Faculty

Core Faculty

David Berger, Ruth & I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History and Dean
PhD, Columbia University
Jewish intellectual history; Jewish-Christian relations; Messianism and Messianic movements; Jewish attitudes toward general culture

Mordechai Cohen, Professor of Bible and Associate Dean
PhD, Yeshiva University
Medieval biblical interpretation; connections with Arabic poetics and medieval Hebrew poetry; Muslim jurisprudence and Jewish legal exegesis; modern literary approaches to the Bible

Jonathan Dauber, Assistant Professor of Jewish Mysticism
PhD, New York University
Kabbalah and Hasidism; Jewish mysticism and esotericism, interface between Kabbalah and Jewish philosophy, Jewish messianism

Barry Eichler, Professor of Bible and Cuneiform Studies
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Application of Mesopotamian literature to the study of the Bible

Yaakov Elman, Professor of Jewish History; Herbert S. and Naomi Denenberg Chair in Talmudic Studies
PhD, New York University
Tosefta: structure, aims, and relationship to the Talmudim; rabbinic theology; unfolding systems of rabbinic legal exegesis

Steven Fine, Professor of Jewish History
PhD, Hebrew University
Jewish life in Greco-Roman times; art history

Jeffrey S. Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History
PhD, Columbia University
American Jewish history, with emphasis on social and religious history; modern Jewish history

Shalom Holtz, Associate Professor of Bible
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Mesopotomian literature and law and their relationship to biblical and post-biblical literature

Elazar Hurvitz, Professor of Bible; Dr. Samuel Belkin Chair in Judaic Studies
PhD, Yeshiva University
Halakhic and midrashic literature; Geonic literature; Genizah research

Arthur Hyman, Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy
PhD, Harvard University
History of medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy; modern Jewish thought; Maimonides; Jewish ethics

Ephraim Kanarfogel, E. Billi Ivry Chair in Jewish History; Professor of Jewish History
PhD, Yeshiva University
Medieval Jewish history; history of halakhah; history of educational theory and practice; intellectual cross-currents between Ashkenaz and Sefarad; pietism and mysticism in rabbinic culture

Debra Kaplan, Dean Pinkhos Churgin Chair in Jewish History; Associate Professor Jewish History
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Early Modern Jewish History; Jewish-Christian relations; emphasis on social history

Jess Olson, Assistant Professor of Jewish History
PhD, Stanford University
Modern East and Central European Jewry; German-Jewish history and thought; Austro-Hungarian Jewry; modern Jewish intellectual history; history of Jewish politics and nationalism

Ronnie Perelis, Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Abraham and Jelena (Rachel) Alcalay Chair in Sephardic Studies; Assistant Professor of Sephardic Studies
PhD, New York University
Jews in the medieval and early modern Iberian world; Inquisition and Crypto-Judaism; autobiography and travel literature; Sephardic diasporas; Jewish presence in Latin America

Daniel Rynhold, Associate Professor of Jewish Philosophy
PhD, London School of Economics
Modern Jewish philosophy; Nietzsche and Jewish philosophy; approaches to Ta'amei ha-Mitzvot; the philosophy of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik

Lawrence H. Schiffman, Professor of Judaic Studies; Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
PhD, Brandeis University
Dead Sea Scrolls, Second Temple Literature, History of Judaism, Rabbinic law and literature

Richard C. Steiner, Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures

PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Biblical and mishnaic Hebrew; Aramaic dialectology; Semitic linguistics; Hebrew linguistics in the Middle Ages

Daniel Tsadik, Assistant Professor of Sephardic and Iranian Studies
PhD, Yale University
History of the Jews in Islamic lands; Modern Iran; Shi'i Islam; Iran's religious minorities; Iran's Jewry

Associate Faculty

Shawn Z. Aster, Assistant Professor of Bible
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Hebrew Bible; Mesopotamian Literature; Northwest Semitics; Historyand Historical Geography of the Biblical Period; Midrashic Literature

Joshua Karlip, Assistant Professor of Jewish History
PhD, Jewish Theological Seminary
Eastern European Jewish History

Aaron Koller, Assistant Professor of Bible

PhD, Yeshiva University
Near Eastern languages, semantics and lexicography, archaeology and texts, intellectual and cultural histories of antiquity

Joshua Zimmerman, Eli and Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History; Associate Professor of History
PhD, Brandeis University
Jewish social and national movements in Eastern Europe; Jewish culture in Eastern Europe; Holocaust studies

Senior Adjunct Faculty

Elisheva Carlebach, Visiting Professor of History
PhD, Columbia University
History of early modern European Jewry

Sid Z. Leiman, Visiting Professor of Jewish History and Literature
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Bible; history of biblical exegesis; early modern Jewish intellectual history