Harold S. Kushner
He has also written WHEN ALL YOU’VE EVER WANTED ISN’T ENOUGH, which was awarded the Christopher Medal for its contribution to the exaltation of the human spirit. In 1995, Rabbi Kushner was honored by the Christophers, a Roman Catholic organization, as one of fifty people who have made the world a better place in the last fifty years. He has twice been nominated for the Templeton Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Religion. He has also written six other New York Times best-sellers, including his recent meditation on the 23rd Psalm, THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD. With novelist Chaim Potok, he is co-author of the new Conservative commentary on the Torah, Etz Hayim, which has been enthusiastically received by hundreds of congregations since its publication in the fall of 2001. His most recent best-seller is CONQUERING FEAR. He has also had a collection of his sermons published under the title FAITH AND FAMILY.
Rabbi Kushner was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Columbia University. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1960 and awarded a doctoral degree in Bible by the Seminary in 1972. He has six honorary doctorates, has studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and taught at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., and the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. For four years, he edited the magazine CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM. In 1999, the national organization Religion in American Life honored him as their clergyman of the year. In 2008, he was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the world of Jewish books, presented by the Jewish Book Council.