HOME  INTERVIEWS  RESOURCES  NEWS  ABOUT

View by:  Subject  Theme  Question  Term  Person  Event

Elliott Dorff

Elliott Dorff

Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Ph.D., is visiting professor of professional skills at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Dorff was ordained in 1970 and earned his PhD in philosophy from Columbia University in 1971. He has since then served as rector, professor of philosophy and director of the rabbinical and master's degree programs at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. 

A Jewish Perspective on Cloning and Other Techniques to Overcome Infertility

He has also taught a course on Jewish law at UCLA School of Law. Rabbi Dorff's publications include over one hundred articles on Jewish thought, law and ethics. The author of eight books, his most recent include: 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); and Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality: A Reader (Oxford University Press, 1995).

A member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbi Dorff sits on its commission on philosophy and its commission to write a new Torah commentary for the Conservative movement. His papers have formulated the validated stance of the movement on infertility treatments and end-of-life issues. His Rabbinic Letters on human sexuality and poverty have become the voice of the movement on those topics. Rabbi Dorff chaired two scholarly organizations, the Academy of Jewish Philosophy and the Jewish Law Association.

In the spring of 1993, Rabbi Dorff served on the ethics committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force, and in March 1997 and May 1999, he 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.

               To return to previous topic, click on your browser's 'Back' button. Email link

Elliott Dorff

All People

Full Picture Index
Nancy Ellen Abrams
Richard Address
Stacey Ake
David Albertini
Jensine Andresen
Lori Andrews
Munawar Anees
George Annas
Beth Arnold
Francisco Ayala
Anindita Balslev
Ian Barbour
John Barrow
Michael Behe
Gaymon Bennett
Eric Beresford
Charles Birch
Baruch Blumberg
David Brook
John Hedley Brooke
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
David Byers
Lisa Sowle Cahill
Brian Cantwell-Smith
Anna Case-Winters
Audrey Chapman
Jose Cibelli
Philip Clayton
Jane Maslow Cohen
Jonathan Cohen
Ronald Cole-Turner
Francis Collins
George Coyne
Francis Crick
Antonio Damasio
William Damon
Richard Davidson
Paul Davies
Richard Dawkins
Charles DeLisi
William Dembski
Demetrios Demopulos
Daniel Dennett
Alnoor Dhanani
Freeman Dyson
Celia Deane-Drummond
Irven DeVore
Thomas Dixon
Peter Dodson
Willem Drees
William Durham
Noah Efron
Arnold Eisen
Paul Ekman
Niles Eldredge
George FR Ellis
Wesley Elsberry
Sandra Faber
Carl Feit
Anna Foerst
John Gabrieli
Scott Gilbert
Owen Gingerich
Duane Gish
Medhi Golshani
Ursula Goodenough
Steven Jay Gould
Colin Gracey
William Grassie
Ronald Green
David Ray Griffin
Michael Grodin
Bruno Guiderdoni
Alan Guth
Robert Hamerton-Kelly
John Haught
Sandra Harding
Stephen Hawking
Richard Hayes
Philip Hefner
Peter Hess
Martinez Hewlett
Peter Hodgson
Nancy Howell
Sir Fred Hoyle
William Hurlbut
Wentzel van Huyssteen
Chris Isham
Antje Jackelén
Joseph Jacobs
Robert Jastrow
Calestous Jouma
Bill Joy
Solomon Katz
Donald Knuth
Melvin Konner
Judith Jenkins Kohatsu
Edward Kolb
Stephen Kosslyn
Job Kozhamthadam
Sheldon Krimsky
Lawrence Kushner
David Latham
Karen Lebacqz
John Leslie
Andre Linde
Amory Lovins
Marty Maddox
Randy Maddox
Mitch Marcus
Daniel Matt
Tsevi Mazeh
Sallie McFague
Alister McGrath
Paul McHugh
Michael Merzenich
Stephen Meyer
Mary Midgley
Jim Miller
Kenneth Miller
William Mobley
Jürgen Moltmann
Nancey Murphy
Paul Murray
David Myers
Naoki Nabeshima
Ronald Nakasone
Ken Nealson
Michael Robert Negus
Andrew Newberg
William Newsome
Warren A Nord
Ronald Numbers
Edward Oakes
Laurence O’Connell
Ayub Khan Ommaya
Lawrence Osborn
Eric Overström
Kuruvilla Pandikattu
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Arthur Peacocke
Jaroslav Pelikan
George Pell
Mark Pesce
Karl Peters
Ted Peters
Sir John Polkinghorne
Mike Poole
Stephen Post
M.G. Prasad
Joel Primack
V.S. Ramachandran
Asif Razvi
James Robl
Holmes Rolston
Steven Rose
William Stoeger
Rustum Roy
Pauline Rudd
Michael Ruse
Robert John Russell
Norbert Samuelson
Allan Sandage
Robert Sapolsky
Jeffrey Schloss
Seth Shulman
Eugenie Scott
Bonnie Joy Sedlak
Thomas Shannon
Vandana Shiva
Lee Silver
Seth Shostak
Barbara Smith-Moran
Robert Song
Christopher Southgate
Father Robert Spitzer
Russell Stannard
Jacqui Stewart
Lawrence Sullivan
Jill Tarter
Sir John Templeton
Trinh Xuan Thuan
George Tinker
Frank Tipler
Thomas Tracy
Roger Trigg
Thomas Turano
Neil Turok
Jean Vanier
Howard Van Till
Faraneh Vargha Khadem
Sara Via
Keith Ward
Brent Waters
Fraser Watts
Kirk Wegter McNelly
Steven Weinberg
Wesley Wildman
E.O.Wilson
Margaret Wertheim
Sondra Ely Wheeler
Mary White Scharf
Preston Williams
Everett Worthington
Adrian Wyard
Ronnee Yashon
Michael Zigmond
Laurie Zoloth
Biography Index