Adam Ferziger | Bar-Ilan University (original) (raw)

Research paper thumbnail of Ben-Gurion and American Jewish Students at the Cusp of the Sixties: Between Solidarity and Persuasion

JQR - Jewish Quarterly Review 113, 2, 2023

Free download until July 18, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of בין סמל שטני לבת שיח: הרפורמה היהודית ורבני הציונות הדתית

התנועה הרפורמית בישראל, ע' אלעזר בן-לולו ועופר שיף, 2023

From Satanic Symbol to Interlocutor: Reform Judaism and Religious Zionist Rabbis

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Sanctuaries and Battlefields: Two Worlds of Judaism and Two Orthodox Feminisms,” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 71, no. 2 (Autumn 2020): 397-422

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “‘And Who Even Knows What It Is’: The Role of Reform in the Rulings of R. Yosef Eliyahu Henkin,” in Yitzhak Berger & Chaim Milikowsky, eds., ‘In the Dwelling of a Sage Lie Precious Treasures’: Essays in Jewish Studies in Honor of Shnayer Z. Leiman (NY: YU Press, 2020), 323-339

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Fluidity and Bifurcation: Critical Biblical Scholarship and Orthodox Judaism in Israel and North America,” Modern Judaism, vol. 39, no. 3 (October 2019): 233-270

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “From Ashkenaz to America – Via Brisk: Historical Models, Women’s Torah Study, and the Agency of Texts,” Tradition, vol. 51, no. 4 (Fall 2019): 29-36

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “‘The Road Not Taken’ and ‘The Road Less Traveled’: The Greenberg-Lichtenstein Exchange and Contemporary Orthodoxy,” in Adam S. Ferziger, et al., eds., Yitz Greenberg and Modern Orthodoxy: The Road Not Taken (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019), 254-288

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, Miri Freud-Kandel, and Steven Bayme, “Editors’ Foreword,” in Adam S. Ferziger, Miri Freud-Kandel, and Steven Bayme, eds., Yitz Greenberg and Modern Orthodoxy: The Road Not Taken (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019), 1-6

Adam S. Ferziger, Miri Freud-Kandel, and Steven Bayme, “Editors’ Foreword,” in Adam S. Ferziger, Miri Freud-Kandel, and Steven Bayme, eds., Yitz Greenberg and Modern Orthodoxy: The Road Not Taken (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019), 1-6

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Female Clergy in Male Space: The Sacralization of the Orthodox Rabbinate,” The Journal of Religion, vol. 98, no. 4 (October 2018): 490-516

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Feminism, Heresy, and the Boundaries of American Orthodox Judaism,” in Dov Schwartz and Ronit Irshai, eds., A New Spirit in the Palace of Torah: Jubilee Volume in Honor of Professor Tamar Ross on the Occasion of her Eightieth Birthday (Ramat Gan: BIU Press, 2018), 327-372 (Hebrew)

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Sanctuary for the Specialist: Gender and the Reconceptualization of the American Orthodox Rabbinate,” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 23, no. 3 (Spring-Summer 2018): 1-37

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Darkhei Daniel: The Paths of Daniel,” in Adam S. Ferziger and David Sperber, eds., The Paths of Daniel: Studies in Judaism and Jewish Culture in Honor of Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2017), 5-13

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger and Hillel Spielman, “Reverence and Integration: Boy Scouts, Jewish Camping, and American Orthodoxy,” American Jewish History, vol. 101, no. 3 (July 2017): 271-295

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Review of ‘Modern Orthodoxy in American Judaism: The Era of Leo Jung’, by Maxine Jacobson,” American Jewish History, vol. 101, no. 2 (April 2017): 316-318

Research paper thumbnail of Dan Michman, Sergio Della Pergola, Paul Burstein, and Adam S. Ferziger, “A Reply to Ian Lustick,” Contemporary Jewry 37 (2017): 171-181

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “A Sobering Visit to the Factory that Built the Auschwitz Inferno,” The Jewish Week (4 January 2017)

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “The Orthodox Coalition: Diverse, Divided, but not Destroyed,” Canadian Jewish News (17 November 2016)

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Foreign Ashes in Sovereign Space: Cremation and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, 1931-1990,” Jewish Studies Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 4 (December 2016): 290-313

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “Bureaucratic Judaism vs. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein,” The Times of Israel (6 July 2016)

Research paper thumbnail of Adam S. Ferziger, “The Sagacious Scholar and the Censor: Review of ‘Changing the Immutable’, by Marc B. Shapiro,” Marginalia: A Los Angeles Review of Books (13 February 2016)

Research paper thumbnail of Call for Papers: Conference on the Legacy of R. David Zvi Hoffmann, marking 100 years since his passing

The Hebrew Year 5782 will mark the 100th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann, ... more The Hebrew Year 5782 will mark the 100th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi David Zvi Hoffmann, the Hungarian-born rector of the Orthodox Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin during the first decades of the 20th century. In addition to training a generation of rabbis, his literary legacy includes his commentaries and scholarly writings on the Pentateuch, volumes of halakhic responsa, and several treatises on Talmudic literature, especially on the formal composition of Tannaitic literature. These works not only display his breadth of knowledge and intellectual versatility, but also his capacity to inhabit different roles in parochial settings and the academy, to "code-switch" from the style and conventions of critical scholarship to the parlance of the traditional posek halakhah, engaging Wissenschaft des Judentums practitioners in one essay, then citing traditionalist authorities in his halakhic rulings. We will mark his centennial yahrzeit by examining these distinct elements of his works and activities with the aim of achieving a more rigorous and critical portrait of a person who became an exemplar for Jewish scholars who seek to navigate the standards of balanced, scientific investigation with remaining embedded in and committed to their faith communities. Scholars are invited to submit proposals for 20-minute lectures on aspects of Hoffmann's life, works, or legacy. The conference is scheduled to take place at Bar-Ilan University on Tuesday,

Research paper thumbnail of קול קורא: כנס לכבוד מאה שנה לפטירתו של רד"צ הופמן

בשנת תשפ"ב ימלאו מאה שנה לפטירתו של הרד"צ הופמן, ראש בית המדרש לרבנים בברלין בראשית במאה העשרים. ... more בשנת תשפ"ב ימלאו מאה שנה לפטירתו של הרד"צ הופמן, ראש בית המדרש לרבנים בברלין בראשית במאה העשרים. בנוסף להכשרת דור של רבנים והוגי דעות מורשתו כוללת בין הייתר את פרושו לתורה, ספרי שאלות ותשובות, ומספר חיבורים על הספרות התלמודית, במיוחד על התהוות חיבורים תנאיים. כתביו משקפים לא רק את היקף ידיעותיו ורוחו הרבגונית, אלא גם את שאיפתו לשלב בחייו תפקידים מגוונים בו זמנית במסגרות שונות ובכלל זה עולם התורה, פסיקת הלכה, ומתן מענה רבני מחד, ולצידם
לכתוב כתיבה מחקרית, מדעית ומחקר ביקורתי מאידך. מאה שנה לאחר פטירתו אנו מבקשים לדון באלמנטים השונים הללו של הגותו ופעולתו המעשית מתוך רצון
להעמיק את הידוע לנו על הרב הופמן, שנעשה מודל עבור חוקרים המבקשים לשלב בין מחקר ביקורתי תוך שהם נשארים נאמנים לאמונתם.
חוקרים העוסקים בהגותו ופועלו של הרד"צ הופמן מוזמנים להגיש הצעות להרצאות בנות 20 דקות.
הכנס מתוכנן ליום שלישי ר"ח שבט תשפ"ב 3 בינואר 2022 באוניברסיטת בר-אילן.
הצעות יש לשלוח עד לתאריך כ"ג אלול תשפ"א ) 31.8.2021 (
לכתוב: RDZH.conference@gmail.com

Research paper thumbnail of The Hamburg Cremation Controversy and the Diversity of German-Jewish Orthodoxy*

The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 2011

... Markus (Mordechai Amram) Hirsch was born in Tiszabö, Hungary, and attended the yeshivah in Mi... more ... Markus (Mordechai Amram) Hirsch was born in Tiszabö, Hungary, and attended the yeshivah in Miskolc as well as the famed institution founded by Rabbi Moshe Sofer (Hatam Sofer) in Pressburg (Bratislava). 57 In 1853 he moved to Prague. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Editors’ Foreword

Academic Studies Press eBooks, Sep 17, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Holocaust, Hurban, and Haredization: Pilgrimages to Eastern Europe and the Realignment of American Orthodoxy

Contemporary Jewry, Nov 26, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of From Demonic Deviant to Drowning Brother: Reform Judaism in the Eyes of

Research paper thumbnail of State and Spirit," Introduction

Jewish Studies Quarterly, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of A Synagogue Center Grows in Tel Aviv: On Glocalization, Consumerism and Religion

Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience

Alongside the ongoing dominance of Orthodox Judaism in Israel, novel liberal religious frameworks... more Alongside the ongoing dominance of Orthodox Judaism in Israel, novel liberal religious frameworks have emerged that seek to address the needs of various constituencies through innovative approaches to synagogue life. One of the most active and successful is the Reform “Beit-Daniel” in Tel- Aviv, Israel's urban epicenter. In this article, the institutional structure that emerged in Beit-Daniel is compared with another neighboring synagogue, the Conservative/Masorti, Tiferet Shalom. Both adapted two well-established elements of the American Jewish experience—the synagogue-center and the “Rabbi as CEO”—and applied them to the Tel-Aviv environment. Yet Beit-Daniel has been more impactful. We examine its unique formula in the context of broader trends relating to religion in Israeli society since the late twentieth century, along with the particular features of Tel Aviv's urban environment. Tel-Aviv is a predominantly secular milieu with a strong consumerist orientation. By homin...

Research paper thumbnail of Dust to Dust—A History of Jewish Death and Burial in New York. By Allan Amanik (New York, New York University Press, 2019) 272 pp. $40.00

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 2021

Research paper thumbnail of 12. “The Road Not Taken” and “The One Less Traveled”: The Greenberg–Lichtenstein Exchange and Contemporary Orthodoxy

Yitz Greenberg and Modern Orthodoxy, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Pew’s “Statistical Narrative” of Orthodox Separateness: Limitations and Alternatives

The distinctiveness and detachment of the Orthodox from the rest of American Jewry that is reflec... more The distinctiveness and detachment of the Orthodox from the rest of American Jewry that is reflected in the Pew data on beliefs and behaviors and its accompanying analysis is the focus of this chapter. Based on this information alone, one may conclude that the very concept of defining American Jewry as one people is anachronistic. However, equally compelling data emerging from qualitative studies indicate a trend among the Haredi Orthodox toward abandoning their former rejection of contact with non-Orthodox Jews and concentrating, rather, on advancing vehicles for rapprochement and cooperation.

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction

Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2015

Since the 1980s, study of Orthodox Judaism has emerged as a new and dynamic subdiscipline within ... more Since the 1980s, study of Orthodox Judaism has emerged as a new and dynamic subdiscipline within the field of academic Jewish scholarship. This coincided with the recognition that multiple deterministic predictions of the demise of Orthodox observance as a viable contemporary Jewish lifestyle—a position voiced consistently over the course of the twentieth century by secular and liberal ideologues, as well as distinguished social scientists—had sorely missed the mark. On the contrary, the past few decades have witnessed demographic, political, and institutional resurgence among Orthodox contingents in Israel, North America and to a certain degree the UK, France, and Australia as well. The current volume of collected essays aims to contribute to the burgeoning scientific exploration of Orthodox Judaism. Within academia, the crucial turn in perceptions of Orthodoxy was orchestrated by two Israel Prize laureates: the Hebrew University historian Jacob Katz (along with his leading student...

Research paper thumbnail of Church/Sect Theory and American Orthodoxy Reconsidered

Research paper thumbnail of Sanctuary for the Specialist: Gender and the Reconceptualization of the American Orthodox Rabbinate

Jewish Social Studies, 2018

Abstract:On February 1, 2017, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation&#... more Abstract:On February 1, 2017, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the nation's largest Orthodox synagogue association, adopted a ruling that prohibits women from serving as clergy. The swift electronic dissemination of the ruling set off a wave of passionate protests along with vociferous expressions of support. The ruling encourages extensive female involvement in public religious leadership, a position at odds with prior statements of prominent Orthodox authorities. At the same time, it explicates in unprecedented detail core responsibilities that are forbidden to women. The result is the emergence of a novel definition of the rabbi that shares commonalities with the role pioneered by Reform Judaism in the nineteenth century. This article examines how the latest chapter in the development of Orthodox feminism has precipitated this reconceptualization of the American Orthodox rabbinate.

Research paper thumbnail of Gurock, Jeffrey S. The Jews of Harlem: The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community. New York: New York University Press, 2016. 320 pp. $35.00 (cloth)

The Journal of Religion, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Female Clergy in Male Space: The Sacralization of the Orthodox Rabbinate

The Journal of Religion, 2018

In 1992, Jewish feminist author and activist Blu Greenberg penned an essay titled “Is Now the Tim... more In 1992, Jewish feminist author and activist Blu Greenberg penned an essay titled “Is Now the Time for Orthodox Women Rabbis?” It appeared exactly twenty years after the first female American Reform rabbi was ordained and nine years after Conservative Judaism recognized women rabbis. The main purpose of her composition was to demonstrate that the profound expansion during the previous decades in advanced Talmudic study among Orthodox women had produced a cadre of female scholars equipped with the necessary level of knowledge to receive the title “rabbi”:

Research paper thumbnail of Reverence and Integration: Boy Scouts, Jewish Camping and American Orthodoxy

American Jewish History, 2017

In 1947, Harold Jacobs (1912–1995) was president of the Young Israel of Eastern Parkway in Brookl... more In 1947, Harold Jacobs (1912–1995) was president of the Young Israel of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Among the activities sponsored by this then thriving Modern Orthodox synagogue was the “Shomer Shabbat” (Sabbath observant) Boy Scout Troop 404, whose ranks included two of Jacobs’ sons. Jacobs, who in subsequent years was to become a national lay leader of American Orthodoxy, accompanied the group on a weekend “camporee.”2 In his portrayal of the event, he first describes an “Orthodox” application of the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared”3—making sure

Research paper thumbnail of Modern Orthodoxy in American Judaism: The Era of Leo Jung by Maxine Jacobson

American Jewish History, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of State and Spirit: Sovereignty, Law, and Theology" Introduction

Jewish Studies Quarterly, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of Between Catholic Israel and the ‘K’rov Yisrael’: Non-Jews in Conservative Synagogues (1982-2009)

Journal of Jewish Studies, 2010

Throughout much of the twentieth century, non-Jewish family members of intermarried Jews were com... more Throughout much of the twentieth century, non-Jewish family members of intermarried Jews were completely excluded from membership and active ritual life in American Conservative congregations. The unprecedented rise of intermarriage rates during the last decades of the twentieth century caused many within the movement to reconsider such policies. This article focuses on American Conservative Judaism since the early 1980s and the original approaches that it has adopted toward non-Jewish spouses of Jewish individuals as well as other non-Jewish family members. This issue offers a new perspective on the internal difficulty manifest in the classic Conservative concept of 'Catholic Israel'.

Research paper thumbnail of Training American Orthodox Rabbis to Play a Role in Confronting Assimilation: Programs, Methodologies and Directions

Research and Position Papers of the Rappaport Center, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Between 'Ashkenazi' and Sepharad: An early modern German rabbinic response to religious pluralism in the Spanish-Portuguese community

Studia Rosenthaliana, 2001

L'A. etudie le cas d'un rabbin du debut du XVIIIe siecle qui, invite a donner son avis au... more L'A. etudie le cas d'un rabbin du debut du XVIIIe siecle qui, invite a donner son avis au sujet d'un groupe de Juifs sefarades souhaitant quitter leur communaute, qui ne repondait plus a leurs exigences, prona la separation, creant par la un precedent en placant la communaute des valeurs religieuses au-dessus des liens tribaux ou ethniques. De plus, il a donne a l'instinct religieux une preeminence sur la loi communautaire, ouvrant ainsi la voie aux pratiques ulterieures de separation des Juifs orthodoxes.