Born in Brooklyn, Rabbi Kushner, of blessed memory, was educated at Columbia University and later obtained his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in 1960. The same institution awarded him a doctoral degree in Bible in 1972. Rabbi Kushner has also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, taught at Clark University and the Rabbinical School of the JTS, and received six honorary doctorates.
He served as the congregational rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick, in Natick, Massachusetts for 24 years and belongs to the Rabbinical Assembly.
He was the author of a best selling book on the problem of evil, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Rabbi Kushner has also written a number of other popular theological books, such as How Good Do We Have to Be? , To Life! and many others. In collaboration with the late Chaim Potok, Kushner co-edited Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary, the new official Torah commentary of the Conservative movement, which was jointly published in 2001 by the Rabbinical Assembly and the Jewish Publication Society. His Living a Life That Matters became a best seller in the fall of 2001. Kushner’s book, The Lord Is My Shepherd, was a meditation on the Twenty-Third Psalm released in 2003. Kushner also wrote a response to Simon Wiesenthal’s question of forgiveness in the book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness.
Rabbi Kushner passed away on April 28, 2023 and the funeral for our beloved Rabbi Laureate took place on Monday, May 1, 2023.
The video of the live stream for the funeral may be viewed at this link.
Eulogies of Rabbi Kushner were shared by Rabbi Gordon Tucker, Rabbi David Klatzker, Rabbi Marc Cooper, Arnold Zaltas, Rabbi Dan Liben, Rabbi Joel Meyers, Rabbi Raysh Weiss, Rabbi Jack Riemer, and Rav Hazzan Ken Richmond
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