Eugene Borowitz

Eugene B. Borowitz (born February 20, 1924) is an American leader and philosopher in Reform Judaism,[1] known largely for his work on Jewish theology and Jewish ethics. He also edited a Jewish journal, Sh'ma, and teaches at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

He has been awarded the Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award by the Union for Reform Judaism (2005), selected as a Scholar of Distinction for a retrospective on his work by the Jewish Publication Society (2002), and given the Jewish Cultural Achievement medal for scholarship by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. He received the National Jewish Book Award (1974) for The Mask Jews Wear. As is apparent from a bibliography of his works, Borowitz is a prolific author.

During the Korean War, he served as a chaplain for the U.S. Navy.

Borowitz has degrees from Ohio State University, Columbia University, and HUC-JIR.

Biography

Born in 1924, he grew up in Columbus, Ohio and attended Ohio State University. After graduation, he went to Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 1948 and received his D.H.L. in 1950. He became the founding rabbi of the Community Synagogue in Port Washington, New York, while at the same time pursuing a PhD. in religion from the joint program sponsored by Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. In 1957, he was appointed as director of the Religious Education Department of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Because of this, he switched to Columbia's doctoral program in education and received the Ed.D. in 1958. Since 1962, he has been a faculty member at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he is Sigmund L. Falk Distinguished Professor of Jewish Education and Religious Thought. He celebrated his hundredth semester with the college in 2012.

Borowitz is best known for his development of "covenant theology," a term he first introduced in a 1961 article in Commentary (35). His work has concerned itself with the dilemma of the postmodern Jew: committed to individual autonomy, but nevertheless involved with God, Torah, and Israel. His interest in redefining covenant has led him to significant work in normative ethics, some of which was collected in his book Exploring Jewish Ethics (264), and his teaching on the subject led to the volume, Reform Jewish Ethics and the Halakhah (298). Borowitz's work in covenant theology found its mature expression in his 1991 book, Renewing the Covenant (273).

One of Borowitz's most significant accomplishments was his founding of Sh'ma, a Journal of Jewish Responsibility in 1970. He was its publisher and editor for twenty-three years, and he served as Senior Editor from 1993 to 1997. Sh'ma provided a forum where voices from all segments of the Jewish community could be heard on a wide range of controversial topics. Borowitz wrote numerous short book reviews for Sh'ma.

Selected Publications and Edited Works

[2]

Sources

Selected works

Bibliography, 1944-1999, additional works.

References

  1. ↑ Daniel F. Moore (2011). Jesus, an Emerging Jewish Mosaic: Jewish Perspectives, Post-Holocaust. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0567105946.
  2. ↑ http://huc.edu/directory/eugene-b-borowitz

External links