Irving Greenberg

Irving (Yitzchak) Greenberg (born 1933), also known as Yitz Greenberg, is a Jewish-American scholar and author who identifies as a Modern Orthodox rabbi. He is known as a strong supporter of Israel and a promoter of greater understanding between Judaism and Christianity.

In 1953 Greenberg was ordained at Yeshiva Beis Yosef. He earned a PhD. from Harvard University and served as the Jewish chaplain of Brandeis University, the rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center, an associate professor of history at Yeshiva University, and as a founder, chairman, and professor in the department of Jewish studies of the City College of the City University of New York. He has also served as the President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He is married to the Orthodox Jewish feminist writer Blu Greenberg.

Greenberg's thought involves reading current Jewish history through use of traditional Jewish categories of thought. He has written extensively about the Holocaust and about the historical and religious significance of the State of Israel.

He studied Jewish Thought with Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. He has taught extensively, and a number of well-known scholars, including Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and Michael Berenbaum, consider him their mentor.

Greenberg espouses the concept of 'Tikkun Olam' (repairing the world) as humanity working, as co-creator with God, in improving the world. He sees the Jewish people's Covenant with God as enjoining them to set an example for the moral edification of mankind. Another concept is his idea that the image of God in all humans implies that each person has "infinite value, equality, uniqueness." According to Greenberg, that means that there is no absolute truth or correct religion: "Part of every truth is the fact that an image of God is speaking it; that is to say, a being of infinite value, equality, and uniqueness is speaking it."

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