Community parental surrogates and their role for the adolescent

Community parental surrogates and their role for the adolescent is explored against the backdrop of classical psychoanalytic theory, self-psychology, and the sociological prevalence of one-parent families. The rabbi/tutor and coach/umpire help resolve oedipal issues and promote the establishment of a cohesive self. Clinical vignettes illustrate how de-idealization by proxy may aid detachment from childhood love-objects and allow healthy partial identification with the same-sex parent.     

Blended families/Sarah,Hagar, and all that...

A rabbi/chaplain listens to a 21st century woman tell about some complexities encountered in the blended family dynamics. He reminds her that such stressful phenomena are not as new as many believe, illustrating his point by interpreting the biblical account of Sarah and Hagar, noting particularly that some of the same decisions and actions taken in ancient times may still provide authentic insights to current family dynamics today.     

Does Religiosity Predict Attitudes Toward Psychotherapy?

Several studies have demonstrated that Jewish people have positive attitudes toward psychotherapy. This study differentiates among Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish groups to test whether there are differences in the level of religiosity and practice among these different affiliations to Judaism and whether these differences may influence attitudes toward seeking psychological help. Despite significant differences in religiosity and level of practice, results indicate that positive attitudes are present among all affiliations. However, Orthodox Jews are significantly more likely to use their rabbi as a source for psychological counseling and perhaps as a conduit to professional treatment.     

Regina Jonas: forgetting and remembering the first female rabbi

Regina Jonas (1902–44), who was ordained in Germany in 1935, is now widely recognised as the world's first female rabbi. However, for almost 50 years after her death at Auschwitz in 1944, she was given very little, if any, public recognition. Based on archival research, interviews and critical engagement with secondary literature, this paper investigates a range of explanations why Jonas was nearly lost to historiography. It also considers the circumstances of the rediscovery of this controversial figure in the early 1990s and explores how she is remembered today. This paper raises important issues in relation to historiography and the connection between processes of remembering, forgetting and identity formation, particularly in relation to the history of the ordination of female rabbis and the history of Jewish communities in Germany.     

The “Jewish Knight” of Slobodka honor culture and the image of the body in an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish context

Scholarship on Ultra-Orthodox Jewish thought has traditionally assumed that the views of these communities derive from a struggle against the Jewish Enlightenment and Zionism, as well as against any values they identify as “modern.” This article challenges that assumption. Beginning with an examination of Ultra-Orthodox sources that present an image of the religious leader as the “ideal Jew,” the author then focuses on sources concerning the founder of the Slobodka Yeshiva in Lithuania. This rabbi intended his students to internalize “modern” norms found in the European honor culture of his time, while translating them into the language of Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy. The author chooses to present his argument by tracing the image of the body in the Slobodka method, since it is precisely through the nexus of the body that Ultra-Orthodox Judaism was segregated from general European society and culture.     

The Mobilization of Elite Opinion: Rabbi Perceptions of and Responses to Anti-Semitism

One of the persistent problems facing the Jewish community is anti-Semitism, which has a long, tragic history in the United States and abroad. At the same time, anti-Semitic acts are probably at their lowest ebb in American history. Using a sample of more than 400 rabbis drawn from the four great movements of American Judaism, we investigate rabbi perceptions of anti-Semitism in the United States, as well as their attitudinal and behavioral reactions to it. We test and find evidence for the notions that Orthodox rabbis, as well as those connected to and mobilized by Jewish advocacy organizations, perceive anti-Semitism as a greater problem and concern themselves with the issue more often in their public speech.     

Identity,Incentives, and Religious Defense of Human Rights: Marshall Meyer and the DAIA in Argentina's Dirty War

Whether religious groups advance or limit human rights has been a topic of recent debate among human rights scholars. This article studies the conditions under which religious leaders advance human rights in the context of Argentina's Jewish community during the country's 1976–1983 military dictatorship. Three major influences on religious support for human rights—autonomy from a religious community's establishment, a missionary-reformer identity, and congregational mobilization—are highlighted. Original archival research from the papers of U.S.-born rabbi Marshall T. Meyer illustrates his defense of human rights in Argentina, contrasting his work with the inaction of a major established Jewish organization. Quantitative cross-national analysis extends the case study findings by showing a relationship between religious institutions’ autonomy from the state and defense of human rights.     

Can a rabbi marry someone of another religion? Debates of the American Reform movement whether intermarried rabbis can lead Reform congregations

Traditionally, rabbis were expected to marry women who were devoted to Judaism. The convention was a logical one. As a symbolic exemplar of Judaism, everything a rabbi does should reflect his commitment to the Jewish religion. Instead, over the course of the modern period, non-Orthodox denominations have deviated from many traditional positions. This has included the Reform movement’s allowance that rabbis can determine whether they will officiate at interfaith marriage ceremonies. However, while many Reform rabbis have conducted such ceremonies, they were nevertheless expected to have married within the faith themselves. Recently, some rabbis have begun advocating for Reform rabbis to marry gentiles who have not converted to Judaism. The Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, the academic institution serving the Reform movement of North America, which has campuses in the United States and Israel, went through a process of discussion, debate, evaluation, and decision making. At the end of this process, the decision was made to retain the policy of prohibiting intermarried students from matriculating or graduating. This article outlines the development as well as the resolution of the current controversy.     

Blurring boundaries and advancing interreligious understanding by engaging textual ‘others’ in a women’s interfaith book group

This article casts analytical light on how Jewish, Christian and Muslim women develop understanding of religious identities by engaging with multidimensional textual ‘others’ in the Daughters of Abraham interfaith book groups. It focuses on a group discussion of a rabbi’s memoir about her religious journey. Drawing on ethnographic material and Talal Asad’s analysis of the relationship between text and reader, I examine how narratives outside primary religious texts influence ideas about Jewish, Christian and Muslim identities. I argue that the Daughters members’ appropriation of literary voices advances their engagement with religious diversity by developing understanding of religious self and others. Moreover, members’ navigation of inter- and intra-religious relations during discussions of texts blur boundaries for inclusion into this interfaith encounter. This examination raises questions about issues of identity, power dynamics and interfaith relations. Importantly, it provides novel insight into the understudied areas of women’s interreligious encounter and shared reading practices.     

The aborted candidacy of Rabbi Asher Ginsburg: A failed attempt at modernization

The Napoleonic edict of 1808 that established theconsistorial system for French Jewry created a new rabbinate thatwas intended to differ from the ``old' both in terms of itsauthority and its mission. When the first vacancy occurred in therabbinical triumvirate that, together with two lay leaders,constituted the Central Consistory, it afforded the leadership anopportunity to shape the future of the French rabbinate andJewish religious life. Their choice of Rabbi Asher Low Ginsburg,son of the late and distinguished rabbi of Metz (the ShaagatAryeh), signals an attempt to endow the new rabbinate withprestige and legitimacy. In addition, the consistorial leadershipmay have chosen R. Asher, a man with positive views on haskalahand secular learning, in the hope that his candidacy would helpmodernize the rabbinate and further the goal of ``regeneration'for French Jewry set by both the French government and theenlightened Jewish leadership. Seen in this light, R. Asher'sultimate rejection of the post, followed by the appointment ofRabbi Emmanuel Deutz, was a setback for the consistory and theprocess of modernization.     

Jewish values and sociopsychological perspectives on aging

The Jewish approach to aging and the aged is constructive. If one no longer works, guilt is inappropriate. Old age may be a sabbath of human life. In our culture, older people are led to low self-esteem less by their age than by occupational and economic status. Hence fundamental social change is needed if there is to be dignity and quality in life for older people. Old age can become, as it should, the high point of the human career.He is a rabbi in the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Among his books isEmpathy.     

Rabbis and Health: A Half-Century Review of the Mental and Physical Health Care Literature:1950–1999

Electronic searches were conducted on PubMed and the American Psychological Association's database (PsycINFO) for articles that discussed the role of rabbis in relation to some aspect of healthcare. The two searches were conducted in each electronic database using the search-terms: (1) (rabbi OR rabbinical OR synagogue) OR (2) (Judaism OR Jewish) AND (clergy OR chaplain). Articles were classified by the year of their publication, professional discipline, type of journal (either religious or secular), and type of article: either research, or narrative and expositional. Rabbis were discussed most often in psychology, psychiatry, and behavior-related fields, and close to two-thirds of the articles dealt with mental health concerns. A statistically significant increase in articles across decades was found in the secular journals, r=.98, p≤.01, with over 70% of the articles about rabbis in the secular journals being published between 1980 and 1999. Many of the articles addressed collaboration between rabbis, psychiatrists, and other and mental health professionals and discussed previously identified themes related to professional collaboration and referral.     

Nathan Birnbaum and Tuvia Horowitz: Friendship and the Origins of an Orthodox Ideologue

Nathan Birnbaum, early Zionist, Yiddishist and later general secretary of the Orthodox Agudat Yisrael, is a perplexing figure to modern Jewish historiography. While the trajectory of his early career as a Zionist and his leadership in the first Conference for the Yiddish Language have been well charted, his later years have been largely overlooked. In the years leading up to and during the First World War, Birnbaum turned his back on the secular political groups which had defined his public persona, and became a ba'al teshuva, a penitent returnee to Orthodox Judaism. Essential to his turn to Orthodoxy, and to his very quick arrival and success in the Orthodox political world, was his relationship with a young rabbi from Eastern Hungary, Tuvia Horowitz. Horowitz, the nephew of the Viznitser Rebbe, sought out Birnbaum upon receiving rumors of his teshuva while a refugee in Vienna, and the relationship between the two men quickly grew to a warm collegiality. Detailed in the extensive correspondence which spanned the rest of Birnbaum's life, their friendship sheds light on Birnbaum's intellectual transformation, as well as the central role played by Horowitz in Birnbaum's emergence as an Orthodox leader.     

Korah in the Midrash: The Hairless Heretic as Hero

Perhaps the least likely hero in the Bible is Korah, the Levite who challenges Moses’s leadership in Numbers 16 and whom later tradition regarded as an archvillain. This article examines how the rabbinic, Christian, and Islamic traditions appropriated this figure and turned him, if not into a full-fledged hero, then at least into a kind of trickster whose challenge to Moses reinforces the authority of Orthodox tradition. An example of this transmutation is the way rabbinic Midrash turns Korah into a kind of hyperlegalistic rabbi. He poses typical rabbinic questions to Moses that are intended to undermine the law, but by drawing limits around his questions the Midrash constructs the boundaries of rabbinic dissension. Another set of themes puts women at the center of the Korah story and also plays with Korah as bald: in these stories, sexuality and power are linked to hair. In patristic writings, Korah becomes the exemplar of a heretical bishop and is also made fabulously wealthy (a theme common also to Jewish and Muslim traditions). Korah’s wealth symbolizes the Israel of the flesh: this biblical villain now comes to stand for the Jewish people as a whole. In Muslim sources, he is also transmuted into “the enlightened one.”     

Spiritual Tools for Enhancing the Pastoral Visit to Hospitalized Patients

The tradition of visiting the sick is a practice that brings comfort to patients who are suffering, offers prayers for healing, and keeps the connection with family and community alive. It is a practice recognized from ancient times through today, one which underscores the mission of the field of Pastoral Care. This paper describes the creative use of multi-sensory spiritual tools, such as music, singing, personal prayer, psalms, and traditional texts, to enhance the sick visit to the hospitalized patient. This brief structured model is replicable and teachable to lay and professional caregivers. Both patient, family members, and caregivers can benefit from sharing in these moments of inner spiritual attunement and connection with others. Israela Meyerstein, LCSW-C, LMFT, is a social worker and family therapist in private practice in Baltimore, Maryland. An Approved Supervisor for the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Ms. Meyerstein has trained therapists of all disciplines and has published over two dozen articles relating to Family therapy, medical issues, and spirituality. She is co-founder of the Baltimore Jewish Healing Network. Correspondence to Israela Meyerstein, Imeyerstein@hotmail.com. Gila Ruskin has served as a congregational rabbi, psychiatric hospital chaplain, adult and day school educator, and pastoral counselor. Rabbi Ruskin currently teaches Bible, Holocaust Studies, and Creative Writing at the St. Francis Academy in Baltimore, Maryland. She is co-founder of the Baltimore Jewish Healing Network.     

On the technology of pastoral counseling

Formal pastoral counseling is developing as a significant and important counseling movement. Yet because of its historical tradition and current secular social climate, the pastoral counselor seems unable to translate theology and the religious model of suffering and illness into a concrete methodology of care-giving. This paper proposes that the priestly function or priest/rabbi/minister-parishioner relationship is a good place for the counselor to start identifying the religious methods and means of being with and caring for suffering individuals. The traditional practice of borrowing the psychology of the day is challenged as undermining pastoral counseling, as clergy men and women give up their own symbolic language for psychiatric jargon.Dr. Mollica will be a Fullbright Scholar at the University of Essex, Colchester, England, from August, 1977–May 1980.     

A bath-mitzvah feast

We are in a red room in a restaurant which has as its decor the Middle Ages. We are seated at a U-shaped table, and we are here to help a young girl celebrate her passage into womanhood. This is no religious ceremony, but a simple spiritual event. No priest, no rabbi is present, only women. All of us are anxious, anticipating what is to come. The girl's mother says a few words about a vision she had had of an inhibition. In it, she said, she saw a group of women seated in a circle around a fire. The drums urged the participants to dance. Amid the stamping of feet around the fire, a young girl comes into the circle and is welcomed by the older women of the tribe. Thus the girl becomes a woman in the community.

Then the young daughter stands up and begins to speak shyly of her nature spirit. She tells us of how she has sought for evidence of God in churches and thus far has only found some contact with Him in nature, alone in a field or on a hilltop.

After that the mother invited the guests to share in helping her daughter “become a woman in the tribe.” Here is how two of the women shared the event.—G.F.