Asher Lopatin is an American rabbi. He is rabbi of congregation Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Chicago.[1]
Lopatin is a graduate of the Maimonides School, received a B.A. in International Relations and Islamic Studies from Boston University, and was awarded a Master of Philosophy from the University of Oxford in Medieval Arabic Thought. He has done doctoral work, also at Oxford , in Islamic Fundamentalist Attitudes Toward Jews. In that connection, he has authored a chapter in Muslim Jewish Relations, titled: "The Uncircumcised Jewish Heart (in Islamic and Qur'anic Thought)." Lopatin won a Rhodes Scholarship, was a Wexner Fellow, a Truman Scholar at Boston University Trustee Scholar, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, and from both Yeshivas Brisk of Chicago in 1995 and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University in New York City in 1996.[2][3]Lopatin also received honorary smicha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.
Among Rabbi Lopatin's congregants at the 400-member congregation is Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, and former White House Chief of Staff under President Barack Obama and a former member of the United States House of Representatives. Rabbi Lopatin would not comment on Emanuel's politics, but noted that "I wish all our congregants were as loyal to the synagogue and as engaged as he is."[4]
Lopatin has announced plans to lead a group of 200 families to make aliyah and settle in the Negev[5]. Currently he plans to move to Beer Sheva with his family in the summer of 2012.
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Asher Lopatin is a Vice President of the (multi-denominational) Chicago Board of Rabbis and a member of the (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America and of the (Orthodox) Chicago Rabbinical Council. Lopatin sits on the board of the multi-denominational Chicago Jewish Day School, which he and his wife helped found. Rabbi Lopatin is also a member of the board of the (Orthodox) International Rabbinic Fellowship, founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss and Rabbi Marc Angel.
Lopatin is noted for feeling that the denominational lines separating Jews are less important than the commitments shared by Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and non-aligned Jews.[6][7]
He came to public attention during the 2006 political battle over the Chicago City Council ban on the sale of foie gras. Lopatin was widely quoted supporting the ban on the grounds that the Torah prohibits cruelty to animals, noting that "Chopped liver is good, but foie gras is bad".[8][9][10][11]
In 2008, Lopatin was one of five Orthodox rabbis named to Newsweek magazine's list of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America, selected based on criteria including the ability to inspire a congregation through scholarship and oratory, community leadership and leadership within the denominational movement.[12] [13]
In 2009, Rabbi Asher Lopatin publicly announced his family's plans for aliya in the summer of 2011 in order to build a new innovative and pluralistic community in the northern Negev, Carmit. Lopatin was to be the community rabbi of the town. Carmit, currently being built and marketed by the OR Movement, along with JNF and other partners, will eventually grow to include 2,600 homes. However, Lopatin now plans to establish a community in Beer Sheva, perhaps in the northern neighborhood of Ramot or Ramot Beit. In his position as rabbi of a progressive Modern Orthodox synagogue, Lopatin says he will work to ensure diversity, where people of all denominations and non-denominations feel validated in their observance and encouraged to contribute to the community at large.