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.     

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Asian Contextual Theology in relation to Minjung and Prajna of Inter‐being

Abstract: Dietrich Bonhoeffer remains an influential figure in inspiring Asian contextual theology of minjung (the poor). In addition to political reading of minjung, a Buddhist wisdom (prajna) offers a basis for understanding of religious dimension of minjung. However, there has been no discussion about Bonhoeffer's legacy of theology after Auschwitz in critical dialogue with Asian contextual theology.     

Sailing Through Troubled Waters: Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land

For many people the names "Arab Christians" and "Palestinian Christians" seem to be oxymoronic. Christianity was, however, born in the Middle East, in a little town called Bethlehem. This article explores the ways in which Palestinian Christians, a minority group in both Palestine and Israel, relate to both Jews and Muslims in Palestine and Israel. Though there is no covert persecution of Palestinian Christians, they face the same trials as other Arabs and Muslims in Palestine, due to the current policies and actions of the Israeli government and to the current "war on terrorism." In fact, Christians in Palestine become easy targets for both those enraged by and supportive of the US declaration of war. At the same time, they offer the world an example of healthy Christian–Muslim relations. Perhaps too, Palestinian Christians can be the bridge between the Jewish and Muslim communities in the Holy Land.     

Good writers,bad Jews: the “Jewish Question” among Hungarian Jewish intellectuals of the interwar period

This paper investigates the perceived place of the Jewish writer in interwar Hungarian Jewish literature. Post-World War I Hungary suffered from the effects of a short-lived communist regime, and the Trianon Treaty by losing two-thirds of its territories and more than half of its population. Though previously Jewish communities had thrived in the country, these events caused resentment that manifested itself in the creation of anti-Semitic laws in 1920. Within this new context, assimilated liberal young Jewish writers posed the question of “what is a Jew,” reflecting on their Jewishness and Hungarianness at the same time and pondering about the value of each. They answered the question in their creative works, where they indirectly explored issues such as whether Jews are able to write Hungarian novels or whether only a Hungarian can do so; whether Jewish Hungarians could write Hungarian Jewish novels; whether Hungarianness and Jewishness are compatible or whether writing literature is preconditioned on identity. Through the lens of Aladár Komlós, this paper examines the way in which liberal and assimilated young Hungarian Jewish writers interpreted their place in Hungarian culture and society within the framework of these questions.     

Visible/invisible Herzl. The meaning of portrait and the quest for aniconism

At the end of the nineteenth century Theodore Herzl presented ideas that would embrace the visual arts in order to promote the new Zionist movement. Art was to play an important role in forming Zionist awareness, with Herzl's image expressing the ideas, as well as personifying Zionism and the Jews. However, a part of the Jewish religious community could not come to terms with the fact that Western European art had found its way into Jewish culture, therefore all debates on all visual aspects of Zionism were based on aniconism. This is why, some images of Herzl try to avoid direct visualization of the face, the most notable examples being profile pictures, silhouette images, micrographics, presenting him from behind or in dim light. All these modes of incomplete representation found their justification in traditional Jewish texts relating to the visual arts.     

How do teachers think about pluralism in a Jewish Community School?

Pluralism is a notion that regularly appears in education literature regarding social injustice or teaching for democracy. Over the last decade, a new type of Jewish Day School has emerged, the Jewish Community School. These Jewish Community Schools distinguish themselves by adopting pluralism as one of their core values. What is unclear is how teachers within such a school think about the notion of pluralism. This case study describes and analyses the way that members of a Jewish Studies faculty in one Jewish Community High School thinks about pluralism and the pedagogical implications of this thinking.     

Ethnic Identity in Jewish Families

Forty-eight Jewish families living in Central New York were interviewed about the development of their ethnic identity. Within each family, parents and children were asked about how they developed their ethnic identity to explore qualitatively how Jewish identity shapes and influences family dynamics. The semi-structured family interviews were coded using a constant comparison methodology. Seven qualitative categories emerged (gendered decisions, negotiating continuity, family of origin, survivors, active learning, traditions, and cultural religion). Jewish identity formation in families and the implications for clinical practice are explored.     

The Seminal Contribution of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein to the Development of Modern Jewish Medical Ethics

The purpose of this essay is to show how, on a wide variety of issues, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein broke new ground with the established Orthodox rabbinic consensus and blazed a new trail in Jewish medical ethics. Rabbi Feinstein took power away from the rabbis and let patients decide their treatment, he opened the door for a Jewish approach to palliative care, he supported the use of new technologies to aid in reproduction, he endorsed altruistic living organ donation and recognized brain death (thus laying the groundwork for Orthodox Jewish acceptance of heart transplantation), he downplayed the value of social worth in triage decisions, and was a fierce defender of the rights of the fetus. I develop broader theological principles from Rabbi Feinstein's ethical positions and compare them to those of his Jewish and Christian contemporaries.     

The Influence of Ethnicity,Social Class,and Context on Judgments About U.S. Women

Abstract

In 2 studies, the authors investigated impression formation as influenced by category-based stereotypes associated with ethnicity and social class. The participants in Study 1 made judgments about 1 target woman, described as interested in running for office in the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) of her children's school. The hypothetical woman was presented to the respondents along with her photograph and information about her ethnic background (Anglo-Saxon, Latina, or Jewish) and occupation (middle class or working class). In Study 2, the authors changed the context and presented a younger target woman (also varied by ethnicity and social class) to the respondents as the new girlfriend of their older brother or cousin. In both studies, judgments were assessed by the participants' responses to 45 bipolar adjectives that, in each case, yielded 8 component factors. In both hypothetical contexts, social class was a powerful trigger for a variety of negative expectations: With respect to ethnicity, the Latina women were judged to be more unsuitable for the job of PTO vice president than were the Anglo-Saxon or Jewish women. The authors discussed potential psychological and social consequences of such category-based judgments.     

Religion and positive well-being among Israeli and diaspora Jews: Findings from the World Values Survey

This study investigates the impact of selected religious indicators on two measures of positive well-being among Jews. Using data from subsamples of Jewish respondents from Israel (N?=?1,023) and the diaspora (N?=?859) taken from the World Values Survey, single-item measures of happiness and life satisfaction were regressed onto six measures of religiousness in the diaspora sample and onto the one religious measure available in the Israeli sample, adjusting for effects of age, gender, marital status, education, employment, and social class. Among Israeli Jews, affirming the importance of God in one's life is modestly associated with greater life satisfaction (β?=?0.07, p?<?0.05), but not with happiness. In the diaspora, the same measure is associated with greater happiness (β?=?0.13, p?<?0.01), as is more frequent attendance at synagogue services (β?=?0.14, p?<?0.01), but neither is associated with life satisfaction.