New York, NY, February 11, 2013 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) mourns the loss of Rabbi David Hartman, the founder of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and “the right man at the right time for Israeli society,” a visionary leader whose writings and speeches influenced thousands in Israel and around the world.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
Rabbi Hartman was a unique combination of scholar, visionary, charismatic leader and doer. He was the right man at the right time for Israeli society, creating an institution and an approach which could speak to Israelis of different backgrounds, based on serious respect for tradition and texts.
As Israel struggles to find common ground among all its citizens, religious and secular, nationalist and post-Zionist, Jew and Arab, Rabbi Hartman was a model of openness and seriousness. His writings and speeches influenced thousands in Israel and around the world.
For us at ADL, he served in the 1980s as scholar-in-residence when he visited the United States and as our rabbi for ADL missions that visited Jerusalem. No one could better articulate the religious meaning of the state of Israel and how that affected political and daily life in the Jewish state.
His legacy remains in the institute he created and the many thousands of people who were inspired by his words and his personality. He will be sorely missed.