Modern Jewish Ethics since 1970

“A wonderful contribution to Jewish ethical thinking and discourse . . . [and] very useful for courses in college and graduate school. . . . We are all the better for having it.”

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction to the VolumePart A: Theories and Methods1. Doing Jewish ethicsHeadnotesAharon Lichtenstein, from “Does Jewish Tradition Recognize an Ethic Independent of Halakha?” (1975)Louis Newman, from “Woodchoppers and Respirators: The Problem of Interpretation in Contemporary Jewish Ethics” (1998)Michal Raucher, from Conceiving Ethics: Reproductive Authority among Haredi Women (2020)2. Forging Modern Norms from Jewish textual sources HeadnotesJudith Plaskow, from Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (1990)Elliot Dorff, from Love Your Neighbor and Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics (2003)Shaul Magid, from “Ethics Differentiated from the Law”(2005)3. Ethics and LawHeadnotesRobert Cover, from “Nomos and Narrative” (1983)David Novak, from Jewish Social Ethics (1992)Rachel Adler, from Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics (1998)Alan Mittleman, from “Theorizing Jewish Ethics” (2013)4. CovenantHeadnotesEmmanuel Levinas, from “The Pact” (1982)Eugene Borowitz, from Renewing the Covenant: A Theology for the Post-Modern Jew (1991)Walter Wurzburger, from Ethics of Responsibility: Pluralistic Approaches to Covenantal Ethics (1994)Mara Benjamin, from The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought (2018)5. Character / VirtueHeadnotesJonathan Wyn Schofer, from “Self, Subject, and Chosen Subjection: Rabbinic Ethics and Comparative Possibilities” (2005)Sarra Lev, from “Talmud that Works Your Heart: New Approaches to Reading” (2016)Geoffrey Claussen, from “Mussar in a White Supremacist Society” (2021)6. Ethical ValuesHeadnotes David A. Teutsch, from “Reinvigorating the Practice of Contemporary Jewish Ethics: A Justification for Values-Based Decision Making” (2005)Tanhum Yoreh, from Waste Not: A Jewish Environmental Ethic (2019)Part B: Communities1. FamiliesGail Labovitz, from Marriage and Metaphor: Constructions of Gender in Rabbinic Literature (2009)Jennifer A. Thompson, from “Reaching Out to the Fringe: Insiders, Outsiders, and the Morality of Social Science” (2015)Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi, from “Person-Shaped Holes: Childfree Jews, Jewish Ethics, and Communal Continuity” (2021) 2. SpeechMark Washofsky, from “Internet, Privacy, and Progressive Halakhah” (2014)Matthew Goldstone, from The Dangerous Duty of Rebuke: Leviticus 19:17 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation (2018)Lena Sclove, from “Beyond the Binary of Silence and Speech: What Jewish Liturgy and Spirals Reveal about the Limits and Potentials of Spiritual Caregiving for Survivors of Sexual Abuse” (2022)3. SolidarityAryeh Cohen, from Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism (2012)Amanda Mbuvi, from “Avadim Hayinu: An Intersectional Jewish Perspective on the Global Ethic of Solidarity” (2020)4. EconomicsJill Jacobs, from There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition (2009)Aaron Levine, from Economic Morality and Jewish Law (2012)Sam Brody, from “Jewish Economic Ethics in the Neoliberal Era, 1980-2016” (2021)5. Zionism and the Jewish StateChaim Gans, from A Just Zionism: On the Morality of the Jewish State (2008)Ruth Gavison, from “Reflections on the Meaning of Jewish in the expression ‘a Jewish and Democratic State” (2014)Julie Cooper, from “A Diasporic Critique of Diasporism: The Question of Jewish Political Agency” (2015)6. State Power & Violence Levey, “Judaism and the Obligation to Die for the State” (1987)Michael Broyde, from “Only the Good Die Young?” (2006)Melissa Weintraub, from “Does Torah Permit Torture?” (2007) Beth Berkowitz, from Execution and Invention: Death Penalty Discourse in Early Rabbinic andChristian Cultures (2016)Nadav S. Berman, from "Jewish Law, Techno-Ethics, and Autonomous Weapon Systems: Ethical-Halakhic Perspectives” (2020)7. EnvironmentMichael Wyschogrod, from “Judaism and the Sanctification of Nature” (1991)Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, from Religion and Environment: The Case of Judaism (2020)Ariel Evan Mayse, from “Where Heaven and Earth Kiss: Jewish Law, Moral Reflection, and Environmental Ethics” (2019)Adrienne Krone, from “Ecological Ethics in the Jewish Community Farming Movement” (2019)Part C: Constructions of the Human 1. AnimalsAaron S. Gross, from The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications (2015)Rafael Rachel Neis, from “‘All That is in the Settlement’: Humans, Likeness, and Species in the Rabbinic Bestiary” (2019)2. Gender and Sexuality HeadnotesDaniel Boyarin, from “Dialectics of Desire: ‘The Evil Instinct is Very Good’” (1995)Tamar Ross, from Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism (2004)Laura Levitt, from “Love the One You’re With” (2009)Max Strassfeld, from Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature (2022)3. Genes HeadnotesPaul Root Wolpe, from “If I Am Only My Genes, What Am I? Genetic Essentialism and a Jewish Response” (1997)Robert Gibbs, “Mending the Code” (2015)Sarah Imhoff, from “How American Jews Imagine Community, and Why That Matters” (2020)4. Disability Judith Abrams, from Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavli (1998)Tzvi C. Marx, from Disability in Jewish Law (2002)Adrienne Asch, “Recognizing Death while Affirming Life: Can End of Life Reform Uphold a Disabled Person's Interest in Continued Life?” (2005)Julia Watts Belser, “Improv and the Angel: Disability Dance, Embodied Ethics, and Jewish Biblical Narrative” (2019)5. Race Lewis Gordon, from “Afro-Jewish ethics?” (2018)Judith Kay, from “Jews as Oppressed and Oppressor: Doing Ethics at the Intersections of Classism, Racism, and Antisemitism” (2020)Annalise E. Glauz-Todrank, from “Jewish Critical Race Theory and Jewish ‘Religionization’ in Shaare Tefila Congregation v. Cobb” (2020)Part D: Bioethics1. Medical ethicsJ. David Bleich, from “Using Data Obtained through Immoral Experimentation” (1993)Benjamin Freedman, from Duty and Healing: Foundations of a Jewish Bioethics (1999)Noam J. Zohar, from “Is Enjoying Life a Good Thing? Quality-of-Life Questions for Jewish Normative Discourse” (2006)Toby Schonfeld, from “Messages from the Margins: Lessons from Feminist Bioethics” (2008)Jason Weiner, from “Are There Limits to How Far One Must Go For Others? Toward a theoretical model for healthcare providers” (2020)Laurie Zoloth, from Second Texts and Second Opinions: Essays Toward a Jewish Bioethics (2022)2. ReproductionFred Rosner, from “In Vitro Fertilization and Surrogate Motherhood: The Jewish View” (1983)Elie Spitz, from “‘Through Her I Too Shall Bear a Child’: Birth Surrogates in Jewish Law” (1996)Don Seeman, from “Ethnography, Exegesis, and Jewish Ethical Reflection: The New Reproductive Technologies in Israel” (2010)Sarah Zager, from “Water Wears Away Stone: Caring for Those We Can Only Imagine” (2020)3. AbortionDena Davis, from “Abortion in Jewish Thought: A Study in Casuistry” (1992)Rebecca Alpert, from “Sometimes the Law is Cruel: The Construction of a Jewish Antiabortion Position in the Writings of Immanuel Jakobovits” (1995)Alan Jotkowitz, from “Abortion and Maternal Need: A Response to Ronit Irshai” (2011)Ronit Irshai, from “Response to Alan Jotkowitz” (2011)4. Aging/Ends of Life Byron Sherwin, from “Jewish Views on Euthanasia” (1974)Ruth Langer, from “Honor Your Father and Mother: Care Giving as a Halakhic Responsibility” (1998)Jonathan K. Crane, from Narratives and Jewish Bioethics (2013)Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, from “Can a Goses Survive for More Than Three Days? The History and Definition of the Goses” (2016)