The Winter 2026 issue of CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly contains articles on the golem, American civic health, Hebrew Union College's new rabbinical curriculum, and Jewish history in the Islamic world. A responsum on burial of a person in a pet cemetery and a translation of the preface to Jacob Sasportas’s Tol’dot Yaakov are also included, along with book reviews and poetry.

Rabbi Edwin Goldberg currently serves as the rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of The Woodlands, in the Houston area. He received rabbinic ordination and a doctorate in Hebrew Literature from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (in 1989 and 1994, respectively). He has authored several books, including: Midrash for Beginners, Heads and Tales: Stories of the Sages to Enlighten Our Minds, Swords and Plowshares: Jewish Views of War and Peace, Love Tales from the Talmud, Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most. He served as the Coordinating Editor of the new Reform Jewish machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh. He also edited a companion commentary, Divrei Mishkan HaNefesh and has published many articles and sermons. Rabbi Goldberg has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami in the department of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies. He is also a graduate of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

From the Editor
At the Gates
   Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL


Articles
The Golem as Theology: The Mutable Myth Confronting the Problem of Evil
   Rabbi Stanley M. Davids, z”l, with Rabbi Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, PhD, and Joshua Glucksman
Studying American Scripture and Healing Civic Health
   Rabbi Michael G. Holzman and Rabbi Jessie Wainer
Hebrew Union College’s New Rabbinical School Curriculum: Integrative Rabbinical Education for A New Generation
   Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot, PhD, and Rabbi Dvora E. Weisberg, PhD
Kitab al-Dhimma: A Jewish Counter-History
   Rabbi Reuven Firestone, PhD


Book Reviews
Christmas in Yiddish Tradition: The Untold Story
   by Jordan Chad
   Reviewed by Rabbi Stacy Petersohn
Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church
   by Kevin Sack
   Reviewed by Rabbi Stephanie M. Alexander
The Last Generation of the German Rabbinate: German Refugee Rabbis in the United States, 1933–2010
   by Cornelia Wilhelm
   Reviewed by Rabbi Ari S. Lorge
The Sacred Struggle: Jewish Responses to Trauma 
   edited by Rabbi Lindsey Danziger and Rabbi Benjamin David
   Reviewed by Rabbi Julie Pelc Adler
To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People
   by Noah Feldman
   Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman


Poetry
Like Isaac
   Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman
Avatiach 
A Niggun 
Stolperstein  
Parochet 
   Roger Nash, PhD
Neshamah
   Eva Alter
Noah’s Ark 
   Rabbi Marc J. Belgrad


Responsum 5784.3
Burial of a Person in a Pet Cemetery
   CCAR Responsa Committee, Rabbi Joan Friedman, PhD, chair


Maayanot (Primary Sources)
The Preface to Jacob Sasportas’s Tol’dot Yaakov 
   Introduction and Translation by Rabbi LaurenceL. Edwards, PhD