Miami, FL (April 30, 2009) –Targum Shlishi is working with Rabbi Dr. Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, a leading modern Orthodox rabbi, to create an online archive for more than two hundred lectures that Greenberg has delivered over the course of his fifty-year career as a seminal thinker and activist in the Jewish world.
The dual impetus behind the website is to preserve all of Greenberg’s lectures available in audio format by digitizing them and creating an online archive and to make these lectures widely available and easily accessible. In creating this website, it is the intention of Targum Shlishi to provide a valuable resource for those familiar with Greenberg’s work and also to introduce him to a new generation, now that he has retired from actively leading institutions and teaching.
To date, the lectures have all been digitized and the website is currently in development. In addition to audio lectures, selected writings will be posted on the site. Targum Shlishi has dedicated $25,000 to this project and is seeking financial and content management partners to make this a first-class resource for the Jewish community.
“Yitz’s importance to Jewish life in America can not be understated – he virtually shaped an entire generation,” notes Aryeh Rubin, director of Targum Shlishi, who initially became acquainted with Greenberg as an undergraduate student at Yeshiva University, where he audited some of Greenberg’s courses. “He is a leading thinker whose original work and courageous example has served the Jewish people in so many ways – through his mentoring of many of our leading thinkers and activists, through the organizations and schools he’s created and led, through his university teaching, through his role as a congregational rabbi, and through his writings. This website is one way to share his teachings with a wider world.”
Rubin counts himself among those who consider Greenberg a mentor and a personal inspiration. In fact, the name Targum Shlishi was inspired by Greenberg’s teachings, based on the idea of the Jewish world being in a new, third era (following the Temple and the Rabbinic eras). In his introduction to Greenberg’s monograph, Judaism and Modernity: Realigning the Two Worlds, published by the Lookstein Center and sponsored in part by Targum Shlishi (available for download on the Targum Shlishi website), Rubin writes of Greenberg, “For his keen insight, for his dynamic leadership, for his daring intellect, and above all his radiant warmth, I, on behalf of my generation, thank him.” Greenberg’s distinguished career includes major, original and at times controversial contributions in the areas of Holocaust studies and Christian-Jewish relations. He has headed several major Jewish institutions along with a long commitment to university teaching. He was ordained at Yeshiva Beis Yosef in 1953 and received a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.
Greenberg is the founding president emeritus of CLAL – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership as well as president emeritus of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation (JLN). He served for over twenty years at CLAL, which is dedicated to the development of adult and leadership education. JLN’s mission is to create new institutions and initiatives to enrich the inner life of American Jewry. Among the initiatives in which Greenberg had a major role were the creation of Birthright Israel, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), and MAKOR.
Other positions Greenberg has held include: chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 2000-2002; rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center; associate professor of history at Yeshiva University; founder, chairman, and professor in the Department of Jewish Studies of City College of the City University of New York; founder of SAR Academy, a leading day school; a founder of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry; a founder of the Association for Jewish Studies, and a pioneer in Holocaust education.
Greenberg is the author of many articles, monographs, and books on Jewish thought – his books include The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays, Living in the Image of God: Jewish Teachings to Perfect the World, and For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter Between Judaism and Christianity.
About Targum Shlishi
Targum Shlishi, a Raquel and Aryeh Rubin Foundation, is dedicated to providing a range of creative solutions to problems facing Jewry today. Premised on the conviction that dynamic change and adaptation have historically been crucial to a vibrant and relevant Judaism and to the survival of its people, Targum Shlishi’s initiatives are designed to stimulate the development of new ideas and innovative strategies that will enable Jewish life, its culture, and its traditions to continue to flourish. For more information on the foundation, visit its website.
Contact: Targum Shlishi
info@targumshlish.org
305.692.9991
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