Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Sex and Intimacy

Editors and Contributors

147 Editors and Contributors Editors Elliot N. Dorff, rabbi (The Jewish Theological Seminary), Ph.D. (Columbia University), is rector and Sol and Anne Dorff Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Among the 12 books he has written are three award-winning books on Jewish ethics published by The Jewish Publication Society: Matters of Life and Death (1998), To Do the Right and the Good (2002), and Love Your Neighbor and Yourself (2003). He has also edited 10 books, including Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality (Oxford, 1995) and Contemporary Jewish Theology (Oxford, 1999). Contemporary Jewish Theology was co-edited by Louis Newman, who also co-edited the first three volumes of the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices series. Since 1984, Dorff has served on the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and has served as its Chair since 2007. He has also served on several federal advisory commissions dealing with the ethics of health care, sexual responsibility, and research on human subjects and is a member of the State of California’s Ethics Committee on embryonic stem cell research. He and his wife, Marlynn, have four children and seven grandchildren. Danya Ruttenberg, rabbi (Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University), is the author of Surprised By God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press, 2008), and editor of The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism (NYU Press, 2009) and Yentl’s Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism (SealPress,2001).Sheisalsoacontributing editor to Lilith and to the academic journal Women and Judaism, is on the editorial board of (and blogs at) Jewschool.com, and has been published in many books and periodicals over the years. Ruttenberg, who lives in the Boston area with her husband and son, serves as the Senior Jewish Educator at Tufts University and teaches and lectures nationwide. Contributors Martha Ackelsberg, Ph.D. (Princeton University), is a long-time Jewish feminist activist and a founding member of both Ezrat Nashim and B’not Esh. As the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government and of the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College, her teaching focuses on women’s activism, feminist and democratic theory, and community politics. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, she is author of Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women 148 (AK Press, 2005) and of Resisting Citizenship: Feminist Essays on Politics, Community and Democracy (Routledge, 2009). She also lectures and leads workshops on topics that include Jewish women’s activism, feminist transformations of Jewish life, and reconceptualizing families. S. Bear Bergman is an author and a theater artist. He is the author of Butch Is a Noun (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2006) and The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (Arsenal Pulp, 2009), and of three award-winning solo performances. He is also a frequent contributor to anthologies on all manner of topics, from the sacred to the extremely profane. A longtime educator, Bergman continues to work at the points of intersection between gender, sexuality, and culture. His website is: www.sbearbergman.com. Hanne Blank is a writer and historian whose work centers on issues of gender and sexuality. The author of numerous books, including Virgin: The Untouched History (Bloomsbury, 2008) and Straight, a history of heterosexuality, to be published by Beacon Press. Gabriel Blau, an activist and writer, is the founder of The God & Sexuality Conference, an annual academic conference on religion, sexuality and gender. He has spoken and taught in the U.S. and Israel at various institutions, including Columbia, New York, Yale, and Wesleyan Universities, The Rothko Chapel, Machon Schechter, and Eylat Chayim. He is on the board of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, New York’s synagogue for LGBTQ Jews, a member of the Advisory Committee of the LGBT Religious Archives Network at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies and Ministry at Pacific College of Religion, and a member of the faculty of Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality. Blau received his Bachelor’s in Theology from Bard College and studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He is a partner at Visible Shops, an Internet marketing firm, and lives in Manhattan with his husband and son. Jeffrey Burack, M.D. (Harvard Medical School), is Medical Director of the East Bay AIDS Center in Oakland, CA, which provides comprehensive medical care to a diverse population of 1,500 patients with HIV/AIDS. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of...