Saul Kaiserman

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Saul Kaiserman

Saul Kaiserman (b. 1967), better known as one of the rising leaders in the current renaissance in progressive Jewish education, is also beloved for his early career as a bohemian folk-singer (see Bohemianism).

1 Biography
2 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early Years

Originally from Park Slope, Brooklyn, in the early 1980s while a student at Stuyvesant High School, Kaiserman (using the alias "Think Fred") was the author of the text adventure "Disaster on Deneb," written in Applesoft and modeled on the interactive fiction of Scott Adams.

Kaiserman got his start as a musician in the late 1980s by playing small-time juke joints in and around New York City as well as underground in the subway system. Kaiserman spent the early 1990s traveling the world as a modern-day troubador, primarily as a street musician but also in bars and cafes in diverse locales such as Zimbabwe, Mexico, and Vietnam. He was a landmark of the expatriate scene of Phnom Penh, Cambodia during a 6-month period with the bands "New Cambodian Agenda" (with Simon England and Paul Box) and "Economic Refugees," performing nightly at the now-defunct Rock Hard Cafe. A feature article on Kaiserman and the emergence of busking in Israel appeared in the The Jerusalem Post in 1994. Career milestones include "Bad Beer" (1987), "The Africa Song" (1993), "Best Friend Syd (2 Psychedelic 4 Me)" (1988), "They're All Dead" (1989), "The Fish Song" (1985) and "In the Night" (1985). Kaiserman continues to be especially well-loved and well-known for his rendition of Dan Bern's "Jerusalem".

During this period, Kaiserman served as Production Coordinator for an Emmy Award winning documentary on censorship in the arts, "Damned in the USA" (1991), directed by Paul Yule, and appeared in the role of Andrew in "The Life of Jesus: The Revolutionary," a religious drama directed by Robert Marcarelli.

[edit] As a Jewish Educator

Upon his return to the United States, Kaiserman was one of the founders of the Teva Learning Center, North America's leading Jewish Environmental Institute. In 1999, Kaiserman received his Masters in Jewish Education from the Davidson School of Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, for which he was the "poster child" in their advertising campaign, entitled "I am changing the face of Jewish education."

Kaiserman has built and contributed to organizations focused on creative expressions of Judaism, including the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, "Kol Zimrah: Meaningful Prayer through Music," and "Limmud New York: Jewish Learning Without Limits," a four-day gathering bringing together Jews of diverse ages and backgrounds for learning and cultural performances. Kaiserman continues to be one of the leading voices in Jewish environmental education through his work with COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and its "Adamah" fellowship for Jewish organic farming, and Hazon, which organizes environmental awareness-raising bike rides in Israel and the United States.

From 2003-2005, Kaiserman served as the Director of Education at Central Synagogue, a 2000-family Reform Jewish synagogue in New York City, where, as a "goofy and charismatic" leader he developed a new model incorporating full-time teachers in a supplementary school setting. In 2005, Kaiserman began a two-year fellowship at the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows and temporarily relocated to Jerusalem, Israel. In September of 2006, he inaugurated the blog "New Jewish Education," with content relating to Jewish educational philosophy, theory, and practice.

[edit] Family Ties

Kaiserman is related to a number of prominent or growing-in-prominence Jewish professionals. He is a descendant of Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz. His grandfather, Menashe Unger, was a well-known Yiddish writer and journalist. His younger brother, Mark Kaiserman, is a Reform rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Livingston, New Jersey. In December 2005, he married Elizabeth Freirich, currently a rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College and a prestigious Wexner Fellow. His brother-in-law is Jonathan Freirich, a Reconstructionist rabbi at Temple Bat Yam in South Lake Tahoe.