Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger
Articles written by Hanan: www.RavHanan.org
Hanan Schlesinger is an Israeli rabbi and teacher who has been profoundly transformed by his encounters with Palestinians and the Palestinian People beginning in late 2013. As he never tires of saying, he is now healing from the hubris of exclusivity with which he was afflicted all of his adult life. Today he knows that there are two Peoples in the Holy Land, and that each has their own story. Indeed the Land itself bears two identities – the Land of Israel is also the Land of Palestine.
Originally hailing from New York, Rav Hanan immigrated to Israel on his own at the age of 20 and lived in Alon Shvut, Gush Etzion, for 40 years. His family background is Reform, but already at the end of high school he began delving into observant Judaism. Following his B.A., he spent over 10 years in advanced Jewish study, primarily at the Har Etzion College of Jewish Studies and in the M.A. program of the Dept. of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University.
The first part of his professional career was devoted to teaching Jewish studies to young adults, primarily in various colleges of Jewish studies and seminaries in the Jerusalem area. From 1998 to 2000 he served as a fellow in the Judaic Fellows Program of Boca Raton, Florida. In 2005 Rabbi Schlesinger came to Dallas, Texas to serve as the head of the Community Kollel, and he spent eight years serving the Dallas Jewish community. When the Community Kollel folded in 2010, he founded the Jewish Studies Initiative of North Texas to continue the educational work he had been doing in the larger Jewish community of Dallas.
It was in Dallas about 25 years ago that he began to become involved in interfaith work, first with Christians and then with Muslims. There he founded Faiths in Conversation, a framework for Jewish - Christian – Muslim theological dialogue. The mind-expanding experience of these trialogues inspired him to attempt to meet Muslims and Christians back in the Holy Land.
Although always drawn to pluralism and deeply empathic for the other, and sporadically involved in the religious peace movement over the course of the past 4 decades, Rav Hanan never met a Palestinian as an equal until he returned from Dallas to Israel in 2013. The meetings that began then – largely inspired by his interfaith experience in Dallas - have become far more meaningful than he could ever have imagined.
In early 2014, Ali Abu Awwad and an Israeli partner Shaul Judelman, together with Rav Hanan and other Israelis and Palestinians, founded Roots/Judur/Shorashim, the Palestinian Israeli Grassroots Initiative for Understanding, Non-violence, and Transformation on a piece of land owned by the Awaad family in the heart of Gush Etzion and abutting the Palestinian town of Beit Umar. This location is one of the rare places that both Palestinians and Israelis can access without special government permits, thus facilitating grassroots, unmediated get-togethers and deep conversations between people from the two sides
Since those humble beginnings, Roots has grown to a major player in combatting fear and prejudice among local Israelis and Palestinians and replacing them with trust and empathy. Roots is thereby establishing the human groundwork for a future peace settlement. Over 4,000 local Israelis and Palestinians have participated in its programs.
Rav Hanan currently serves as the Director of International Relations for Roots. He also is the founder of the American Friends of Roots, a multi-faith organization dedicated to supporting the work of Roots/Shorashim/Judur. Rav Hanan frequently speaks in the USA together with one of his Palestinian partner about the amazing work that Roots/Shorashim/Judur is doing in Judea/Palestine. He also spends a few hours a week teaching Talmud at Nishmat, the Jeanne Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women.
Rabbi Schlesinger is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the International Rabbinic Fellowship, as well as Beit Hillel, an Israeli rabbinical association. He is a Rabbis Without Borders fellow, and was honored in 2013 and again in 2014 as the Memnosyne Institute Interfaith Scholar. Some of this blogs can be found at MyJewishLearning.org and his website is ravhanan.org
After living for over four decades over the Green Line in Alon Shvut, Gush Etzion, he moved to Jerusalem in May of 2025. Rav Hanan’s has four grown children and thirteen grandchildren.
