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Elli Fischer is an independent writer, translator, and rabbi. Previously, he was the JLIC rabbi and campus educator at the University of Maryland. He holds BA and MS degrees from Yeshiva University, rabbinical ordination from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and is working toward a doctorate in Jewish History at Tel Aviv University.
He is a founding editor of The Lehrhaus, a web magazine of contemporary Jewish thought. His original writing has appeared in Commentary, Moment, Jewish Review of Books, Mosaic, the Journal of Halakha and Contemporary Society, and other print and online publications, and he often writes for the New York Jewish Week. Among the issues he writes about are religion and politics in Israel; the interplay between legal and nonlegal elements of the Talmud; Jewish religious culture; and Central European Jewish History. He is the translator of By Faith Alone: The Story of Rabbi Yehuda Amital and the editor of Rabbi Eliezer Melamed’s Peninei Halakha series in English. Originally from Baltimore, he currently resides in Modiin, Israel, with his wife and four children.
Field / Profession: Educator
Educator at: Other
Recent Places Spoken/Recommendations:
Beth Tfiloh, Baltimore - Rabbi Chai Posner
Green Road Synagogue, Cleveland - Rabbi Binyamin Blau
Young Israel of Oak Park, MI - Rabbi Michael Cohen (note - he is no longer rabbi of this congregation)
Speaking Topics: Torah, Israel, Politics, Community, Eretz Yisrael, Halacha & the Modern World, Campus/Students
Sample Topics - General:
The Torah of ADHD
The Converts of Hillel and Shammai: Law, Narrative, and Policy
The King who Killed the Rabbis: A Talmudic Satire on Religion and State
What Lenny Bruce can Teach us about the Jewish Attitude toward Tattoos
Should One Recite a Blessing on Non-kosher Food?
The Past and Present of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate
The Future of Religion and State in Israel
Messianism Domesticated? On the Dangers of Messianic Zionism and Non-messianic Zionism
Toward a Theology of a non-Halakhic Jewish State
Why I Defy
A Strange Friendship on the Cusp of Modernity (includes photos)
The End of Expertise? Four Paradigms of Psak Halakha in the Digital Age
They Didn’t Change their Names, Language, or Dress: On the Modern Origins of a Well-known “Midrash”
The Civil War Circumcision Controversy
Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow…
Got Milk?
From Manuscript to Print through the Lens of Halakha
Rabbinic Biography
Different Lenses: How American and Israeli Jewry (Mis)Understand Each Other
“Demographic Time Bombs” and Other Useful Myths
Planes, Trains, and Gender-Segregated Buses
Holiday and parsha-based lectures and shi’urim, depending on the time of year
Sample Topics - Israel Related:
The Converts of Hillel and Shammai: Law, Narrative, and Policy
The King who Killed the Rabbis: A Talmudic Satire on Religion and State
The Past and Present of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate
Messianism Domesticated? On the Dangers of Messianic Zionism and Non-messianic Zionism
Toward a Theology of a non-Halakhic Jewish State
Why I Defy
The End of Expertise? Four Paradigms of Psak Halakha in the Digital Age
Do We Understand the First Rashi Correctly?
Different Lenses: How American and Israeli Jewry (Mis)Understand Each Other
Links to sample audio or videos:
https://www.yutorah.org/search/?teacher=82638
https://www.ou.org/torah/nach/#?post_terms.nach-series.name.unanalyzed=Nach%20Yomi&post_author.display_name=Rabbi%20Elli%20Fischer
Personal website: https://telaviv.academia.edu/ElliFischer
Languages: English, Hebrew
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