Deborah Waxman - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Deborah Waxman

Hiperboreea

These reflections on the ethics of Jewish communal leadership unite a scholarly examination with ... more These reflections on the ethics of Jewish communal leadership unite a scholarly examination with three personal narratives from the field. Anchoring the discussion is an argument for leadership grounded in four core virtues: anavah (humility), kavod (respect), yosher (integrity), and spiritual orientation. Three Jewish communal leaders highlight ethical quandaries and imperatives they confront in their work. One calls for the cultivation of moral courage. The others explore the tension between personal identity and public representation and the ethical imperative for the Jewish community to confront gender bias and racism.

Journal of Jewish Ethics, 2021

Contemporary Jewry, 2019

This paper was written in 2013 as the faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) w... more This paper was written in 2013 as the faculty of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) was considering a policy barring prospective rabbinical students from being partnered with non-Jews. Composed by Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Ph.D., prior to her assuming the presidency of Reconstructing Judaism, it recommends that RRC set aside this policy and replace it with a clearly articulated preference that rabbinical students create for themselves homes with rich Jewish practice, and a requirement that children in the home be raised exclusively in the Jewish tradition. The recommendation emerges from a review of classical Reconstructionist positions as articulated by Mordecai M. Kaplan, the 1968 and 1979 Reconstructionist stands on patrilineal descent, the nature of religious authority, the impact of second-wave feminism on American Jewish life, and consideration of universalism versus particularism. The ultimate conclusion is that RRC's mission is to attract Jews to Jewish living and not to police boundaries and that adopting a more inclusive partner status policy is an affirmation of key Reconstructionist principles, including fostering diverse expressions of Jewish identity and inclusive Jewish communities, and an authentic step in an evolving understanding of the Jewish civilization.

Pennsylvania History, 2012

T he new National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH), located on the east side of Philadel... more T he new National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH), located on the east side of Philadelphia's Independence Mall in close proximity to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the National Constitutional Center, has a twofold focus. In the broadest manner, the institution celebrates the promise that American-style freedoms offers to all minority communities. This focus is refracted through the experience of how Jews who emigrated to or were born in America have taken advantage of those freedoms, thus creating the second and more explicit focal point. As with most celebrations, the museum's orientation is overwhelmingly positive, though the core exhibition consistently strives to present multiple perspectives rather than advance simple boosterism of American Jews. The NMAJH tells the story of Jews living in the United States through the prism of America and American values. It takes on the complex task of explaining Jews (a people sharing, sometimes contentiously, a religious, cultural, and ethnic heritage); Judaism (an evolving set of religious beliefs and practices,

American Jewish History