Joan S. Friedman

Department/Affiliation: History; Religious Studies
Phone: 330-263-2448
Office Address: 006 Kauke
Email: jfriedman@wooster.edu
Web Site: Joan Friedman

Degrees

• B.A., Pennsylvania 1974
• M.A.H.L., Hebrew Union-Jewish College 1977
• M.Phil., Columbia 1986
• Ph.D., Columbia 2003

Courses Taught

• RELS 100: Religious Thought and Action
• HEBR 101: Biblical Hebrew I
• HEBR 102: Biblical Hebrew II
• RELS 233: Judaism
• RELS 267: Modern Judaism
• HIST 101: The Holocaust
• HIST 301: The Arab-Israeli Conflict
• HIST 301: Modern Jewish History

Awards and Professional Memberships

• Luce Award (College of Wooster, F 2009)
• Fellow, Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University (2001-02)
• Dissertation fellowship -- Jewish Foundation for Education of Women Fellowship/National Foundation for Jewish Culture (2000-01)
• Bernard and Audrey Rapoport Fellowship, Jacob Rader Marcus Center, American Jewish Archives (2000-01)
• IREX Research Exchange Scholar, Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1988-89)
• American Academy of Religion
• Association for Jewish Studies
• Midwest Jewish Studies Association
• Central Conference of American Rabbis, Board of Trustees, 2006-08; Responsa Committee, 1994-99; corresponding member 1999-current; Committe on Reform Jewish Practice, 1980-84
• Women's Rabbinic Network, founding member; co-coordinator, 1991-3

Publications

• Solomon Freehof: Reform Judaism and Jewish Law (Hebrew Union College Press, forthcoming)
• Assorted entries in Lindley, Susan Hill and Eleanor J. Stebner, eds., The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.
• "The Making of a Reform Rabbi: Solomon B. Freehof from Childhood to HUC," American Jewish Archives Journal, 58/1-2 (2006): 1-49.
• "The Writing of Reform Jewish Practice and Its Rabbinic Background," Central Conference of American Rabbis Journal, 51/3 (Summer 2004): 31-71.
• "A Critique of Solomon B. Freehof's Concept of Minhag and Reform Jewish Practice." In Re-examing Progressive Halakhah, Studies in Progressive Halakhah, ed. Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer, 111-133. NY: Berghahn Books, 2002.
• "A Judaism of Ongoing Search." In Jewish Spiritual Journeys: Essays in Honor of Eugene B. Borowitz on his 70th Birthday, ed. Lawrence A. Hoffman and Arnold Jacob Wolf. NY: Behrman House, 1997.
• "The Last Jews of Czechoslovakia?" Soviet Jewish Affairs 19/1 (May, 1989). Viewer's Guide for PBS series "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews," 1983 (Co-author).

Research Interests

Professor Friedman is engaged in a research project with the American Jewish Archives and the Women's Rabbinic Network on the first women ordained as rabbis.