The Honey Foundation appoints Rabbi David Hoffman as president
"Rabbi Hoffman’s passion for furthering the connections between all Jews makes him a perfect addition," said Sarah Lipsey Brokman, the foundation's vice chairwoman and CEO.
By BENJY SINGERRabbi David Hoffman has been appointed by The Honey Foundation for Israel as their new president.(photo credit: HONEY FOUNDATION FOR ISRAEL)
Rabbi David Hoffman has been appointed by The Honey Foundation for Israel as its new president.Sarah Lipsey Brokman, the foundation's vice chairwoman and CEO, said: “I am so thrilled to have Rabbi Hoffman join the Honey Foundation for Israel’s professional team. Rabbi Hoffman’s passion for furthering the connections between all Jews makes him a perfect addition.“Rabbi Hoffman will position The Honey Foundation as a thought leader in the newly emerging field of leadership in Israeli Judaism," she said. "We hope that bringing Rabbi Hoffman into the organization will raise the issue of open access to Jewish life in Israel to the forefront of the conversation in the Jewish world.”According to the New Jersey Jewish News, Bill Lipsey, the organization's co-founder – along with his wife, Amy – explained how the foundation got its name: It honors his father, Jack, who died in 2015. Sarah, the oldest of his 10 grandchildren, called him “Honey” when she was a baby, and it stuck.Lipsey described his dad as “sweet” and an “ardent Zionist,” so in tribute to him, the family established an engine to “bring about a social transformation in Israeli society.”HOFFMAN WAS ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), in addition to earning a PhD in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature from the institution. He is a highly respected and experienced figure in the Jewish world, also having studied in Israel.He was a faculty member at JTS and advisor for the Rabbinical School for almost 20 years, training a new generation of rabbinic leadership. He served as the seminary's vice chancellor and worked with their Board of Trustees and major supporters, as well as leading their Capital Campaign.“We are living at an unprecedented time in history, in which people are searching for deep community and ways to feel connected to other human beings," Hoffman said. "As Jews, we have inherited transformational gifts that respond to these existential needs: community, ritual, history, culture. Talented spiritual leaders, who can bring religious and spiritual leadership to the project of meaning-making, are best positioned to create communities of Jewish meaning that integrate these elements in powerful ways,” he said.“The Honey Foundation empowers spiritual leaders and allows them to make these gifts available to the widest number of Jews," he continued. "The work of training and developing the next generation of spiritual leaders in America has been my professional passion until now; at this moment, to be able to work with Israeli Jews who are creating a dynamic Israeli Judaism and building open Israeli Jewish communities is a tremendous personal blessing. "It is also our hope that focusing the American Jewish community on the possibilities of Israeli Judaism will serve as a much needed source of common purpose and language around Judaism and will build more bridges between these two great Jewish communities.”The Honey Foundation for Israel aspires to expand and develop diversity in the Jewish community field in Israel. With the firm belief that meaningful community life is the right of every Israeli, the foundation sees diverse, professional, inspiring, inclusive and open community spiritual leadership as the lever for this social change. Guided by pluralistic Jewish values, it seeks to create the existence of a free market of rich and relevant Israeli Judaism that will positively influence Israeli society and the entire Jewish world.Natan Rothstein contributed to this report.
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