David Rosen (rabbi)


David Shlomo Rosen CBE is the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland and currently serves as the director of the American Jewish Committee's Department of Interreligious Affairs and the Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding. From 2005 until 2009 he headed the International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations, the broad-based coalition of Jewish organizations and denominations that represents World Jewry in its relations with other world religions.
Before being appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland, he was the senior rabbi of the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in South Africa and served as a judge on the Cape Beth Din. He is also a board member of the Brussels-based organization CEJI - A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe that promotes a Europe of diversity and respect.

Interfaith relations

Based in Jerusalem, he also serves as the Advisor on Interreligious Affairs to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, serving on the latter's Commission for Interreligious Relations.
He is an international president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace; honorary president of the International Council of Christians and Jews; on the board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute; and is on the advisory boards of the World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace and the World Economic Forum's council of religious leaders.

Awards

In November 2005, Rosen was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in recognition of his contribution to Jewish-Catholic reconciliation, making him the first Israeli citizen and the first Orthodox rabbi to receive this honour. In the same year he also won the Mount Zion Award for Interreligious Understanding. In December 2006, he received the Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award from Rabbis for Human Rights – North America for having founded the organization Rabbis for Human Rights. Rosen was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 New Year Honours.
Rosen was appointed as the only Jewish representative on the board of directors of the KAICIID Dialogue Centre established in Vienna in 2012 by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia together with the governments of Austria and Spain.
In 2016, he was awarded the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for his commitment and contribution to the work of Inter Religious relations between, particularly, the Jewish and Catholic faiths".

Personal life

He is married to Sharon, who co-directs the Jerusalem office of Search for Common Ground. They have three daughters, Yakarah, Gabriella and Amirit ; and five grandchildren, Imbar, Nieve, Yair and Zohar and Eli-nor. He is a son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen, as are his brothers Jeremy Rosen and Michael Rosen.

Vegetarianism

Rosen is the honorary president of the International Jewish Vegetarian and Ecology Society. He is a vigorous critic of factory farming, noting that "much of the current treatment of animals in the livestock trade makes the consumption of meat produced through such cruel conditions halachically unacceptable as the product of illegitimate means." In addition, he has argued that the waste of natural resources and the damage done to the environment by "meat production" make a compelling Jewish moral argument for adopting a vegetarian diet. He has written extensively on a wide variety of interfaith issues.