If you encounter someone who wants to talk about God, odds are that person isn't Jewish. Why?

I am talking to a friend of mine about his experience on various dating sites. He tells me that from time to time, he will come across a profile that seems promising. And then, right there in the first paragraph, the woman will write: “Must love God.”

As he scrolls down a little further, he sees that she is a Christian – and that she inevitably describes her politics as “conservative.”

“I don’t get it,” he says to me. “Why is it that anyone who writes ‘must love God’ is always Christian? I’m Jewish. I love God. Do these people think that only Christians love God? And since when does ‘must love God’ mean ‘must be a Christian – and of a particular kind and political persuasion?’”

That was the question that led me into a conversation with Professor Arnold Eisen, one of American Judaism’s most esteemed thinkers and personalities.

From 2006 to 2020, he served as the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America – the flagship academic institution of Conservative Judaism – where he was only the second non-rabbi to serve in that post. He is an author of many books, and a cherished teacher and public intellectual.

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