Jewish Secularity: The Search for Roots and the Challenges of Relevant Meaning

David M. Gordis is president of Hebrew College and professor emeritus of Rabbinics. He is the founding director of the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies and the initiator of the Interreligious Center on Public Life. An ordained rabbi, he is widely regarded for his classic Jewish scholarship, his communal leadership, and his extensive writings on Jewish life in America and Israel. Prior to assuming the presidency of Hebrew College in 1993, he served as vice president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles (now renamed the American Jewish University) and as executive vice president of the American Jewish Committee.

Zachary I. Heller served as associate director of the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies (successor to the Wilstein Institute) from 1996 until his death in 2010. He combined a career in the rabbinate with national and international Jewish communal leadership. He is the author of numerous articles in the fields of Jewish policy and bioethics and the editor of several volumes of Jewish policy studies.