ABOUT THIS BOOK

Part of the CCAR Press Challenge and Change series, this anthology creates a rich and varied discussion about the ethics of money. Our use of and relationship with money must reflect our religious values--this book aims to start a comprehensive conversation about how Judaism can guide us in this multi-faceted relationship.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Rabbi Mary L. Zamore is the editor of and a contributing author to two acclaimed CCAR Press Challenge and Change anthologies, The Sacred Exchange: Creating A Jewish Money Ethic (2019) and The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic (2011). The Sacred Table was designated a finalist by the National Jewish Book Awards. Rabbi Zamore served as consulting editor for Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family (CCAR Press, 2012) and contributed toLights in the Forest: Rabbis Respond to Twelve Essential Jewish Questions (CCAR Press, 2014), and The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate (CCAR Press, 2016), winner of the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies.

Rabbi Zamore was ordained by Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1997 and serves as the Executive Director of the Women's Rabbinic Network, an affiliate of the CCAR. She is the co-leader of the Reform Pay Equity Initiative.

Having visited numerous communities, Rabbi Zamore is available for lectures and scholar-in-residence programs. She will work with your community to customize any program. Her presentations explore topics like, but are not limited to:

Tithing, Tzedaka and Other Ways of Creating a Just World

Judaism's View of Wealth: Good or Bad?

The Moral and Spiritual Challenge of Wealth

We should and Can Talk about Money Three Money

Texts Every Jew Should Know Your Sacred Table: Jewish Food Ethics

Coveting vs. Contentment

Learn to Build a Mishkan, not a Golden Calf

The Power of the Fork: Eating with Ethics

Liberal Jews & Kashrut: Really!?

Creating Communal Food Policies

The Bitter Side of Chocolate and Other Fair Trade Issues

What Chameitz, Matzah, & Manna Can Teach Us for Today

Kosher Wine and Its Challenges – The Spirituality of Fasting

Queen Esther and Her Quest for Empowerment through Food

Rabbi Zamore's presentations can include sermons, in-depth text study, wine or food tastings, as well as adult, religious school, or family programs. She can also help communities design yearlong study programs, multi-session classes, or multifaceted single events, modeled around the themes of The Sacred Table or The Sacred Exchange.

REVIEWS

Our Jewish tradition asserts of Torah, "Turn it over and over again, for all is in it." In The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic, Rabbi Mary Zamore and the authors she has gathered together demonstrate the truth of this adage. In sensitive, informative, practical, textured, and comprehensive ways, this book reveals what Judaism has to say about money. This volume provides knowledge and guidance on how money touches the deepest chords of who we are as individuals and as a community. This is a needed book on an intimate topic and we are all indebted to Rabbi Zamore and her collaborators for this volume!
-- Rabbi David Ellenson, PhD, Chancellor Emeritus, Hebrew Union-College--Jewish Institute of Religion

An extraordinary collection of articles on every aspect of the too-often unmentionable subject of money, from interpretations of our sacred texts on wealth and poverty to questions of what we pay our synagogue employees and our household help. From a Jewish perspective, economic justice is at the foundation of all justice legally, morally and theologically. So as Jews we must concern ourselves with such issues as poverty, wages, structural inequality, tzedakah and the cost of simchas. This fantastic and honest book includes thoughtful analyses and prescriptions for action from wise Jewish leaders who lay out what more we could and should be doing in the pursuit of economic justice.
-- Ruth Messinger, Global Ambassador, American Jewish World Service

This powerful and illuminating exploration breaks the "code of silence" which insidiously pervades the domain of the spiritual. The Sacred Exchange brilliantly and gratefully mandates the intersection of financial astuteness and Jewish ethics.
-- Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein, Director of Jewish Community and Bronfman Center for Jewish Life, 92nd Street Y

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Foreword, Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson
Introduction
Small Change

Part One · Wealth: Wisdom from Our Texts
1. Wealth: Essential Teachings of Our Tradition
Rabbi Dvora Weisberg, PhD
2. Blessing and Challenge: A Further Look at the Sources
Alyssa M. Gray, JD, PhD
3. How Much Is Enough?
Rabbi Amy Scheinerman
4. Does Wealth Automatically Coarsen the Soul?
Rabbi Neal Gold
5. The Economic Theology of the Ten Commandments
Rabbi Max Chaiken
Ethics in Focus: When Donors Behave Badly—Guiding Principles for Jewish Institutions
Rabbi A. Brian Stoller
Talking about Money: Financial Lessons from My Parents
Elana Altzman, MD

Part Two · The Power of Money: Tzedakah and Tzedek
6. Economic Justice Is the Foundation of All Justice
Rabbi Seth M. Limmer, DHL
7. Tzedakah: How We Choose Where We Give
Rabbi Ruth Adar
8. Socially Responsible Investing
Michael A. Kimmel and Rabbi Howard Shapiro
9. Guns: Leveraging the Power of Money for Justice
Rabbi Joel M. Mosbacher
10. Structures of Jewish Giving: A Virtual Tzedakah Tour
Rabbi Leah Rachel Berkowitz
11. The Changing Face of Jewish Philanthropy
Andrés Spokoiny
12. My Jewish Federation: Legacy and Change
Dov Ben-Shimon
Ethics in Focus: Giving Money to Panhandlers
Rabbi Nicole Auerbach
Talking about Money: In Praise of Beautiful, Bold Tzedakah Boxes
Rabbi Zoë Klein Miles

Part Three · Israel
13. Tzedakah and Aliyah: How American Jews Helped Build Israel
Rabbi Daniel R. Allen, z”l
14. Financing Zion: Looking Back to Shape Today
Rabbi Joshua Weinberg
15. IRAC Builds Democracy through the Power of Money
Rabbi Noa Sattath
16. Full Faith and Credit: Jewish Views on Debt and Bankruptcy
Rabbi Edward Elkin
Ethics in Focus: When You Hire a Rabbi in Israel
Rabbi Ayala Ronen Samuels, PhD
Talking about Money: Etrog Envy
Rabbi Mary L. Zamore

Part Four · We Are All Employers
17. Employment, Partnership and Mutual Respect
Rabbi Jill Jacobs
18. The Family as Employer
Rabbi Mary L. Zamore
19. What Is Possible: Striving for Gender Pay Equity for Congregational Employees
Rabbi Esther L. Lederman and Amy Asin
20. Bread and Roses: Jewish Women Transform the American Labor Movement
Judith Rosenbaum, PhD
21. Jewish Values in the Marketplace
Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer, JD, CPA
22. Dreaming a New American Economy
Rabbi Andy Kahn
Ethics in Focus: Responsum on Equal Pay
Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, PhD, on Behalf of the CCAR Responsa Committee
Talking about Money: Mutual Benefits
Rabbi Amy Schwartzman and Kevin Moss

Part Five · Religious Life and Money
23. The Value of Membership
Rabbi Leah Lewis
24. The Cost of Dying Jewishly
Stephanie Garry with Rabbi Eric J. Greenberg
25. Mazal Tov to Life-Cycle Parties
Rabbi Douglas B. Sagal, DD
26. Money and Transaction in Jewish Liturgy and Rituals
Rabbi Robert Scheinberg
27. Dividends of Meaning: Jewish Rituals for the Financial Life Cycle
Rabbi Jennifer Gubitz
28. Gelt
Rabbi Deborah Prinz
Ethics in Focus: Copyright as a Jewish Ethical Issue
Rabbi Hara E. Person and Rabbi Sonja K. Pilz, PhD
Talking about Money: Be Fruitful and Multiply, and Go into Debt?
Rabbi Idit Solomon

Part Six · Uncomfortable Conversations
29. Moneylending and Jews: Falsehoods, Stereotypes, and Shame
Joshua Holo, PhD
30. Monetizing T’shuvah: Reparations and Returning Valuables
Patty Gerstenblith and Rabbi Samuel N. Gordon
31. Embracing Dave Ramsey: A Financial Literacy Model for the Jewish Community
Rabbi Amy B. Cohen and Rabbi Alan Freedman
32. Using Jewish Values to Teach Your Children about Money
Deborah Niederman, RJE
33. Marriage, Money, and Musar
Rabbi Barry H. Block
34. Saying Goodbye: Honoring Your Congregation’s Legacy
Rabbi David Burstein Fine with Beth Burstein Fine, MSW
Ethics in Focus: Ethical Estate Planning
Rabbi Richard F. Address, DMin
Talking about Money: A Time to Give, a Time to Refrain from Giving
Marcie Zelikow

Editor and Contributors