Elliot N. Dorff
Biographical Sketch -- May, 2003

Elliot Dorff was ordained a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1970 and earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in 1971 with a dissertation in moral theory. Since then he has directed the rabbinical and Masters programs at the University of Judaism, where he currently is Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He also teaches a course on Jewish law at UCLA School of Law as a Visiting Professor.

Rabbi Dorff is a member of the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards and the editorial committee of the new Torah commentary for the Conservative Movement. His papers have formulated the validated stance of the Conservative Movement on infertility treatments and on end-of-life issues, and his Rabbinic Letters on human sexuality and on poverty have become the voice of the Conservative Movement oh those topics. He has chaired two scholarly organizations, the Academy of Jewish Philosophy and the Jewish Law Association. In Spring, 1993, lie served on the Ethics Committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force; in March, 1997 and May, 1999, he testified on behalf of the Jewish tradition on the subjects of human cloning and stem cell research before the President's National Bioethics Advisory Commission; in 1999 and 2000 he was part of the Surgeon General's commission to draft a Call to Action for Responsible Sexual Behavior; and from 2000-2002, he served on a commission charged with reviewing and revising the federal guidelines for protecting human subjects in research projects.

In Los Angeles, he is a member of the Board of Jewish Family Service, and he is a member of the Ethics committees at the Jewish Homes for the Aging and U.C.L.A. Medical Center. He serves as Co-Chair of the Priest-Rabbi Dialogue sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese and the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, and he is a Vice-President of the Academy for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Studies.

Rabbi Dorff's publications include over 150 articles on Jewish thought, law, and ethics, together with nine books with the tenth due out in September:

1) Jewish Law and Modern Ideology (1970).

2) Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors to Our Descendants (1977; second, revised edition: 1996).

3) A Living Tree: The Roots and Growth of Jewish Law (1988) (with Arthur Rosett). 4) Mitzvah Means Commandment (1989).

5) Knowing God: Jewish Journeys to the Unknowable (1992).

6) Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality: A Reader (1995) (edited with Louis E. Newman). 7) Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics (1998). 8) Contemporary Jewish Theology: A Reader (1999) (edited with Louis E. Newman). 9) To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics (2002). 10) Love Your Neighbor and Yourself.- A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics (2003).

Rabbi Dorff is married and has four children and two grandchildren -- may their number increase!.