Department Chair, Associate Professor, Director of the Jewish Teacher Training Program.

Cross-appointed to the Department of Integrated Studies in Education; Associate Member, School of Religious Studies.

Areas of Interest

Jewish social activism, Mordecai Kaplan, American Judaism, Jewish education

Education

B.A. (University of Toronto), M.A. (Hebrew University), PhD. (污污草莓视频 University)

Current research

I am assembling an anthology of Jewish social activist thought in North America, 1860-2021 (Jewish Publication Society) and preparing for publication the final volume of excerpts from the diaries of Mordecai Kaplan, 1951-1981 (Wayne State University Press). My book, From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism (Hebrew Union College Press, 2002), was reissued in 2022 with an extensive new preface. I am a founder and Vice-President of the which aims鈥攖hrough conferences, on-line seminars, and an ever-expanding website to stimulate conversation about the Jewish issues that were of core concern to Kaplan.

Select Publications

Books:

From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2002. HUC Reprint Edition with a New Preface (2022).

Articles:

鈥淭eaching Judaism and Social Justice,鈥� AJS Perspectives, Fall 2022. 96-97.

鈥�,鈥� (2022)

鈥淛ewish Ritual and Social Justice in America,鈥� Routledge Handbook on Jewish Ritual and Practice, Oliver Leaman, ed. Routledge, 2022. 257-274.

鈥�,鈥� (2019)

(with Jeffrey Schein), 鈥淭he Educational Philosophies of Mordecai Kaplan and Michael Rosenak: Surprising Similarities and Illuminating Differences,鈥� Journal of Jewish Education, 80:4 (2014), 388-410.

鈥淎ll is One? Current Theologies.鈥� CCAR Journal, Fall 2012, pp. 213-222.

鈥淜aplan鈥檚 Approach to Prayer Appreciated and Challenged,鈥� Crosscurrents, March 2012, pp. 50-60.

鈥淥bligation vs. Possibility: Presentations of Ritual in the Reconstructionist Movement and Their Significance,鈥� Conservative Judaism, V59:4 (Summer 2007), pp. 42-60.

鈥淲hat Does It Imply? How Does It Apply? Reconstructionist Holiday Editorials, 1935-1955.鈥� Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, V24:3 (Spring 2006) pp. 37-57.

Book reviews:

Darren Kleinberg. Hybrid Judaism: Irving Greenberg, Encounter, and the Changing Nature of American Jewish Identity. Religious Studies Review, Volume 45:4 (December 2019), 517.

Patricia Keer Munro. Coming of Age in Jewish America: Bar and Bat Mitzvah Reinterpreted. Religious Studies Review, Volume 44:4 (December 2018), 482-483.

Jeffrey A. Summit, Singing God鈥檚 Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism. Religious Studies Review, Volume 44:2 (June 2018), 233.

Jonathan B. Krasner, The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education. The American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume LXIV (2012), pp. 164-166.

Zander Sherman. The Curiosity of School. The Montreal Gazette, August 10, 2012.

Jack Cohen. Democratizing Judaism. H-Judaic, August 25, 2011.

Harold Troper, The Defining Decade: Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish Community in the 1960s. The Montreal Gazette, January 15, 2011, p. i7.