Society of Jewish Ethics 2013 Annual Meeting

January 3 - 6, 2013

Hilton Chicago

720 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605

 

REGISTER HERE

 

 

Thursday, January 3, 2013                     

11:45am-1:15pm    Bioethics Group Steering Committee Meeting                       Joliet

 

1:20-7:00pm   Bioethics Group of the Society of Jewish Ethcs                            Williford C

1:20-3:00pm   Bioethics Session 1

1:25-3:00pm   Convener and Discussion Leader: Michal Raucher, Northwestern University, Chicago

1:30-2:00pm   Presenter: Alyssa Henning, Northwestern University

                          Title: Jewish Bioethics: Tracing its Past, Mapping its Present, and Shaping its Future

                          Abstract:

Jewish bioethics has more to offer bioethics discourse than ever before as scholars incorporate new methods and sources into their work.  But Jewish bioethics’ richness remains hidden when new methods are not always clearly articulated or new sources’ full implications only tentatively developed.  I arrange American Jewish bioethics into three phases: (I) defining Jewish bioethics as a subset of halakhah (Jewish law); (II) uncovering liberal alternatives within orthodoxy; and (III) looking beyond the Talmud.  Analyzing emerging Phase III trends and exploring lessons that earlier phases offer current scholarship, I consider how to maximize Jewish bioethics’ relevance to bioethics discourse.

 

2:00-2:15pm   Respondents:

                          1. Elliot Dorff, American Jewish University, Los Angeles  

                          2. Louis Newman, Carleton College

 

2:15-3:00pm   Discussion

3:00-3:02pm   Greetings from Jewish Bioethics Group: Sander Mendelson, Medstar Washington Hospital Center

 

3:02-3:15pm   BREAK

 

3:15-4:45pm   Bioethics Session 2

3:15-3:35pm   Convener and Discussion Leader: Jonathan Crane, Emory University

                          Presenter: Yaniv Ron-El, The University of Chicago

                          Title: Prenatal Sex Selection: Between Margins of Life and Margins of Liberal Politics

                          Abstract:

Novel technology enabling sex selection prior to birth and to conception has sparked fierce ethical debates among religious thinkers, bio-ethicists and policy-makers alike. The question is whether individuals should be allowed to use the technology for non-medical reasons. I will present some recent answers from the Jewish (orthodox) perspective and the official Israeli Ministry of Health guidelines, emphasizing their religious aspects, some of which are rather surprising. In addition, I will discuss my original ethical approach that sees political intervention in the question of sex selection as compatible with liberal philosophy. This approach relies heavily on the unique interpretations by Hanna Arendt and David Heyd to the Genesis creation myth.

 

3:35-3:40pm   Respondent: Len Sharzer, Jewish Theological Seminary

3:40-4:00pm   Discussion

 

4:00-4:20pm  Convener and Discussion Leader: Lila Kagedan, Harvard University & Yeshiva Maharat

                          Presenter: Rebecca Levi, University of Virginia

                          Title: Community, Authority and Autonomy: Jewish Responses to the Vaccine Wars

                          Abstract:

What can the Jewish tradition contribute to the current public debate about vaccination? Much of the rhetoric surrounding vaccine refusal appeals to concepts of individual autonomy and fears of political and intellectual authority, claiming that the individual is the best expert on their own health and actively denying accepted medical consensus. Unlike many other health decisions, vaccine refusal has direct and measurable consequences for one’s community. The Jewish tradition’s emphasis on community and the well-being of the collective, as well as its tradition of respect for intellectual authority, can be a critical support to the medical community in encouraging widespread vaccination.

 

4:20-4:25pm   Respondent: Paul Wolpe, Emory University

4:25-4:45pm   Discussion

 

4:45-5:00pm   BREAK

 

5:00-5:45pm   Bioethics Session 3

5:00-5:20pm   Convener and Discussion Leader: Cristina Traina, Northwestern University

          Presenter: Mara Benjamin, St. Olaf College

          Title: Bringing Maternity in from the Margins

                          Abstract:

In recent decades, feminist theologians and ethicists have argued that maternal obligation and childrearing offers a lens through which claims about ethical obligation can and should be refracted.  This paper evaluates how these investigations – largely undertaken within a Christian context – may be used to advance normative Jewish thought.  I argue that Jewish feminists have given short shrift to the significant role obligation has traditionally played in Jewish conceptions of human life and propose how a Jewish feminist examination of commandedness and obligation could benefit from theological and ethical considerations of maternal activity.

 

5:20-5:25pm   Respondent: Rabbi Suzanne Brody, PhD, Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School

5:25-5:45pm   Discussion

 

5:45-7:00pm   Bioethics Keynote Session

5:45-5:50pm   Convener and Discussion Leader: Jonathan Cohen, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of 

                          Religion, Cincinnati

5:50-6:35pm   Speaker: Laurie Zoloth, Northwestern University

          Topic: Interdisciplinarity in Jewish Bioethics 

6:35-7:00pm   Discussion

 

6:58-7:00pm   Closing and thank you:Sander Mendelson, Medstar Washington Hospital Center

 

Co-Sponsored Session by SJE, SSME, and Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ)

5:00-7:00pm   Hotels and Worker Justice                                                         Waldorf

                           Panelists:         Kim Bobo, Interfaith Worker Justice

                                                      Stewart Herman, Concordia College

                                                      Moses Pava, Yeshiva University

                           Session's Purpose:

The purpose of the pre-conference is to: 1) inform the membership of the societies about the multiple considerations of the Executive Director in choosing a venue for annual meetings, 2) provide information about labor issues related to hotel workers in the US and discuss best practices to consider when booking meetings, 3) frame the issue of labor concerns within a broader context of social concerns related to conferencing , 4) start a dialogue about worker justice issues related to annual meetings.

During the second hour participants will be invited to discuss the issues at hand and engage the questions of socially responsible meeting planning from the perspective of their various traditions. We would attempt to develop a set of “best practices” for professional societies to consider when planning meetings. Small groups will talk for 20 minutes and then we will have 40 minutes for plenary conversation.

 

                          Convener: Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University

 

7:15-10:00pm     SJE Board Meeting                                                                     Joliet

 

Friday, January 4, 2013                         

9:00-10:30am             Plenary                                                                                  International South

Speaker: George "Tink" Tinker, Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver

Respondent: Traci West, Drew University Theological School

Convener: Teresa Delgado, Iona College

 

10:30-11:00am           BREAK                                                                                   International North

 

11:00 am-12:30pm    Concurrent Session I                                                        Lake Michigan

Topic: Casualties of a Global Economy: Examining Worker Justice in the United States

SJE/SCE/SSME Panelists:            

Rick Axtell, Centre College

Gerald J. Beyer, Saint Joseph's University

Elliot Dorff, American Jewish University, Los Angeles

Jennifer Leath, Yale University

Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University

 

Convener:      Moses L. Pava, Yeshiva University

 

12:45-1:50pm             SJE Lunch Session                                                              Boulevard C

                                       (Pre-registration required for lunch. Meal is Kosher vegetarian.)

Topic: Obligations to Workers: What Does Justice Require of Us?

Convener: Moses L. Pava, Yeshiva University

Panelists:

Laurie Zoloth, Northwestern University

David Teutsch, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Elliot Dorff, American Jewish University, Los Angeles

 

2:00-3:30pm               Concurrent Session II                                                         Boulevard C

Topic: Talmudic Reasoning on Two Contemporary Ethical Challenges

Convener: Joel Gereboff, Arizona State University

Presenter: Chaim Saiman, Villanova Law School

Title: "Talmudic Analytics and Ethical Thought: A Study of the Jewish law of the Worker's Wages as an argument

          for Neo-Lamdanut"

Abstract:

Talmudism has always attracted ardent devotees as well as fierce critics.  To some, the classical Talmudic tradition represents the essence of authentic Judaism.   However, a competing, and more humanistic line of thought finds Talmudic legalism too narrow a prism through which to view the Jewish experience.  Owing to this bifurcation however, serious engagement with the substantive content of halakha has remained the exclusive province of the classical talmudists. This paper joins a growing chorus of voices that rejects this dichotomy, and introduces an alternative approach, “neo-lamdanut.”  Neo-lamdanut delves head first into the give-and-take of Talmudic discourse while it employs a variety of tools developed by legal and literary theorists to analyze the form of halakhic reasoning and the substance of its doctrines.  The study proceeds via a case study of the biblical prohibition of withholding a worker’s wages (Lev. 19:13 & Deut. 24:14-15) and the correlative Bavli sugya (B. Metz. 110-112). 

 

Presenter: Julia Watts Belser, Missouri State University

Title:“Confidence and Disaster in Rabbinic Tales of Destruction and Contemporary Environmental Crisis”

Abstract:

Recounting the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple (Bavli Gittin 55b-58a), the Babylonian Talmud evokes a recurring motif of “misplaced confidence,” critiquing human tendency to misjudge risk in the midst of crisis.  By setting talmudic narrative in conversation with contemporary environmental passivity, I examine how confidence often mutes  responses to environmental danger in industrialized nations, whether through trust that God will prevent catastrophe—or appeal to techno-scientific salvations.  Drawing on the Bavli’s evocative portrayals of power in the midst of powerlessness, I offer an alternate imaginary for resilience in the midst of disaster that might lay seeds for communal transformation, not apocalypse.

Respondent: Barry Wimpfheimer, Northwestern University

 

3:30-4:00pm               BREAK

 

4:00-5:30pm               Concurrent Session III                                                        Joliet

Topic: Jewish Ethics, Politics and Moral Psychology

Convener: Martin Kavka, Florida State University

Presenters: Sydney Levine, Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science

                        Joshua Rottman, Boston University

Title: "Jewish Ethics on the Margins of Moral Psychology"

Abstract:

The theories prominent in the field of moral psychology claim to be universal – that is, they make claims that should apply to all human ethical systems because they describe something deep and true about human psychology. However, the study of Jewish ethics has been generally ignored by researchers in this field. We aim to explore whether current theories of moral psychology adequately account for Jewish ethics – and if they are therefore truly universal in their present formulations.   To answer this question, we have conducted an empirical investigation of how Jews in various communities across the country understand the interaction between halakha and ethics.  From these findings, we draw theoretical conclusions about human psychology and the structure of the lay concept of Jewish morality.

 

Presenter: Jeffrey Israel, The New School

Title: "Jewishness and Rawlsian Political Liberalism"

Abstract:

In this paper I will assess the relevance of John Rawls’s political liberalism to Jewish political ethics. I will argue that Jewishness presents a distinctive challenge to Rawls’s theory and that Rawls’s theory presents a distinctive challenge to Jewish political ethics. In the former case, I will show why the challenge of Jewishness ought to stimulate an important corrective to Rawls’s view. In the latter case, I will show how Rawls’s challenge presents a new conceptual framework that can aid the moral-psychological analysis of Jewishness.

Respondent: Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago

 

4:15pm                          Shabbat Candle Lighting                                                   On your own

 

5:45-6:45pm                SCE Presidential Address                                                 International South

                        Title: "Doing Latina/o Ethics from the Margins of Empire: Liberating the Colonized Mind"

        President: Miguel De La Torre, Illiff School of Theology, University of Denver

 

6:45-7:00pm                Lifetime Achievement Award                                           International South

       Recipient: Beverly Wildung Harrison

 

7:00-7:45pm                Kabbalat Shabbat Services                                              PDR 2

        Followed byKiddush and Hamotzi (Please bring your own siddur.)

        All are welcome

 

8:00-9:30pm                Shabbat Dinner                                                                    Astoria

                                        (Pre-registration required for dinner. Meal is Kosher vegetarian.)

                                        SJE Presidential Greetings: Aaron Mackler, Duquesne University

 

Saturday, January 5, 2013                   

7:15-8:45am               Breakfast with an Author                                                   Grand Ballroom

      Buffet opens at 7:15; Discussion 7:45-8:45    (Pre-registration is required.)

Dorff, Elliot, Jonathan Crane (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook on Jewish Ethics and Morality

                                                               (Oxford University Press, 2012)

            Facilitator:  Louis Newman, Carleton College

Green, Ronald M., Kant and Kierkegaard on Time and Eternity (Mercer University Press, 2011)

            Facilitator:       Christine Darr, University of Iowa

 

9:00-10:30am             Plenary                                                                                    International South

      Speaker: James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary

Respondent: Gloria Albrecht, University of Detroit Mercy

Convener: Irene Oh, George Washington University

 

10:30-11:00am           BREAK                                                                                     International North

 

10:45am-12:30pm     Shabbat Service                                                                  PDR 2

Service is in Hebrew; all are welcome. (Please bring your own siddur.)

D’var Torah: Geoffrey Claussen, Elon University, “Moses and the Struggle for Empathy” (Parashat Shemot, Exodus 1:1-6:1)

 

12:30-2:00pm             Shabbat Lunch                                                                      Astoria

                                       (Pre-registration required for lunch. Meal is Kosher vegetarian.)         

 

2:00-3:30pm               Concurrent Session IV                                                        Williford C

Topic: Ethical Theories in Practice: Ethics in Times of Trouble

Convener: Ryan Dulkin, Eden Theological Seminary

Presenter: Ute Steyer,The Jewish Theological Seminary

Title: "Emmanuel Levinas and the Priority of Ethics in Therapy and Pastoral Counseling"

Abstract:

The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas has become widely known for his "ethics of the other" and is increasingly referred to in articles from the fields of psychotherapy, chaplaincy etc. Although there certainly are a number of interesting aspects in Levinas' ethical thought that will sound familiar for many chaplains and pastoral care givers this seeming familiarity also bears a risk to assume that Levinas is “the pastoral theologian” per excellence and overlooks just how radical parts of Levinas’ ethics are.  This paper will address some substantial differences between Levinas and some mainstream approaches to pastoral counseling.

Respondent: Robert Gibbs, University of Toronto

 

Title: "Remembering the Dead: Social Ethics on the Margins of Life and Community"

Presenters:  Sonja Buehring, University of Wisconsin-Madison Jewish Studies Graduate Association

        Susan Orpett Long, John Carroll University

Abstract:

All societies have rules and customary practices constituting an ethical framework for the treatment of the deceased’s body and spirit, and for memorialization of the dead. Based on a series of interviews in 2011, this paper explores the interpretation and practice of such rules by American interfaith couples as they navigate the ethical expectations of remembering in Jewish, Christian, and American secular communities. On the margins of their religious communities, some drew upon their own religions, sometimes incorporating customs of the spouse’s traditions. Many, however, turned toward more individualized and secularized approaches considering the margins of life and death.

Respondent: Aana Vigen, Loyola University

 

3:30-4:00pm               BREAK                                                                                   International North

 

4:00-5:30pm               Concurrent Session V                                                         Williford C

Topic: The Ethics of Encapsulating Jewish Ethics: a Panel Discussion of the Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics

            and Morality

Conveners: Elliot N. Dorff, American Jewish University

      Jonathan K. Crane, Emory University

 

Abstract:

With original essays from nearly thirty leading scholars around the world, OHJEM surveys the breadth and depth of Jewish ethics.  It covers textual, historical, thematic and communal approaches, as well as a host of practical issues from bioethics to business ethics, from the personal to the political.  Questions arise, however, whether Jewish ethics can be encapsulated, and what are the ethics of this kind of project.  The project of surveying Jewish ethics presupposes that the terrain of the field can be demarcated, traversed, and assessed.  It also suggests that it is possible to essentialize the field.  Is this a reasonable task for Jewish ethics – at any stage of development?  Can it be done well, and if so, what would that look like?

 

Panelists:

David Ellenson, Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, President

Jean Porter, University of Notre Dame, Professor of Theology

Abdulaziz Sachedina, University of Virginia, Professor of Religious Studies

 

6:16pm                       Havdalah                                                                                On your own

  

Sunday, January 6, 2013                         

7:45-8:45am                           SJE Business Meeting                                           PDR 2

   Open to all SJE Members

9:00-10:30am                         SSME Plenary                                                          International South

                                                   Speaker: Michael Sells, University of Chicago

 

10:30-11:00am                       BREAK                                                                       International North

 

11:00am-12:30pm                 Concurrent Session VI                                          Joliet

Topic: Jewish Ethics and Divine Command

Convener: Emily Filler, University of Virginia

Title: "Yeshayahu Leibowitz's Axiology: A 'Polytheism' of Values and the Most Valuable Value"

Presenter: Yonatan Brafman, Columbia University

Abstract:

In this essay Leibowitz’s axiology and its relationship to the value that he claims halakhic practice instantiates, service of God, is explicated and assessed. It is argued that, while often Leibowitz affirms a relativistic ‘polytheism’ of values, sometimes he implies that the religious value is the most ‘valuable value.’ However, this is not due to its material content, because serving God is objectively best, rather it is because, consonant with his negative theology, it most fully instantiates the formal properties of a value. The tenability of this contentless value as a possible intention and reason for action is then assessed.

 

Title: "Eating in Holiness: The Tension between Ethics and Command in Orthodox Kosher

          Practice"

Presenter: Jody Myers, California State University, Northridge

Abstract:

This presentation examines the role of ethics in contemporary American Orthodox Jewish interpretations of shechita, the dietary laws, and eating.  If one were to judge by the public declaration of leading Orthodox kosher certification agency, ethical concerns are paramount.  However, my research, based primarily on participant-observation and qualitative interviews with Orthodox laypeople and rabbis in Los Angeles, shows a resistance to acknowledge the ethical dimensions of shechita or any other aspect of Jewish food practices.  I consider how the current discourse has been affect by the changed role of women and the emergence of new strictures in Orthodox Jewish life.

Respondent: Aaron Gross, University of San Diego

 

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