Outside academic circles he is best known for The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, a criticism of Chabad messianism.
Berger was raised in Brooklyn, NY, where he attended the Yeshivah of Flatbush for both elementary and high school.
He received a Bachelor's degree from Yeshiva College in 1964; he majored in Classics and was class valedictorian.
[citation needed] Before Berger prominently criticized Chabad messianism, he was most famous as an expert on interfaith dialogue and medieval Jewish-Christian debate.
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) asked him to write a response to the broadly ecumenical Dabru Emet ("Speak the Truth," 2000), and that response was subsequently adopted as the OU's official position.