The mod­ern peri­od, with all of its chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties, has forced the lead­ers of all the denom­i­na­tions of Judaism — from Lib­er­al to ultra-Ortho­dox— to rede­fine and re-con­cep­tu­al­ize them­selves and their tra­di­tions. In this book of 23 fas­ci­nat­ing essays, the schol­ar David Ellen­son finds that rather than sti­fle Judaism, as some had feared, Eman­ci­pa­tion has pro­vid­ed a con­text for cre­ativ­i­ty and adapt­abil­i­ty. Through an eru­dite exam­i­na­tion of legal writ­ings, prayer books, ser­mons and jour­nal arti­cles, Ellen­son looks at a wide range of issues includ­ing litur­gi­cal inno­va­tion, the sta­tus of women, fer­til­i­ty treat­ments and the Jew­ish respon­si­bil­i­ty toward non-Jews.