Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Social Justice

by Dorff, Elliot N.

• ISBN13: 9780827609075
• ISBN10: 0827609078
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-01
• Publisher: Jewish Publication Society of America

Summary

What health care are the poor and uninsured entitled to-and who pays for it? Is the death penalty morally acceptable? Is affirmative action fair? Who should take the lead in protecting our environment?

Author Biography

Elliot N. Dorff is the author of several books, including To Do the Right and the Good, Love Your Neighbor and Yourself, and Matters of Life and Death. He is the chair of the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly and is currently rector and Sol and Anne Dorff Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the American Jewish University of Los Angeles. Danya Ruttenberg is the author of Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion and editor of The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism and Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism. She is a contributing editor to Lilith magazine and the academic journal Women and Judaism, and is on the editorial board of the journal Sh'ma and Jewschool.com. Ruttenberg serves as senior Jewish educator at Tufts University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
Poverty and Health Care
Case Study	p. 3
Traditional Sources	p. 5
Contemporary Sources	p. 8
Responses: Passion, Power, and Partnership	p. 14
Health Care for the Homeless: An Interview with Lillian Gelberg	p. 22
The Reach and the Limits of Responsibility	p. 27
Discrimination and Preferential Treatment
Case Study	p. 35
Traditional Sources	p. 37
Contemporary Sources	p. 41
Responses: For Whom is the Fight Against Discrimination? Jews, Liberal Equality and Ethnic-Nationalism	p. 47
Discrimination: A Violation of Human Dignity	p. 55
Bias Crime Laws and the Mission of Social Justice	p. 62
The Environment
Case Study	p. 71
Traditional Sources	p. 73
Contemporary Sources	p. 76
Responses: Teshuvah to Shylah: Creating Questions from Answers	p. 81
Preventing Our Stumble	p. 88
Struggling with Environmental Balance	p. 96
Criminal Justice
Case Study	p. 105
Traditional Sources	p. 107
Contemporary Sources	p. 112
Responses: Getting Our Priorities Right: The Call for Education, Not Incarceration	p. 117
Reading the Rabbis in Their Own World: Contextualizing Rabbinic Views of Capital Punishment	p. 123
The Role of Punishment and the Death Penalty	p. 129
Conclusion: The Ethics of Social Justice	p. 141
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 143
Editors and Contributors	p. 147
Index	p. 151
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