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Neil Gillman
Neil Gillman (September 11, 1933 – November 24, 2017) was a Canadian-American rabbi and philosopher affiliated with Conservative Judaism.
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 of America, studying under Rabbis 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.
Gilman was a member of the Conservative movement's rabbinical body, the Rabbinical Assembly. He was a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America 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 (Halakha).
Gillman's central concept of a "second naïveté" encouraged adult Jews to rediscover childlike awe in God. Drawing on biblical narratives as theological "myths," he emphasized existential engagement over literalism, portraying God as relational, emotional, and open to human influence.
An advocate for inclusivity, Gillman supported the training and ordination of women rabbis and Torah scholars, approved by JTS leadership in 1983, as well as the ordination of openly queer clergy—authorized by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) in 2006—and equal access to Jewish marriage rites for same-sex couples, which the CJLS authorized in 2012.
Gillman served on the Commission on the Philosophy of Conservative Judaism, which produced Emet Ve'Emunah (Truth and Faith) in 1988, the first official statement of principles in the Conservative movement's 143-year history.
Gillman's 1990 book Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew won the National Jewish Book Award.
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.
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Neil Gillman
Neil Gillman (September 11, 1933 – November 24, 2017) was a Canadian-American rabbi and philosopher affiliated with Conservative Judaism.
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 of America, studying under Rabbis 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.
Gilman was a member of the Conservative movement's rabbinical body, the Rabbinical Assembly. He was a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America 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 (Halakha).
Gillman's central concept of a "second naïveté" encouraged adult Jews to rediscover childlike awe in God. Drawing on biblical narratives as theological "myths," he emphasized existential engagement over literalism, portraying God as relational, emotional, and open to human influence.
An advocate for inclusivity, Gillman supported the training and ordination of women rabbis and Torah scholars, approved by JTS leadership in 1983, as well as the ordination of openly queer clergy—authorized by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) in 2006—and equal access to Jewish marriage rites for same-sex couples, which the CJLS authorized in 2012.
Gillman served on the Commission on the Philosophy of Conservative Judaism, which produced Emet Ve'Emunah (Truth and Faith) in 1988, the first official statement of principles in the Conservative movement's 143-year history.
Gillman's 1990 book Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew won the National Jewish Book Award.
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.