Rabbi David Rosen

Chief Rabbi David Rosen, KSG, CBE

Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, is the International Director of Interreligious Affairs of AJC, the American Jewish Committee and Director of its Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding. He is a past chairman of IJCIC, the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.

Rabbi Rosen is a member of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Commission for Interreligious Dialogue; and serves on the Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land.

He is an International President of the Religions for Peace (RfP), and a member of the Board of Directors of the King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), established by the King of Saudi Arabia as well as the governments of Austria and Spain together with the Holy See. He is also Honorary President of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ); on the Executive of the World Council of Religious Leaders and the Elijah Interfaith Institute’s Board of World Religious Leaders.

He has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Imams and Rabbis and as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Council for promoting relations and cooperation between the Muslim and Western worlds. He is a Founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, and the Rossing Centre for Education and Dialogue.

Rabbi Rosen was a member of the Bilateral Commission of the State of Israel and the Holy See that negotiated the Fundamental Agreement between the two, leading to the establishment of full bilateral relations in 1994.

In November 2005, Pope Benedict XVI made Rabbi Rosen a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great for his contribution to promoting Catholic-Jewish reconciliation; in 2010 he was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to interfaith relations; and in March 2016 he was awarded the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation.

In addition to honorary doctorates, Rabbi Rosen is the recipient of various awards including the Premio Galileo 2000 Award; the Raphael Lemkin Award for Human Rights; the Search for Common Ground Award for Interfaith Dialogue; Waldzell Institute Life Achievement Award (together with the Dalai Lama and Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb); and the Festival of Faiths’ Lifetime Achievement Award.