Reeve Robert Brenner
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Dr. Reeve Robert Brenner (born 1936) is an American Reform rabbi, philosopher, therapist, and author.
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[edit] Early life and training
Rabbi Brenner is a native of New York City. Since his ordination at the New York campus of the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in 1964, he has been a U.S. Army chaplain in West Germany, has served a rainbow of congregations, and has written on a wide variety of Jewish subjects, including intermarriage, the Holocaust, and many others.
Among the most interesting of these topics are the theology, practice, and law (Halacha) of the distinguished traditions of Judaism outside the framework of Orthodoxy. These include, but are not limited to, Reform, Reconstructionism, and Conservatism, and are known collectively as Polydox Judaism.
He taught Jewish religious thought and philosophy at St. Vincent College and Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., for two years; lived in Israel; and served at other congregations up and down the East Coast, finally landing in Maryland in 1986.
His first major work, American Jewry and the Rise of Nazism, received the YIVO Jewish Scholarship Prize. His book, The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors, is the result of nine years of research conducted in Israel among survivors to explore the way the victims, themselves, came to understand the meaning of the Holocaust for Jewish belief and practice. Rabbi Brenner is also the author of The Jewish Riddle Collection: A Yiddle's Riddles , and his articles, poetry, and short stories have appeared in both Jewish and secular newspapers, journals, anthologies, and magazines.
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998), a documentary detailing the major league baseball player's life, features an appearance by Rabbi Reeve Brenner.
[edit] Congressional life and current work
Rabbi Brenner is currently completing a book titled Jewish, Christian, Chewish, and Eschewish: Interfaith Pathways for the New Millennium, an outgrowth of his extensive work with interfaith couples.
In addition to being a rabbi and scholar, Reeve Brenner is also a therapist and social activist. He is experienced in in depth counseling, teaching, and B'nai Mitzvah preparation. During his stay in Israel he also invented the first new sport to be introduced in 50 years, Bankshot Basketball, which is now being played at over 150 sites around the United States and Israel. This is a "total mix" sport in which athletes in wheelchairs and other handicapped persons can compete equally with everyone else.
Rabbi Brenner divides his time between his Reform Congregation (Congregation Bet Chesed in Bethesda, MD) and other activities, including chaplainship at the National Institute of Health and operation of the Bankshot Organization.
[edit] A new sport
The son of a monument maker, Rabbi Brenner grew up competing in all sports and was a good athlete.
Inspired by his young cousin, Janice Herman, who was confined to a wheelchair after an automobile accident, Brenner Came up with a new sport called Bankshot while living in Israel in 1981. He wanted to develop a "nonexclusionary" basketball contest that entire families, including those with disabled members, could play.
Bankshot backboards have been displayed in New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and in the Israel National Art Museum in Jerusalem.
"People often think of rabbis as stern and humorless," says Brenner. "When they meet me, they're surprised. I'm the kind of person who breaks down stereotypes." And walls.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Faith and the Doubt of Holocaust Survivors
- The Jewish Riddle Collection: A Yiddle's Riddles
- American Jewry and the Rise of Nazism
[edit] Filmography
- The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998) .... Himself - interviewee
[edit] Sources
- Sports Illustrated (July 1, 1991).
- Brenner, Reeve. "The Faith and the Doubt of Holocaust Survivors" Jason Aronson INC Northvale, NJ/Jerusalem, 1997.
- IMDb Entry for Rabbi Reeve Brenner
- Reeve Brenner Profile at Bankshot
