Jewish involvement in the Atlantic slave trade, gender equality in religious practice, and the integration of traditional values with modern ethics represent pressing challenges for contemporary Jewish scholarship. Three recent works tackle these issues from distinct angles, offering both groundbreaking insights and revealing persistent tensions. Through exhaustive analysis of eighteenth and nineteenth-century shipping records, tax documents, and synagogue archives, Eli Faber's *Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record Straight* definitively demonstrates that Jewish participation in the slave trade was proportional to population size, effectively countering antisemitic narratives. Albert Vorspan and David Saperstein's *Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice* examines contemporary moral dilemmas including AIDS, medical ethics, and ethnic cleansing from Jewish perspectives, though its treatment of traditional rabbinic sources remains insufficient for bridging classical and modern ethical frameworks. Rachel Adler's *Engendering Judaism* presents a systematic feminist theological critique that moves beyond surface-level reforms, arguing through interdisciplinary scholarship that genuine gender equality requires fundamental reconceptualization of Jewish ritual, liturgy, and law. Together, these works illuminate the complex dialogue between traditional Jewish sources and contemporary ethical imperatives, showcasing both the potential and limitations of modern Jewish scholarship in addressing social justice.