The Freehof Institute hosts symposia devoted to the examination of religious, social, political, and cultural issues from the standpoint of progressive halakhah. We publish these scholarly presentations in an expanded form. To order, visit our website.
The Modern Family and Jewish Law, 2018, edited by Walter Jacob.
Walter Jacob, The Jewish Family from the Beginning: Building Blocks of a People
Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Interfaith Families: A Reconstructionist Perspective
Mark Washofsky, Kiddushin as a Progressive Halakhic Concept: Toward a Theory of Progressive Halakhah
Peter S. Knobel, Rethinking the Get in Reform Judaism
Selected Responsa
The Modern Child and Jewish Law, 2017, edited by Walter Jacob.
Mark Washofsky, Halakhah as Translation: Custody of Children in Jewish Law
Brian Stoller, Educating Children: Responsibility of Teachers and Schools
Micah Streiffer, A Mitzvah of Inclusion: Halakhah Surrounding Special Needs Children
Alan Sokobin, Child Abuse: A Study in Comparative American and Jewish Law
Walter Jacob, Boys Will Be Boys: Juveniles Then and Now
Ruth Langer, Parents Blessing Their Children: The Minhag
Addiction and Its Consequences in Jewish Law, 2015, edited by Walter Jacob.
Leonard Kravitz, Sin as Addiction
Walter Jacob, The Jewish Alcohol Puzzle
Mark Washofsky, “What’s So Special About Halakhic Reasoning? Cigarette Smoking, Jewish Law, and Rabbinical Decision Making
Richard Rheins, Halakhic Perspectives on Gambling
Jonathan K. Crane, Fear of Missing Out: Judaism, Addiction, and the Internet
Joshua B. Lief, Look, But Don’t Touch: A Halakhic Response on Internet Pornography
Joan S. Friedman, Regulating the Sale of Addictive Substances
The Internet Revolution and Jewish Law, 2014, edited by Walter Jacob.
Michael Stroh, The Internet: A Revolution in Human Consciousness
Amy Scheinerman, Lashon Hara is Just a Click Away
Lisa J. Grushcow, Necessary Acts and Additional Delights: Connectivity and Shabbat
Jason Rosenberg, Worship in the Cloud
Mark Washofsky, Internet, Privacy, and Progressive Halakhah
Walter Jacob, Intellectual Property in the Digital Age: Protect or Share
Medical Frontiers and Jewish Law, 2012, edited by Walter Jacob.
Mark Washofsky, The Woodchopper Revisited: On Analogy, Halakhah, and Jewish Bioethics
Audrey R. Korotkin, An Ounce of Prevention, A Pound of Cure: Preventive Surgery as Legitimate Medicine
Jonah Sievers, Compulsory Testing for HIV and Other Infectious Diseases
Walter Jacob, Changing Views of Health Care Delivery
Selected Responsa
War and Terrorism in Jewish Law, 2010, edited by Walter Jacob.
Walter Jacob, Introduction: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on War
Mark Washofsky, Torture, Terrorism, and the Halakhah
Michael Stroh, Martyrdom for the Sake of Heaven
Moshe Zemer, Some Thoughts on Redeeming Captives
Arnold Jacob Wolf, Is Jewish Pacifism Legitimate?
Walter Jacob, Fighting in National Armies
Walter Jacob, Fighting in the Israeli Army
Selected Responsa
Only in America: The Open Society and Jewish Law, 2009, edited by Walter Jacob in association with Moshe Zemer
Leonard Kravitz, America, Theology, and Halakhah
Peter Knobel, Autonomy, Halakhah, and Mitzvah: Only in America
Walter Jacob, The Case of Feminism: Mechanisms of Change from Europe to America.
Ruth Langer, Jews and the American Funeral
Samuel Adler, The Religious Duties of Women and Their Participation in Religious Services (1847; Hebrew)
Napoleon’s Influence on Jewish Law: The Sanhedrin of 1807 and Its Modern Consequences, 2007, edited by Walter Jacob in association with Moshe Zemer
Walter Jacob, Napoleon’s Sanhedrin and the Halakhah
Ferenc Raj, A Belated Gift, Reluctantly Given: The Emancipation of the Jews in Hungary
David Ellenson, “Creative Misreadings” in Representative Post-Emancipation Halakhic Writings on Conversion and Intermarriage
Mark Washofsky, Narratives of Enlightenment: On the Use of the “Captive Infant” Story by Recent Halakhic Authorities
Poverty and Tzedakah in Jewish Law, 2006, edited by Walter Jacob with Moshe Zemer
Walter Jacob, Against Poverty: From the Torah to Secular Judaism
Daniel Schiff, Alleviating Poverty: A Halakhic View of Social Security within the Modern Welfare State
Ronald A. Brauner, Obligations Versus Rights: A Halakhic Contribution to Constitutional Legal Theory
Richard S. Rheins, The Working Poor in the Halakhah
Frank Lowenberg, Hakhnassat Orhim: Hospitality for Poor Travelers
Selected Reform Responsa
Sexual Issues in Jewish Law, 2005, edited by Walter Jacob with Moshe Zemer
Ernest I. Jacob, Judaism and Sexuality
Moshe Zemer, Sexuality in Jewish Law and Tradition
Alyssa Gray, “The Ministering Angels Told Me”
Leonard Kravitz, The Other as Temptress
Walter Jacob, Controlling Passions: Mixed Results
Rachel Mikva, Is “Purity of Family” a Relevant Mitzvah for Reform Jews
Lewis D. Solomon, The Quest for Designer Children
Selected Responsa
Beyond the Letter of the Law: Essays on Diversity in the Halakhah in Honor of Moshe Zemer, 2004, edited by Walter Jacob
Walter Jacob, Moshe Zemer: An Appreciation
Peter Haas, German Romanticism and the Jews: The Intellectual Basis for Halakhic Reform
Mark Washofsky, Against Method: Liberal Halakhah Between Theory and Practice
Peter Knobel, “It is Time to Act for the Lord”: Toward a Hermeneutics for Progressive Halakhah
Jack Cohen, Halakhah and the Modern Temper
Walter Jacob, Writing Responsa: A Personal Journey
John D. Rayner, Ethics Versus Ritual
Jonathan Cohen, On the Standard of Holiness in Jewish Law
Daniel Schiff, Tzedakah: Aspiring to a Higher Ethic
David Ellenson, Rabbi Eliyahu Guttmacher on Conversion
David Golinkin, The Responsa of Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof: A Reappraisal
Louis Jacobs, The Rabbinic Riddle
Re-Examining Progressive Halakhah, 2002, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Mark Washofsky, Taking Precedent Seriously: On Halakhah as a Rhetorical Practice
Walter Jacob, “The Law of the Land and Jewish Law”: Opposition or Concurrence
Richard S. Rheins, Asu Seyag Latorah: Make a Fence to Protect the Torah
Joan S. Friedman, A Critique of Solomon B. Freehof’s Concept of Minhag and Reform Jewish Practice
Alan Sokobin, Jewish Law Responds to American Law
The Environment in Jewish Law, 2003, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Walter Jacob, Eco-Judaism: Does It Exist?
Moshe Zemer, Ecology as a Mitzvah
Rachel S. Mikva, When Values Collide: Economics, Health, and the Environment
Philip J. Bentley, Urban Planning in Jewish Environmental Law
John D. Rayner, Judaism and Animal Welfare
Selected Responsa
Gender Issues in Jewish Law, 2001, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Rachel Adler, Innovation and Authority: A Feminist Reading of the “Women’s Minyan” Responsum
John D. Rayner, The Gender Issue in Jewish Divorce
David Ellenson and Michael Rosen, Gender, Halakhah, and Women’s Suffrage: Responsa of the First Three Chief Rabbis on the Public Role of Women in the Jewish State
Elliot N. Dorff, Custom Drives Jewish Law on Women
Richard Rosenthal, Halakhah, Minhag, and Gender
Walter Jacob, The Woman in Reform Judaism: Facing or Avoiding the Issues
Moshe Zemer, Progressive Halakhah and Homosexual Marriage
Peter S. Knobel, Reform Judaism and Same-Sex Marriage: A Halakhic Inquiry
Marriage and Its Obstacles in Jewish Law, 1999, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
David Ellenson, Samuel Holdheim on the Legal Character of Jewish Marriage
Peter S. Knobel, Love and Marriage: Reform Marriage and Kiddushin
Walter Jacob, The Slow Road to Monogamy
Daniel Schiff, Separating the Adult from Adultery
Moshe Zemer, Traditional and Progressive Remedies to Marriage Impediments
Ariel Stone, Marriage with Sectarians: The Case of the Karaites
Selected Reform Responsa
Crime and Punishment in Jewish Law, 1999, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Stephen M. Passamaneck, The Concept of Crime in Jewish Tradition
Leonard Kravitz, What is Crime?
Clifford E. Librach, Assisting the Guilty: Halakhic Coniderations
Walter Jacob, Punishment: Its Method and Purpose
Richard A. Block, Capital Punishment
Moshe Zemer, Confrontation of Halakhah and Religious Violence
Selected Reform Responsa
Aging and the Aged in Jewish Law, 1998, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Walter Jacob, Beyond Methuselah: What is Old?
Ruth Langer, Honor Your Father and Your Mother: Caregiving as a Halakhic Responsibility
Mark Washofsky, Is Old Age a Disease?
A. Stanley Dreyfus, Halakhic Issues Related to the Ethics of Aging
Michael Rosen, Standing for the Elders or the Elderly?
Peter J. Haas, Ethical Wills
Selected Reform Responsa
Israel and the Diaspora in Jewish Law, 1997, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Leonard Kravitz, Israel and the Diaspora
John D. Rayner, The Land, the Law, and the Liberal Conscience
Aviezer Ravitzky, “Thou Shalt Not Mount the Wall from Exile”
Judith Hauptmann, Aliyah and Yeridah in Rabbinic Sources
Moshe Zemer, Aliyah: Conflict and Ambivalence
Walter Jacob, The Primacy of the Diaspora
Selected Reform Responsa
The Fetus and Fertility in Jewish Law, 1996, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Walter Jacob, “Be Fruitful and Multiply”
David Ellenson, Artificial Insemination and Procreative Autonomy
Mark Washofsky, Abortion and the Halakhic Conversation
Daniel Schiff, Developing Halakhic Attitudes to Sex Preselection
Judith Z. Abrams and Steven A. Abrams, The Use of Animals in Medical Research
Moshe Zemer, The Paternity of an Infertile Male
Death and Euthanasia in Jewish Law, 1995, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Mark N. Staitman, Withdrawing or Withholding Nutrition, Hydration, or Oxygen from Patients
Leonard Kravitz, Euthanasia
Peter Knobel, Suicide, Assisted Suicide, Active Euthanasia: A Halakhic Inquiry
William Cutter, Rabbi Judah’s Handmaid
Walter Jacob, Endstage Euthanasia: Some Other Considerations
Moshe Zemer, Determining Death in Jewish Law
Selected Reform Responsa
Conversion to Judaism in Jewish Law, 1994, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Mark Washofsky, Halakhah and Ulterior Motives: Rabbinic Discretion and the Law of Conversion
David Ellenson, Retroactive Annulment of a Conversion: A Survey of Representative Halakhic Sources
Bernard M. Zlotowitz, Sincere Conversion and Ulterior Motives
Moshe Zemer, Ambivalence in Proselytism
Richard Rosenthal, Without Milah and Tevilah
Walter Jacob, Conversion and the Developing Reform Halakhah
Selected Reform Responsa
Rabbinic-Lay Relations in Jewish Law, 1993, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Arnold Jacob Wolf, On the Authority of the Rabbi
Bernard M. Zlotowitz, K’vod Harav: Honor Due to a Rabbi
Richard Rheins, The Professionalization of the Rabbinate
Moshe Zemer, Ethical Imperatives and Halakhic Innovation: A Rabbinic Challenge
Peter Haas, The Rabbi as Arbiter
Walter Jacob, Rabbinic Authority – Power Sharing: Old and New Formulas
Mark Washofsky, Minhag and Halakhah: Toward a Model of Shared Authority on Matters of Ritual
Dynamic Jewish Law, 1991, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer
Moshe Zemer, Authority and Criteria in Liberal Halakhah
Mark Washofsky, The Search for Liberal Halakhah: A Progress Report
Haim Cohen, Jewish Law: Halakhah and the Jewish State
Walter Jacob: Pesikah and American Reform Responsa: The Early Years
W. Gunther Plaut, Reform Responsa as Liberal Halakhah
John D. Rayner, Between Antinomianism and Conservatism: The Need to Evolve an Alternative Halakhah
Hyam Maccoby, Halakhah and Sex Ethics