Adina and Eric Yoffie: A Different Path, Still Family [Divergence 5/5]

This series is sponsored by our friend, Danny Turkel.

This episode is sponsored by Ari Bergmann in appreciation of Adina's work and scholarship.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Eric and Dr. Adina Yoffie about their journey as a family through ideological differences.

Rabbi Yoffie is the President Emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism and his daughter Adina is a Modern Orthodox editor and writer. As Adina journeyed to Modern Orthodoxy, she also had to navigate the implications of her observance to her Reform family, and how she could live by her newfound truth without disrupting her family life.

- How does one best respect religious approaches other than their own?
- How does one take a principled stand without making someone within their own family feel like their own life and their own practice does not have any standing?
- How did Adina’s Orthodoxy affect Rabbi Yoffie’s approach to Reform Judaism?

Tune in to hear a conversation about seeing legitimacy in another camp at the same time while holding on to one’s own beliefs and convictions.

Interview begins at 16:09

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie (father) is a Reform rabbi, and President Emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism. Since retiring in 2012, he has been a lecturer and writer; his writings have been published in The Huffington Post, The Jerusalem Post, and Haaretz.

Dr. Adina M. Yoffie (daughter) is a tutor, editor, and writer living in Manhattan. She earned a Master's and PhD in European History from Harvard University and a Bachelor's in History from Princeton. She has published in the leading journals of her field and has received a Fulbright Award to Germany.

Adina can be found at https://www.adinayoffie.com

References:

Mishna Halachos by Rav Menashe Klein
The Formation of the Talmud: Scholarship and Politics in Yitzhak Isaac Halevy's Dorot HaRishonim by Dr. Ari Bergmann
Op-Ed: Judaism is always ‘tikkun olam’ — and more by Eric Yoffie
Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food by Roger Horowitz
The Rebbe's Army by Sue Fishkoff
The French Enlightenment and the Jews by Rabbi Dr. Arthur Hertzberg
The Fate of Zionism by Rabbi Dr. Arthur Hertzberg
Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State by Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish by Dovid Katz

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