Rabbi Art Green Community Scholar in Residence

Photo of Rabbi Arthur Green

About Rabbi Arthur Green, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Green, New Mexico Community Scholar in Residence, Wednesday, October 22-Sunday, October 26^th. 

Shabbat with Friends, a nonprofit Jewish educational organization, is excited to announce that Rabbi Arthur Green is coming to New Mexico as a Community Scholar-in-Residence from Wednesday, October 22-Sunday to October 26^th  2025.  Rabbi Green is one of the preeminent Jewish scholars, thinkers, and educators of this generation.  He was the top student of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, z‘al, the great Jewish theologian and activist. He is a renowned scholar of 18^th century Hasidism, a master translator and interpreter of classic Hasidic texts, and a leading expert on Jewish mysticism.  

Rabbi Green was the inspiration of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality which has elevated the teaching of hundreds of rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators. Rabbi Green was close friends with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z‘al, of Jewish Renewal and other Jewish innovators across the country.  He is the founder of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Boston, Mass, which in a short time has become a respected school of higher Jewish learning.  Rabbi Green comes to New Mexico at the Zenith of his career as a rabbi and Jewish educator. It is a rare privilege to have amongst us a scholar, teacher, and religious visionary of this caliber.   

Through his popular and academic writings, Rabbi Green has argued for Judaism’s religious and spiritual brilliance and relevance. He is an inspired teacher and eloquent speaker on forms of Jewish spirituality and the potential of the mystical and Hasidic teachings to inspire devotion to Jewish life.  

His widely read Ten Best Ideas of Judaism and Radical Judaism have inspired many readers to rediscover deeper dimensions of their Jewish heritage. His most recent book, Judaism for the World, won a National Jewish Book award in 2021. His understanding of Judaism is a compelling alternative to contemporary forms of Jewish religious extremism and rigid anti-religious views of Jewish secularists. Below is an excerpt from an unpublished essay written by Rabbi Green that encapsulates his vision as a Jewish teacher.  

“It was 1961. I was all of 20 years old, a college senior and president of student Hillel at Brandeis University. I was thrilled to be engaged in deep conversation with Rabbi Zalman Schachter, whom I had invited to spend a weekend on our campus. He was just on his way out of being a traditional Chabad hasid. I had been through a self-imposed period of Orthodoxy in my adolescent years, followed by a sharp rebellion against it. I was well on my way toward my life as a Jewish seeker. I had met Reb Zalman earlier and I knew that he could be an important guide in my journey. Amid many other things he said, long forgotten, he spoke one sentence that has remained with me over these more than 60 years. It was in Yiddish, a language we both understood and valued, even though most of our conversation took place in English. “Yiddishkeyt iz a derekh in avoide,” he said. Judaism is a way of service, of serving God.” 

“That is how I have understood Judaism over the course of all these decades. It is a path, a way of approaching a life of service to the divine, to that which is holy, to the mysterious One. Reb Zalman did not use a term for God in that sentence; it was understood. He and I would both have preferred the unpronounceable Hebrew Y-H-W-H to the English G-O-D, but we understood what we meant. Devotion, inwardness, a desire to serve, openheartedness, and “cultivation of the inner life” were all terms that characterized the spiritual path of which we were speaking, in a conversation that continued over many years. Yiddishkeyt or “Judaism” is a language in which to express that path. It is not the only such language or even necessarily the world's best. But it is ours; it is the language our heart speaks, the spiritual legacy of our ancestors implanted within us. That is what remains important.”