From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Elliot N. Dorff is a Conservative rabbi, a professor of Jewish theology at the University of Judaism in California, author, and a bio-ethicist. He is currently a visiting professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.
Dorff is an expert in the philosophy of Conservative Judaism, Bioethics, and acknowledged within the Conservative community as an expert decisor of Jewish law. Dorff was ordained as a rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1970. He earned a Ph.D in philosophy from Columbia University in 1971.
Dorff is a prolific member of the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and has written many responsa (opinion papers and legal rulings) on many aspects of Jewish law and philosophy. (There is a separate article on Conservative responsa.)
In the spring of 1993, Dorff served on the ethics committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force, and in March 1997 and May 1999, he, along with other rabbis, testified on behalf on the Jewish tradition on the subjects of human cloning and stem cell research before the president's National Bioethics Advisory Commission.
In Los Angeles, he is a member of the Board of Jewish Family Service and has served as its vice president. He is also a member of the Institutional Review Board of Midway Hospital and the ethics committee at the Jewish Homes for the Aging and UCLA Medical Center. He is co-chairman of the "Priest-Rabbi Dialogue" sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese and the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.
Dorff has written over one hundred articles on ethics, Jewish thought, Jewish law and custom, and bioethics.
Responsa 1991-2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, 2001, The Rabbinical Assembly
Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1986 - 1990, The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001.
Life & Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical Ethics, Aaron L. Mackler, JTS, 2000
Contemporary Jewish Theology: A Reader Oxford University Press, 1999
Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics Jewish Publication Society, 1998
Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality: A Reader Oxford University Press, 1995
 The Jewish Study Bible: Tanakh Translation, Torah, Nevi'Im, Kethuvim |
 I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl |
 Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History |
 The New Jewish Wedding, Revised | ||||
 The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children |
 The New Jewish Baby Book: Names Ceremonies Customs a Guide for Today's Families |
 The Gifts of the Jews : How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels |
 Jewish Meditation : A Practical Guide | ||||
 The Case for Israel |
