Friends and colleagues,
I am looking forward to meeting those of you who are coming to Chicago for our meeting January 4-7. As Jewish ethicists the chance to gather and think together this year is even more crucial than usual.
There is still a chance to renew your membership and register for the Society of Jewish Ethics conference (though I am not sure that there are still rooms at the conference hotel).
We continue to host our meeting in conjunction with the Society of Christian Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. We are honored to have Professor Laura Levitt delivering our plenary this year, titled "Doing Justice Otherwise: Reading Texts, Thinking with Objects." (Friday, 1:30, Grand/State Ballroom – Floor 4) Participants at this year’s conference will be discussing issues relevant to our current moment, including the role of civil disobedience in contemporary Jewish activism. We will also be exploring the ramifications of classical Jewish texts on hard subjects like slavery and what they mean for today. In keeping with SJE conferences of years past, this year's conference will also feature papers that explore the intersection of classical Jewish sources and lived experience, both ancient and contemporary.
In order to keep the conference as safe and accessible as possible we are implementing the COVID mitigation policies, including mandatory masking. The COVID mitigation policies in full are here.
In addition to our annual scholarly conference, the Society sponsors a journal, the Journal of Jewish Ethics. The Journal publishes outstanding scholarship in Jewish ethics, broadly conceived. It serves as a location for the exchange of ideas among those interested in understanding, articulating, and promoting descriptive and normative Jewish ethics. It aspires to advance dialogue between Jewish ethicists and ethicists working out of other religious and secular traditions. Please read the journal, and equally important, submit your scholarship to the journal for publication.
The great work of the Society is powered both by the intellectual work and the financial resources of you, our members. Please renew your membership now here, check out some pictures from last year’s conference, and register for the 2024 conference.
Best,
Aryeh Cohen
President, SJE