Arnold Eisen

Arnold (Arnie) Eisen, Ph.D. (born 1951) is Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 1986, he taught at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University.

In 2006, Eisen was appointed as the seventh Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, replacing Rabbi Dr. Ismar Schorsch. Eisen is the second non-rabbi, after Cyrus Adler, to hold this post. He is also the first person with a social science background to serve as Chancellor, as previous chancellors had backgrounds in Jewish history or Talmud. He took office as Chancellor-elect on July 1, 2006, the day after Schorsch stepped down, and assumed the position full time on July 1, 2007.

Eisen is a Jewish Studies scholar in the sociology of religion. He received his doctorate in the History of Jewish Thought from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has also earned a BA in Religious Thought from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.Phil in the Sociology of Religion at Oxford University. He previously served as Senior Lecturer at the Tel Aviv University and Assistant Professor at Columbia University. He believes that American Jews feel connected to Jewish ritual but maintain autonomy to decide what to practice and thus many do not attend synagogue on a regular basis.

Eisen is a recognized expert in religious change and the modern transformation of Jewish religious belief and practice. He is also one of the world's foremost experts in the sociology of American Judaism. For the past twenty years, he has worked closely with synagogue and federation leadership around the country to analyze and address the issues of Jewish identity, the revitalization of Jewish tradition, and the redefinition of the American Jewish community.

His recent publications include a personal essay, "Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America" (1997), which addresses the renewal of Jewish community and commitment in America through a series of five essays built around the Five Books of Moses; a historical work about the origins of contemporary dilemmas concerning these issues, entitled "Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community" (1998); and "The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America" (2000), co-authored with sociologist Steven M. Cohen (2000), which examines the meanings of Judaism and Jewish belonging to contemporary American Jews.

Eisen is married to Dr. Adriane Leveen, a professor of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) at the Reform Judaism movement's Hebrew Union College, and has two children, Shulie, a student at Brandeis University, and Nathaniel.

=Sources=
* [http://www.meta-library.net/bio/eisen-body.html A Biography of Arnold Eisen]
* [http://forward.com/articles/7635 Sources say JTS Set to Select Eisen As Chancellor] -- "Forward"
* [http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2000/january26/eisen-126.html Arnie Eisen: Teaching Religion Raises Devlish Questions]
* [http://www.jtsa.edu/chancellor/ Arnold M. Eisen Named New Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary (press release)]
* [http://jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=16513&intcategoryid=5 Conservatives tap dynamic scholar, not rabbi, to head theological school]