Klapper taught at several east-coast universities before joining Harvard Hillel in 2002, where he taught a faculty
Talmud class, built the
Cambridge eruv, and met his future wife, a Harvard student who served as minyan
gabbai. He became known for his intellectual scholarship and his generosity in inviting guests for
Shabbat meals. and
sexual abuse. Each summer's fellows give lectures at synagogues around
New England and learn
b'chavrusa with community members. In 2009, the program relocated to the
Young Israel of
Sharon, Massachusetts.
Center for Modern Torah Leadership In 2004, Klapper left Harvard Hillel to launch the Center for Modern Torah Leadership, The center took over the annual Summer Beit Midrash fellowship program and launched the Winter Beit Midrash, a shorter three-day program for students during winter break, and Midreshet Avigayl, a high-level Talmud program for teenage girls. In 2014, Klapper left Gann Academy to run the Center for Modern Torah Leadership full-time.
Lectures In his lectures, Klapper "relates Jewish tradition substantively to labor laws, human rights, torture, and many other contemporary public policy issues."
2017 Yeshiva University lecture controversy Klapper gives regular student lectures at
Yeshiva University. Invited by the Student Organization of the Yeshiva, Klapper was scheduled to give a lecture there on March 29, 2017. Posters advertising the lecture were placed around the school. On the morning of the 29th, "at least two students witnessed [Rabbi
Herschel Schachter,
Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University] take down the signs on the left-hand door to the Glueck
beit midrash. He then crumpled the posters into a ball and tossed them into a nearby garbage can." but was attended by 40–50 students.
Selected publications Klapper has published in
Tradition, Meorot, Dinei Yisrael, Beit Yitzchak and other journals and has presented at academic and community conferences. Many rabbis disagreed with the article and disapproved of its publication because it pointed out that "
Torah has a sacrifice that is brought for when the greatest sages of the day make a grievous error that causes mass sin" and argued that "Halakha|[H]alakhah is not intended to enable avoiding responsibility," but it has also attracted widespread support and citation. Klapper's oft-cited 2012 article
The Moral Costs of Jewish Day School "placed the spotlight on communal
tuition policies and the moral dilemma that the Jewish community faces from a tuition system that has transformed nearly half of participants from community contributors to charity recipients" and "pointed out some of the deleterious results of such a lifestyle." He "enumerated encouraging young Jews to pursue only those professions that will support the chosen lifestyle among several 'moral' costs of rising day-school tuition." Klapper was one of eleven theologians behind " "Lo$ing Faith In Our Democracy," a 2014 report published by Auburn Theological Seminary. He argued that "Historically, rabbis presumed that all contributions produce influence" and "believing otherwise would be Jewishly viewed as dangerously naïve." Klapper's 2017 article "Brain Death and Organ Donation: An Alternative Construction" argued that "we cannot declare people dead so that we can save others." Klapper's 2021 statement on rape allegations against children's author
Chaim Walder, in which he ruled that the books must be removed from shelves, was hailed as part of a "watershed moment" for the Orthodox Jewish world.
Beit Din Klapper has sat as a judge on the Boston
Beit Din, an Orthodox Jewish court which hears (among other kinds) approximately 40 divorce cases a year, since 2001. He was previously a member of the beit din of
Elizabeth, New Jersey. and advocates for the
Jewish prenuptial agreement.
Divine Will and Human Experience Klapper published his first book,
Divine Will and Human Experience: Explorations of the Halakhic System and Its Values, in 2022. The book is composed of essays on three main themes: the primary foundational commitments of
Modern Orthodoxy, selected
responsa, and biblical exegesis. In a review for the
Jewish Press, David Wolkenfeld wrote that the book "is thought-provoking and has great merit" although the essays "are too short to do justice to the fullness of Rabbi Klapper’s thought". == References ==