Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
| Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi | |
|---|---|
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 2005
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| Born |
Meshullam Zalman Schachter 28 August 1924 Żółkiew, Poland (now Zhovkva, Ukraine) |
| Died | 3 July 2014 (aged 89) Boulder, Colorado, United States |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation | Rabbi, teacher |
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, commonly called "Reb Zalman", (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014) was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue.
Born in 1924 in Żółkiew, Poland (now Ukraine), Schachter was raised in Vienna. His father was a liberal Belzer hasid and had Zalman educated at both a Zionist high school and an Orthodox yeshiva. Schachter was interned in detention camps under the Vichy French and fled the Nazi advance by coming to the United States in 1941. He was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1947 within the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic community while under the leadership of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and served Chabad congregations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He subsequently earned an M.A. in psychology of religion at Boston University, and a doctorate from the Reform-run Hebrew Union College.
Along with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Schachter was initially sent out to speak on college campuses by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In 1958, Schachter privately published what may have been the first English book on Jewish meditation. It was later reprinted in The Jewish Catalog, and was read by a generation of Jews and as well as some Christian contemplatives. Schachter left the Lubavitcher movement after experimenting with "the sacramental value of lysergic acid" from 1962. With subsequent rise of the hippie movement in the 1960s, and exposure to Christian mysticism, he moved away from the Chabad lifestyle.
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