Jeremy Rosen

Jeremy Rosen (Hebrew: ג'רמי רוזן; born ) is an Orthodox rabbi, author, and lecturer. Rosen is an advocate of modern Orthodox Judaism which aims to balance tolerance of modernity, individual variations and a commitment to Jewish law (Halacha). His articles and weekly column appear in publications in several countries, including the Jewish Telegraph and the London Jewish News, and often comments on religious issues on the BBC. He is director of Yakar Educational Foundation in London, and chairman of the Faculty for Comparative Religion (FVG) in Antwerp.

Biography Rosen was born in Manchester, England, the eldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen and Bella Rosen. His brothers, Michael Rosen (1945–2008) and David Rosen (b. 1951) also entered the rabbinate.

Jeremy Rosen's thinking was strongly influenced by his father, who rejected fundamentalist and obscurantist approaches in favour of being open to the best the secular world has to offer while remaining committed to religious life. Rosen was first educated at Carmel College, the school his father had founded based on this philosophical orientation. At his father's direction, he also studied at (1957–1958 and 1960) and at Merkaz Harav Kook in Israel (1961). Upon returning to Britain, he was admitted to read moral sciences (philosophy) at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating with a second-class degree in 1965.

Following graduation, Rosen attended Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem (1965–68), where he received semicha from Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in addition to Rabbi Dovid Povarsky of Ponevezh and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Yeshivat Be'er Ya'akov. In 1966, while still at Mir, Rosen spent three months as rabbi of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation in Zimbabwe (then called Southern Rhodesia). A member of the congregation at that time recalls:

"After Rabbi Yesorsky passed away there came to Bulawayo a rabbi unlike any we had ever known—Jeremy Rosen. ALL the girls fell in love with him. He was a really special person and left a lasting impression on the whole community. He made the religion become very much a living entity and not something that belonged to the rabbi and the synagogue goers."

Rosen began his full-time rabbinic career in 1968 at the Giffnock and Newlands Hebrew Congregation in the Greater Glasgow area. A portrait of him painted by David Donaldson during that time is part of the Royal Scottish Academy collection. in Jerusalem.

In 2003, Jeremy and Mickey Rosen sold the buildings and assets of the Yakar UK location, applying the funds toward the establishment of a Yakar location in Tel Aviv that would be run by former Yakar UK Rabbi Yehoshua Engelman, in addition to its primary location in Jerusalem. After that time, the Yakar Kehilla began holding services at the Independent Jewish Day School in Hendon. In 2006, Rosen resigned from Yakar Kehilla, to focus more time on new writing endeavours.

In 2007 Rosen retired to New York City, but in 2009 accepted the position of rabbi to the Persian Jewish Center of Manhattan. He also teaches classes at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan. Rosen continues to write and lecture.

He was married to Vera Zippel, from Milan, Italy, in 1971. They had four children, Anushka, Jacky, Natalia, and Avichai. The marriage was dissolved in 1986, and in 1988 he married Susana Kaszirer from Antwerp, Belgium.