Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

Debra Nuss­baum Cohen post­ed on the For­ward​‘s Sis­ter­hood Blog this week about a forth­com­ing book from Jew­ish Lights Pub­lish­ing: The Mod­ern Men’s Torah Com­men­tary: New Insights from Jew­ish Men on the 54 Week­ly Torah Por­tions (Rab­bi Jef­frey Salkin, ed.). Cohen writes:

The Atlanta-based Rab­bi Salkin gives a nod toward Jew­ish fem­i­nist schol­ar­ship, and writes in the intro­duc­tion that fem­i­nism has point­ed out that we see the world through a gen­dered lens. He also writes, ​“The great, often unspo­ken cri­sis fac­ing mod­ern lib­er­al Judaism is the dis­en­gage­ment of its men.”

There is, to be sure, a seri­ous prob­lem of dis­en­gage­ment among young men in lib­er­al syn­a­gogues, but Rab­bi Salkin over­states it. Thought­ful ana­lysts are more like­ly to say that the great cri­sis fac­ing mod­ern lib­er­al Judaism is over­all illit­er­a­cy and indifference.

The very idea of a book of men’s Torah com­men­tary ran­kles some lead­ing Jew­ish feminists.

To read the com­plete post, please click here.