Gordon Tucker

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Gordon Tucker is a prominent Conservative rabbi. He is the senior rabbi of the Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York. His name was listed as the frontrunner for the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, replacing Chancellor Ismar Schorsch upon his retirement in June 2006, however, it appears that Arnold Eisen will be assuming this role.

Morning minyan in the Negev. Rabbi Gordon Tucker prepares for morning minyan with other bicyclists during the Israel Ride, a fundraising bicycle ride to support Hazon, a Jewish environmentalist organization, and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel.

He holds the A.B. degree from Harvard College and a PhD. (in Philosophy) from Princeton University. He was ordained a Rabbi in 1975 by The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTSA). He has served on the faculty of JTS since 1976, currently serving as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Jewish philosophy. From 1984 to 1992 he was dean of the Rabbinical School. It is rumored that he was forced out as dean due to his liberal political and theological views. He recruited some students who did not have a strong background in rabbinic texts but were instead interested in political activism. As Dean, he revamped the curriculum, significantly deemphasizing the focus on Talmud.

He was previously married to Hadassah Lieberman, with whom he has a son, Ethan. He is currently married to Amy Cohn, which whom he has a son and daughter Becky and Micah.

He previously served as Chairman of the Board of the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel, and a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly. As a member of the Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards he authored a takhanah (decree) arguing that the biblical prohibition on male homosexuality should be overturned, although the Chair of the Law Committee delayed the vote on this, and the other three teshuvot regarding homosexuality, to December 2006, where the Law Committee is expected to vote on the responsa (teshuvot). He was not seen as a successful fundraiser while on the Masorti board.

[edit] Theological works

Rabbi Tucker's most widely known theological work is his translation with notes and commentaries of writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972). Heschel, a rabbi who escaped the Holocaust in Europe to join the faculty of Jewish Theological Seminary, became famous not only for his many religious and philosophical commentaries, but also for his social activism and support of the Civil Rights movement. Tucker translated Heschel's Torah min HaShamayim BeAsafklariah shel HaDorot (Torah from Heaven in the light of the generations) from the original Hebrew into English, and provided many notes, essays, and commentaries. In English, Tucker's translation is titled Heavenly Torah: As Refracted Through the Generations.

In her forward to Heavenly Torah, Heschel's daughter Susannah Heschel describes the scope and magnitude of this translation. "Gordon Tucker (and Leonard Levin) have done a superb job of assembling, editing, abridging, and translating a huge, not-quite-finished manuscript. Others literally died trying to translate this sprawling masterpiece. There may be some dissent from the inevitable omissions, some few typos, some doubts about Tucker's interpretations. But on the whole, the introductions to each chapter, the explanatory notes on almost every page (including identifying Heschel's often obscure sources) are wonderful aids in working through this massive work."