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September 7, 2008 Guest – Brad
Hirschfield
Program:
Brad Hirschfield has a history of
stirring provocative thought. An acclaimed thinker, speaker, rabbi, and
commentator on religion, society and pop culture, he offers a unique
perspective on the American spiritual landscape and on political and
social trends to audience nationwide.
A sought-out media analyst, Hirschfield has often been quoted on topics
ranging from religion and violence to the changing role of religion in
America. The co-host of the popular weekly radio show, Hirschfield
and Kula, airing on KXL in Portland, OR one of the top 25 markets
nationwide. Ranked No. 37 in Newsweek’s “Top 50 Rabbis in
America,” he is the only rabbi to be featured on “Nightline UpClose.” A
frequent guest on Court TV, he has appeared on ABC, CNN, PBS,
MTV, and NPR, and was a regular on WWSB-TV (ABC affiliate) in Florida.
Featured in PBS-TV’s “Frontline: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero” and
“Religion & Ethics Newsweekly,” he can often be heard on Westwood One
and Air America radio networks, and is frequently quoted by the
press.
Hirschfield is the President of CLAL–The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership, a leadership training institute, think tank and
resource center. Recognized as one of the nation’s leading Preachers
and Teachers by Beliefnet.com, the Web’s most popular religion
website, he conceived and is featured in a first-ever 18-part interfaith
series with religious leaders entitled Building Bridges: Abrahamic
Perspectives on the World Today, airing on Bridges Television
(American Muslim TV) in 2006-2007. The series, reaching more than 2
million viewers, addresses the divisiveness amongst the traditions.
Never one to shy away from a tough topic, Hirschfield challenges
people’s long-held opinions, assumptions and beliefs. A leader for
pluralism and interfaith dialogue, he says that we must own the dark
side of all our religious traditions or we risk the same kind of hatred
that destroyed the Twin Towers. “Religion drove those planes into the
buildings, but it can also provide the catalyst for building a better
world.”
A speaker at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and Colloquium in
Morocco and the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona,
he was featured in the acclaimed documentary, Freaks Like Me,
where he explores our fear of the “other,” and helps us grapple with
“difference.” He is presently co-producing a film on religious
fanaticism in America entitled The Fierce Believers.
Hirschfield has addressed audiences at the Aspen Institute, the
Washington National Cathedral, the Islamic Society of North America, and
at many leading universities and religious institutes. Author of the
forthcoming book, You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right:
Finding Faith Without Fanaticism (Harmony, January 2008), he
conceived and is the editor of Remembering for Life (CLAL, 2006),
a new book on the challenge of Holocaust memory in the 21st century, and
is the co-author of Embracing Life & Facing Death: A Jewish Guide to
Palliative Care (CLAL, 2003). An Orthodox rabbi, he received his
M.A. and M.Phil from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and his B.A. from
the Univ. of Chicago. |
