CCAR JOURNAL: THE REFORM JEWISH QUARTERLY

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Summer 2020

FROM THE EDITOR

• At the Gates

ARTICLES

CONVERSION

• Introduction – Kari Tuling
• The Sacred Journey of Gerut: Conversion as a Ritual Process – Ruth Adar
• Conversion in Tanach, Talmud, and Codes: Inventing Our Process – Marci N. Bellows
• Making Souls – Edward Elkin
• Fifty Years of Remeeting Sinai Partners – Stephen J. Einstein
• Reform Rabbis Should Follow Hillel, Not Shammai – Allen S. Maller
• Tomorrow: A Conversion Prayer – Israel Zoberman
• Becoming a Jew—The Long Journey Home – Vickie CarrollKeeping the Gates: A Reflection on Being a Convert and a Rabbi -Nikki Lyn DeBlosi
• Converting to What? A Jewish Afrolatina Story – Ellen Lippmann and Imani Chapman
• “We Endorse the Attitude of ‘Joy and Encouragement’”: Challenges to Conversion Policy in Jamaica in the Early Twenty-First Century -Dana Evan Kaplan
• T’vilah – Gaylia R. Rooks

* * * * *

• “Am I a Man or a Jerk?” Reflections on the Art and Life of Saul Bellow -Samuel E. Karff
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Loincloth: Joseph, the First Modern? – Leigh Lerner
• The Rabbinic Spouse in Contemporary American Fiction: The Rabbi’s Wife Plays at Murder and Other Tales Told Out of Shul – David J. Zucker
• “Guzzlers and Gluttons Will Be Impoverished”: The Rhetoric of Wealth, Poverty, and Their Causes in the Book of Proverbs – Neal Gold
• Yom Kippur as Sacred Drama – Mark H. Levin
• Contemplating Sleep at 85 – David L. Kline

BOOK REVIEWS

• Inscribed: Encounters with the Ten Commandments – Collected and Edited by Oren Hayon, Reviewed by Bill Cutter
• Social Justice and Israel/Palestine: Foundational and Contemporary Debates – Edited by Aaron J. Hahn Tapper and Mira Sucharov, Reviewed by David Ellenson
• Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World – Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, Reviewed by Andrea Steinberger
• Dissident Rabbi: The Life of Jacob Sasportas – Yaacob Dweck, Reviewed by Laurence Edwards
• Haminhara (The Tunnel) – Abraham B. Yehoshua, Reviewed by Israel Zoberman
• Tiemaon (Astonishment) – Aharon Appelfeld, Reviewed by Israel Zoberman

POETRY

• oh Franky—if only you could be here to see this – Lonnie Monka
• Sodom and Gomorrah, the Night Before – Deborah Bacharach
• sodom and gomorrah, the day after – Deborah Bacharach
• On Display – Enid Shomer
• The Wedding – Enid Shomer
• Chuppah – Miriam Flock
• Psalm 6:6: Times When the Kitel Is Worn – Daniel Polish
• A Wartime Baker – Roger Nash
• For a Man Whose Lifetime Was Spring – Roger Nash
• Bookmarks – Roger Nash
• The Gravity of a Table – Baruch November

RESPONSE TO THE SPRING 2020 ISSUE

• A Meditation on Psalm 27 – A. Brian Stoller

Subscription and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping.

To order copies of CCAR Journal, contact CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org or call 212-972-3636 x244.

CCAR JOURNAL: THE REFORM JEWISH QUARTERLY

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Spring 2020

FROM THE EDITOR

• At the Gates

ARTICLES

HALACHIC THEORY

• What Do We Mean When We Say, “We Are Not Halachic”? – Leon A. Morris
• Halachah in Reform Theology from Leo Baeck to Eugene B. Borowitz: Authority, Autonomy, and Covenantal Commandments – Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi
• The CCAR Responsa Committee: A History – Joan S. Friedman
• Reform Halachah and the Claim of Authority: From Theory to Practice and Back Again – Mark Washofsky
• Is a Reform Shulchan Aruch Possible? – Alona Lisitsa
• An Evolving Israeli Reform Judaism: The Roles of Halachah and Civil Religion as Seen in the Writings of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism – David Ellenson and Micahel Rosen
• Aggadic Judaism – Edwin Goldberg
• Talmudic Aggadah: Illustrations, Warnings, and Counterarguments to Halachah – Amy Scheinerman
• Halachah for Hedgehogs: Legal Interpretivism and Reform Philosophy of Halachah – Benjamin C. M. Gurin
• The Halachic Canon as Literature: Reading for Jewish Ideas and Values – Alyssa M. Gray

APPLIED HALACHAH

• Communal Halachic Decision-Making – Erica Asch
• Growing More Than Vegetables: A Case Study in the Use of CCAR Responsa in Planting the Tri-Faith Community Garden – Deana Sussman Berezin
• Yoga as a Jewish Worship Practice: Chukat Hagoyim or Spiritual Innovation? – Liz P. G. Hirsch and Yael Rapport
• Nursing in Shul: A Halachically Informed Perspective – Michal Loving
• Can We Say Mourner’s Kaddish in Cases of Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Nefel? – Jeremy R. Weisblatt
• When Halachah Seems Silent: A Male Survivor in the Mikveh – Paul Jacobson

BOOK REVIEWS

• The Story of Dinah: Rape and Rape Myth in Jewish Tradition. – Gavi S. Ruit, Reviewed by Rachel Bearman
• A State at Any Cost (The Life of David Ben-Gurion) – Tom Segev; translated by Haim Watzman, A State at All Costs (David Ben-Gurion’s Life), Reviewed by Israel Zoberman
• Doing Business in America – Edited by Hasia R. Diner, Reviewed by Jeffrey Glickman
• To Dwell in Your House: Vignettes and Spiritual Reflections on Caregiving at Home – Susan Freeman, Reviewed by Rochelle Robins
• Opening Your Heart with Psalm 27: A Spiritual Practice for the Jewish New Year – Debra J. Robbins, Reviewed by Barry H. Block

POETRY

• Shalom Bayit – Roger Nash
• Playing the Saw – Roger Nash
• Sitting Shivah – Diana Rosen
• Haiku for the Fashion Minded – Diana Rosen
• To You – Sharon Dolin
• A dream that has not been interpreted is like a letter that has not been read – Sharon Dolin
• Ruth 1:17 – Julie R. Enszer
• Cake – Julie R. Enszer
• Not the End of the World – Paul Hostovsky
• Yahrzeit – Paul Hostovsky
• After Psalm 23 – Charles Bernstein
• A Mourner’s Kaddish – Charles Bernstein
• Stars Bolt the Sky in Place – Patty Seyburn
• No, I’m the Boy’s Mother – Patty Seyburn
• Haiku/Senryu – Bruce J. Pfeffer

Subscription and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping.

To order copies of CCAR Journal, contact CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org or call 212-972-3636 x244.

CCAR JOURNAL: THE REFORM JEWISH QUARTERLY

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Winter 2020

FROM THE EDITOR

• At the Gates

ARTICLES

• #JewishWomenToo: Rape and Sexual Harassment in the Bible – Micah Streiffer and Judith Schindler
• How to Be a Best Friend? Ask Abraham – Leigh Lerner
• Mean Rabbis – Elaine Rose Glickman
• The Experience of God – Kenneth D. Roseman
• Public Preacher/Private Poet: Poetry by Harvey J. Fields – William Cutter
• The Poet’s Tallit: Prayer Shawls in Poems by Avraham Shlonksy, Yehuda Amichai, Myra Sklarew, and Yehoshua November – Naomi B. Sokoloff
• A Buber Revival Is Coming–But Maybe for the Wrong Reasons: A Review Essay – Reviewed by Neal Gold
• Redemption and the State of Israel: How Liturgy on Redemption is Handling Zionism – Michael Lewis and Samuel Stern
• A Jewish Theology of Climate Change – Glenn Jacob
• Worshiper of Idols or Ideal Worshiper: Jethro in the M’chilta D’Rabbi Yishmael – Steven Lebow
• Josephus on the Begetting of Samson: A Treasury of Biblical Tropes – David J. Zucker
• Theological “Black Holes” in Religions and the Ways They Lead to Heaven (or Hell) – Admiel Kosman
• The Babylonian Connection: What Does Judaism Owe to Babylon and Persia? – Richard Damashek

MAAYANOT (Primary Sources)

• From the Shtetl to the Kibbutz: Translated Excerpts from a Forgotten Zionist Tzene U’rene – Translated by Lenn Schramm, introduction and commentary by Netta Schramm

BOOK REVIEWS

• Inner East: Illuminated Poems and Blessings – Marcia Falk, Reviewed by Suzanne Singer
• The Hospice Team: Who We Are and How We Care – Chaim J. Wender and Patricia E. Morrison, Reviewed by Jonathan R. Katz
• Climbing a Question – Roger Nash, Reviewed by Bruce Block

POETRY

• Some Things I Know About My Mother – Elaine Terranova
• Er Lakht – Elaine Terranova
• Babi Yar Witness, 1941 – Elaine Elinson
• My Grandmother’s Waltz – Judith Skillman
• Margot Again  – Judith Skillman
• Aerie – Judith Skillman
• Hineini – Stephanie Friedman
• Tishah B’Av in Chicago: A Meditation on Eichah, Chapter 5 – Stephanie Friedman
• Latkes – Carol Dorf
• Bitter Honey – Carol Dorf
• Seven Hundred Wives – Lori Levy
• Of Magic and Superstition – Carol V. Davis
• Puttin Wants the Jews Back – Carol V. Davis
• Lot’s Daughters  – Carol V. Davis
• Nursery Rhyme – Carol V. Davis
• Matchmaker – Carol V. Davis
• My Father Visits – Carol V. Davis

RESPONSE

• Response to the Summer 2019 Issue – Israel Zoberman

Subscription and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping.

To order copies of CCAR Journal, contact CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org or call 212-972-3636 x244.