CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

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Fall 2025: AI and the Rabbinate

From the Editors

• At the Gates
  Guest Editors: Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman and Rabbanit Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld

Articles

• As Iron Sharpens Iron: AI and Jewish Medical Ethics — Rabbi Oren J. Hayon and Ronni Hayon, MD
• What Makes a Human — Rabbi Marc Katz
• How AI Supports Global Progressive Judaism — Rabbi Stacey Blank
• Rabbis in the Age of AI: Media Ecology and the Reimagining of Rabbinic Authority — Rabbi Noah Chertkoff
• When AI Meets Sinai: The Creative Soul of Torah — Rabbi Feivel Strauss
• Man’s Search for Meaning Returns 404 Error — Rabbi Michael Walden
• The Morality of Generative Artificial Intelligence — Rabbi Cantor Jessica Fox

General Articles

• The Bible in Politics and Politics in the Bible — Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, PhD
• Leading My First Worship Service, High Holy Days 1960, at Age Seventeen — Rabbi Marc Lee Raphael

Book Reviews

• Above All, We Are Jews: A Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler by Michael A. Meyer — Reviewed by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
• Reading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO’s Effort to Know the Enemy by Jonathan Marc Gribetz — Review by Rabbi Lea Mühlstein
• A Jew in the Street: New Perspectives on European Jewish History, edited by Nancy Sinkoff, Janathan Karp, James Loeffler, and Howard Lupovitch — Reviewed by Rabbi Beth Schwartz
• We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine by Jordan B. Peterson — Reviewed by Rabbi Austin Zoot

Poetry

• Remembering Rabbi Stanley Chyet — Rabbi Marc Steven Dworkin
• Shofar — Roger Nash, PhD
• The Small Things — Roger Nash, PhD
• The Sheitel Macher — Doris G. Traub
• Vessels — Rabbi Adam Fisher
• Angels? — Rabbi Adam Fisher
• Hebrew Letters — Rabbi Adam Fisher
• Noah’s Wife Speaks — Rabbi Mark Elber
• Tender Torah — Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman
• A Day’s Work — Karl Plank
• Two Crows — Karl Plank

Responsum 5784.2

• Artificial Intelligence and Authorship — CCAR Responsa Committee, Rabbi Joan Friedman, PhD, chair

Subscriptions and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping. To order copies of the CCAR Journal, please visit ccarpress.org.

To subscribe, please email CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org.

CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Order the issue

From the Editor

• At the Gates

Articles

• From Distress to Sweetening: Adam Phillips, the “Missed” Life, and the Kabbalistic-Chasidic Sweetening of Din — Admiel Kosman, PhD
• An Updated History of Women Rabbis in and from South Africa — Rabbi Emma Gottlieb
• Countenance and Core — Rabbi Scott B. Saulson, PhD
• Why Does God Choose Abraham? Why Does Abraham Choose God? — Brian Weinstein, PhD
• Resurrection of the Dead — Rabbi Sandra Cohen
• Rabbi Henry Cohen and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900: Moving Beyond Jewish Communal Relief — Rabbi Bailey Romano
• The Universality of Chesed in Mussar — Rabbi David Oler, PhD, DHL
• American Jewish History Through a Bourbon Glass: The Legacy of I. W. Bernheim — Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

Book Reviews

• The Architecture of Modern American Synagogues, 1950s–1960s by Anat Geva — Reviewed by Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel

Poetry

• It Could Never Happen — Rabbi Adam D. Fisher
• All Immigrants — Rabbi Adam D. Fisher
• Not to Mt. Moriah — Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman
• Sanctuary — Jane Schapiro
• People of the Book — In memory of Rabbi Stanley Davids (1939–2025) — Mara Gale Fein, PhD
• Tikkun Olam: Knitting a World — Roger Nash, PhD
• Eruv — Roger Nash, PhD
• Jacob’s Pillow: Resting Weary Heads on the Pillow/Pillar — Rabbi Stephen S. Pearce, PhD
• The Doctor Wants to Remodel My Heart — Stewart Florsheim
• The Window — Stewart Florsheim
• Dementia Prologue: Adding It Up — Rabbi Debra Hachen
• Dementia I: A Closer Look — Rabbi Debra Hachen
• Dementia II: Wrestling with My Beloved’s Dementia — Rabbi Debra Hachen
• Dementia III: The Descent — Rabbi Debra Hachen
• Nocturne of Creation: Lilith Reincarnated — Jaclyn Piudik and Janet R. Kirchheimer
• Elijah at the Door or Every Day Another Door — Rabbi William Cutter, PhD
• I can only hear it — Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

MAAYANOT (Primary Sources)

• Prayers and Liturgical Poetry — Rabbi Sivan Navon-Shoval

Responsum 5784.4

• Splitting Cremated Ashes for Burial in Two Places — CCAR Responsa Committee, Rabbi Joan Friedman, PhD, chair

Subscriptions and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping. To order copies of the CCAR Journal, please visit ccarpress.org.

To subscribe, please email CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org.

CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Order the issue

From the Editor

• At the Gates

Articles

• A Life of Meaning on the Cabaret Stage — Rabbi Deborah Zecher
• How to Assure Successful Attendance at Every Temple Program, Service, and Event and How to Make Attendance Irrelevant — Rabbi David Katz
• The Lonely Rabbi: Listening to Our Loneliness — Rabbi Carla Fenves, LMFT
• Shiphrah and Puah: A Grammatical Solution — Rabbi Mark Sameth
• Vaani Anah Olich Et Cherpati: A Study on the Intersectionality of Sexual Trauma and Traumatic Weight Gain Through a Jewish Lens — Rabbi Amanda K. Weiss
• When Judah Met Tamar: Jewish and Christian Views Across the Ages — Rabbi David J. Zucker, PhD
• Jewish Brides’ Breads Revisited — Rabbi Deborah Prinz
• Looking Back on Fifty Years as a Rabbi — Rabbi Ron Kronish
• Liberal Judaism and Jewish Liberalism — Rabbi Jan Katzew
• We Are Yisrael, We Are the Blessing That Won’t Be Consumed: How I Got Through This Year as a Jewish Academic and a Campus Rabbi — Rabbi Elizabeth W. Goldstein, PhD
• A Midrash on Vayigash — Rabbi Jason Rosner
• The Moral Restraint of the IDF: Ethical Combat in the Context of Jewish and Democratic Values — Rabbi Rand Burke
• Attachment Theory — Rabbi Yair Robinson

Book Reviews

• Purity and Identity in Ancient Israel: From the Temple to the Mishnah by Yair Furstenberg — Reviewed by Rabbi Matthew A. Kraus, PhD
• The Islamic Moses: How the Prophet Inspired Jews and Muslims to Flourish Together and Change the World by Mustafa Akyol — Reviewed by Rabbi Reuven Firestone, PhD
• Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century by Miriam Eve Mora— Reviewed by Rabbi Matt Derrenbacher

Poetry

• The Walls of Jerusalem — Jay Yair Brodbar, PhD
• Tablets (Take One) — Patty Seyburn
• Tablets (Take Two) — Patty Seyburn
• And the Satraps — Patty Seyburn
• My Messiah Complex — Patty Seyburn
• Sukkot Questions — David Ebenbach
• The Miracle — David Ebenbach
• Shema — David Ebenbach
• Chosen — David Ebenbach
• Wedding in Jerusalem — Daniel Meltz
• Olive in Poland — Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman
• Morning Before — Rabbi Benjamin Shalva
• Burning Bush — Rabbi Benjamin Shalva

MAAYANOT (Primary Sources)

• MYB deNatura: A Short Text from Micha Yosef Berdyczewski (1865–1921) — Rabbi William Cutter, PhD

Responsum 5785.1

• Removing a Pacemaker from a Corpse for Reuse — CCAR Responsa Committee, Rabbi Joan Friedman, PhD, chair

Subscriptions and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping. To order copies of the CCAR Journal, please visit ccarpress.org.

To subscribe, please email CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org.

CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly

Published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Order the issue

Winter 2025: Opening the Doors to LGBTQIA+ Clergy: Past, Present, and Future

From the Editor

• At the Gates
  Guest Editors: Rabbi Ellen Lippmann and Rabbi Ariel Tovlev, MAJE

Articles

• The CCAR Ad Hoc Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate, 1985–1990 — Rabbi Yoel H. Kahn, PhD
• Allies, Activists, and Opponents in the Pre-History of the Ad Hoc Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate — Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig
• Hineinu: A Little-Known Chapter in the Fight for LGBTQIA+ Ordination — Rabbi David Edleson
• One Rabbi’s Journey to Serve the Congregation of Israel — Rabbi Eric Weiss
• The Emergence of Transgender Spirituality — Rabbi Aria Caligiuri
• Intersections of Identity: Exploring LGBTQIA+ Conversions to Judaism — Rabbi Lynne D. Goldsmith and Mara J. Waller, PhD
• Emergent Engagement in Euphoria: The Nonbinary Hebrew Project as a Fractal Roadmap Toward Liberation — Lior Gross
• Thrice Blessed — Cantor Evan Kent
• From Out of the Aron Kodesh/Holy Closet: A Lifetime of Lessons — Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
• Opening the Tent Doors and Practicing Audacious Hospitality — Rabbi Andrew F. Klein
• The Job Search from Hell — Rabbi Robin Nafshi
• My Almost Silenced Prayer — Rabbi Dr. Nachshon Siritsky
• Trans Shechinah — Joy Ladin, PhD
• Weaving the Pink, Blue, and White Mishkan: A Trans Rabbinical Student’s Reflection on Drag Bans and Student Pulpits — Benjamin Luks-Morgan
• But the Sea Is Always Open: Exploring Trans-Affirming Mikveh When the Mikvehs Are Closed — Rabbi Max Zev Reynolds
• Turn It and Turn It — Eliana Rubin
• Nonbinary Liturgy — Cantor Ze’evi Tovlev
• The Trans Halakha Project — Laynie Soloman and Rabbi Becky Silverstein
• Black Queer Jewish Joy — Rabbi Kelly Whitehead
• Thirty-Eight Years at HUC-JIR/NY: Four Before the Decision, Thirty-Four Since — Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener, Dmin, BCC
• Panel Discussion

Book Reviews

• And the Sages Did Not Know: Early Rabbinic Approaches to Intersex by Rabbi Sarra Lev, PhD — Reviewed by Rabbi Ariel Tovlev
• Loaves of Torah: Exploring the Jewish Year Through Challah by Rabbi Vanessa Harper— Reviewed by Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal
• Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspective on Legal Loopholes and Integrity by Elana Stein Hain — Reviewed by Rabbi Karen R. Thomashow

Poetry

• Victim, Pioneer, Soldier — Rabbi Karen Bender
• We Keep Praying — Rabbi Mónica Gomery
• The Babe’s Legacy — Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
• Mazal Tov! — Roger Nash
• How Could God? — Rabbi Stephen S. Pearce, PhD

Subscriptions and Ordering 

Back issues are available at $35 per issue plus shipping. To order copies of the CCAR Journal, please visit ccarpress.org.

To subscribe, please email CCAR Press at info@ccarpress.org.