Contributor

David M. Gordis

Founder, Interreligious Center on Public Life

Dr. David M. Gordis is President Emeritus of Hebrew College, founding Director of The National Center on Jewish Policy Studies and founder of the Interreligious Center on Public Life. Over the 15 years of his leadership, Hebrew College became one of the premier Jewish institutions of higher education in the country in both academic and community education programming. Using cutting-edge technology to expand access to advanced Jewish education and offering a wide array of innovative programs, Hebrew College is educating students of all ages and backgrounds to become knowledgeable participants, educators, and leaders in the Jewish community and the larger world. Guided by Dr. Gordis’s vision, the College was dramatically transformed into a campus-based institution, moving from its former home of 50 years in Brookline, Massachusetts, to a new seven-acre campus in Newton Centre in 2001.
Prior to assuming the presidency of Hebrew College, Dr. Gordis was vice-president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and Executive Vice President of the American Jewish Committee. He was born in New York City and holds bachelor and master degrees from Columbia University, as well as Master of Hebrew Literature and Doctor of Philosophy in Talmud degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained in 1964.

Dr. Gordis has held a wide range of leadership positions, both in the Jewish and interreligious arenas. He currently serves as a Visiting Senior Scholar at the University at Albany of SUNY, and has been a member of the Middle East study group of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and the Academy for Judaic, Christian and Islamic Studies. Dr. Gordis has written and lectured extensively on the pressing issues of contemporary Jewish life, the American Jewish community, Jewish education and interreligious pluralism. He lives in the Albany, NY area with his wife, Dr. Felice Gordis, who is Emeritus Professor and past Chair of the Social Sciences Department at Lasell College. They have two married daughters and four granddaughters.

Submit a tip

Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Here’s how.