The Lilac Tree: A Rabbi's Reflections on Love, Courage, and History - Hardcover

by Ammiel Hirsch (Author)

Applying Jewish values to our personal and communal lives.

Ammiel Hirsch has been one of America's leading rabbis for more than three decades. A Zionist activist who spent his formative years in Israel, Hirsch rose to prominence as the executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America and then as the spiritual leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the Upper West Side in Manhattan.

The Lilac Tree offers stirring reflections on life and death, science and faith, political activism and deep learning, and history and the future. Hirsch grapples with the harsh realities of COVID-19, anti-Semitism, and America in the wake of the Trump presidency. We travel with him to the ruins of Ancient Greece and Rome, the site of Auschwitz, and a hotel in Basel where Theodor Herzl dreamed of a Jewish state--all seen through his incisive, witty, and eminently Jewish lens.

Moving easily between the day-to-day and the sublime, The Lilac Tree draws upon Hirsch's wealth of Jewish and general wisdom to present a comprehensive worldview that is both eternal in its scope and acutely relevant, even urgent, for our own lives.

Author Biography

Ammiel Hirsch is the senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York. In 2018, the Jerusalem Post named him among "The 50 Most Influential Jews of the Year" and City & State New York magazine praised him as "the borough's most influential voice" for Manhattan's more than three hundred thousand Jews. Prior to his arrival at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, he served for twelve years as the executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the Israel-focused arm of the Reform movement in North America. An accomplished teacher, author, and public speaker, Hirsch is also a trained lawyer and a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces.