Non­fic­tion

Jew­ish Choic­es, Jew­ish Voic­es: Social Justice

  • Review
By – August 31, 2011

Stud­ies have shown that young gen­er­a­tions of Jews place high val­ue on social change as part of their Jew­ish iden­ti­ty. They per­son­al­ly par­tic­i­pate in social action and want the syn­a­gogues or orga­ni­za­tions with which they affil­i­ate to place a sim­i­lar val­ue on social con­cerns. Con­sis­tent with these inter­ests, this book brings togeth­er case stud­ies, clas­si­cal and con­tem­po­rary source mate­r­i­al, and a range of respons­es to address four areas of inter­est to social activists: pover­ty and health care, dis­crim­i­na­tion, the envi­ron­ment, and crim­i­nal jus­tice. The for­mat of the book allows a clear line to be drawn from ancient texts to con­tem­po­rary respons­es to issues that con­front our soci­ety. The authors con­tribut­ing to this vol­ume rep­re­sent a cross-sec­tion of the Jew­ish scenes from all move­ments and across gen­er­a­tional lines, so that read­ers get a sense that the Jew­ish approach­es to social issues tran­scend any lines that might divide our communities.

Rab­bi Arnold D. Sam­lan is a Jew­ish edu­ca­tor and rab­bi liv­ing in Mia­mi, Flori­da. He serves as exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Orloff Cen­tral Agency for Jew­ish Edu­ca­tion of Broward County.

Discussion Questions