Dan Cohn-Sherbok is a rabbi of Reform Judaism, a Jewish theologian and a prolific author on religion. He is Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales, Honorary Professor at the Aberystwyth University, Visiting Professor at St Mary's University College, York St John University and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David,[1] and Visiting Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London.
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Born 1945 in Denver, Colorado, he was a student at Williams College, Massachusetts, spending a junior year abroad in Athens, Greece. He was ordained a Reform rabbi at the Hebrew Union College at Cincinnati. He served as Chaplain of the Colorado House of Representatives. He has served as a rabbi in the United States, England, Australia and South Africa.He was a student at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and rowed in the 1st college boat. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Cambridge in England. Later, he received a doctorate in divinity from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York. He taught theology at the University of Kent and served as Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society, and was Professor of Judaism at the University of Wales. He has served as Visiting Professor at the Universities of Essex, Middlesex, St. Andrews, Durham, Vilnius, Trinity University College, St Mary's University College and Charles University, Prague. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Harris Manchester College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, a Corresponding Fellow of the Academy of Jewish Philosophy, a Visiting Research Fellow of Heythrop College, University of London, a Life Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge, an Honorary Senior Member of Darwin College, University of Kent, an Associate Member of the SCR and Honorary Member of High Table Christ Church, Oxford and a Member of the Arts and Humanities Peer Review College . He has also served as a Visiting Scholar of Mansfield College, Oxford, the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Studies and Sarum College . He is married to Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok.
Contrary to the official position of Reform Judaism, Cohn-Sherbok is sympathetic to Messianic Judaism and Secular Humanistic Judaism, as well as the Order of the Lotus (which purports to be a Jewish-Buddhist synthesis). In his view, Judaism today is pluriform in nature: no longer is there an overarching authority which can determine correct belief and practice. As a consequence, the Jewish community has splintered into a variety of subgroups, ranging from the strictly Orthodox to the most liberal; in addition, some groups have syncretistically borrowed from other religious traditions.
Cohn-Sherbok is the author and editor of over 80 books which have been translated into Russian, Greek, Bulgarian, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Japanese, and German. He has also published cartoons in books and magazines. His books include: