Neil Gillman

Template:Short description Neil Gillman (September 11, 1933 – November 24, 2017) was a Canadian-American rabbi and philosopher affiliated with Conservative Judaism.

Early life and education

Neil Gillman was born on September 11, 1933, in Quebec City, Canada, then home to a small Jewish community. Raised in a household without access to a yeshiva or kosher butcher, he was strongly influenced by his grandmother’s dedication to Jewish traditions. He studied philosophy and French literature at McGill University, where a lecture by sociologist Will Herberg sparked his interest in Jewish philosophy. Advised to deepen his grounding in Jewish texts, he enrolled at the Jewish Theological Seminary, studying under Mordecai Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Ordained in 1960, he began teaching at the seminary while earning a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University in 1975.<ref name=":0" />

In Conservative Judaism

Gilman was a member of the Conservative movement's rabbinical body, the Rabbinical Assembly.<ref name="Niebuhr">Template:Cite news</ref> He was a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan for 46 years and served as dean of its rabbinical school for a decade. Beginning in the 1980s, he published widely during a period of identity crisis within Conservative Judaism, which he once described as "an Orthodox faculty teaching Conservative rabbis to minister to Reform Jews." His theological work helped shape the movement’s evolving approach to Jewish belief and law.<ref name="Niebuhr" />

Gillman’s central concept of a "second naïveté" encouraged rediscovering childlike awe in God through adult understanding. Drawing on biblical narratives as theological "myths," he emphasized existential engagement over literalism, portraying God as relational, emotional, and open to human influence.<ref name="Niebuhr" />

An advocate for inclusivity, Gillman supported women's ordination, approved by JTS in 1983, as well as the ordination of LGBTQ clergy, which the movement adopted in 2006, followed by same-sex marriage ceremonies in 2012.<ref name="Niebuhr" />

Gillman served on the Commission on the Philosophy of Conservative Judaism, which produced Emet Ve’Emunah (1988), the first official statement of principles in the Conservative movement’s 143-year history.<ref name=":1" />

Writing

Gillman's 1990 book Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew won the National Jewish Book Award.<ref name="Niebuhr" />

In his 1997 book The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought, Gillman traced the development of Jewish beliefs about death and the afterlife. Emphasizing liturgical references, such as the daily praise of God for reviving the dead and the defeat of the Angel of Death in the Passover song "Chad Gadya," he argued that Jews should seriously engage with the idea of resurrection, including bodily resurrection.<ref name="Niebuhr" />

In his 2004 book The Way Into: Encountering God in Judaism, Gillman explored the concept of a personal God in Jewish thought. He emphasized that the personal God is defined by dynamic, relational engagement with people, as reflected in biblical metaphors such as shepherd, parent, teacher, lover, sovereign, judge, and spouse, each conveying God's deep involvement in human relationships.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Gillman wrote a regular "Sabbath Week" column for The Jewish Week in New York and served on the advisory committee of Sh’ma, a prominent newsletter focused on emerging trends in Jewish thought and practice.<ref name=":1" />

Personal life

Gillman was married to Sarah Fisher and had two daughters, Abigail and Deborah, as well as five grandchildren.<ref name=":0" />

Death

Gillman died on November 11, 2017 at his home in Manhattan. He had been treated for cancer.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>

Books

• Believing and Its Tensions: A Personal Conversation about God, Torah, Suffering and Death in Jewish Thought, Jewish Lights, 2013.
• Doing Jewish Theology: God, Torah and Israel in Modern Judaism, Jewish Lights, 2008.
• Traces of God: Seeing God in Torah, History and Everyday Life, Jewish Lights, 2006.
• The Jewish Approach to God: A Brief Introduction for Christians, Jewish Lights, 2003.
• The Way into Encountering God in Judaism, Jewish Lights, 2000.
• The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought, Jewish Lights, 1997 (see book abstract).
• Conservative Judaism: The New Century, Behrman House, 1993.
• Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew, Jewish Publication Society, 1992.
• Gabriel Marcel on Religious Knowledge, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1980.

Awards

• 1991: National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish Thought category for Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

External links

• The Problematics of Myth
• Torah From Terror (Edited with Rabbi Jason Miller)
• Neil Gillman at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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