A Return to A Zionism for the Future with Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller

At a time when our political climate has all but shut down constructive engagement with Zionist thought, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller invites us to revisit its redemptive possibilities. Through the writings of Ahad Ha’am, Martin Buber, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv (1935–46) Moshe Avigdor Amiel, and contemporary rabbinic thinker R. Yehuda Amital, Rabbi Seidler-Feller will explore a Zionism rooted in values. Together, we will work to revive the humanistic spirit of the Zionist revolution and envision a more inclusive and principled Jewish future.

About Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller is Director Emeritus of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA, after 40 years of serving as the Center’s Executive Director. He was ordained in 1971 at Yeshiva University where he completed a Masters in Rabbinic Literature. Chaim is a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is also a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. He was a founding member of Americans for Peace Now. The International Hillel Center granted Chaim the Hillel Professional Recognition Award “for blending the love of Jewish tradition with the modern intellectual approach of the university.” Chaim was a rabbinic consultant to Barbra Streisand during the making of the film Yentl.