Jewish Author and Philosopher. He is best remembered as the founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Israel that promoted interfaith dialogue and a more liberal, contemporary interpretation of Judaism with man at the center of the faith. An open-minded scholar, he was a proponent of women's rights and pushed for a more tolerant approach to Judaism that focused on personal choice and experience as opposed to accepting Jewish law without question. Raised an Orthodox Jew, he was educated at the Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and the Lubavitch Yeshiva in New York City, New York, and received his rabbinical ordination in 1953 from Yeshiva University in New York City. From 1955 to 1960 he served as a rabbi at a synagogue in the Bronx, New York then moved to Montreal, Canada where he founded the Tiferet Beit David Jerusalem Synagogue, during which time he taught and studied at McGill University and received his Doctorate Degree in Philosophy. In 1971 he and his family immigrated to Israel and founded the Shalom Hartman Institute at Jerusalem in 1976. He was Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University of Jerusalem for over 20 years and well as visiting Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of California at Berkeley from 1986 to 1987 and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1997 to 1998. From 1977 to 1984 he was an advisor to Israeli Minister of Education Zevulun Hammer and also served as an advisor to Israeli prime ministers on religious pluralism in Israel and the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. In 2000 he was awarded the Avi Chai Prize and in 2001, on the 25th anniversary of the Shalom Hartman Institute he was awarded the Guardian of Jerusalem Prize, and in 2004 he received the Samuel Rothberg Prize for Jewish Education by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University (2003), Hebrew Union College (2004), and the Weizmann Institute of Rehovot, Israel (2008). His published works include "Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest" (1976, for which he received the National Jewish Book Award in 1977), "A Living Covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism" (1986, for which he received a second National Jewish Book Award in 1986 (republished in 1998)), "A Heart of Many Rooms: Celebrating the Many Voices Within Judaism" (1999), "Israelis and the Jewish Tradition: An Ancient People Debating Its Future" (2000), and "The God Who Hates Lies: Confronting and Rethinking Jewish Tradition" (2011). He died following a long-term illness at the age of 81.