Jewish Ethics: Foundations, Developments, and Contemporary Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue of Religions dedicated to Jewish Ethics: Foundations, Developments, and Contemporary Challenges. Jewish ethics, as both a religious and philosophical enterprise, has a rich textual tradition rooted in biblical commandments, Talmudic discourse, and rabbinic jurisprudence. In recent decades, it has re-emerged as a vital field engaging with questions of medical ethics, military conduct, business responsibility, and the intersection between tradition and pluralistic democratic values.

In a time of global moral uncertainty and ethical polarization, Jewish ethics offers a complex model of continuity, dialogue, and action grounded in covenantal responsibility, communal norms, and personal virtue. This Special Issue seeks to highlight therefore the ongoing relevance and intellectual richness of Jewish ethical traditions while inviting interdisciplinary conversation across theology, law, philosophy, and the social sciences.

Aim of the Special Issue

This Special Issue aims to explore the ethical foundations and applied dimensions of Jewish moral thought within classical and contemporary frameworks, and is particularly interested in how Jewish ethics interacts with modern challenges—such as bioethics, artificial intelligence, war ethics, and social justice—and how it shapes both religious observance and broader societal engagement.

As Religions encourages critical scholarship on religious traditions and their role in shaping human experience, this Special Issue is well-aligned with the journal’s scope, and will draw attention to the unique interplay between normative religious systems and moral reasoning in Judaism, offering both historical and forward-looking perspectives.

Suggested Themes and Article Types

In this Special Issue, original research articles and scholarly reviews are welcome, and research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Foundations of Jewish ethical thought in the Bible and Rabbinic literature;
• Halakha and moral decision-making;
• Comparative Jewish ethics and other religious or philosophical systems;
• Ethics of war and peace in Jewish law;
• Jewish medical ethics (e.g., end-of-life, organ donation, or reproductive technologies);
• Economic and business ethics in Jewish tradition;
• Gender, sexuality, and ethics in modern Jewish discourse;
• Moral education in Jewish communities;
• Jewish ethics and environmental responsibility;
• Jewish ethical responses to 20th- and 21st-century historical events.

Expected Impact

We hope that this Special Issue will stimulate new research, generate cross-disciplinary dialogue, and enrich the academic conversation around Jewish ethics as a living and evolving tradition. Contributions will offer insight into the ways that ancient texts and ethical frameworks are interpreted, applied, and challenged in contemporary moral contexts.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editor or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors to ensure proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue, and full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Tsuriel Rashi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Jewish ethics
• halakha
• moral philosophy
• rabbinic thought
• applied ethics
• theology
• Jewish law
• responsibility
• tradition and modernity
• religious pluralism