Judaism Is About Love

Part of the series JTS Alumni in the World: Scholarship and Impact
With Rabbi Shai Held, PhD (Rabbinical School ’99 and Kekst Graduate School ’99), President and Dean, Hadar Institute
In his new book Judaism is About Love, Rabbi Shai Held offers the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity. He contradicts centuries of widespread misrepresentation that Christianity is the religion of love and Judaism the religion of law. Rabbi Held shows that love is foundational and constitutive of true Jewish faith, animating the singular Jewish perspective on injustice and protest, grace, family life, responsibilities to our neighbors and even our enemies, and chosenness.
Rabbi Shai Held-philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar-is president and dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013), The Heart of Torah (2017), and Judaism Is About Love (2024), and he is the host of Hadar’s newest podcast, Answers WithHeld.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Join esteemed JTS alumni to hear about the important contributions they are making through their work as scholars and thought leaders in their fields. Through their engagement with Jewish text, history, and thought, they are enhancing the spiritual and personal lives of individuals, building more inclusive communities, and preparing the leaders of tomorrow, ensuring a stronger Jewish future.