Shaare Zedek welcomes Rabbi Daniel Roth, PhD, Director of the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution. This text session will explore one of the most important religious pro-social principles -- loving one's neighbor as one's self -- and see how it has been debated and interpreted in different ways over the generations. We will also discuss how these conflicting interpretations may impact and reflect several of the core identity conflicts currently taking place in the US and Israel and how text study can actually help empower us to engage more constructively in these conflicts. This event is free and open to the public.

Rabbi Roth is the director of the Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution. He holds a PhD from Bar Ilan University's Program for Conflict Resolution, Management, and Negotiation, writing on Jewish models of conflict resolution, peacemaking, and reconciliation. Rabbi Roth has been teaching advanced rabbinics, Bible, conflict resolution and other subjects at Pardes for over fifteen years. He is also a lecturer at Bar Ilan’s Program for Conflict Resolution, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution and an Israeli-certified court mediator. He holds a MA in Talmud from Hebrew University, a B.Ed in Jewish Philosophy and Talmud from Herzog Teachers’ College, and studied for eight years in Yeshivat Har-Etzion, during which time he received rabbinic ordination. Rabbi Roth is married with four children and lives in Jerusalem.