Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics

by Rachel Adler

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for 1998.

How can women's full participation transform Jewish law, prayer, sexuality, and marriage? What does it mean to "engender" Jewish tradition? Pioneering theologian Rachel Adler gives this timely and powerful question its first thorough study in a book that bristles with humor, passion, intelligence, and deep knowledge of traditional biblical and rabbinic texts.

Genres: Jewish, Judaism, Religion, Judaica, Nonfiction, Feminism, Theology

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Rachel Adler is the David Ellenson Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Los Angeles Campus. She pioneered in integrating feminist perspectives into interpreting Jewish texts and law. Her book "Engendering Judaism" (1998) is the first by a female theologian to win a National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. Rabbi Adler has a PhD in Religion and Social Ethics from University of Southern California, rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College in 2012, an M.A. in English Literature from Northwestern University, and an MSW from University of Minnesota.

She has published over 55 articles, many of them reprinted in collections. Recent articles include "The Torah, Our Chavruta," in These Truths We Hold: Judaism in an Age of Truthiness edited by Joshua Garroway and Wendy Zierler (CCAR Press, 2020), "Social and Political Rights Irrespective of Sex" in Deepening the Dialogue: Jewish-Americans and Israelis Envisioning the Jewish Democratic State edited by Rabbis Stanley M. Davids and John L. Rosove (CCAR Press,2019), "For These I Weep: A Theology of Lament," (CCAR Journal 2014) and "Guardianship of Women in Jewish and Islamic Legal Texts" with Ayesha Chaudhry in Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning: Encountering our Legal Other edited by Anver Emon (OneWorld Press 2017). Books in progress include Pour Out Your Heart Like Water: Jewish Perspectives on Suffering (Oxford) and Gender and Jewish Thought: Theology and Ethics, with Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi.