CONTRIBUTORS

Samuel Adler (1809-1901) was rabbi in Alzey (Germany ) and Temple Emanu-El in New York . An active participant in the rabbinic conferences in Brunswick, Frankfurt , Breslau , and Philadelphia , he fought vigorously for civil rights for Jews in Germany before emigrating to the United States in 1857. He was elected as honorary president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis at its founding meeting in 1889. His collected papers were published as Kobetz al Yad(1886).

Walter Jacob is President of the Abraham Geiger College in Berlin/Potsdam ; Senior Scholar of Rodef Shalom Congregation, Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ; President of the Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah and the Associated American Jewish Museums. Author, editor, or translator of thirty-eight books including Christianity through Jewish Eyes (1974), American Reform Responsa(1983), The Pittsburgh Platform in Retrospect(1985), Liberal Judaism and Halakhah(1988), The Second Book of the Bible: Exodus Interpreted by Benno Jacob (1992), Die Exegese hat das erste Wort(2002), Pursuing Peace Across the Alleghenies(2005), Hesed and Tzedakah- From the Bible to Modernity(2006), Napoleon's Influence on Jewish Law(2008).

Peter Knobel is President of the Central Conference of American Rabbi, chair of its Liturgy Committee, and rabbi of Beth Emet, Evanston , Illinois . He is past president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. He is the author of papers on assisted suicide, homosexuality, and spirituality and is editor of Gates of the Season(1983), Duties of the Soul: The Role of Commandments in Liberal Judaism(1999), and Mishkan Tefillah(2007), the new American Reform prayer book.

Leonard Kravitz is professor of Midrash and Homiletics at the Hebrew Union College— Jewish Institute of Religion in New York . He has served on the Medical Ethics Committee of the New York Federation of Philanthropies. Author of The Esoteric Meaning of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed(1988); Shemona Perakim: Treatise on the Soul(1996); Kohelet: A Modern Commentary on Ecclesiastes(2000); Mishlei, A Modern Commentary on Proverbs(2002); Pirke Avot: A Modern Commentary on Jewish Ethics(2005); Ruth: A Modern Commentary.