Ccar Journal The Reform Jewish Quarterly Winter 2024

This issue of the CCAR Journal focuses on the relationship between Judaism and rapid technological change, the disconnect between information and meaning, and related existential questions facing the Reform Movement. General articles, book reviews, and poetry are also included.

This issue of the CCAR Journal considers the current state of the Reform rabbinate from the point of view of the rabbis themselves. The themed pieces include discussions related to well-being, success, and finding meaning in a rabbinic career. A variety of general articles, book reviews, and poems are also featured.

This edition of CCAR Journal considers various scholarly issues, including a study of Bava M’tzia 59b, a discussion of Jacob Neusner and Reform Judaism, and an analysis of Joseph and Aseneth's marriage. Another article addresses equity riders in rabbinic employment contracts. The issue also contains new book reviews and poems. Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Philip Graubart sets the perfect tone with his captivating "Notes from the Narrow Place"-revisiting the confinement of the past years with deep and inspiring insight. Our next article- "Sperm Donation and Surrogacy in the Time When the Judges Judged"-may bear the most unexpected and fascinating title in CCAR Journal history; and David Zucker's scholarship and wisdom, as ever, does not disappoint. Although written independently of one another, Judith Schindler's meticulously researched and thought-provoking "Cancel Culture, Billy Graham, and the Jews: Weighing Nearly Forty-Five Years of a Historical Record" and debut Journal author Neil Hirsch's superbly analyzed and earnestly written "On Accountability and T'shuvah: Two Talmudic Stories of Ostracism" are both rooted in history and text-but also guide us as we wrestle with how to draw boundaries, when to exclude, and when-and why, and how-to atone and forgive. Two important articles on the state of Reform Judaism come next. In a much-anticipated follow-up to the fall 2018 CCAR Journal theme issue on the Reform Pay Equity Initiative, Savannah Noray offers an updated data narrative on our Movement's gender wage gap-gratifyingly revealing where our efforts have borne fruit, but also illuminating how much work is left to do. Michael Rosen and David Ellenson also examine the development, progress, and maturation of the Reform Movement in Israel-brilliantly employing as their source the new Israeli Reform/Progressive siddur T'filat HaAdam. Our selection of articles concludes with two meditations on the greatest of issues: our relationship with the Divine and our longing to feel God's presence and grace. Adam D. Fisher beautifully offers spiritual guidance and uplift in "Experiencing God's Care," while Paul Menitoff draws upon scholarship and personal exprience to incorporate Spinoza's pantheism, Kaplan's naturalism, and Buber's existentialism into a new, engaging, and meaningful theology. "Isaac and Iphigenia."

This issue of the CCAR Journal is dedicated to honoring the seventy-fifth anniversary of Israel. Articles discuss what it means to be Jewish in the Jewish State, the presence of the Reform Movement in Israel, and the relationship that exists between Diaspora Jews and Zionism, among other topics. Book reviews and poems are also included.

This issue of the CCAR Journal focuses on language, including articles on the languages of Diaspora Jewry, the language of lifelong learning, the language of inclusion, and the language of sacred text. Additional articles, book reviews, and poetry are also included.

The CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Fall 2002 Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis