Neil Gillman (September 11, 1933 – November 24, 2017) was a Canadian-Americanrabbi andphilosopher affiliated withConservative Judaism.

Neil Gillman was born on September 11, 1933, inQuebec City, Canada, then home to a smallJewish community. Raised in a household without access to ayeshiva orkosher butcher, he was strongly influenced by his grandmother’s dedication to Jewish traditions. He studied philosophy and French literature atMcGill University, where a lecture by sociologistWill Herberg sparked his interest inJewish philosophy. Advised to deepen his grounding in Jewish texts, he enrolled at theJewish Theological Seminary of America, studying under RabbisMordecai Kaplan andAbraham Joshua Heschel.Ordained in 1960, he began teaching at the seminary while earning a doctorate in philosophy fromColumbia University in 1975.^[1]

Gilman was a member of theConservative movement's rabbinical body, theRabbinical Assembly.^[2] He was a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America inManhattan for 46 years and served asdean of itsrabbinical school for a decade. Beginning in the 1980s, he published widely during a period of identity crisis within Conservative Judaism, which he once described as "an Orthodox faculty teaching Conservative rabbis to minister toReform Jews."^[3] His theological work helped shape the movement’s evolving approach to Jewish belief and law (Halakha).^[2]

Gillman’s central concept of a "second naïveté" encouraged adult Jews to rediscover childlike awe inGod. Drawing on biblical narratives as theological "myths," he emphasizedexistential engagement overliteralism, portraying God as relational, emotional, and open to human influence.^[2]

An advocate for inclusivity, Gillman supported the training and ordination ofwomen rabbis and Torah scholars, approved by JTS leadership in 1983, as well as the ordination of openlyqueer clergy—authorized by theCommittee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) in 2006—and equal access toJewish marriage rites forsame-sex couples, which the CJLS authorized in 2012.^[2]

Gillman served on the Commission on the Philosophy of Conservative Judaism, which producedEmet Ve’Emunah in 1988, the first official statement of principles in the Conservative movement’s 143-year history.^[4]

Gillman's 1990 bookSacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew won theNational Jewish Book Award.^[2]

In his 1997 bookThe Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought, Gillman traced the development of Jewish beliefs about death and theafterlife. Emphasizing liturgical references, such as the daily praise of God for reviving the dead and the defeat of the Angel of Death in thePassover song "Chad Gadya," he argued that Jews should seriously engage with the idea ofresurrection, including bodily resurrection.^[2]

In his 2004 bookThe Way Into: Encountering God in Judaism, Gillman explored the concept of apersonal God in Jewish thought. He emphasized that the personal God is defined by dynamic, relational engagement with people, as reflected in biblical metaphors such as shepherd, parent, teacher, lover, sovereign, judge, and spouse, each conveying God's deep involvement in human relationships.^[4]

Gillman wrote a regular "Sabbath Week" column forThe Jewish Week and served on the advisory committee ofSh’ma, a prominent newsletter focused on emerging trends in Jewish thought and practice.^[4]

Gillman was married to Sarah Fisher and had two daughters, Abigail and Deborah, as well as five grandchildren.^[1]

Gillman died on November 11, 2017 at his home in Manhattan. He had been treated for cancer.^[1]

• Believing and Its Tensions: A Personal Conversation about God, Torah, Suffering and Death in Jewish Thought, Jewish Lights, 2013.
• Doing Jewish Theology: God, Torah and Israel in Modern Judaism, Jewish Lights, 2008.
• Traces of God: Seeing God in Torah, History and Everyday Life, Jewish Lights, 2006.
• The Jewish Approach to God: A Brief Introduction for Christians, Jewish Lights, 2003.
• The Way into Encountering God in Judaism, Jewish Lights, 2000.
• The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought, Jewish Lights, 1997 (seebook abstract).
• Conservative Judaism: The New Century, Behrman House, 1993.
• Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew, Jewish Publication Society, 1992.
• Gabriel Marcel on Religious Knowledge, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1980.

• Plevan, William (ed.),Personal theology : essays in honor of Neil Gillman. Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2013.

• 1991:National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish Thought category forSacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew^[5]

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