Overview

Justice in the City argues, based on the rabbinic textual tradition, especially the Babylonian Talmud, and utilizing French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas' framework of interpersonal ethics, that a just city should be a community of obligation. That is, in a community thus conceived, the privilege of citizenship is the assumption of the obligations of the city towards Others who are not always in view-workers, the poor, the homeless. These Others form a constitutive part of the city. The second part of the book is a close analysis of homelessness, labor, and restorative justice from within the theory that was developed. This title will be useful for scholars and students in Jewish studies, especially rabbinic literature and Jewish thought, but also for those interested in contemporary urban issues.

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9781936235643

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Reviews

Ours is an age that aches for justice. Growing disparities of wealth, continuing marginalization of people by ethnicity, faith, gender, and ability, propensity to use violence and power to impose control--these and other blights assault our ability to thrive as human beings on this planet. Fortunately, we have a consummate academic, passionate prpohet, and wise sage in Aryeh Cohen, who musters the resources of Jewish tradition as tools for clearer analysis and effective engaement. This is a great book by a mater scholar and community activist. --Tabbi Bardley Shavit Artson, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University

Rabbi Aryeh Cohen's book Justice in the City is a...compelling, easy-to-read discussion of how rabbinic texts, primarily the Babylonian Talmud, lay out a vision of justice....Every interaction that we have is part of a network of interactions...Cohen continues to expand these interactions and define them, ultimately leaving us with a balanced, coherent, and workable way to view our ties to others and to develop our notions of community in the framework of a world where we will never meet many or most of its inhabitants, and yet must feel some responsibility for them nevertheless.--Rabbi Alama Suskin MyJewishLearning.com

Author Information

Aryeh Cohen (PhD Brandeis University) is an associate professor of Rabbinic Literature at the American Jewish University. His previous book is Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law and the Poetics of Sugyot (Brown University, 1998).

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