Shalom Freedman
Encyclopedia
Shalom Freedman (born June 17, 1942) is an American-Israeli writer, thinker, poet, and public intellectual.
As a “Jewish writer” his best-known work consists of conversations with thinkers and spiritual leaders centering on the concept of avodat Hashem or service of God. As a public intellectual his work has touched on a wide variety of issues regarding the human condition and future, while focusing most urgently on Israel’s struggle for survival and wellbeing.
) in 1964. He received his M.A. (thesis: “The Influence of the Religious Thought of Henry James Sr. on the Philosophy of William James”) and Ph.D. (thesis: “The American-Jewish Novel”) in English Literature and American Studies from Cornell University, under the guidance of Professor Cushing Strout
.
His books include a work of Jewish aphoristic thought, “Life as Creation: A Jewish Way of Thinking of the World,” the autobiographical “Seven Years in Israel: A Zionist Storybook,” a book of poetry, “Mourning for My Father,” and a philosophical journal, “Small Acts of Kindness: Striving for Derech Eretz in Everyday Life in Israel.” His three works of conversations with Jewish religious and spiritual teachers focus on how they perceive their own avodat Hashem or Service of God. One of these works centers on and is largely the work of Rabbi Irving Greenberg
. Among the distinguished rabbis and Torah teachers included in these conversations are Rabbis Shlomo Riskin
, Berel Wein
, Shubert Spero
, Adin Steinsaltz
, David Hartman
, Nachum Rabinowitz, Aharon Rakeffet, Chaim Eisen, Mendel Lewittes, Natan Lopes Cardozo, Dr. Miriam Adahan, and more than thirty others. His most recent published book is a biography of former Israel Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren
.
As an “Internet writer” he is a “Top Fifty Amazon Reviewer” where he has written over 4700 book reviews as of April 2011.http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AHD101501WCN1
His book reviews focus on Israel, Jewish Thought, Poetry, Middle East Affairs, English and American Literature, the Human Situation.
His television reviews attempt to provide a brief description and critical commentary on many of the segments of America’s most wide-ranging cultural program, “The Charlie Rose Show.”
Among those who have contributed to his thought on Israel’s situation and struggle are P. David Hornik, Dr. Joel Fishman, Moshe Bobrovsky z”l, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Dr. Yaakov Fogelman, Yossi Klein-Halevi, Barry Rubin, Hillel Halkin, Vic Rosenthal, Isi Leibler, Alan Dershowitz, and Natan Sharansky.
He is a regular political columnist for the Arutz Sheva website. He has also contributed political articles to H-Net, Intervention.com, Nativ, Jerusalem Post, Israel Insider, Jewish Political Studies Review, Jewish Press, JBooks, Milnet.
His Israel advocacy letters and posts have appeared in more than one hundred national and international publications including Commentary, The New York Times, IHT, The New Republic, The Times of London, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The China Times.
The most comprehensive, easily accessible sampling of his poetry appears on the PoemHunter.com website http://poemhunter.com/shalom-freedman/. An E-book of 150 poems is also available from this site.
Another major dimension of his thought focuses on his meditations on the human condition and future. These are at the heart of his most comprehensive philosophical work, the still-in-process “Thoughts.”
Freedman has also written in other genres, including “thought-stories,” philosophical and religious meditations, essays, novellas, and a variety of autobiographical forms.
As a “Jewish writer” his best-known work consists of conversations with thinkers and spiritual leaders centering on the concept of avodat Hashem or service of God. As a public intellectual his work has touched on a wide variety of issues regarding the human condition and future, while focusing most urgently on Israel’s struggle for survival and wellbeing.
Early Years and Education
Born in Troy, New York, to Reuben (Kelly) Freedman and Edith (Zeibert) Freedman, he graduated from Harpur College (now Binghamton UniversityBinghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...
) in 1964. He received his M.A. (thesis: “The Influence of the Religious Thought of Henry James Sr. on the Philosophy of William James”) and Ph.D. (thesis: “The American-Jewish Novel”) in English Literature and American Studies from Cornell University, under the guidance of Professor Cushing Strout
Cushing Strout
Cushing Strout is an American intellectual historian. He was Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters at Cornell University, now emeritus.-Works:*The Pragmatic Revolt in American History: Carl Becker and Charles Beard...
.
Aliyah to Israel
Troubled by the threat to the survival of Israel in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, in early 1974 he made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel. This aliyah to Israel also became a process of teshuva or return to traditional Jewish religious practice. In this he was inspired by Rabbis Eliyahu Barness and Chaim Pearl, and in a later phase by the teacher of Hasidism, David Herzberg.Books
In addition to countless articles and Web postings, Freedman has published eight books. Four of these have been selected as Jewish Book Club selections of the month.His books include a work of Jewish aphoristic thought, “Life as Creation: A Jewish Way of Thinking of the World,” the autobiographical “Seven Years in Israel: A Zionist Storybook,” a book of poetry, “Mourning for My Father,” and a philosophical journal, “Small Acts of Kindness: Striving for Derech Eretz in Everyday Life in Israel.” His three works of conversations with Jewish religious and spiritual teachers focus on how they perceive their own avodat Hashem or Service of God. One of these works centers on and is largely the work of Rabbi Irving Greenberg
Irving Greenberg
Irving Greenberg, also known as Yitz Greenberg, is a Modern Orthodox rabbi, Jewish-American scholar and author. He is known as a strong supporter of Israel and a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity....
. Among the distinguished rabbis and Torah teachers included in these conversations are Rabbis Shlomo Riskin
Shlomo Riskin
Shlomo Riskin is the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he led for 12 years; founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the West Bank; dean of Manhattan Day School in New York City; and founder and dean of the Ohr Torah Stone...
, Berel Wein
Berel Wein
Berel Wein is an American-born Orthodox rabbi, scholar, lecturer, and writer. He is regarded as an expert on Jewish history and has popularized the subject through more than 1,000 audio tapes, a four-volume book series, newspaper articles and international lectures...
, Shubert Spero
Shubert Spero
Rabbi Shubert Spero . Rabbi Spero was born in New York City. He studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.S degree at City College of New York and attained an M.A and a PhD in philosophy at Western Reserve University. In 1947 he received smicha and in 1950 became...
, Adin Steinsaltz
Adin Steinsaltz
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz or Adin Even Yisrael is a teacher, philosopher, social critic, and spiritual mentor, who has been hailed by Time magazine as a "once-in-a-millennium scholar". He has devoted his life to making the Talmud accessible to all Jews...
, David Hartman
David Hartman (rabbi)
David Hartman is an American and Israeli rabbi and philosopher of contemporary Judaism, founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Israel, and a Jewish author.- Early life :...
, Nachum Rabinowitz, Aharon Rakeffet, Chaim Eisen, Mendel Lewittes, Natan Lopes Cardozo, Dr. Miriam Adahan, and more than thirty others. His most recent published book is a biography of former Israel Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren
Shlomo Goren
Shlomo Goren , was an Orthodox Religious Zionist rabbi in Israel who founded and served as the first head of the Military Rabbinate of the Israel Defense Forces and subsequently as the third Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983.He served in the Israel Defense Forces during three wars,...
.
Book Reviewing/Internet Writing
His book reviews have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, Midstream, The Journal of Jewish Political Studies, The Jewish Press, H-Net, and JBooks.As an “Internet writer” he is a “Top Fifty Amazon Reviewer” where he has written over 4700 book reviews as of April 2011.http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AHD101501WCN1
His book reviews focus on Israel, Jewish Thought, Poetry, Middle East Affairs, English and American Literature, the Human Situation.
His television reviews attempt to provide a brief description and critical commentary on many of the segments of America’s most wide-ranging cultural program, “The Charlie Rose Show.”
Jewish Political Affairs and Israel Advocacy Writing
The concern with the survival and wellbeing of Israel is at the heart of his public writing. In recent years he has written extensively on the threat presented to Israel by Iranian nuclear ambitions.Among those who have contributed to his thought on Israel’s situation and struggle are P. David Hornik, Dr. Joel Fishman, Moshe Bobrovsky z”l, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Dr. Yaakov Fogelman, Yossi Klein-Halevi, Barry Rubin, Hillel Halkin, Vic Rosenthal, Isi Leibler, Alan Dershowitz, and Natan Sharansky.
He is a regular political columnist for the Arutz Sheva website. He has also contributed political articles to H-Net, Intervention.com, Nativ, Jerusalem Post, Israel Insider, Jewish Political Studies Review, Jewish Press, JBooks, Milnet.
His Israel advocacy letters and posts have appeared in more than one hundred national and international publications including Commentary, The New York Times, IHT, The New Republic, The Times of London, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The China Times.
Poetry
A member of the Israel Association for Writers in English, he has been an editor of its journal, Arc, and a regular contributor to Israel’s best-known English poetry journal (founded by the late Reuben Rose, and long edited by Mark Levinson) “Voices Israel.” In a survey article on Israeli poetry, Professor Howard Schwartz cited him as among the significant writers of English-language poetry in Israel. A selection of his poems from Mourning for my Father is included in Alan Kay’s Jewish Book of Comfort.The most comprehensive, easily accessible sampling of his poetry appears on the PoemHunter.com website http://poemhunter.com/shalom-freedman/. An E-book of 150 poems is also available from this site.
Thought
Freedman’s thought centers on the ongoing struggle of the Jewish people to live a life of Derech Eretz and moral example in the Land of Israel, and to contribute to the wellbeing of mankind as a whole. Central to this vision is the idea of “Creation in Service of God.” Drawing on a fundamental insight of Rabbi Joseph Dov Baer Soloveitchik he sees the Jewish people and mankind as having their essence in being creators who help complete the divine creation. This idea has a further elaboration in a subsequent work of thought “In the Service of God.” There he contends that it is primarily through our actions and decisions in everyday life that the mass of mankind is involved in the divine creation.Another major dimension of his thought focuses on his meditations on the human condition and future. These are at the heart of his most comprehensive philosophical work, the still-in-process “Thoughts.”
Freedman has also written in other genres, including “thought-stories,” philosophical and religious meditations, essays, novellas, and a variety of autobiographical forms.
Quotations
- The Jewish return to Israel was an effort to reassume responsibility in history, an effort to re-create the Jewish people as free in deciding its own destiny.
- The Jews are a people who dwell alone. The great creators, too, dwell alone, as God was Alone in creating the world.
- Better a single masterpiece than a thousand forgotten works.
- The great creator is often a child struggling for the approval of a parent who will never wholly approve.
- The Jews are the people who have created and suffered the most in history. This connection cannot be incidental but must certainly relate to God’s plan for humanity.
- Without God life has no ultimate meaning. The need for God is the need to find reason and purpose for human existence.
- Virtual Immortality is now guaranteed to all of us. But no one really knows for how long.
- As we have enormously enhanced our power to transform our immediate terrestrial world we have become aware of our infinitesimal smallness and almost absolute powerlessness in the universe as a whole.
- If it weren’t for the idea of God we would have all been hopelessly mortal long ago.
- It is forbidden for humanity to create a kind of being which will totally replace it. This principle should be held constantly in mind by the developers of the new and strange forms of being there will be in the future.
- The Internet has, with all the positive possibilities it has opened up, led also to an exponential growth in publicly available nonsense, error and stupidity.
- There are characters we have known in real life who seem so great as to make even the most devoted literary effort at their immortalization small and inadequate.
- The future before us seems on the one hand incredibly open and vast—and on the other determined to end in ultimate disaster. And so beyond all the evidence, and beyond all what we now know, and what we are likely to know millions of years from now, the single ultimate hope for Mankind is still in the idea of a God transcending all that we can, as intelligent creatures, ever possibly conceive.
Family
He is married to Rivkah Goldberg, Jerusalem painter and poet. He is the father of two children from his first marriage, a son and a daughter, and is the step-grandfather of five.External links
- Freedman's Online archive at Israel National News http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Search.aspx?cx=partner-pub-5569699846303362%3Ackiu06-ros1&cof=FORID%3A11&q=%22shalom+freedman%22&x=0&y=0#1467
- Freedman's Online archive at Jerusalem Post http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/jpost/results.html?QryTxt=%22shalom%20freedman%22
- Freedman's Online archive at Jewish Political Studies Review
- Freedman's Online comments on FresnoZionism.org http://fresnozionism.org