Reeve Robert Brenner
Encyclopedia
Reeve Robert Brenner is an American
Reform
rabbi
, inventor and author.
Jewish Institute of Religion in 1964, he has been a U.S. Army chaplain in West Germany
, senior staff chaplain at the clinical center of The National Institute of Health (NIH), and served a number of congregations. As the first rabbi on faculty, he taught Jewish religious thought and philosophy at St. Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., and is currently spiritual leader of Congregation Bet Chesed, serving the greater Washington Community since 1986.
His first major work, American Jewry and the Rise of Nazism, received the YIVO Jewish Scholarship Prize. His book, The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors, is the result of nine years of research conducted in Israel among survivors to explore the way the victims, themselves, came to understand the meaning of the Holocaust
for Jewish belief and practice. It was a finalist for the 1981 National Jewish Book Awards. Brenner is also the author of The Jewish Riddle Collection: A Yiddle's Riddles , and the books Jewish, Christian, Chewish, and Eschewish: Interfaith Pathways for the New Millennium an outgrowth of his extensive work with interfaith couples, and his defense of the reality of the Exodus entitled While the Skies were Falling.
Inspired by his young cousin, Janice Herman, who uses a wheelchair after an automobile accident, Brenner came up with a new sport called Bankshot while living in Israel in 1981. He wanted to develop a nonexclusionary basketball contest that entire families, including those with disabled members, could play. Sports Illustrated
featured him in an article called "The Rabbi of Roundball; Rabbi Creates a new sport". He also serves as foundation president and founder of the National Association for Recreational Equality (NARE) and serves as the commissioner of NABO the National Association of Bankshot Operators.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, inventor and author.
Biography
Brenner is a native of New York City. Since his ordination at the New York campus of the Hebrew Union CollegeHebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
Jewish Institute of Religion in 1964, he has been a U.S. Army chaplain in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, senior staff chaplain at the clinical center of The National Institute of Health (NIH), and served a number of congregations. As the first rabbi on faculty, he taught Jewish religious thought and philosophy at St. Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., and is currently spiritual leader of Congregation Bet Chesed, serving the greater Washington Community since 1986.
His first major work, American Jewry and the Rise of Nazism, received the YIVO Jewish Scholarship Prize. His book, The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors, is the result of nine years of research conducted in Israel among survivors to explore the way the victims, themselves, came to understand the meaning of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
for Jewish belief and practice. It was a finalist for the 1981 National Jewish Book Awards. Brenner is also the author of The Jewish Riddle Collection: A Yiddle's Riddles , and the books Jewish, Christian, Chewish, and Eschewish: Interfaith Pathways for the New Millennium an outgrowth of his extensive work with interfaith couples, and his defense of the reality of the Exodus entitled While the Skies were Falling.
Inspired by his young cousin, Janice Herman, who uses a wheelchair after an automobile accident, Brenner came up with a new sport called Bankshot while living in Israel in 1981. He wanted to develop a nonexclusionary basketball contest that entire families, including those with disabled members, could play. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
featured him in an article called "The Rabbi of Roundball; Rabbi Creates a new sport". He also serves as foundation president and founder of the National Association for Recreational Equality (NARE) and serves as the commissioner of NABO the National Association of Bankshot Operators.
Works
- The Faith and the Doubt of Holocaust Survivors
- The Jewish Riddle Collection: A Yiddle's Riddles
- American Jewry and the Rise of Nazism
- Jewish, Christian, Chewish, and Eschewish: Interfaith Pathways for the New Millennium
- While the Skies were Falling
- "Extra-Biblical Evidence of the Exodus", Jewish Bible Quarterly, Sept. 2008 (vol. XXXIV; IV)
- "Nons, Nunyas, Appreciative Inquiry and the Aged", The Journal of Religion, Spirituality and Aging, (vol. 21, 2009)
Sources
- Sports IllustratedSports IllustratedSports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
(July 1, 1991). - Brenner, Reeve. "The Faith and the Doubt of Holocaust Survivors" Jason Aronson INC Northvale, NJ/Jerusalem, 1997.
- IMDb Entry for Rabbi Reeve Brenner
- Reeve Brenner Profile at Bankshot