Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: Money

This JPS ethics series deals with some of the most critical moral issues of our time.

Is it OK to be wealthy? How do we know when we have too much? Enough? Is wealth relative? Are those born into wealth entitled to accumulate more money than those born in poorer circumstances? What are we obligated to do with our money? How much are we supposed to give to charity? Can Jewish charitable institutions accept money that may be “tainted”? How big a role should income play in our identity, in our life plan, in our pursuit of happiness?

Each volume in this series presents traditional and contemporary sources on specific topics, followed by hypothetical cases and study questions to provoke discussion. Supplementing these are brief essays written by a diverse group—political figures and journalists, business professionals and authors, scholars and artists, young voices and old, traditional believers and iconoclasts. As a conclusion, Dorff and Newman present their own reflections, providing a counterpoint to the contributors’ perspectives. These voices from the Jewish tradition and today's Jewish community give us new questions and perspectives to think about and encourage us to consider our moral choices in a new light.

Elliot N. Dorff is the author of three JPS books on Jewish ethics, To Do the Right and the Good, Love Your Neighbor and Yourself, and Matters of Life and Death. Dorff has served for many years on the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly and is currently its vice chairman. He is also Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the American Jewish University of Los Angeles.

Louis E. Newman is the John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies and the director of Judaic Studies at Carleton College, and the author of Past Imperatives: Studies in the History and Theory of Jewish Ethics. He is completing An Introduction to Jewish Ethics, a college textbook.

Drs. Dorff and Newman are co-editors of Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality and Contemporary Jewish Theology.