Geoffrey Claussen, professor of religious studies, Lori and Eric Sklut Professor in Jewish Studies and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at 消消犯, edited a special issue of the Journal of Jewish Ethics honoring his long-time mentor, Louis Newman.

Newman, the John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus, at Carleton College and former dean of academic advising and associate vice provost for 消消犯 education at Stanford University, is one of the world���s leading scholars of Jewish ethics and one of the founders of Jewish ethics as an academic field. He was the founding president of the Society of Jewish Ethics and founding coeditor of this journal.

In his editor���s introduction to the special issue, Claussen recounts how studying with Newman at Carleton College first kindled his interest in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies and eventually inspired him to also become a scholar of Jewish ethics.

In the issue, thirteen scholars engage, respond to and build on Newman���s work. Claussen���s article in the journal is titled ���Lessons in Intellectual Honesty and Humility: Studying Jewish Ethics with the Guidance of Louis Newman.���

���It happened so long ago during my early childhood. It had no bearing on my present life. My parents almost never talked about it. Few of my friends were even aware,��� said Silbiger. ���But then I became aware it was happening again in Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan, Myanmar, again, again and again. And eventually, as hatred and antisemitism certainly, began spreading, even in the United States, I decided I needed to come out and tell my story.���

And that���s what Silbiger did in a packed Turner Theatre on Feb. 12, part of 消消犯���s Holocaust Remembrance Day Speakers Series. Elon has hosted Holocaust survivors annually for more than nine years. Funding has enabled Professor Max Negin and his Holocaust Journey course to collaborate with Jewish Life, the Jewish Studies department, and the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life.��The speaker event was made possible through sponsorship from the Levy Family P���26.

Benji Stern, co-president of Elon Hillel, introduced Silbiger by reflecting on his experience in the Holocaust Journey study abroad course, which takes students through tours of concentration/extermination camps, ghettos, and discussions with Holocaust scholars and survivors.

���It was a profound and emotional experience that brought me face to face with both the history and the human suffering of the Holocaust,��� said Stern, who discussed reading the Mourner���s Kaddish prayer at a memorial during the experience. ���With a slightly broken voice, I pulled up the words on my phone, and together, we recited them. In that moment, a shared moment, Jews and non-Jews standing shoulder to shoulder, I felt something that I’ll carry with me forever. The moment was special because all of us participated, not only Jewish people remembering, but that collective act of remembrance reminds us that we’re all connected.���

In May 1940, Silbiger, now in his 90s, was just 5 years old when Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands.

���At first, the life of the Jews under the occupation, while certainly unpleasant, did not appear to be life-threatening,��� said Silbiger, who said there was a false sense of security but also rumors of the mistreatment of Jews in Eastern Europe. ���Jews had lived in Holland for many centuries, they had made important contributions to its economy and its culture and become a really valued part of the nation. Dutch people would never let their fellow citizens be mistreated in this manner. No one could begin to conceive the eventual role of the Nazis to extinguish the life of every Jew in Holland.���

Everything changed when Silbiger’s parents hatched a plan to escape from the Nazi-occupied territory. His mother woke him up and told him they were going on ���a trip to the country.���

���I was surprised because I had not been told anything about this beforehand, and because of the (Nazi travel) restrictions, we had not been traveling anywhere,” he said. ���We sneaked across the border to Belgium. Once we arrived there, I learned we were not going back home until the Germans were gone from Holland. Suddenly, without preparation, this 6-year-old was cut off from all of their friends, his stories, everything else.���

The family, including Silbiger���s older brother, adopted aliases and traveled through France across the demarcation line to southern France, down to Spain, before eventually traveling by boat to the Gibraltar Refugee Camp in Jamaica. His father used diamonds, hidden in an old smoking pipe, to help keep them afloat financially throughout the year-long journey.

���Conditions may not have been so much worse than in a summer camp, except you were forced to stay there for an indefinite length of time, perhaps even several years,��� said Silbiger of the refugee camp. ���On the other hand, our lives were no longer in danger and, for that, we were grateful.���

Silbiger���s father���s engineering skills eventually helped the family get to the Dutch Carribean island of Cura巽ao and, following the end of the war a few months later, they were able to return to Holland ��� but it looked much different. Their home in The Hague was still standing, but had been gutted, and his grandparents were taken to a concentration camp in Poland, where they were murdered.

���I still have fond memories of my grandparents, who lived only a few blocks from us,��� said Silbiger. ���The thoughts of their last days and final moments continue to haunt me.���

His parents decided to return to Cura巽ao, where Silbiger finished high school before attending college in the United States. He later married a U.S. citizen, relocated to Germany for a time, and eventually resettled in Durham, North Carolina, where he was a professor at Duke University. Silbiger has since worked to spread awareness of the danger of religious hatred, including in ���Our Great Escape: The story of a Dutch family’s flight from persecution (1942-1943).��� He encouraged the audience on Thursday night to have compassion for anyone escaping their homeland in search of a better life.

���They have the same hopes, the same desires, same needs, they are like you and me,��� he said. ���We must open our hearts (���for) these people, some who entered the country illegally because they didn���t have proper papers. Then again, neither did we. We entered France illegally. If we hadn���t done that, I wouldn���t be here to tell my story.���

The collection, edited by Jonathan K. Crane, Emily Filler, and Mira Beth Wasserman, is titled ���Modern Jewish Ethics Since 1970: Writings on Methods, Sources, and Issues��� and published by Brandeis University Press as part of the Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought.

Claussen���s article, ���Musar in a White Supremacist Society: Arrogance, Self-Examination, and Systemic Change,��� was first published in 2021 in ���No Time for Neutrality: American Rabbinic Voices from an Era of Upheaval,��� edited by Michael Rose Knopf with Miriam Aniel.

Judaism in Five Minutes provides an accessible and lively introduction to common questions about Jews and Judaism. Claussen���s chapter, titled ���What Does Jewish Tradition Say About War?��� explains how ���Jews in diverse historical contexts have constructed a wide range of Jewish traditions about war, framing their ideas with reference to Jewish identities, histories, and texts.���

The volume was published by Equinox Publishing as part of the ���Religion in 5 Minutes��� series. More information about the volume can be found .

The chapter is titled ���Character and Musar,��� and explores diverse Jewish approaches to questions about moral character, especially within the genre of ���musar literature��� focused on character and virtue.

Claussen is the author of books focused on moral character, including Modern Musar: Contested Virtues in Jewish Thought and Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simhah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar. Miller is the author of books focused on character including Moral Character: An Empirical Theory and Character and Moral Psychology.

“The Routledge Companion to Jewish Philosophy” brings diverse perspectives to bear on the key topics, problems, and debates in Jewish philosophy and philosophical theology. The 37 chapters were written by an international team of experts from different traditions in philosophy and beyond.

The Journal is the scholarly journal of the Society of Jewish Ethics, of which Claussen is a past president. Published biannually by the Penn State University Press, the journal publishes outstanding scholarship in Jewish ethics, broadly conceived. It serves as a location for the exchange of ideas among those interested in understanding, articulating and promoting descriptive and normative Jewish ethics. It aspires to advance dialogue between Jewish ethicists and ethicists working through other religious and secular traditions.

Claussen joins Emily Filler of Drew University as co-editor of the journal. He previously served as an associate editor and has been a member of the journal���s editorial board since 2015.

Claussen joined the Elon faculty in 2011 and was named Lori and Eric Sklut Emerging Scholar in Jewish Studies in 2012. He has served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies since 2018 and was named Lori and Eric Sklut Professor in Jewish Studies in 2023.

In the Jewish calendar, we are well into the season of teshuvah, translated both as ���repentance��� and ���turning back.��� It is a heartbreaking time for deep reflection on our individual and collective moral failures.

In this week���s parsha, Ki Tavo, Moses instructs the Israelites on the curses and blessings that God will bestow upon them based on whether they follow God���s commands. These passages present a system of spiritual physics based upon our behavior. If we do x, we will receive y. If we obey God���s commands, we will be blessed (). If we sin, we will be cursed ().

Those of us with lived experience know that the reality of sin, punishment, merit, and reward is more complicated than our parsha���s formula. First, it does not explain how those who commit egregious moral transgressions still prosper in this world. Second, it implies that any evil that befalls the faithful is a natural consequence of immoral behavior, rather than the inexplicable tragedy we know it to be. Finally, this formula can give us a false sense of control over our lives, leading us to disappointment.

Rashi points to a more complicated way of understanding our parsha. One of the blessings the Israelites will receive for obedience is in : ���Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings.��� teaches that this verse means that your exit (goings) from this world should be like your entry (comings) into this world ��� without sin, belo��� cheit (cf. ).

This interpretation raises two important questions. First, Biblical Hebrew has a rich vocabulary for describing sin. Cheit does not describe a severe transgression or rebellion ��� instead it connotes missing the mark. How can it be that any human being can live without sometimes falling short?

Second, this interpretation reveals a logical contradiction. The reward for following God���s commands is sinlessness. How can it be that the reward, sinlessness, precedes the behavior that merits the reward?

This week���s parsha presents an incomplete picture of sin, punishment, merit, and reward because it does not include teshuvah. If the blessings and curses from our parsha describe spiritual physics, teshuvah is all about spiritual metaphysics.

Engaging in the practice of teshuvah is not simply acknowledging our wrongdoings, making amends with those we have harmed, and committing to live differently in the future. These actions are fundamental components of teshuvah, but there is something much deeper going on.

Millennia ago, David modeled for us the heart-transforming nature of teshuvah. In Psalm 51, he acknowledges his sins, transgressions, and iniquities in a litany of confessions. He asks that God give his soul a good scrub: ���Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity, and purify me of my sin��� (). He then asks God to create his heart anew, much like a newborn: ���Fashion a pure heart for me, O God; create in me a steadfast spirit��� (). He then teaches that ���True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God, You will not despise a contrite and crushed heart��� ().

David teaches that the most important component of teshuvah is a broken heart. The breaking of our heart center is what allows the divine flow to wash over us from within and purify us from sin. Teshuvah is heart-breaking and ego-busting. We have limited to no control over this aspect of the process ��� we cannot purify our own hearts.

Despite our lack of control, our divine bath doesn���t end with our feeling refreshed. Instead, we must become active participants in our own teshuvah, working to repair relationships with those we have harmed and committing to live differently in the future.

For Ashkenazi communities, the prayers of start this Saturday night. Sephardic communities have already been saying these prayers since the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul. These prayers are an invitation to go deeper and let our hearts break with our pain for the world and our own individual and collective culpability.

My prayer for us all this year is that we experience the mystical power of teshuvah purifying us from within. And I pray that our purified hearts strengthen us in our renewed commitment to work for a better world in the coming year.

Views expressed in this column are the author���s own and not necessarily those of 消消犯. The original article appears in��.

Both articles consider how virtue-centered Jewish traditions (musar) may provide resources for responding to calls to justify the mass killings of innocent civilians.

The first article was published in the “Journal of Jewish Ethics” (vol. 9, no. 2). The article is titled and focuses on those four virtues.

The second article, ��focuses more narrowly on virtues of justice and compassion. It was published in “Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas” (vol. 5, no. 1), the journal of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

The Jewish calendar understands the three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and 9th of Av as a time of intense mourning, when we remember the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Because of my childhood experiences, I used to have trouble associating destruction with summer. Not this summer.

During a late June heatwave, I used our local river ��� the Eno River ��� as a mikveh. On the Fourth of July, my family and I enjoyed a pool day with splash contests, coin-diving, and a greased watermelon competition. Two days later, our region, like Texas, was inundated in a . Flooding has happened throughout human history. However, with the onset of climate change, the intensity and frequency of flooding has dramatically increased, including just this week in the New York area.

The flooding killed several people including a member of our synagogue. It severely damaged homes, roads, and properties. Our local pool was eight feet underwater. The Eno River has been contaminated from leaked sewage and other pollutants. Riverside trails are closed indefinitely as officials evaluate the damage. I don���t know the next time I will be able to immerse in the Eno River safely.

It has felt like the three weeks started early.

On this first Shabbat of the three weeks, we will read a special haftarah: . Jeremiah was sent by God to warn Judah and Jerusalem of their impending destruction. He had the unenviable task of proclaiming to the people that their lives were about to rupture in ways they could not imagine.

In , God tells Jeremiah,

See, I appoint you on this day
Over nations and kingdoms:
To uproot and to pull down,
To destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.
I used to read Jeremiah as a failed prophet. He was sent to warn Judah and Jerusalem of their impending destruction. Despite his warnings, they did not repent. Jerusalem was destroyed and its leaders taken into exile.

These days, I read Jeremiah differently. It may be that the destruction Jeremiah was tasked with proclaiming was unavoidable. Jeremiah was appointed to tell the truth of the devastation that would befall Jerusalem and to encourage people to find a way to live beyond it. It was never within Jeremiah���s power to avert disaster.

From this perspective, Jeremiah was a wildly successful prophet. He correctly proclaimed doom and hope. He did not deny the truth of the traumatic events facing Jerusalem. But as they unfolded, he was also able to give people hope amid the destruction of everything that they had ever known.

If you transpose the book of Jeremiah onto our times, Jeremiah could be prophesying about the climate crisis. We have all heard the warnings from climate scientists, and yet we have so far been unable to avoid barreling towards irreparable harm to our planet. Jeremiah���s language of ���uproot��� and ���pull down��� doesn���t even feel like a metaphor when surveying destruction from flooding.

However, Jeremiah doesn���t just proclaim uprooting, pulling down, destroying, and overthrowing. Jeremiah also encourages Judeans to build and plant. He encourages resilience in the face of unspeakable tragedy. He encourages hope amidst despair.

Before destruction comes, it is hard to imagine or prepare for it. But after destruction comes, it can be hard to find hope.

The season of the three weeks is an invitation to find a dynamic balance between hope and despair. Not only can we imagine destruction on a scale we have never seen, we can also imagine what it might look like to build, plant, and thrive after the unimaginable has occurred.

Views expressed in this column are the author���s own and not necessarily those of 消消犯. The original article appears in��.

Olivia Kogan ’24 works at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism��as an , a year-long program designed for recent college graduates who demonstrate a strong commitment to Judaism, social justice and public policy.

The RAC is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to Jewish social justice��and represents the Reform Jewish movement, the largest and most diverse Jewish denomination in North America, which encompasses 825 congregations, 2000 rabbis and 1.8 million Reform Jews.

���I support the work of the organization through attending congressional meetings, coalitions, engaging with the White House, the cabinet offices and state and local officials,��� Kogan said. ���I also lead our legislative advocacy on gun violence prevention, racial justice, criminal justice, death penalty, health care and Native American Indigenous People’s rights.���

In her role, Kogan staffs the Commission on Social Action Task Force on transgender rights, where she is currently authoring and developing a comprehensive toolkit to equip congregations and communities with resources for inclusion, advocacy and policy engagement around transgender rights.

���I think the most challenging part is that policy is continuously changing. Most of the work in a faith-based organization, there’s a limited amount that we can say or do,��� said Kogan. ���I want to make the most amount of change, but right now that’s really difficult.���

Kogan works with the organization to host social justice seminars and weekends for high school students, which is how she discovered the organization for which she now works.

���I participated in twice when I was in 9th and 10th grade. I had the ability to come to Washington and learn about social justice areas with a culminating experience lobbying my congressional representatives,��� said Kogan,��who grew up in��Huntington Valley, Pa. ���I knew when graduating that I wanted to come back to the organization that inspired my social justice advocacy.���

Kogan said she is still very early into her career but has already had an ‘I made it’ moment when she met former Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Kogan manages the organization’s racial justice work, she was invited to attend the annual breakfast for Martin Luther King Jr., where racial justice leaders came together to celebrate the progress that has been made while also acknowledging all the work that has to follow.

���We did not know former Vice President Harris was attending the event and then the host made an announcement introducing her,��� Kogan said. ���She had the best mindset and created a positive reminder that we all need moral courage in this moment.���

Kogan majored in human service studies with minors in poverty and social justice policy studies and Jewish studies. She was deeply involved in Jewish life at Elon, including Elon Hillel as an engagement intern and her work on planning Shabbat services and social justice initiatives.

Kogan was also an Elon College Fellow and completed a thesis project on the experiences of Jewish summer camp counselors being able to support the socio-emotional needs of non-white campers. Her project explored how formal and informal DEI training and resources influence and shape the counselor experience.
���Last year I was walking through Elon���s annual SURF Day presentations when I happened upon Olivia Kogan,��� said Betsy Polk Joseph, director of Jewish life. ���Olivia was surrounded by a crowd of students, administrators and faculty who were hanging on her every word as she shared findings from her research.���

Kogan credits Elon with providing her the opportunity to grow and pursue leadership positions that allowed her to explore her Jewish identity in new ways. She plans to pursue a Master of Social Work and potentially attend law school to establish a comprehensive social service hub where individuals can access social services and legal needs all in one place.