MODERN JEWISH ETHICS SINCE 1970: WRITINGS ON METHODS, SOURCES, AND ISSUES. Edited by Jonathan K. Crane, EmilyFiller, and Mira BethWasserman. Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought, 12. Brandeis University Press, 2025. Pp. 350. Paper, 35; cloth, 140; e‐book, 34. 95.

In the forward to Modern Jewish Ethics Since 1970, the series editors state that “a discrete field of Jewish ethics has emerged in North America.” And indeed, this book is a celebration of the field as it has grown into a distinct subfield within Jewish studies and religious ethics and become a discourse of its own, separate (although not unrelated) from conversations about Jewish law, or halakha. In the volume, the editors, Jonathna K. Crane, Emily Filler, and Mira Beth Wasserman, have gathered some of the most significant publications from this nascent field as it has developed over fifty years, beginning with landmark articles from the past century that helped the field define itself as a discrete discourse, to recent contributions that discuss contemporary events including the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, the editors include a wide array of contributions from all over the world (although, as the editors admit in the introduction, the book skews towards North America) and cover topics as varied as speech ethics, state power and violence, the positionality of animals, and reproduction. One of the most interesting and useful aspects of this book is the arrangement of the contributions as “conversations,” unfolding over place and time, but placed together here for fruitful discussion. The editors explain that “because Jewish ethics is experienced deliberatively—that is, through encounters and discussions with others,” the volume is organized as “small sets of curated conversations between scholars from different time periods, academic subfields, and religious commitments.” So, for example, in the section on disability, Julia Watts Belser's selection, “Improv and the Angel,” references and builds on the essay of Judith Z. Abrams, “Judaism and Disability,” while doing very different work than, for example, Tzvi C. Marx's contribution, “Disability in Jewish Law.” Some essays could also be placed in multiple sections (or conversations) within the volume, and so the editors have helpfully included footnotes cross-referencing selections to other conversations they could be part of. For example, Louis Newman's landmark essay “Woodchoppers and Respirators,” which is included in the theories and methods section, includes a footnote to an article placed in the section on Aging/Ends of Life. This deliberatively conversational structure for the edited volume gives the reader a sense of the richness and dimensionality of the field of Jewish ethics and indeed might evoke the associative style of much traditional Jewish text itself. The editors' introduction to the volume provides a clear and helpful overview of the field's current state and some of its central questions, concerns, and methods. It provides an overview of the history of the field—how it began in the 1970s, and in the early 2000s gained status as a discrete field with the founding of the Society of Jewish Ethics and the Journal of Jewish Ethics. The introduction also discusses some of the challenges with differentiating the field from halakha (Jewish law) and how some scholars even argue that a discrete concept of Jewish ethics lacks coherence. The introduction ends with a helpful definition of the field (although one that I am sure will be contested by scholars as the field continues to develop): “Jewish ethics is the field of study that engages Jewish texts, history, and experience in critical conversations about values and virtues, justice and good judgment, human relations and responsibilities.” The editors state at the outset that they hope the volume will be useful for teaching. The short selections (three to five pages or so) from longer essays do make it easy to imagine assigning the selections in many undergraduate, rabbinical, and graduate school classes. Readers, however, might find that the short selections lack the richness of the full articles. The structure of the book and the topics covered should also give teachers a good sense of what might be covered in a Jewish ethics course, and indeed in a course on a more specific topic, such as Jewish bioethics, Jewish feminist ethics, or Jewish environmental ethics. The volume is a fitting capstone for a young field, demonstrating the significant conversation, deliberation, and scholarly activity that have taken place in just fifty years. Let us hope the next fifty years of the field of Jewish ethics is just as deliberative, creative, and enriching.