RABBI JONATHAN OMER-MAN
1534 Campus Drive
Berkeley, CA 94708
tel.: 510-647-3866; e-mail: jonathan@omer-man.com
Present Employment and Current Activities
Since 2001: Retired: I continue to teach and mentor some advanced students, mostly long-distance (video conferencing and telephone). I also have a fairly demanding regimen of study, of Hasidic texts, Sufi texts, and Classical and Medieval Arabic.
Most Recent Employment and Activities
1985-2001: President and founder of Metivta: a center for Contemplative Judaism, an academy for adult religious education; this academy sought to provide an integrated approach to Jewish religious life, centered on practice of meditation and the exploration of traditional spirituality.
A major component of my work in Metivta in recent years was in creating and launching the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a two-year program that offers unique learning experiences to help rabbis deepen their own spiritual lives, and to help them deepen the teaching and guidance they provide for Jews seeking spiritual growth and insight.
Simultaneously, as an extension of the above, conducting ongoing seminars and classes with groups of rabbis, therapists and educators on subjects related to personal religiosity and the paths of Jewish spirituality. One of the topics of these courses for rabbis was religious counseling and spiritual direction.
Simultaneously, serving as consultant to various committees and persons within the Los Angeles Jewish community, and nationally, attempting to study the religious needs of the population.
Member of the group of rabbis that visited the Dalai Lama in 1991.
Jewish resource theologian at the month-long Coolidge Colloquium in Cambridge, MA, sponsored by Association for Religion and Intellectual Life. 1990, 1991.
Interfaith networking, primarily with practitioners of mystical traditions of other religions.
Member of the policy-making Working Group of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.
Lecturer and teacher: guest lectures and seminars at more than fifty colleges and universities, on my work described above, on Jewish mysticism, Jewish spirituality, and related subjects; more than 100 lectures and weekend retreats at various non-academic settings (synagogues and temples, Hillel foundations); interfaith meetings.
Meditation teacher.
Poetry teacher.
Other Employment
1981-1993: Director of Religious Outreach, Los Angeles Hillel Council.
1986-1990: Faculty, Rabbinic Institute, Jewish Theological Seminary.
1977 1982: Publisher and Editor, Shefa Quarterly, a Jerusalem based English language journal of Jewish thought and study. The journal, which was published irregularly until its demise, was highly regarded in many circles.
1977 1982: Managing director, Shefa Press, a small publishing house in Jerusalem, the major activity of which was the publication of the Shefa Quarterly. An important aspect of my work, however, was serving as personal editor and consultant to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, one of the greatest and most fecund contemporary Jewish thinkers.
1979 1981: Private tutor and spiritual director, guiding religious seekers through some lesser known pathways within Judaism (in Jerusalem).
1978 1981: Consultant editor, Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, a body established by the Israel Government and the Israel Writers’ Union; worked with many major Israeli writers.
1962 1976: Publishing in Jerusalem, in the Keter Publishing House, in its various forms, through various take overs. My functions included:
Deputy Chief Editor, Israel Program for Scientific Translations; responsibility for scientific accuracy and stylistic acceptability for about 1000 books translated from Russian into English for the National Science Foundation, in a wide range of scientific disciplines. Simultaneously, translating from Russian into English a number of works on marine biology.
Chief Editor, Israel Universities Press; responsibility for about 50 fine books in the humanities, especially Judaica, and social sciences.
Chief Editor, Judaica; responsibility for a number of important books. This task involved working with the late Prof. Gershom Scholem and other eminent scholars.
Revising Editor, Encyclopaedia Judaica. My task was to read through all 16 volumes with an eye for necessary changes.
Co editor, Encyclopaedia Judaica Yearbook.
1955 1962: Member of Kibbutz Amiad, Upper Galilee, Israel. General farm functions (cowboy, irrigator), until disabled by polio; then more sedentary activities (electrician, welder, high school teacher).
Education
No college degrees. I dropped out of medical school more than fifty years ago, and since then have been a voracious student, blessed with some wonderful teachers and the riches gleaned from living for a quarter of a century in Jerusalem. Basically I have lived my life as a luftmensch, in, I hope, the best sense of the term.
Rabbinic Ordination
In 1987 I received private ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, cosigned by Rabbi Michael Roth and Rabbi Richard N. Levy.