Beth El Congregation is honored to welcome Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson as our special guest on Sunday morning, March 18th. Rabbi Artson serves as the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, where he is also Vice President.
A Patron Brunch in honor of Rabbi Artson at 9:30 a.m. will follow the regular morning minyan at 8:30 a.m. Rabbi Artson will speak at 10:30 a.m. in the main sanctuary on the topic “The Passions and Challenges of Conservative Judaism.” All members of the congregation and the Jewish community are invited to attend.
Renowned for his exceptional teaching skills, Rabbi Artson is a sought-after presenter at the biennial conventions of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Rabbi Artson teaches courses in Ancient & Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Modern & Contemporary Jewish Theology, and Homiletics. The Ziegler School has grown under his leadership from 45 students to over 80 students representing North America, Brazil, Australia, England, and Uganda.
In recognition of his “Outstanding Contributions to Jewish Education,” Rabbi Artson was the 1996 Honoree of the Orange County Bureau of Jewish Education. Through his Introduction to Judaism program, he helped over 200 people convert to Judaism. Rabbi Artson and his wife, Elana, are the parents of twins, Shira and Jacob.
A popular speaker, (with speeches available to download at http://www.jadio.org), Rabbi Artson is a member of the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Foundation and the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. He served on the Professional Advisory Committee of the Jewish National Fund Department of Education. Rabbi Artson was the Founding Chair of the Special Publications Committee of the Rabbinical Assembly. For many years he has served as a Scholar-In-Residence for several programs of Camp Ramah. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Conversion to Judaism Resource Center, is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of the UJC, and has been a popular keynote speaker and teacher for CAJE conferences.
A cum laude graduate of Harvard University, Rabbi Artson was an intern for United States Senator Alan Cranston and for United States Representative John Burton. After graduation from college, he worked for two years as a Legislative Aide to Willie Brown, the Speaker of the California State Assembly. He was ordained with honors at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1988. Rabbi Artson is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Contemporary Theology at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Rabbi Artson served as the rabbi of Congregation Eilat, Mission Viejo, California, a Conservative synagogue, which grew in the decade under his guidance from 200 membership units to almost 600. Following his pulpit service, Rabbi Artson became Executive Vice President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California and a member of the Senior Management of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.
In 2005 Rabbi Artson published The Gift of Soul, Gift of Wisdom: Spiritual Resources for Leadership & Mentoring. He is the author of The Bedside Torah: Dreams, Blessings & Visions, published by McGraw-Hill, and It’s A Mitzvah Jewish Living Step-By-Step, published by Behrman House and The Rabbinical Assembly. He authored “Love Peace and Pursue Peace: A Jewish Response to War and Nuclear Annihilation.” Founding author of the weekly “A Word of Torah” Column in the Southern California Jewish Heritage, which he wrote for 7 years, Rabbi Artson now writes “Today’s Torah,” a weekly Torah commentary with over 10,000 internet subscribers. He also writes a widely-distributed column, “Dear Rabbi.” Alef Design Group is publishing a collection of these columns as a book, Jewish Answers to Life’s Questions.
Rabbi Artson has written over 160 published articles. He serves as a Contributing Editor to The Jewish Spectator, a Contributing Editor to Jewish Family and Life, is a member of the International Advisory Board of Outlook Magazine of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, the Board of Advisors of The American Rabbi, and was a columnist for the online column “It’s A Spiritual Thing,” for the AVI CHAI Bookshelf, a resource for Birthright Israel alumni/ae until it closed.