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Leaving Hebron

In his memoir on faith and fanaticism,
author recalls spiritual journey
from militant to rabbi.

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C12

July 17 • 2008

Special to the Jewish News

R

abbi Brad Hirschfield's
Judaism is one of inclusion
and pluralism, tolerance and
respect; his is a Judaism that looks
to the core, not the borders. He's an
Orthodox rabbi building as many
bridges as he can.
It wasn't always this way. About 25
years ago, he was a religious fanatic.
After high school, he left his home
in Chicago — where he had been a
member of the Jewish Defense League
— for a period of study in Israel.
From Jerusalem, he made his way to
the West Bank city of Hebron, where
he walked through the streets with
a gun in one hand and a Bible in the
other, leading tours through the city,
ever certain that the land belonged to
the Jewish people, given to them by
God. For two years, he was involved in
the militant arm of the settlers' move-
ment. He felt spiritually alive, full of
passion and clarity.
When settlers fired into the Hebron
Islamic College and killed two young
children, most of his movement
friends felt it had been a tragic mis-
take, but also the natural result of the
violence against them, and they con-
tinued in their mission.
Hirschfield found himself alone
in questioning the wisdom of build-
ing the Hebron community in light
of what happened. He realized that
perhaps he didn't have all the answers,
that perhaps the beliefs that had been
driving his life were deeply flawed.
Soon he found himself outside the
fold.
Hirschfield then moved back to
the United States and attended the
University of Chicago, where he stud-
ied religion, and then graduate school
at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
He had no interest in becoming a
rabbi, or so he thought, but when he
began teaching Talmud to rabbini-
cal students, he realized that he was
more interested in people than foot-
notes:'
While continuing his graduate stud-

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield: "Religion
captures the very best and very

worst of who we are."

ies, he also enrolled in the rabbinical
program of the Union for Traditional
Judaism, where he was ordained. He
joined CLAL, the National Jewish
Center for Learning and Leadership as
an intern in 1994, and now serves as
the organization's president.
Sitting in his Manhattan office dis-
cussing his new book, You Don't Have
to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding
Faith Without Fanaticism (Harmony;
$24.95), the 44-year-old rabbi, with
his long hair tied back in a ponytail
underneath a colorful kippah, appears
far from a militant settler.
While he's no longer in touch with
friends from his days in Hebron, he's
in touch with many whose politics
reflect those commitments. The events
of 9-11 inspired him to confront his
past and examine it publicly.
"Religion had flown those planes
into the Twin Towers, and I had prac-
ticed a form of that religion;' he writes,
careful not to draw moral equivalen-
cies. He recognizes that he once shared
an absolute sense of being right that
made everyone else wrong.
When he describes the faith he had
during his years in Hebron, he sees it
as narrow and limiting. As he writes,
"I don't think that this faith is true