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Rabbi Ronald Price

Rabbi Ronald D. Price is the executive vice president emeritus of the UTJ. He served as executive vice president for 26 years, beginning with the founding of the UTJ in 1985 and as the founding dean of the Institute of Traditional Judaism, the Metivta, from 1990 until his retirement in 2011.

A native of Washington, D.C., Rabbi Price graduated from the University of Maryland in 1971 with a BA in Political Science.  He received an MA in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1975 and was ordained there in 1977.  From 1977 until moving to Israel in 1980, Rabbi Price was Assistant Dean of the Rabbinical School of JTS.  Following the break with the Conservative movement, Rabbi Price took his advanced ordination in 1992 under Rav David Weiss Halivni, reish metivta of the Institute of Traditional Judaism.

A highpoint in Rabbi Price’s career came early in his tenure with the UTJ. In 1988, when the “Who is a Jew?” crisis arose and threatened the relationship of Israel to the North American Jewish community, Rabbi Price, on behalf of the UTJ, authored a proposal for a halakhic as well as political solution to the “Who is a Jew?” issue which gained much support in all segments of the community and was praised publicly by the government of Israel as “a bright light at a dark time”.

Rabbi Price also authored the first halakhic living will which continues to be used by individuals and hospitals around North America and is part of the Elder Care Law Library, housed in Washington, D.C. He has lectured extensively and published many articles on subjects such as pluralism in the Jewish community; the right to die and Jewish tradition; creating traditional communities; the realignment of religious Judaism; and the risks and benefits of outreach to the intermarried.

Rabbi Price has dedicated his life to developing ways of making traditional Judaism accessible to the lay community and is the creator of the video education curriculum, “Taking the MTV Challenge:  Media and Torah Values,” a Jewish response to media which has been taught in more than 300 institutions across the denominational spectrum around the world.

Rabbi Price lives in Ashqelon, Israel with his wife Tziporah.

ARTICLE

Teach Your Children

by Rabbi Ronald Price
May 16, 2024

Categories: Israel, Modern Judaism
Commemoration of the First Yahrzeit of Rabbi David Halivni ZTZ”L VIDEOS

Commemoration of the First Yahrzeit of Rabbi David Halivni ZTZ”L

by Rabbi Ronald Price, Hakham Isaac Sassoon, Rabbi David Weiss Halivni Z"L and Rabbi Ephraim Halivni
June 25, 2023

Categories: Modern Judaism, Remembering Rabbi Halivni Z"L, Torah/Talmud, UTJ Events
Recommended by UTJ

Drop The Labels In The Observant World

Categories: Denominations, Halakhah, Modern Judaism, Women's Forum
Recommended by UTJ

Religious Strife Crisis of Faith – Religious Strife Polarizes the Jewish Community

Categories: Denominations, Modern Judaism
Memorial for Our Teacher Rabbi David Weiss Halivni VIDEOS

Memorial for Our Teacher Rabbi David Weiss Halivni

by Rabbi Ronald Price, Rabbi David Novak and Recommended by UTJ
August 2, 2022

Categories: Modern Judaism, Remembering Rabbi Halivni Z"L, UTJ Events
ARTICLE

Gaza, John Oliver and Ashkelon

by Rabbi Ronald Price
May 23, 2021

Categories: Articles, Israel, Modern Judaism, Politics
ARTICLE (Reprinted from Union For Traditional Judaism)

Union for Traditional Judaism Calls for Omar and King to Resign

by Rabbi Ronald Price, Rabbi David Novak and Rabbi Gerald Sussman
February 17, 2019

Categories: Modern Judaism, Politics
ARTICLE (Reprinted from Stanford Berman Jewish Policy Archive)

Outreach to the Intermarried: Understanding the Risks and Setting Priorities

by Rabbi Ronald Price
May 25, 2018

Categories: Converts/Conversion, Life Cycle, Modern Judaism, Relationships
DIVREI TORAH

Of God and Man

by Rabbi Ronald Price
May 25, 2017

Categories: Uncategorized

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