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Mark E. Washofsky

WASHOFSKY, MARK E. (1952– ), U.S. Reform rabbi, academician. Washofsky was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and received his B.A. from the University of Alabama in 1974. In 1980, he was ordained at *Hebrew Union College, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1987. He served as rabbi of Beth Israel Synagogue in Hamilton, Ohio (1981–85), while also teaching homiletics at the Cincinnati campus of HUC-JIR. In 1985, he was appointed associate professor of rabbinics and elevated to professor in 2001. A scholar in the field of the literature of the Talmud and *halakhah, his subspecialty is the divergent traditions of Ashkenaz and Sepharad. In the Reform movement, Washofsky has been the chairman of the Committee on Responsa of the *Central Conference of American Rabbis since 1996. He was a major contributor to The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion and is the author of Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice (2001). He also co-edited (with Gunther *Plaut) Teshuvot for the Nineties: Recent American Reform Responsa (1997).


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.