David Berger

David Berger (born 1943) is an American academic, dean of Yeshiva University's Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, as well as chair of Yeshiva College's Jewish Studies department. He is the author of various books and essays on medieval Jewish apologetics and polemics, as well as having edited the modern critical edition of the medieval polemic text Nizzahon Vetus. Outside academic circles he is best known for The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, a criticism of Chabad messianism. Education Berger was raised in Brooklyn, NY, where he attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush for both elementary and high school. He received a Bachelor's degree from Yeshiva College in 1964; he majored in Classics and was class valedictorian. He then went on to Columbia University where he completed a Master of Arts degree in 1965 and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1970. He received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, the official organization representing Modern Orthodox rabbis. Activities Before Berger prominently criticized Chabad messianism, he was most famous as an expert on interfaith dialogue and medieval Jewish-Christian debate. He has written commentaries on the Roman Catholic church's declarations on relations with other faiths Nostra aetate ("In Our Age," promulgated 1965), and Dominus Iesus ("Lord Jesus," promulgated 2000) and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's "Confrontation". The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) asked him to write a response to the broadly ecumenical Dabru Emet ("Speak the Truth," 2000), and that response was subsequently adopted as the OU's official position. He has also contributed an essay about Jacob Katz's views on medieval Jewish-Christian debate in the book, Pride of Jacob. Chabad controversy