Ruth Langer

EDUCATION
Bryn Mawr College, AB, 1981
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, MAHL, 1985
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbinic Ordination, 1986
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Ph.D., 1994

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Please find this at: http://www2.bc.edu/~langerr/

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Jewish Liturgy
Christian Jewish Relations

TEACHING
Religious Quest I
Religious Quest II
Jews and Christians: Understanding the Other
Engaging the Rabbinic Mind
Diatribe to Dialogue: Studies in the Jewish Faith
Judaism: Practice and Belief

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND AWARDS
Book Review Editor, CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly.
Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Fellowship, 2001-2002
Honorary Starr Fellowship, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, 1998-1999

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
To Worship God Properly: Tensions between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1998).
"A Jewish Response," in Sic et Non: Encountering Dominus Iesus, ed. Stephen J Pope and Charles Hefling (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2002)
"Liturgy and Sensory Experience," in Christianity in Jewish Terms, ed. Tikva Frymer-Krensky, David Novak, Peter Ochs, David Fox Sandmel, Michael A. Signer (Westview Press, 2000), 189-195, 386-7.
"Revisiting Early Rabbinic Liturgy: The Recent Contributions of Ezra Fleischer," Prooftexts 19:2 (1999): 179-204; and "Considerations of Method: A Response to Ezra Fleischer," Prooftexts 20:3 (2000): 384-387.
"From Study of Scripture to a Reenactment of Sinai," Worship 72:1 (January 1998): 43-67.
"Birkat Betulim: A Study of the Jewish Celebration of Bridal Virginity," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research LXI (1995): 53-94.

PUBLICATIONS SINCE 2002
Books:
Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue: Studies in the History of Jewish Prayer, ed. Ruth Langer and Steven Fine (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2005).

 Articles (accepted but not yet published):
“Biblical Texts in Jewish Prayers: Their History and Function,” in a volume of papers from a conference in November 2005 in Aachen, Germany (Brill).

“The Earliest Texts of the Birkat Haminim”, with Uri Ehrlich, forthcoming in Hebrew Union College Annual 77.

“Telling the Catholic Story of Covenant in the Presence of Jews: A Response to Rev. Lawrence Frizzell”  forthcoming in a JPII Cultural Center publication.

“Liturgy,” forthcoming in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, revised edition.

Articles (published):
“From Study of Scripture to a Reenactment of Sinai: The Emergence of the Synagogue Torah Service,” reprinted in the Journal of Synagogue Music 31:1 (Fall 2006): 104-125.

A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, edited by Edward Kessler and Neil Wenborn (Cambridge University Press, 2005), entries on "Amidah" (pp. 12-13), "Birkat Hamazon" (pp. 59-60), "Birkat Haminim" (p. 60), "Bread" (p. 64), "Candle" (p. 75), "Intercessions" (p. 210), "Wine" (pp. 445-446).

“Sinai, Zion, and God in the Synagogue: Celebrating Torah in Ashkenaz,” in Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue: Studies in the History of Jewish Prayer, ed. Ruth Langer and Steven Fine (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2005), 121-159.

“Hanukkah: A Holiday of Witness” in Preach (November/December 2005): 24-26.

“Worship and Devotional Life: Jewish Worship,” in the Encyclopedia of Religion (second edition, 2005), 14:9805-9809.

“The Liturgical Writings of J. Leonard Levy: The Judaism of an American Reform Rabbi,” in Pursuing Peace Across the Alleghenies: The Rodef Shalom Congregation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1856-2005, edited by Walter Jacob (Pittsburgh: Rodef Shalom Press, 2005), 201-230.

“Theologies of Self and Other in Jewish Liturgies,” CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly (Winter 2005): 3-41.

“Prayer and Worship,” in Modern Judaism: An Oxford Guide, edited by Nicholas de Lange and Miri Freud-Kandel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 231-242.

“Catholic-Jewish Relations: HUC-JIR Alumni Perspectives,” The Chronicle: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 64 (2004): 16.

“Early Rabbinic Liturgy in its Palestinian Milieu: Did Non-Rabbis Know the ‘Amidah?” in When Judaism and Christianity Began: Essays in Memory of Anthony J. Saldarini, ed. Daniel Harrington, Alan J. Avery-Peck, and Jacob Neusner (Leiden and Boston: E. J. Brill, Supplements to Review of Rabbinic Judaism, 2004), pp. 423-439.

“Jewish Understandings of the Religious Other,” Theological Studies 64 (2003): 255-277.

“The Amidah as Formative Jewish Prayer,” in Identität durch Gebet: Zur gemeinschaftsbildenden Funktion institutionalisierten Betens in Judentum und Christentum, ed. Albert Gerhards, Andrea Doeker and Peter Ebenbauer (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2003), 127-156.

“Early Medieval Celebrations of Torah in the Synagogue: A Study of the Rituals of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon and Massekhet Soferim,” [Hebrew: שלבים קדומים בהתפתחותה של הוצאת התורה והכנסתה בבית הכנסת בימי הביניים: עיון בטקסים של סדר רב עמרם גאון ושל מסכת סופרים ] Kenishta: Studies of the Synagogue World 2 (2003): 99-118.

“Jewish Practices” with Jael B. Paulus, in Volume 3 of The Encyclopedia of Christianity (Wm. B. Eerdmans, Brill, 2003), 45-49.

“A Jewish Response,” in Sic et Non: Encountering Dominus Iesus, edited by Stephen J. Pope and Charles Hefling (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2002), pp. 124-133

Reviews:
Irreconcilable Differences? A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians, ed. David F. Sandmel, Rosann M. Catalano, Christopher M. Leighton (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001), in Review and Expositor 103:1 (Winter 2006): 259-261.

Eric Caplan, From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism, in American Jewish Archives LV:2 (2003): 59-62.

Allison P. Coudert and Jeffrey S. Shoulson, editors, Hebraica Veritas?: Christian Hebraists and the Study of Judaism in Early Modern Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (February 2005).

James F. Moore, ed., Post-Shoah Dialogues: Rethinking Our Texts Together, Studies in the Shoah Volume XXV (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004), in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (November 2004).

Marc A. Krell, Intersecting Pathways: Modern Jewish Theologians in Conversation with Christianity, in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (June 2004).

Jeffrey Summit, The Lord’s Song in a Strange Land: Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship, AJSReview 27:2 (November 2003): 360-1.

Magonet, Jonathan.  Talking to the Other: Jewish interfaith dialogue with Christians and Muslims, in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (October 2003).

Neil Folberg, photographer,  with an essay by Yom Tov Assis, And I Shall Dwell Among Them: Historic Synagogues of the World; and Samuel D. Gruber, Synagogues, in CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly (Summer 2003): 99-101.

Dana Evan Kaplan, ed., Platforms and Prayer Books: Theological and Liturgical Perspectives on Reform Judaism, in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (April 2003).

Seth Schwartz, Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE, posted on the website of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/research/cjl/reviews/Imperialism.htm