Professor Yehoyada Amir is a scholar of Jewish Thought, a theologian and a Reform rabbi. He is Professor emeritus of Jewish Thought at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Jerusalem. 1994 he received his Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem at which he also taught for many years.

 

Between1999-2009, he served as the director of HUC-JIR's Israel Rabbinic Program, redesigned its structure and scope and made it the leading liberal rabbinic training environment in Israel. He and his team trained most Reform rabbis serving nowadays in Israel. Since 2009 he teaches for HUC's various (Israel and abroad) programs, serves as a mentor to students and in-service rabbis. 2014-2018 he served the president of MARAM (The Israel Council of Reform Rabbis).   

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His academic works deal with wide range of modern Jewish philosophers, including some of the major European, Israeli and American thinkers who designed modern and postmodern Judaism. His theological work takes this treasure of human and Jewish thought as a point of departure for the making of an up-to-date Jewish, dialogical constructive theology, fruitful for enhancing contemporary Jewish and Israeli life as well as responsible and sincere interfaith dialogue. 

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A Pivotal theme of his scholarly and theological work is the scope and limitations of post-Holocaust theology, in particular Jewish as well as general Human spheres. The main question he strives to respond to in this concern, is that of human responsibility in the shade of Holocaust and other 20th century genocide atrocities.   

 

Amir served as a guest lecturer and scholar at New York University, The Free University of Berlin and Potsdam University.

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Books: Reason out of Faith: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig (Hebrew, 2004); Small still Voice: Theological Critical Reflections (Hebrew, 2009); The Renewal of Jewish Life in Nachman Krochmal's Philosophy (Hebrew; 2019).

Books (ed.): The Philosophy of Eliezer Schweid: Jewish Culture and Universal Perspectives [Hebrew; 2020; with Yossi Turner];  Midrash Rabbah – The Revolution of Reform Women Rabbis in Israel [Hebrew, 2023; with Maya Leibovitch].