Lectures
and
Scholar-in-Residence
Program
Rabbi Adam D. Fisher, DHL, DD
11 Media Lane
Stony Brook, NY
11790
631.751.6606
adamdfisher@optonline.net
_____________
A Spiritual Adventure in
Jewish Literature
Poetry and Spirituality
This is a talk on Jewish spirituality
illustrated by using a variety of poems.
Paying close and reverent attention can be the gateway to a
spiritual life and a connection with God. Poetry is one way to express
those experiences.
Liturgy Rescues Stories and
Texts
An exploration of how liturgy makes,
rarely seen classical and modern Jewish literature accessible. Examples will be drawn using the sidra, haftarah, Psalms in the
prayer book, etc. Seder TuBishvat:The Festival
of Trees, will
be used to show how infrequently seen classical and modern texts are
brought into public view. Finally, An Everlasting Name: A
Service For Remembering The Shoah, will be used to show how liturgy can bring to
light otherwise neglected stories of people who experienced the Shoah.
Love
and Longing
While most of Jewish literature is an
expression of Jewish piety, there is a wealth of material, some of which
is rarely seen, which expresses deep human concerns. This is a
presentation of love poems from the Bible, bawdy poems from the Middle
Ages, the angst of immigrants to America, the struggles of Israelis and
the searching for identity and belief by modern Jews.
Writing Midrash
God’s Garden, a book of midrashic children’s stories, is
used to show how narrative midrash responds to questions and unstated aspects of
the text. A text will be selected for discussion, then the participants
will write their own midrash. There will be an opportunity to role play
the text and tell the story from a character’s point of view.
___________
Main
Points in Adam D. Fisher’s
Biography
Education:
1962, Colgate University, high honors in Philosophy and Religion
In 1967, Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of
Religion, where he earned a Doctor of
Hebrew Letters degree in 1971.
Rabbinical Positions
Chaplain in the
U.S. Navy, 1967-9
Rabbi in Lynchburg, Virginia,
1969-71
Rabbi of Temple Isaiah, Stony
Brook, 1971
Rabbi Emeritus of Temple
Isaiah, 2002-Present
Community Activity
Joint
Commission on Social Action of the UAHC-CCAR
Liturgy
Committee of the CCAR, editorial team for new publications.
A
founder and a past-president of the Shalom Interfaith Project, which
provides social services for the poor.
Currently, he is the Poetry
Editor of the CCAR Journal.
Honors
In 1990, he was the winner of
the Jeanne Voege Poetry Prize, at the Westhampton Writers Festival.
In 1991, he was the recipient
of a Rosenberg Award, presented by the Judah L. Magnes Museum in
Berkeley, California, for poems on the Jewish experience.
Honorary Doctor of Divinity,
HUC-JIR, 1992.
He was honored twice by The
Ministries, in Coram, New York, for his social activism.
The Village Times-Herald
newspaper honored him as “Man of the Year in Religion,” in 2002.
In 2008 he won first prize in
the Performance Poets Association poetry contest.
Personal
He
and his wife, Eileen, who taught pre-school for many years, live in
Stony Brook. They have two married daughters,
four granddaughters and a grandson. He is an enthusiastic
woodworker who designs and builds studio furniture.
He
has been a writer for over 30 years, and is the author of nine books.
See below.
___________
Books by Adam D. Fisher
"...to
deal thy bread to the hungry" (1975)
Jewish texts, values and programs for
study and action on world hunger.
Home
Start Holiday Series (1987) Festival backgrounds, songs, workbook
for pre-school children.
Rooms,
Airy Rooms (1988) Poems
Seder
Tu Bishevat (1989) An adult seder for Tu Bishevat and one for
children which include a wide variety of sources, songs, poems and
activities.
An
Everlasting Name: A Service For Remembering the Shoah (1991)
A liturgy which includes many passages written by those who experienced
the Shoah.
Dancing
Alone
(1993) Poems
My
Jewish Year (1993)
The
popular, primary-grade textbook for holidays.
God's
Garden
(1999) Original stories for children based on every Torah portion for
the year.
Enough
to Stop the Heart (2008) Poems
__________
Praise for Adam D.
Fisher’s
Poetry and Teaching
Rabbi
Adam Fisher is a liturgist and poet who has a deep understanding of the
spiritual meaning of Judaism. He combines the mind of a scholar and the
soul of a poet.
Rabbi Peter Knobel, President, Central Conference of
American Rabbis
***
Throughout
my friendship of 40 years with Rabbi Adam Fisher I have admired his
warmth and integrity. I know that it is his devotion to
Jewish tradition that inspires his scholarship. This is the source
of his inspired teaching. I know that he would energize any
congregation through his teaching as a Scholar-in-Residence.
Rabbi William H. Lebeau, past Dean of The Rabbinical
School, immediate past vice chancellor of rabbinic development, The
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
***
Rabbi Adam Fisher has that rare gift of
thinking and caring deeply yet being able to express his meanings in
words that touch the heart.
Rabbi Eugene B. Borowitz, Distinguished University
Professor. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
***
Adam
Fisher’s poems are the kind to take before the poetry-deprived public
to demonstrate that poetry is interesting, enjoyable and meaningful --
indeed compelling.
Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr.
Poet Laureate
Nassau County, New York
***
Adam Fisher has a poet's eye, a poet's ear, and -- most significantly -- a
poet's heart. His writing speaks to the beauty, the mystery, and the
pain of our human experience
Rabbi James
Rosenberg, past poetry editor of the CCAR Journal
***
I
have long admired how Adam Fisher practices 'poetry engagee,' the poetry
of engagement, in the modern American context. He possesses a manner so
natural and convincing his poetry seems to roll off the
tongue like an easy conversation. Throughout, Fisher reaches
new levels of immediacy, wit and delicacy of phrasing. These are
poems that consistently charm us beyond the anecdotal, to a place
of insight. With these poems, Adam Fisher helps us to see.
George Wallace
Suffolk County Poet Laureate, 2003-05
***
Adam
Fisher brings to his work an uncommon sensibility. His skills as a poet
are rivaled only by his reverence for the world around him.
Dr. David B. Axelrod, Suffolk County
Poet Laureate, 2008-9
