EDUCATION:
B.A.-Religion 1971 Barnard College, New York, New York
Rabbi 1976 Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Ph.D. 1978 Department of Religion Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION:
From Jewish Science to Pastoral Counseling: The Development of the Concept of Healing in the American Reform Rabbinate 1922-1950. January 1978. Dr. Franklin Littell
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Religion and Sports: An Introduction and Case Studies (Columbia University Press, 2015)
Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball (Oxford University Press, 2011) Robert Peterson Award for Best Book in Negro League History, Jerry Malloy Conference, 2011
Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition (Columbia University Press, 1997) 1998 Lambda Literary Award and 1999Award for Scholarship from the Jewish Women’s Caucus of the Association for Women in Psychology
Voices of the Religious Left: A Contemporary Sourcebook editor (Temple University Press, 2000)
Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation editor, with Sue Elwell and Shirley Idelson,(Rutgers University Press, 2001) 2002 Finalist for Lambda Literary Award
and Laura Levitt, guest editors, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal 14:1 Jewish Feminists and Our Fathers (Spring 2009)
and Arthur Remillard, Gods, Games and Globalization: New Perspectives on Religion and Sport (Mercer University Press, 2019)
Research articles:
Book chapters:
“Joshua Loth Liebman: The Peace of Mind Rabbi” in Faith and Freedom: Essays in Honor of Franklin Littell, ed. R. Libowitz (Pergamon Press, 1987) 177-192
“In God’s Image: Coming to Terms with Leviticus” in Twice Blessed: On Being Lesbian or Gay and Jewish. ed. C.Balka and A. Rose. (Beacon Press, 1989) 61-70 reprinted in Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society and Politics. Ed. Larry Gross and James Woods. (Columbia University Press, 1999) 147-152.
“The Quest for Economic Justice: Kaplan’s Response to the Challenge of Communism 1929-1940” in The American Judaism of Mordecai Kaplan ed. M. Scult, E. Goldsmith and R. Seltzer (New York University Press, 1990) 385-400
“Challenging Male/Female Complementarity: Jewish Lesbians and the Jewish Tradition” in People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective ed. Howard Eilberg-Schwartz (SUNY Press, 1992) 361-378
and Goldie Milgram “Women in the Reconstructionist Rabbinate” in Religious Institutions and Women’s Leadership: New Roles Inside the Mainstream ed. Catherine Wessinger (University of South Carolina Press, 1996) 291-310
“Another Perspective on Theological Directions” in Contemporary Religious Thought: A Reader ed. Elliot Dorff and Louis Newman (Oxford University Press, 1998) 494-497
“Religious Liberty, Same-Sex Marriage and the Case of Reconstructionist Judaism” in God Forbid: Religion and Sex in American Public Life ed. Kathleen Sands (Oxford University Press, 2000) 124-132. Reprinted in The Reconstructionist: A Journal of Contemporary Jewish Thought and Practice68/1 (Fall 2003) 33-42
“Guilty Pleasures: When Sex Is Good Because It’s Bad” in Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World’s Religions, ed. Hunt, Balakrishan and Jung (Rutgers University Press, 2001) 31-43. Republished in Sexuality and the Sacred 2nd ed., ed. Marvin Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas (Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 292-302.
“On Being a Rabbi at the Margins” in Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation, ed. Alpert, Elwell, Idelson (Rutgers University Press, 2001) 173-180
“Introduction: Why a Book on Lesbian Rabbis?” with Sue Elwell in Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation, ed. Alpert, Elwell, Idelson (Rutgers University Press, 2001) 1-36
“Sex in Jewish Law and Culture” in Sexuality in the World’s Religions eds. David Machacek and Melissa Wilcox, (ABC-CLIO, 2003) 179-202
“Who is a Jewish Baseball Player?” in The Proceedings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture 2003-2004, ed. Bill Simons (McFarland and Company Publishers, 2005) 95-106
“Baseball Across the Generations in Jewish American Writing” in What is Jewish About America’s “Favorite Pastime”? Essays and Sermons on Jews, Judaism and Baseball eds. Marc Lee Raphael and Judith I. Abrams (College of William and Mary Press, 2006) 35-45
“Commentary on Exodus” in The Queer Bible Commentary, ed. Robert Goss, Deryn Guest, Mona West, and Thomas Bohache (SCM Press, London, 2006) 61-76
“Same Sex Marriage and Reconstructionist Judaism” for Our Family Values: Same-sex Marriage and Religion ed. Traci West (Praeger, 2006) 239-252
“Solitary Sex” in The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism ed. Danya Ruttenberg, (NYU Press, 2009)
“Introduction:Jewish Feminists and Our Fathers” with Laura Levitt, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal 14:1 (Spring 2009) 1-9
“For Irving and Avi, But Mostly For Me” Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal 14:1 (Spring 2009) 57-62
“Grief and the Rituals Surrounding Death: A Jewish Approach” in Religion, Death and Dying: Bereavement and Death Rituals volume 3, ed. Lucy Bregman (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2010), 25-40
“Translating Rabbinic Texts on the Curse of Ham: What We Learn from Charles Copher and His Critics” Re-Presenting Texts: Jewish and Black Biblical Interpretation. David Nelson and Rivkah Ulmer, eds. (Gorgias Press 2013) 39-52
“Baseball Since 1920” entry for the A Companion to American Sport History, ed. Steven Riess (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) 177-201
“The Macho-Mensch: Modeling American Jewish Masculinity through Sport” Muscling in on New Worlds: Jews, Sport, and the Making of the Americas Edited by Raanan Rein and David Sheinin (Brill Series on Jewish Latin America, 2014) 102-120
“What Is a Jew? The Meaning of Genetic Disease for Jewish Identity” in Jews and Genes: The Genetic Future in Contemporary Jewish Thought ed. Elliot Dorff and Laurie Zoloth (Jewish Publication Society/University of Nebraska, Spring 2015)
“Prepositional Theology” in Imagining the Jewish God Edited by Len Kaplan and Ken Koltun-Fromm (Lexington Press, 2016) 293-297
“Religion and Sport in Philadelphia” in Religion in Philadelphia Reader, ed. Elizabeth Alvarez (Temple University Press, 2016) 227-233
“To Queer or Not to Queer: Marriage Vows in Jewish Same-sex Ceremonies” [“Mariage juif et kidouchin: des cérémonies queer ou égalitaires?”] in Homosexualité et traditions monothéistes: Vers la fin d’un antagonism? Ed. Rémy Bethmont et Martine Gross (Les Editions Labor et Fides, 2017) 335-350
and Jacob Staub, “The Making of Gay and Lesbian Rabbis in Reconstructionist Judaism 1979-1992” in Devotions and Desires: Histories of Sexuality and Religion in the Twentieth Century United States Edited by Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton and Heather White (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) 214-233
“A Christian Concerned for Israel: The Zionism of Franklin Littell” in The Profound Impact of an Impassioned Plea: Franklin H. Littell’s The Crucifixion of the Jews, Edited by David Patterson (Paragon House, 2018) 177-186
“Who is the Prophet? Jackie Robinson, Branch Rickey, and the Integration of Baseball” The Prophetic Dimension of Sport Edited by Terry Shoemaker (Springer International, 2019) 15-24
Peer reviewed journal articles:
“‘Sometimes the Law is Cruel’: the Construction of a Jewish Anti-Abortion Position in the Writings of Immanuel Jakobovits” in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (Fall 1995) 27-38
“On Seams and Seamlessness” in Judaism Since Gender ed. Laura Levitt and Miriam Peskowitz (Routledge, 1996) reprinted from Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies (Fall 1995) 88-92
“Faith Based on What: A Round Table Discussion” edited with Janet Jakobsen, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 70/4 (December 2002) 819-821
“Celebrating Judith Plaskow’s Work” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 23:1 (Spring 2007) 2-10
“Jackie Robinson as a Jewish Icon” Shofar: The Journal of Interdisciplinary Jewish Studies26:2 (Winter 2008) 42-59
“’Religion in Philadelphia’ for General Education” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 25:1 (2014) 41-45
“Tiby Eisen: An Oral History” NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 22:2 Spring 2014
“African-American Attitudes towards Jews in the ‘Negro Leagues’: The Case of Effa Manley” in Annual Review of the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in America Life volume 12 Edited by Ari F. Sclar
“Sports” in Shifter 22: Dictionary of the Possible (2016) 160-162
“Eating My Way Through Transparent” in Tastes of Faith: Jewish Eating in the United States, Annual Review of the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in America Life volume 15 (2017) Edited by Leah Hochman (Purdue University Press) 131-145
“Social Justice, Sport and Judaism: A Position Statement” Quest Journal Special Issue 71:2 (2019) 138-149 also published as a book chapter in Social Justice and Sport in the 21st Century: Religious, Sociological and Capability Perspectives, ed. Nick Watson (London: Routledge, 2019).
“Babe Ruth: Religious Icon” (for Religions, Special Issue 2019) 10, 337; doi:10.3390/rel10050337
“What Does Genuine Transformation Look Like? Emphasizing the ‘E’ in DEI” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 38:1 (Spring 2022) 31-34
Other works:
The Sotah: Rabbinic Attitudes and the Adulterous Wife” in Jewish Civilization: Essays and Studies vol. 2 (Reconstructionist Press, 1981) 33-41
“More Light on God and Feminism” Menorah (May-June 1982) 7
“The Reconstructionist Approach to Prayer: Some Questions and Answers” Response Magazine (Fall-Winter 1982) 127-131
and S. Lammers Teaching Medical Ethics to Theological Students: A Syllabus and Teacher’s Guide (Reconstructionist Press, 1983)
“Jewish Tradition and the Right to Health Care” Reconstructionist (April-May 1984) 15-20
“A Defense of Kaplan’s Doctrine of Vocation” Reconstructionist (September 1984) 25-28
“The Feminism Within Passover” Menorah (March-April 1984) 3-4
“Sisterhood is Ecumenical: Bridging the Gap between Jewish and Christian Feminists” Response Magazine (Spring, 1984) 3-16
“Ethical Decision Making: A Reconstructionist Framework” Reconstructionist (June 1985) 15-20
and J. Staub Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach (Reconstructionist Press, 1985, rev.ed. 2000)
and A. Waskow “Toward an Ethical Kashrut” Reconstructionist (March 1987)
“Tzipporah: Flight of the Bird Woman” Reconstructionist (Jan.-Feb. 1988) 24-27
“A Feminist Takes Stock of Reconstructionism” Reconstructionist (July-August 1989) 17-22
“Old and New Means to Insight” Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility (December 1990) 25
“Our Lives Are the Text: Exploring Jewish Women’s Spirituality” Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists (Spring, 1991) 66-80
“What Gender is God?” Reform Judaism (Winter 1991) 28-29
“Jews, Class and Education” Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists (Spring 1992)
and J. Schein Lifelong Jewish Learning: Philosophy, Process and Program (Reconstructionist Press, 1992)
“Whither Thou Goest: New Perspectives on Ruth 1:16” in Reading Ruth ed. Gail Reimer and Judith Kates (Ballantine Books, 1994)
“Coming Out in the Jewish Community” in Jewish Women’s Life Cycles ed. Debra Orenstein (Jewish Lights Press, 1994)
“If Not Now, When? A Jewish Delegation in Haiti” Bridges (1994) 89-96
“Kaplan’s Challenge to Us: A Vision of Social Justice” Reconstructionist (Fall 1995) 41-46
“Coming Out of the Closet as Politically Correct” Tikkun (March 1996) 61-63
“The Power of Words” in Lifecycles 2 ed. D. Orenstein and J. Litman (Jewish Lights Press, 1997)
“If We Are Not For Ourselves” Conscience (Spring 1997) 15-18
Confronting Mortality, Facing Grief: Jewish Perspectives on Death And Mourning (A Study Guide) (Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Press, 1997)
The Life and Thought of Tehilla Lichtenstein [monograph] (Jewish Science Publications, 1997)
“Symposium on The Book of Blessings by Marcia Falk” in Reconstructionist (Spring-Fall 1997) 77-80
“The Process of Coming Out” in From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them ed. Roberta Showalter Kreider (Chi Rho Press, 1998) 124-127
“The Politics of Spirituality” in Tikkun (September/October 1998) 46
“On Being a Rabbi at the Margins” Reconstructionist (Fall 1999) 54-59
“Wholeness and Difference: Living in Two Civilizations” Reconstructionism Today (Spring 2000) 14-15
“Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly: Reflections on Micah and Gay Ethics” in Take Back the Word: Queer Texts, Queer Readers eds. Mona West and Robert Goss (Pilgrim Press, 2000) 170-182
“Parshat Shmot: Rediscovering Tziporah” in A Women’s Torah Commentary: 54 Women Rabbis on the Weekly Torah Portions ed. Elyse Goldstein (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2000) 121-126
“New Jewish Approaches to Homosexuality” Swig Lecture, Judaic Studies Department, University of San Francisco at California (Swig Jewish Studies Program, 2002) 27-30
“Teaching Judaism in Indonesia: Some Reflections” Reconstructionist (Fall 2002) 4-9
“Commentary on Kaddish” in Pray Tell: A Hadassah Guide to Jewish Prayer, ed. Carol Diament, (Woodstock, Vt: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003) 190
“The Table is Set” in The Women’s Seder Sourcebook, ed. Tara Mohr, (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003) 184-5
“Jewish Approaches to Death and Dying” in Death and Dying in World Religions ed. Lucy Bregman (Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2004) 33-44
A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z (contributing writer) ed. Mary Hunt (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
“Symposium on Interfaith Relations” in RRA Connections 4
“Exploring Judaism, Finding Reconstructionism” with Jacob Staub Reconstructionist (Fall 2005) 70:1, 15-21
“Dialogue on Feminism and Activism” with Danya Ruttenberg in Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice ed. Or N. Rose, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, and Margie Klein (Jewish Lights Press, 2007) 206-214
“Jewish Identity and Jewish Genetic Diseases” The Reconstructionist 7:2 (Spring 2007) 69-84
Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism (New Press, 2008)
“Transformative Teaching Practices” on The Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc. Website http://www.fsrinc.org/fir/Alpert.pdf
“Lynn’s Tattoo” in Jewish Choices/Jewish Voices: The Body, ed. Louis Newman and Elliott Dorff, Jewish Publication Society (March 2008) 99-106
“The Work of the Scholar/Activist Teacher” edited with Traci West in Religious Studies News 23:4 (October 2008) 25-26
“Queer Religion and Community at HRC Summer Institute” Religion Dispatches, September 4, 2010 online at http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/guest_bloggers/3270/queer_religion_and_community_at_hrc_summer_institute
“Will You Marry Me? A Lesbian Rabbi’s First Amendment Quandry” States of Devotion, April 2011 at http://hemisphericinstitute.org/devotion/2011/04/will-you-marry-me-a-lesbian-rabbis-first-amendment-quandry/
“A Reason to Vote Along Racial Lines” Oxford University Press weblog, May 2011 http://blog.oup.com/2011/05/allstar-game/
“Is God Male?.” World Religions: Belief, Culture, and Controversy. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 July 2011.
“Jews and Baseball: A Reflection on a Longtime Love Affair” Religion Dispatches, August 11, 2011.
“The King of Showmen” Oxford University Press weblog, August 2011
http://blog.oup.com/2011/08/goose/
“Elliott Maddox” Oral History for Jewish Voices of American Baseball ed. Peter Ephross (McFarland Press, 2012)
“Jackie Robinson and The Jews” in The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Dodgers, ed. Lyle Spatz (University of Nebraska Press, 2012)
“Buster Haywood and the Jews of Black Baseball” Jews in the Gym: Proceedings of the Klutznick Symposium (Purdue University Press, 2012)
“Teaching Religion in Philadelphia” AJS Perspectives (Fall 2011)
“Micah and Gay Ethics” in Global Perspectives on the Bible, ed. Mark Roncace and Joe Weaver (Prentice-Hall, 2013)
“Slice of Bread for LGBT Jews and All the Excluded” Jewish Daily Forward, March 22, 2013, http://forward.com/articles/172960/slice-of-bread-for-lgbt-jews-and-all-the-excluded/
“Harry Passon’s Contributions to Black Baseball in Philadelphia” in Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American Exhibition Catalogue, ed. Josh Perelman (National Museum of American Jewish History, 2014) 144-147.
“Testing the Limits of Academic Freedom” https://academeblog.org/2022/04/13/testing-the-limits-of-academic-freedom/ (April 2022)
“Reconstructionism Without Zionism” https://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org/reconstructionism-without-zionism/ (June 2022)
“Finding Reciprocity and Compassion” Temple Faculty Herald (June 2022) 15 https://sites.temple.edu/facultyherald/2022/06/23/finding-reciprocity-and-compassion/
WORKS SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION/RESEARCH IN PROGRESS:
“Jewish Feminism and the UN Decade for Women Conferences (1975-1985)”
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, Commissioner, (2008-
American Academy of Religion 1976-
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association 1977-
Philadelphia Board of Rabbis 1978-
National Women’s Studies Association 1992-2002
Society of American Baseball Research 2003-
Association of Jewish Studies 2003-
Society of Jewish Ethics 2002-
AWARDS
Shulamit Magnus Award, 1993, Jewish Women’s Studies Project of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Outstanding Contribution to the LGBT Jewish Community, Congregation Beth Ahava, 2000
Distinguished Teaching Award, 2001, ATTIC, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University
Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, 2001, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Doctor of Humane Letters, 2005, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Rabbi Ira Eisenstein Award, 2008, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Prophetic Voices Award, 2008, Shalom Center
Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, 2013, Temple University
Stauffer Service Award, 2013, Temple University
Great Teacher Award, 2016, Temple University
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