The Wolpe-Hitchens Debate

The video is of the extraordinary debate last Wednesday before 1,500 people at Temple Emanu-El in New York City between Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple (author of “Why Faith Matters”), and Christopher Hitchens (author of “god Is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything”).

The New York Times published yesterday a 4,500 word report on the debate, which is worth reading in its entirety.  The Times reported that:

Mr. Hitchens took part in a similar debate — titled “Is God Great?” — with the Rev. Al Sharpton in May 2007 at the
New York Public Library.  The debate with Rabbi Wolpe, while courteous, was at times more heated and more pointed than the earlier encounter, with the writer and the rabbi at times interrupting, and expressing irritation at, each other.

Gary Rosenblatt, publisher and editor of The Jewish Week, a central source of news and commentary for New York’s Jewish community, organized the event at Temple Emanu-El and served as the moderator.  He marveled at the size of the audience, saying it was the largest for any public forum the newspaper had ever sponsored.

A rematch will be held in
Los Angeles at the Wilshire Theatre on November 12 as part of the American Jewish University Celebration of Jewish Books.