member of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California. He is also a member of Ohalah, the organization of Jewish Renewal Rabbis.
, a small Jewish movement which he describes as "positive Judaism", rejecting what he considers to be ethnocentric
interpretations of the Torah
. His publications promote religious pluralism
and progressive
or liberal
approaches to political problems. He has, for example, been outspoken against attacks on immigrant communities in the United States
, and has attempted to build bridges with Christian
, Buddhist and Muslim
leaders around such issues.
Lerner's call for a spiritual transformation of American society was first articulated in Tikkun and then in his book The Politics of Meaning. Lerner developed these ideas further in his books Spirit Matters (2000) and The Left Hand of God
(2006).
In 2004 Lerner became chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives whose mission was to "challenge the materialism and selfishness in American society and to promote an ethos of love, generosity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe." In 2007 he launched a campaign for a "Global Marshall Plan".
Lerner strongly objected to Israel
's occupation of the West Bank
. He supports the adoption of the Geneva Accord
s as a basis for an independent Palestinian state.
In February 2007, Lerner published a column entitled "There Is No New Anti-Semitism
," in which he criticized some American Jewish organizations for labeling critics of Israel as antisemites. He was especially critical of the Anti-Defamation League
and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
, which he characterized as "Israel-can-do-no-wrong voices in American politics." Lerner wrote that this mentality, which frequently leads to accusations that Jews who oppose Israel's policies toward the Palestinians
are "self-hating Jew
s," is alienating young Jews who "say that they can no longer identify with their Jewishness."
described Lerner as "the most controversial Jew in America," writing that "He is relentlessly critical of Israel. He eulogizes Rachel Corrie
. And he's done more for peace than any conservative we know." That same year, the executive editor of The Jewish Exponent
wrote that Lerner "supports every measure against Israel short of its immediate destruction and often makes common cause with those who do plot the eradication of Israel's Jews."
In 1997, former Tikkun
editors accused Lerner of publishing pseudonymous letters to the editor that he himself had written. While many of the letters were laudatory ("Your editorial stand on Iraq said publicly what many of us in the Israeli peace camp are feeling privately but dare not say."), a few were critical ("Have you gone off your rocker?"). Lerner admitted that he had fabricated the letters but said his only mistake was not informing readers that the authors' names were pseudonyms.
and modern antisemitism that he perceives to have arisen among some leftists. In 1992, he wrote The Socialism of Fools: Anti-Semitism on the Left, in which he described the manner in which the left often denies the existence of antisemitism; defended Zionism
and distinguished legitimate criticism of the State of Israel
from Israel-bashing and antisemitism; and suggested ways in which progressives can fight antisemitism on the Left.
In 2003, Lerner criticized the left-wing anti-war ANSWER Coalition for the antisemitism that he and others believe is reflected in the rhetoric at ANSWER-sponsored demonstrations. He later claimed that the ANSWER coalition — of which Lerner's Tikkun Community was a member — barred him from speaking at their rallies against the 2003 invasion of Iraq
because of his criticism.
, which allows the re-introduction of the Tridentine Mass
and the related Good Friday Prayer for the Jews, he said that the Pope took "a powerful step toward the re-introduction of the process of demeaning Jews. You cannot respect another religion if you teach that those who are part of it must convert to your own religion."
. In 2005 Lerner received the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize from Morehouse College
in Atlanta in recognition of his work in forging a "progressive middle path that is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine" in his book Healing Israel/Palestine and in his writing in Tikkun magazine.
several times. On March 5, 2006, he discussed his book The Left Hand of God
on C-SPAN
. Lerner was part of a panel of religious leaders on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on April 16, 2006. He was interviewed on Jewish reactions to the Christian Zionist movement of Rev. Hagee on the Bill Moyers PBS show on October 7, 2007.
and Hamas
of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the winter 2009 Gaza war. After Tikkun magazine announced that it would award Goldstone with its Tikkun Award, Lerner's home was vandalized several times, with posters caricaturing him as a Nazi.
Tikkun (magazine)
Tikkun is a quarterly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a leftist-progressive viewpoint, and provides commentary about Israeli politics and Jewish life in North America...
, a progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
Jewish interfaith
Interfaith
The term interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
based in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun
Beyt Tikkun
The Beyt Tikkun Synagogue is a Jewish Renewal congregation in the San Francisco area that was founded in 1996 by Rabbi Michael Lerner and is loosely affiliated with Lerner's Tikkun magazine...
Synagogue of San Francisco.
Family and Education
Michael Lerner was born in 1943 and grew up in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey. In his youth, he attended Far Brook Country Day School, a private school which he characterized as having "a rich commitment to interdenominational ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
". While he has written that he appreciated "the immense beauty and wisdom of the Christianity to which [he] was being exposed", he also felt religiously isolated, as the child of passionate Zionists who attended Hebrew school three times a week, while at the same time being heavily exposed to Christian-oriented cultural activities in school. At his own request, in the 7th grade he switched to a public school in the Weequahic neighborhood of Newark, where his peers were, in his estimation, 80% Jewish. He graduated from Weequahic High School in 1960. Lerner received a B.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. In 1972 he earned a PhD in philosophy from University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. In 1977 he received a PhD in Clinical/Social Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. Lerner was married to Nan Fink until 1991, and married Debora Kohn in July 1998.
Student activism
While at Berkeley, Lerner became a leader in the Berkeley student movement and the Free Speech MovementFree Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and...
, chair of the Free Student Union, and chair from 1966-1968 of the Berkeley chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
. After teaching philosophy of law
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
at San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, he took a job as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
and taught ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
, social
Social philosophy
Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior . Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of...
and political philosophy
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
, philosophy of literature and culture, and introduction to philosophy. Angry at the SDS group called Weatherman
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
, which had introduced violence into the anti-war movement
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
in response to police violence
Police riot
A police riot is a confrontation between police and civilians. The term can also describe a riot by civilians caused or instigated by police...
, Lerner created a new organization as an alternative, called the Seattle Liberation Front
Seattle Liberation Front
The Seattle Liberation Front, or SLF, was a radical anti-Vietnam War movement, based in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. The group, founded by then-University of Washington visiting philosophy professor and political activist Michael Lerner, carried out its protest activities from 1970 to...
. After a major demonstration that his organization had called in protest turned violent, he and others were arrested for inciting a riot. The subsequent trial was the second nationally known federal trial against anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
activists and became known as the Seattle Seven.
Federal agents testifying at the trial later admitted to having played a major role instigating the violence and the riot, charges relating to the riot were eventually dropped. However, during the trial, which culminated in a courtroom riot with punches being thrown (Lerner was the only defendant to remain seated) the presiding judge sent the defendants to jail on "contempt of court" charges. Lerner was sentenced and transported to Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary
Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island
Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island is a low-security prison for men located on Reservation Point on Terminal Island and in San Pedro, Los Angeles. The other Federal prison in the Los Angeles area is the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles...
in San Pedro, California
San Pedro, Los Angeles, California
San Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...
, where Lerner served several months before the 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court ordered Lerner released (despite the claim made by J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
in a public statement repeated on radio and television that Lerner was "one of the most dangerous criminals in America" though he had never engaged in any act of violence). The main charges were eventually dropped by the Federal Government after the 9th Circuit overturned the conviction for contempt of court. Meanwhile, Lerner's contract was not renewed and the State of Washington Legislature had passed "the Lerner act" requiring that the University of Washington never hire anyone "who might engage in illegal political activity," a law later overturned by the Washington Supreme Court.
Professorship and research
After completing his Ph.D. Lerner moved to Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
where he served as professor of philosophy at Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
until 1975, when he moved back to Berkeley, joined the faculty at the University of California in the Field Studies program and taught law and economics until 1976 when he accepted a position at Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...
for one year in sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, teaching courses in social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
. Meanwhile, he completed a second Ph.D. in 1977, this one is social
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
/clinical psychology
Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development...
at the Wright Institute in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
In 1976 Lerner founded the Institute for Labor and Mental Health to work with the labor movement and do research on the psychodynamics
Psychodynamics
Psychodynamics is the theory and systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, especially the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation...
of American society. In 1979 he received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
to train union shop stewards
Union steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company, who represents and defends the interests of her/his fellow employees but who is also a labor union official...
as agents of prevention for mental health disorders, and he simultaneously extended his previous study of the psychodynamics of American society. With a subsequent grant from the NIMH he studied American politics and reported that "a spiritual crisis" was at the heart of the political transformation of American society as well as at the heart of much of the psychic pain that was being treated in individual therapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
.
His writing reflects a transposition of this analysis to economics too, viz. "This focus on money and power may do wonders in the marketplace, but it creates a tremendous crisis in our society. People who have spent all day learning how to sell themselves and to manipulate others are in no position to form lasting friendships or intimate relationships... Many Americans hunger for a different kind of society—one based on principles of caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity, and communal solidarity. Their need for meaning is just as intense as their need for economic security." :
Tikkun magazine
After serving for five years as dean of the graduate school of psychology at the New College of CaliforniaNew College of California
New College of California was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President, Father John Leary. After 37 years, it ceased operations in early 2008....
(now defunct) in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, Lerner and his then-wife Nan Fink created a general-interest intellectual magazine called Tikkun: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society
Tikkun (magazine)
Tikkun is a quarterly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a leftist-progressive viewpoint, and provides commentary about Israeli politics and Jewish life in North America...
. Tikkun was started with the intention of challenging the left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
for its inability to understand the centrality of religious and spiritual concerns in the lives of ordinary Americans. With his associate editor Peter Gabel
Peter Gabel
Peter Gabel, Ph.D., is an American law academic and associate editor of Tikkun, a bi-monthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society and has written a number of articles for the magazine on subjects ranging from the original intent of the framers of the Constitution to the...
, Lerner developed a "politics of meaning" to speak to the hunger for meaning that was characteristic of the thousands of people that Lerner and his colleagues were studying at the Institute for Labor and Mental Health. Tikkun was formed to educate the public about the findings of the Institute and to develop some of the implications of that work. However, because it also had an interest in being an "alternative to the voices of Jewish conservatism
Jewish right
The term Jewish right refers to Jews who identify with or support right-wing or conservative causes. The Jewish right is not a monolithic designation. Its application ranges from advocacy of religious morals to conservative politics...
," Tikkun was criticized by some Jewish groups.
In 1993, First Lady
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
included the "politics of meaning" in her synthesis of political and social philosophy she was forming.
Later in 2002, Lerner organized a group called the Tikkun Community among readers of Tikkun magazine and those who share its editorial vision.
Rabbinical ordination
Lerner received rabbinical ordinationSemicha
, also , or is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law...
in 1995 through a beth din
Beth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
(rabbinical court) composed of three rabbis, "each of whom had received orthodox rabbinic ordination". According to j. the Jewish news weekly, "mainstream rabbinical leaders of the Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
, Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
and Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
movements" have questioned private ordinations such as Lerner's, arguing that non-seminary ordinations risk producing poorly educated or fraudulent Rabbis. Similarly, some rabbis have challenged Lerner's decision to not be trained for the rabbinate in a classical Jewish Seminary (although Lerner did spend time as a student at Jewish Theological Seminary). Lerner has been quoted in Jewish Weekly as saying that the nonseminary track is one that "every Chabad rabbi takes, & every ultra-Orthodox rabbi". When Lerner attacked seminaries for being "more interested in producing organizational men for Jewish life than spiritual leaders connected to the deepest spiritual and social-justice minds", rabbi Alan Lew said "That is arrogant nonsense... I spent six years in extremely rigorous, round-the-clock study in the classic texts of our tradition. Authentic Jewish spirituality is in the texts, not in some fancy New Age ideas or watered-down kabbalah"
Lerner is the spiritual leader of Beyt Tikkun
Beyt Tikkun
The Beyt Tikkun Synagogue is a Jewish Renewal congregation in the San Francisco area that was founded in 1996 by Rabbi Michael Lerner and is loosely affiliated with Lerner's Tikkun magazine...
synagogue in Berkeley and a member of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California. He is also a member of Ohalah, the organization of Jewish Renewal Rabbis.
Network of Spiritual Progressives
In 2005 Lerner became chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives whose mission was to "challenge the materialism and selfishness in American society and to promote an ethos of love, generosity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe." They have since sponsored national conferences on both the East and West Coast. In 2007 Lerner launched a campaign for a "Global Marshall Plan".Cancer
In February 2009 Lerner publicly announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and mentioned this is many promotional mailings and published pieces. He was treated with surgery in March 2009 which was apparently successful.Positive Judaism
Lerner, a rabbi in ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, promotes the concept of Jewish RenewalJewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal , is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, musical and meditative practices...
, a small Jewish movement which he describes as "positive Judaism", rejecting what he considers to be ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
interpretations of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
. His publications promote religious pluralism
Religious pluralism
Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of various religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values...
and progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
or liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
approaches to political problems. He has, for example, been outspoken against attacks on immigrant communities in the United States
Nativism (politics)
Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture....
, and has attempted to build bridges with Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, Buddhist and Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
leaders around such issues.
Lerner's call for a spiritual transformation of American society was first articulated in Tikkun and then in his book The Politics of Meaning. Lerner developed these ideas further in his books Spirit Matters (2000) and The Left Hand of God
The Left Hand of God (book)
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right is a 2006 book by Rabbi Michael Lerner. In it, Lerner argues that that in order for progressive politics to survive in America, liberals must develop a respect for progressive forms of religion that can provide inspiration and a...
(2006).
In 2004 Lerner became chair of The Network of Spiritual Progressives whose mission was to "challenge the materialism and selfishness in American society and to promote an ethos of love, generosity, and awe and wonder at the grandeur of the universe." In 2007 he launched a campaign for a "Global Marshall Plan".
Lerner strongly objected to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's occupation of the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. He supports the adoption of the Geneva Accord
Geneva Accord
The Geneva Initiative, also known as the Geneva Accord, is a model permanent status agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the Quartet Roadmap, the Clinton Parameters, and the Arab Peace Initiative...
s as a basis for an independent Palestinian state.
In February 2007, Lerner published a column entitled "There Is No New Anti-Semitism
New anti-Semitism
New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, emanating simultaneously from the far-left, radical Islam, and the far-right, and tending to manifest itself as opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel.The concept...
," in which he criticized some American Jewish organizations for labeling critics of Israel as antisemites. He was especially critical of the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
American Israel Public Affairs Committee
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States...
, which he characterized as "Israel-can-do-no-wrong voices in American politics." Lerner wrote that this mentality, which frequently leads to accusations that Jews who oppose Israel's policies toward the Palestinians
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
are "self-hating Jew
Self-hating Jew
Self-hating Jew is a term used to allege that a Jewish person holds antisemitic beliefs or engages in antisemitic actions. The concept gained widespread currency after Theodor Lessing's 1930 book Der Jüdische Selbsthass ; the term became "something of a key term of opprobrium in and beyond Cold...
s," is alienating young Jews who "say that they can no longer identify with their Jewishness."
Controversy
Lerner describes some of his views as "very controversial," particularly his views about building peace between Israel and Palestine. In 2003, the San Diego Jewish JournalSan Diego Jewish Journal
The San Diego Jewish Journal is Jewish magazine founded in October 2001 by Dr. Mark Moss and Mark Edelstein, and first published in December 2001. Their intent was to create a magazine that spoke to all Jewish movements and traditions. The magazine serves 19,000 Jewish households in San Diego, Palm...
described Lerner as "the most controversial Jew in America," writing that "He is relentlessly critical of Israel. He eulogizes Rachel Corrie
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement . She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian's home, thus acting as a human shield, attempting to prevent the IDF from...
. And he's done more for peace than any conservative we know." That same year, the executive editor of The Jewish Exponent
The Jewish Exponent
The Jewish Exponent is a weekly community newspaper serving the Jewish community of Philadelphia. Published continuously since 1887, its circulation was over 55,000 in 2006....
wrote that Lerner "supports every measure against Israel short of its immediate destruction and often makes common cause with those who do plot the eradication of Israel's Jews."
In 1997, former Tikkun
Tikkun (magazine)
Tikkun is a quarterly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a leftist-progressive viewpoint, and provides commentary about Israeli politics and Jewish life in North America...
editors accused Lerner of publishing pseudonymous letters to the editor that he himself had written. While many of the letters were laudatory ("Your editorial stand on Iraq said publicly what many of us in the Israeli peace camp are feeling privately but dare not say."), a few were critical ("Have you gone off your rocker?"). Lerner admitted that he had fabricated the letters but said his only mistake was not informing readers that the authors' names were pseudonyms.
Criticism of leftist antisemitism
For many years, Lerner has been an out-spoken critic of anti-ZionismAnti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be...
and modern antisemitism that he perceives to have arisen among some leftists. In 1992, he wrote The Socialism of Fools: Anti-Semitism on the Left, in which he described the manner in which the left often denies the existence of antisemitism; defended Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and distinguished legitimate criticism of the State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
from Israel-bashing and antisemitism; and suggested ways in which progressives can fight antisemitism on the Left.
In 2003, Lerner criticized the left-wing anti-war ANSWER Coalition for the antisemitism that he and others believe is reflected in the rhetoric at ANSWER-sponsored demonstrations. He later claimed that the ANSWER coalition — of which Lerner's Tikkun Community was a member — barred him from speaking at their rallies against the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
because of his criticism.
Good Friday Prayer for the Jews
Regarding the motu proprio Summorum PontificumSummorum Pontificum
Summorum Pontificum is an Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued "motu proprio" . The document specified the rules, for the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, for celebrating Mass according to the "Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962" , and for administering most of the sacraments in...
, which allows the re-introduction of the Tridentine Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
and the related Good Friday Prayer for the Jews, he said that the Pope took "a powerful step toward the re-introduction of the process of demeaning Jews. You cannot respect another religion if you teach that those who are part of it must convert to your own religion."
Awards and honors
While at the Seminary, Lerner was elected national president of Atid, the college organization of the United Synagogue of AmericaUnited Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism is the primary organization of synagogues practicing Conservative Judaism in North America...
. In 2005 Lerner received the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize from Morehouse College
Morehouse College
Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....
in Atlanta in recognition of his work in forging a "progressive middle path that is both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine" in his book Healing Israel/Palestine and in his writing in Tikkun magazine.
Television appearances
Lerner has been a guest on Larry King LiveLarry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
several times. On March 5, 2006, he discussed his book The Left Hand of God
The Left Hand of God (book)
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right is a 2006 book by Rabbi Michael Lerner. In it, Lerner argues that that in order for progressive politics to survive in America, liberals must develop a respect for progressive forms of religion that can provide inspiration and a...
on C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
. Lerner was part of a panel of religious leaders on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on April 16, 2006. He was interviewed on Jewish reactions to the Christian Zionist movement of Rev. Hagee on the Bill Moyers PBS show on October 7, 2007.
Goldstone report and vandalism of Lerner's home
Lerner is one of a small group of Jewish leaders who supported Judge Richard Goldstone after Goldstone released his United Nations report that accused IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the winter 2009 Gaza war. After Tikkun magazine announced that it would award Goldstone with its Tikkun Award, Lerner's home was vandalized several times, with posters caricaturing him as a Nazi.
Books
- Surplus Powerlessness: The Psychodynamics of Everyday Life and the Psychology of Individual and Social Transformation (1986)
- The Socialism of Fools: Anti-Semitism on the Left (1992)
- Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation (1994)
- Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin (1995) - by Michael Lerner and Cornel West
- The Politics of Meaning: Restoring Hope and Possibility in an Age of Cynicism (1996)
- Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul (2000)
- Healing Israel/Palestine: A Path to Peace and Reconciliation (2003)
- The Geneva Accord: And Other Strategies for Healing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2004)
- The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious RightThe Left Hand of God (book)The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right is a 2006 book by Rabbi Michael Lerner. In it, Lerner argues that that in order for progressive politics to survive in America, liberals must develop a respect for progressive forms of religion that can provide inspiration and a...
(2006)
Anthologies
- Tikkun: To Heal, Repair, and Transform the World (1992) - edited by Michael Lerner
- Best Contemporary Jewish Writing (2001) - edited by Michael Lerner
- Best Jewish Writing 2002 (2002) - edited by Michael Lerner
- Tikkun Reader: Twentieth Anniversary (2006) - edited by Michael Lerner
External links
- Tikkun community website
- Tikkun magazine
- Rabbi Michael Lerner: Bringing God Into It
- Interview with The Nation
- Network of Spiritual Progressives website
- Interview with Grist Magazine
- http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php?story=20071004213757317Interview with Mark KlempnerMark KlempnerMark Klempner is a folklorist, oral historian and social commentator.-Early life:Klempner grew up in New York City, and attended Cornell University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1997, and winning a J. William Fulbright Fellowship. In 2000, he received an M.A...
] - "Where the Violence Comes From" 9/12/2001
- Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict, documentary directed by Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff (2003) quotes Michael Lerner
- "Preaching Tikkun: Rabbi Michael Lerner still courts controversy as he celebrates his magazine's silver anniversary", San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 22, 2011.