Ellenson: Brilliant Leader

David Ellenson. Brilliant man.

Until ignorance divides us
By Yair Ettinger

Last Friday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received three guests in his office, all with the double-barreled title of rabbi and professor: They are well-known scholars among American Jews and fairly well-known in Israel: Rabbi David Hartman, who heads the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and is associated with liberal Orthodoxy; Rabbi Arnie Eisen, the chancellor of the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS); and Rabbi David Ellenson, the president of Hebrew Union College (HUC), the Reform Movement's rabbinic seminary.

This Reform rabbi cites my teacher in a compelling context:

Before the conference participants, Ellenson also mentioned Rabbi [Joseph] Soloveitchik and his famous essay distinguishing between "a covenant of fate" and "a covenant of destiny": "Most Jews in the world would not agree with it today, but there is a covenant of fate. Jews who are willing to immigrate to Israel and be part of the Jewish people, who pay taxes, who defend the state in the IDF, who identify themselves as Jews, what benefit would be gained by the Jewish people if we don't accept them? Rabbi Kalisher's responsa is very relevant and can guide us in our era."