Jacob J. Schacter (born 1950) is an American
Orthodox rabbi. Schacter, a historian of intellectual trends in Orthodox Judaism, is University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the
Center for the Jewish Future at
Yeshiva University.
Biography
Schacter, the son of Pnina Gewirtz Schacter and Rabbi
Herschel Schacter, grew up in New York City's Bronx neighborhood.[1]
According to
Jacob Katz, Schacter's thesis, "Rabbi
Jacob Emden: Life and Major Works" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1988), "supplanted" Mortimer J. Cohen's 1937 book Jacob Emden: A Man of Controversy, as the most authoritative source on Emden.[3]
Schacter is an historian of intellectual trends in Orthodox Judaism.[4] Schacter is regarded as following "the ideological tradition" of
Joseph B. Soloveitchik.[5] His 1997 book, A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy and American Judaism, was about the "complicated relationship" between
Mordecai Kaplan, an Orthodox rabbi who left that movement to found
Reconstructionist Judaism.[4] Before leaving Orthodoxy, Kaplan had been Rabbi of the
Jewish Center (Manhattan), the congregation that Schacter would later lead.[4]
While still a graduate student, Schacter became the first Rabbi of
Young Israel of Sharon, in
Sharon, Massachusetts. Serving in this capacity from 1977 - 1981, he created a new, vibrant, and committed community.[6] He became Rabbi of the prestigious
Jewish Center in Manhattan in 1981.[2] Under his leadership, the congregation more than tripled in size, with new members attracted by "the intellectual seriousness of the rabbi's sermons and lectures.[4][2]
In 2000, he moved to Massachusetts where he became dean of the Rabbi Joseph B Soloveitchik Institute in
Brookline,[2][7][8] a position he held until 2005, when he left to become Senior Scholar and University Professor at
Yeshiva University's new Center for the Jewish Future (initially called the Center for the Jewish People).[5][9][10]
As author
"A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism." Coauthor with
Jeffrey S. Gurock, Columbia University Press (1997)[11][12][13][14]
As editor
"Reverence, Righteousness and Rahamanut: Essays in Memory of Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung" (1992)
"Jewish Tradition and The Nontraditional Jew" (1992)
"Judaism's Encounter with other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?" (1997)
"The Complete Service for the Period of Bereavement" (1995)
^Shargel, Baila R. (1999). "Review of A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism". American Jewish History. 87 (4): 404–408.
doi:
10.1353/ajh.1999.0043.
JSTOR23886240.
S2CID162229017.
^Goldsmith, Emanuel S. (1999). "Review of A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism". AJS Review. 24 (1): 171–174.
doi:
10.1017/S0364009400011181.
JSTOR1486540.
S2CID162231756.
^Starr, David B. (1998). "Review of A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism". Jewish Political Studies Review. 10 (1/2): 138–141.
JSTOR25834422.
^Libowitz, Richard (1998). "Review of A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism". Shofar. 16 (4): 110–112.
doi:
10.1353/sho.1998.0086.
JSTOR42943988.
S2CID170371494.