Spertus Institute. 100 Years of Jewish learning for a better world
Spertus Institute. 100 Years of Jewish learning for a better world
Headshot of Dr. Jonathan Golden

Dr. Jonathan Golden

Courses

  • Jewish Peoplehood

Education

  • BA, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
  • MJEd, Hebrew College, Newton, MA
  • PhD, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Bio

Dr. Jonathan Golden is a member of the faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where he previously served as Director of Wellspring Leadership Initiatives. He teaches at Hebrew College and is the founder of HeartStance Education Consulting. He is also a fellow at the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education. From 1999 to 2023, he taught at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school in Waltham, MA and served as the school’s Israel Curriculum Coordinator.

A graduate of Princeton University, Dr. Golden received his M.J.Ed. from Hebrew College and Ph.D. from Brandeis University. At Brandeis, he studied American Jewish history under the tutelage of Professor Jonathan Sarna and wrote a dissertation entitled From Cooperation to Confrontation: The Rise and Fall of the Synagogue Council of America.

Dr. Golden has participated in the Schusterman Center Summer Institute for Israel Studies which in 2022 included participants from Abraham Accords countries (Morocco, Bahrain, UAE), and has taught the Myra Kraft Seminar on Israel to first year students of the Hornstein program at Brandeis University.

As a member of a Conservative synagogue in his childhood, a Reform community in college, modern Orthodox synagogues in his 20s and the independent Temple Beth Zion today, Dr. Golden is interested in historical and contemporary questions of Jewish pluralism. His professional career in the world of Jewish pluralism is a natural extension of his educational path.

In 2007, Dr. Golden was the recipient of Hebrew College’s Sydney Hillson Memorial Award for Distinguished Leadership in and Commitment to Jewish Education. In 2014, he received the AJC Boston Young Leadership Award. In 2018, he was given CJP’s Chai in the Hub award honoring the contributions of young professionals and lay leaders in the greater Boston Jewish community. He is a member of the Boston JCRC Board.

Dr. Golden lives in Brookline, MA with his wife and son, and serves as a Brookline Town Meeting member.

Select Publications

  • “Fight and Unite: World War I, the Jewish Welfare Board, and the Vision of a Unified American Jewish Community,” paper delivered at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference in Washington D.C., December 2001.
  • “Unity in Diversity: Samson Benderly and the Rise of Transdenominational Jewish Education in the United States,” paper delivered at Association for Jewish Studies Conference in Boston, December 2000.
  • “Acts of Citizenship: American Jews and Military Service” and “Promised Lands: American Zionism,” Lesson Plans for the From Haven to Home  Library of Congress exhibit celebrating the 350th anniversary of the American Jewish community. http://www.350th.org/er/lp/haven/index.html
  • Golden, Jonathan. “The Kotel Belongs to All Jews Worldwide” in Mark A. Raider and Gary Phillip Zola, eds. New Perspectives in American Jewish History. Brandeis University Press, January 2022.
  • Sarna, Jonathan D. and Jonathan J. Golden. “The American JewishExperience.” TeacherServe- Divining America web site. http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8160/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/judaism.htm.
  • Sarna, Jonathan D. and Jonathan J. Golden. “Judaism.” World Book Year Book, 1999-2014.
  • Sarna, Jonathan D. and Jonathan J. Golden.  “The Twentieth Century Through American Jewish Eyes: A History of the American Jewish Year Book, 1899-1999.” American Jewish Year Book 100 (2000): 3-102.

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