Alon Goshen-Gottstein
Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Hebrew: אלון גושן גוטשטיין) (born 1956, England) is a noted scholar of Jewish studies and a leading theoretician and activist in the domain of interfaith dialogue. He is founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute since 1997. He specializes in bridging the theological and academic dimension with a variety of practical initiatives, especially involving world religious leadership.
Goshen-Gottstein is the son of Moshe Goshen-Gottstein – a professor of Jewish studies, linguist, Bible scholar, and theologian – and Esther Goshen-Gottstein, a clinical psychologist. The Jerusalem home in which Goshen-Gottstein grew up was open to students of various religions, as well as to visiting clergy. Coupled with extensive travel in early childhood, Goshen-Gottstein was raised to have an open and expansive perspective on the world, seen through the lens of academia.
Goshen-Gottstein is married to Therese (born Andrevon), who is a close collaborator in his interfaith activities. Goshen-Gottstein's two sons, Elisha and Nerya, follow in his footsteps in the pursuit of religious knowledge, spiritual wisdom, and an expansive worldview.
Goshen-Gottstein's underwent religious training and was ordained a rabbi 1978.[citation needed] For the following thirty years he served as a reserve chaplain in the Israeli army,[citation needed] but he has never practiced as a communal rabbi.
Goshen-Gottstein attended Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a concentration in the fields of Talmud and Jewish Thought. He also studied at Harvard University Christianity and religions. He received a Ph.D from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. in 1986; his thesis was on the subject "God and Israel as Father and Son in Tannaitic Literature." His Ph.D was supervised by E.E.Urbach. His specialization in rabbinic theology, of the literature of Talmud and Midrash, made him one of the few experts in the Jewish theology of that period.[citation needed] He has taught at a variety of Israeli universities and published extensively in this field. Goshen-Gottstein headed the Institute for the Study of Rabbinic Thought at Bet Morasha College, Jerusalem, from 1997 till 2013, and oversaw conferences and publications in the field.
For a decade Goshen-Gottstein was a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Advanced Studies. Here, he engaged with contemporary existential issues and became versed in public interfaith conversations, for which he was in charge for several years on behalf of the Hartman Institute.
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