Applying Jewish Ethics

Jennifer A. Thompson is the Maurice Amado Professor of Applied Jewish Ethics and Civic Engagement and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at California State University, Northridge.Allison B. Wolf is associate professor of philosophy and researcher at the Center for Migration Studies at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

Applying Jewish Ethics: Beyond the Rabbinic Tradition offers readers a long-overdue interdisciplinary interpretation of Jewish ethics accompanied by a clear account of how Jewish moral concepts can expand our basic understandings of today’s most thorny social problems. Wolf and Thompson make a clear and concise case for why applied ethics needs Jewish ethics. Their carefully curated anthology counters misconceptions about Jewish ethics with accessible explanations of basic Jewish moral principles. Contributors to the volume illustrate the normative power of these principles through a series of engagements with questions of environmental justice, immigration, gender justice, queer identities, and more. Anyone curious about Jewish applied ethics should start with this book!

• Part I: What is Jewish Ethics?Chapter 1: An Overview of Secular Ethics and Applied EthicsAllison B. WolfChapter 2: What is Jewish Ethics?Jennifer A. ThompsonPart II: Applying Jewish EthicsA Jewish Social FabricChapter 3: Jewish Perspectives on Charity: A Philosophy for Hopeless TimesLeah KalmansonChapter 4: 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 ViolenceLena ScloveChapter 5: A Social Fabric of Interdependence: The Ethics of Care Work Jennifer A. ThompsonPart III: Being and BelongingChapter 6: Not in My Name: Jewishness, Womanhood, and the Ethics of Identification Naomi SchemanChapter 7: Failed Messiah: H. Leivick’s Der Goylem and the Ethics of Action Melissa WeiningerPart IV: Enacting JusticeChapter 8: Hans Jonas’ Ethics of Responsibility in an Age of Pervasive Technology Andrea LehnerChapter 9: Views from Far and Near: Jewish Memory and Culture in