EDUCATION

Ph.D., Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati
Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati
MAHL, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati
AB, Bryn Mawr College

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY

Please find this at: http://www2.bc.edu/~langerr/Bio.htm

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Jewish liturgy
Christian-Jewish relations

TEACHING

Religious Quest I
Religious Quest II
Jews and Christians: Understanding the Other
Diatribe to Dialogue: Studies in the Jewish-Christian Encounter
Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Bible
Suffering in Comparative Perspective
Turning Points in Jewish History
Jewish Liturgy: History and Theology
Passover in Midrash and Talmud

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND AWARDS

• Co-editor, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations
• Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Fellowship, 2001-2002
• Honorary Starr Fellowship, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, 1998-1999

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Cursing the Christians? A History of the Birkat HaMinim (Oxford, 2011).

"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.

To Worship God Properly: Tensions between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1998).

"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

“Liturgy and Worship,” in The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture, eds. Judith Baskin and Kenneth Seeskin (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 337-356.

“Laminated in the Book of Life?” in Who by Fire, Why by Water: Un’taneh Tokef, ed. Lawrence A. Hoffman (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2010), 113-116.

“The Presence of God in Jewish Liturgy,” in The Spirit in Worship and Worship in the Spirit, eds. Bryan Spinks and Teresa Berger (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009), 25-39.

“Seeking Integrity,” Ecumenical Trends 38:8 (September 2009): 6-7, 15.

"Liturgy in the Light of Jewish-Christian Dialogue," Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 4 (2009). Electronic Journal

“Continuity, Change, and Retrieval: The New Reform Siddur,” review essay in the Journal of Synagogue Music 34 (Fall 2009): 208-223.

"Jews and the American Funeral," in Only in America: The Open Society and Jewish Law, eds. Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer (Pittsburgh: Solomon B. Freehof Institute for Progressive Jewish Law, Rodef Shalom Press, 2009), 91-125.

"'We Do Not Even Know What To Do!'’: A Foray into the Early History of Tahanun," in Seeking the Favor of God, Vol. 3: The Impact of Penitential Prayer Beyond Second Temple Judaism, eds. Mark Boda, Daniel Falk, and Rodney Werline (Society for Biblical Literature, 2008), 39-69.

"Theologies of the Land and State of Israel: The Role of the Secular in Christian and Jewish Understandings," Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 3 (2008): 1-17. Electronic Journal

“Biblical Texts in Jewish Prayers: Their History and Function,” in Jewish and Christian Liturgy and Worship: New Insights into its History and Interaction, eds. Albert Gerhards and Clemens Leonhard, Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series 15 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007), 63-90.

“Zion,” in Take Heart: Catholic Writers on Hope in our Time, ed. Ben Birnbaum (Crossroad, 2007), 207-212.

“The Earliest Texts of the Birkat Haminim,” with Uri Ehrlich, Hebrew Union College Annual 76 (2007): 63-112.

“Liturgy” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition (2006), Vol. 13, pp. 131-139.

A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, eds. 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, eds. 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, ed. Walter Jacob (Pittsburgh: Rodef Shalom Press, 2005), 201-230.

"Theologies of Self and Other in American 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.

"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, eds. Alan A. Avery-Peck, Daniel Harrington, and Jacob Neusner (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2004), II: 423-439.

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

“Early Medieval Celebrations of Torah in the Synagogue: A Study of the Rituals of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon and Massekhet Soferim,” [Hebrew] Kenishta: Studies of the Synagogue World 2 (2003): 99-118.

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

Reviews

Yaakov Y. Teppler, Birkat HaMinim: Jews and Christians in Conflict in the Ancient World, trans. Susan Weingarten (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), in Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 4 (2009).

Forms of Prayer, I: Daily, Sabbath and Occasional Prayers, Eighth Edition (London: The Movement for Reform Judaism, 2008), European Judaism 41, no. 2 (2008): 167-172.

Uneasy Allies?: Evangelical and Jewish Relations, ed. by Alan Mittleman, Byron Johnson, and Nancy Isserman. (Lexington Books, 2007), in Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 3 (2008).

Peter Schäfer, Jesus in the Talmud (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007), published in Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, 2:1 (2007).

Shaye J.D. Cohen, "Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised?: Gender and Covenant in Judaism," in Journal of Interdisciplinary History XXXVII (Winter, 2007): 435-437.

Irreconcilable Differences? A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians, eds. 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, eds., 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," AJS Review 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."