Confronting Scandal: How Jews Can Respond When Jews Do Bad Things
"We can battle insensitivity, immorality and dishonesty in our lives individually and collectively as a people. We have a wonderful road map in the Torah and its traditions. It is time to think seriously about our reputation in the world and what we can do to enhance it, not because we want to look good but because we want to be good."
—from Chapter 6.
What should we do when we see other Jews behaving badly?
Most Jews are good, upstanding people who live by a strong moral code and follow Isaiah's words to be a light to others. But when Jews in the public sphere make headlines for being caught in scandals, their actions can provoke anger, shame and a sense of betrayal in the larger Jewish community.
In this insightful and timely book, Jewish scholar Dr. Erica Brown presents an intentional, disciplined framework to explore the emotions provoked in the Jewish community by reports of Jews committing crime. She proposes that we transform our sense of shame into actions that inspire and sustain a moral culture. Drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Talmud and our centuries-long Jewish commitment to ethics, she outlines ways you can activate and operate your personal moral compass, and shows how you can empower yourself with sacred obligation, responsibility, kindness and knowledge to increase Jewish pride.
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Book details
- Author
- Erica Brown
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Hardcover, Paperback
- Subjects
- Religion › Judaism
- Topics
- Jewish ethics · Jewish community · scandal and reputation · Jewish morality · Torah and tradition · Jewish public life · collective responsibility
- ISBN-13
- 9781580234405 (Hardcover)9781683360124 (Paperback)
About the author
DR. ERICA BROWN is scholar-in-residence for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the author of Confronting Scandal: How Jews Can Respond When Jews Do Bad Things, Inspired Jewish Leadership: Practical Approaches to Building Strong Communities and Spiritual Boredom: Rediscovering the Wonder of Judaism. She is also coauthor of The Case for Jewish Peoplehood: Can We Be One?
Brown holds an Avi Chai Fellowship and received the Covenant Award for her work in education, as well as the Ted Farber Professional Excellence Award. Inspired Jewish Leadership was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
When she’s not writing, Brown consults for the Jewish Agency and other Jewish non-profits and serves as a faculty member of the Wexner Foundation, lecturing widely on subjects of Jewish interest and leadership.
Erica lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.