Debra Reed Blank

dasblank@yahoo.com

Education

PhD, Jewish Theological Seminary, Liturgy and Rabbinics:  Soferim: A Commentary to Chs. 10-12, and A Reconsideration of the Evidence;             advisors: Menahem Schmelzer, Richard Kalmin.

Rabbinical Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary; Talmud emphasis.

MS, Columbia University, Library Science; Judaica emphasis.

BA, Indiana University, Religious Studies.

 

Professional Experience

Rabbi Phillip Alstat Assistant Professor of Liturgy, JTS, 1998 – 2009.

Visiting Assistant Professor, Academy of Jewish Religion, 2009.

Visiting Assistant Professor, Russian State University, Moscow, 1999, 2000.

Instructor of Liturgy and Talmud, JTS, 1994 – 1998.

Courses taught include

                                    Theology in Jewish Liturgy

                                    Classics of the Jewish Tradition II (history survey)

                                    Mishnah and Talmud (varying levels)

                                    Introduction to Liturgy

                                    Weekday Siddur

                                    High Holiday Mahzor

                                    Sabbath and Festival Liturgy

                                    The Haggadah:  Text and History

                                    Women’s Participation in Jewish Worship

 

 

Administrative Experience, Jewish Theological Seminary

Assistant Dean, Graduate School, 2004 – 2007:  supervised 14 MA programs and non-matriculates; supervised the Office of Recruitment and             Admissions; participated in curricular revisions.

Acting Assistant Dean, Graduate School, 2002.                                   

Acting Dean, List College (undergraduate), 2000.            

Chair, Liturgy Faculty Committee, 2002 – 2008 (coordinated classes and oversaw instructors).

Chair, Interdepartmental Studies Faculty Committee, 2001 – 2007 (oversaw the development of on-line, distance-learning courses).

 

Publications

Books

M’sekhet Sof’rim: A Reconsideration of the Evidence (in contract with Gorgias Press).

 [untitled]:  Essays in Liturgy Honoring Menahem Schmelzer; edited volume (in contract with Brill)

 

Articles

“The Use of Creed in Jewish Liturgy.”  Proceedings of the NAAL, 2009.

“Viewing the Rabbinic Institution of a Fixed Liturgy Through the Lens of Spirituality.” Conservative Judaism 61:1 – 2 (Fall/Winter 2008 – 2009),             10 - 20.

“The French Practice of Repeating Sh'ma and Bar'khu for Latecomers to Synagogue," in Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue:  Studies in the             History of Jewish Public Prayer. Steven Fine and Ruth Langer, ed. Eisenbrauns, 2005.

“A Conservative Cri de Coeur.” Judaism 54:3-4 (Summer/Fall 2005), 141 - 147.

"’Haven’t You Learned This Yet?’ (yMegillah 3:7, 74b):  The Use of B’rakhot Around the Torah Recitation.” Journal of Jewish Studies 54:1 (Spring             2003), 85 - 103.

“Some Considerations Underlying Jewish Liturgical Revisions.”  CCAR Journal (Winter 2003), 11 - 20.

"It's Time to Take Another Look at 'Our Little Sister' Soferim:  A Bibliographical Essay." Jewish Quarterly Review 90:1-2 (1999), 1 - 26.  

"Liturgical Theory and Liturgical Change."  Conservative Judaism 47:2 (Winter 1995), 53 - 63.

"A Halakhic Response to Miscarriage," in Wrestling with the Angel.  Jack Reimer, ed. Schocken, 1995.

"Sh'fokh Hamatkha and Eliyahu in the Haggadah:  Ideology in Liturgy." Conservative Judaism 40:2 (Winter 1987), 73 - 86.

 

Reviews (selected)

Aliza Lavie, ed., A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book.  Lillith 33:4 (Winter 2008 – 09),             41 – 42.

Albert Gerhards and Clemens Leonhard, ed. Jewish and Christian Liturgy and Worship:  New Insights into its History and Interaction.  Studies in             Christian-Jewish Relations 3:1 (2008).

Leon Weinberger, Jewish Hymnography.  Journal of Semitic Studies 46:1 (2001), 177 - 179.

Chava Weissler, Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women.  Shofar 18:4 (2000), 145 - 147.

Sharona Wachs, American Jewish Liturgies:  A Bibliography of American Jewish Liturgy from the Establishment of the Press in the Colonies Through 1925.  AJS Review  24:2 (1999), 424 - 425.

 

 

Academic Lectures (recent)

“The Use of Creed in the Jewish Liturgy.” North American Academy of Liturgy annual meeting, Baltimore, January 2009.

“Creedal Expression in the Shabbat Evening Amidah.” Association of Jewish Studies annual meeting, Washington, December 2008.

“The Curious Theological Grammar of Ga’al Yisra’el.” Association of Jewish Studies annual meeting, Toronto, December 2007.

“Using Spirituality as a Lens Through Which to View the Rabbinic Institution of a Fixed Liturgy.” Institute for the Study of Rabbinic             Thought, Beit Morasha, Jerusalem, December 2006.

 

Invited Lectures and Adult Education (selected)

Temple Israel, Great Neck NY:  “Birkat Avot:  The Imahot, Too?” April 2009.

Congregation Sons of Israel, Briarcliff Manor NY: “How To Intelligently Abbreviate the Seder,” 19 March 2009.

Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning, NYC:  “What We Do When We Pray,” January 2009.

Rabbinical Assembly Annual Convention, Washington DC: “Teaching the Seder,” (3 sessions) February 2008.

Wexner Heritage Institute, Cleveland:  “Introduction to Jewish Liturgy,” (4 sessions) January – April 2007.

Conservative Yeshiva, Jerusalem: “Rosh Hodesh Tevet Liturgical Practices,"  December 2006.

Congregation Beth El, Baltimore MD: “The Future of the Conservative Movement,” June 2006.

Town and Village Synagogue, NYC: “The High Holiday Liturgy,”  (4 sessions)  September 2005; Scholar-in-Residence, “Liturgy and Change,” (2             sessions) June 2006.

Women’s League Institute, NYC: “The Amidah,” (14 sessions), spring 2005.

JTS Alumni Day: “Mishnaic and Toseftan Accounts of the Seder,” April 2003. JTS Rabbinical School Yom Iyyun:  “The Tension Between Scholarship and Spirituality,” March 2003.           

 

Professional Service (selected)

Moderator at invitation-only conference, “Candor or Respect: Talking About the Religion of Others,” Columbia University Law School, February 2009.

Panel organizer, “The Nexus Between Liturgical Text and Music,” Association of Jewish Studies annual meeting, Washington DC 2008.

Wabash Seminar for Integrative Teaching, participant, 2007 – 2008.

Rabbinical School Interview Committee, 1992 – 2008.

JTS Faculty Theology Group, 2005 – 2008; delivered lecture, “What Jews Can Learn from Russian Iconography,” February 2007.

Content and editorial advisor to JTS Communications Department’s film, “And the Gates Opened,” 2004 – 2005.

Wrote proposal for a Center for Liturgical Study at the request of the JTS Chancellor, fall 2007.

Advisory Committee, Louis Finkelstein Institute for Social Justice, 2006 – 2008.

JTS Chancellor Search Committee, 2005 – 2006.

Interviewed by NY1, “Women in the Rabbinate,” April 2005.

Designed format and content for two on-line courses, 2002 – 2003.

Graduate School Faculty Committee, 2001 – 2008.

Cantorial School Faculty Committee, 2001 – 2008.

Evaluator of student papers for Silverman Prize in Liturgy; 1998 – 2008.

Academic Advisor, Interdepartmental Studies MA Program, 1998 – 2008.

Director of Liturgy Program (BA, MA, PhD advisor), 1998 – 2008; second reader for two doctoral dissertations; primary reader for one             undergraduate honors thesis.           

 

 

Prizes and Awards

Merit Leave, spring semester, 2003.

Elbogen Fellowship, 1992; 1991.

Revson Fellowship, 1990; 1989.

Robinson Memorial Prize, 1991.

Rabbi Sidney Greenberg Prize, 1989.

William B. Hackenburg Prize in Midrash, 1989.

Lilian Lowenfeld Prize in Practical Theology, 1988.

Isarel Levinthal Prize in Homiletics, 1987.

Rabbi Morris Silverman Award in Liturgy, 1987.

Rabbi Isaac Bonder Memorial Prize, 1986.

Israel Davidson Memorial Prize, 1986.

Rabbi Harold Gordon Prize, 1985.

Anna Grossman Sherman Award in Hebrew Language, 1985.