Jewish Scholars

Dr. Brenda Brasher serves as Chair of the External Relations Subcommittee of the Greater New Orleans Jewish Community Relations Council, and is a founder of NOLA Sisters Chaverot. Since completing her PhD in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, she has conducted a variety of sociological research projects in the USA, Israel, and Ukraine, and taught at universities including the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Tulane University in New Orleans, and the International Solomon University in Kiev, Ukraine. A former Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Brasher is the author of numerous publications including the award-winning Give Me That Online Religion, and Godly Women: Fundamentalism and Female Power, and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism for which she served as editor-in-chief.

Noah Efron is a journalist both for print media and television. He is a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Council, fellow of Shaharit, a think tank for new Israeli Politics, and teaches History and Sociology of Science at Bar Ilan University.

Both an Arabist and Hebraist, Paul B. Fenton is Co-Director of the Department of Arabic and Hebrew Studies at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, where he is Professor of Hebrew language and literature. He is also a statutory member of the Laboratoire de l’étude des monothéismes (CNRS). After Rabbinical studies, he majored in Semitics at Strasbourg University and St. Joseph Univerity in Beirut, going on to complete his PhD in Mediaeval Jewish philosophy and Judaeo-Arabic literature under Georges Vajda (Sorbonne, 1976). His field of research covers various aspects of Jewish civilisation in the Muslim world, specializing in speculative texts discovered in the Cairo Genizah manuscripts.
He is director of the E. J. Brill series «Études sur le judaïsme médiéval», and has published numerous studies and monographs in the field of Jewish culture in the Islamic context in several languages, notably his Deux traités de mystique juive (Paris, 1987), Moïse Ibn ‘Ezra, philosophe et poète andalou du XIIe siècle (Leiden, 1997), Le Commentaire kairouanais sur le Livre de la Création (Louvain, 2002), Joseph Ibn Waqâr, The Principles of the Kabbalah (Los Angeles, 2004), Judah Ibn Malka, La Consolation de l’expatrié spirituel (Paris, 2007), Juda al-Harizi, Kitâb al-Durar, The Book of Pearls (Jerusalem, 2009), and Exile in the Maghreb: Jews under Islam (Paris, 2012; New York 2015). His latest book, Muhammad Ibn Zikri (17th c.), On the Eminence of Israelites and Arabs (Madrid, CSIC, 2015) is an apologetical work in defense of the Neo-Muslims of Jewish origin in Morocco.

Dr. Yehuda Gellman is emeritus professor of philosophy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Gellman was a long time fellow at the Hartman Institute and recently a fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Religion at University of Notre Dame, IN. He has recently finished a book on a contemporary concept of the Chosen People.

Elliot K Ginsburg is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the Jewish mystical traditions, including kabbalah and hasidism, and has wide-ranging interests in Judaism as religious tradition, and in the history of religions. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Religious Studies, and previously taught at Oberlin College in Ohio. He has published two books with SUNY Press, most notably The Sabbath in the Classical Kabbalah, which is scheduled to appear in a new edition with Littman Press. His current projects include a study of the “Sabbath during the week” both as concept and practice, and a multi-tiered study of Jewish mystical prayer. Elliot Ginsburg has taught courses on Jewish Mysticism, Modern Jewish Thought, Perspectives on the Holocaust, and seminars on such topics as The Radical Teachings of Nahman of Bratslav, Zohar, The Sabbath and Sacred Time, and The Emotions and Senses in Judaism.

Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President and the Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College. The author of more than ten books, Gordis is a regular columnist for both the Jerusalem Post and for Bloomberg View. He won the National Jewish Book Award for Saving Israel, and bothBecoming a Jewish Parent and his book (co-authored with Dr. David Ellenson of the Hebrew Union College),Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policy-Making in 19th and 20th Century Orthodox Responsa (published by Stanford University Press in 2012) were Finalists for the National Jewish Book Award.  The Promise of Israel: Why Its Seemingly Greatest Weakness is Actually Its Greatest Strength, was named by Jewish Ideas Daily as one of the “best Jewish books of 2012.” Commentary Magazine has called Gordis’ most recent book,Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul  “the gold standard in Begin studies.” When the Hebrew edition of his Begin biography appeared in July 2015, it quickly rose to Israel’s national bestseller list.

Alon Goshen-Gottstein is the founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, and lecturer and director of the Center for the Study of Rabbinic Thought, Beit Morasha College, Jerusalem. Ordained a Rabbi in 1977, he holds a Ph.D. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the field of Rabbinic Thought. His four score publications are divided between the areas of Interreligious Dialogue, Theology of Religions, Jewish Spirituality and Rabbinic Thought.

Dr. Raphael Jospe is Senior Lecturer in Jewish Philosophy at the Open University of Israel in Jerusalem and Hebrew University, School of Overseas Students. Dr. Jospe is an acclaimed scholar and teacher of Jewish Philosophy, as well as a noted leader and participant in Jewish-Christian dialogue; he has authored and edited 18 books and dozens of scholarly essays and encyclopedia entries in his field, including his 3-volume work Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages.  He was editor of the Jewish philosophy division of the Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd edition) and now of the new Encyclopaedia Hebraica.

Dr. Miriam Feldmann Kaye is a Lecturer at the Departments of Jewish Thought and Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is Founding Director of the Israel branch of the Three Faiths Forum and a Fellow at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and Reconciliation. Her book ‘Jewish Theology in a Postmodern Age’, is due to be published next year by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.

Rav Daniel Kohn is the Rabbi of Yishuv Bat Ayin. He holds a BA in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, and moved to Israel after finishing his undergraduate degree. Rav Daniel is known for his profound integrative teaching and group facilitation, which bring mysticism and Chassidut together with grounded human insight and a deep awareness of psychological processes. A musmach of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Rav Daniel spent many years in the yeshivot Merkaz Harav Kook, Netzach Yisrael and Har Etzyon. He co-founded the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, where he also served as co-Rosh Yeshiva for nine years, and he is a sought after teacher in Gush Etzion, Jerusalem, and in the Diaspora. He also counsels using a unique combination of spiritual and therapeutic techniques.

B. Barry Levy is Professor of Biblical Studies at McGill University in Montreal. Having taught some sixty different courses in Bible, the history of Biblical interpretation, Hebrew, Aramaic, Religious Studies, and Jewish Studies at McGill since his initial appointment in 1975, he also has served as a visiting professor at Concordia University and Yeshiva University, and as Shier Distinguished Visiting Professor of Judaica at the University of Toronto. In 1994-95, he held a Starr Fellowship from Harvard University. Levy is the author of various books and shorter monographs, including two volumes on the Neofiti Targum, Planets, Potions, and Parchments: Scientifica Hebraica from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Eighteenth Century; and Fixing God’s Torah. He has served two terms as Chairman of McGill’s Department of Jewish Studies, thirteen years as Director of McGill’s program to train Judaica teachers, and more than a decade as Dean of its Faculty of Religious Studies.

Haviva Pedaya is a poetess, author, cultural critic and scholar–researcher. She was born in Jerusalem, where she studied at the Hebrew University and the School for Visual Theater. Prof. Pedaya, a member of the faculty of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is a scholar of Jewish mysticism, from the period of the early Hekhalot literature through the Baal Shem Tov and the other founders of Hasidism. Her research interests relate to the basic questions of religious experience: text and interpretation; revelation, hearing and seeing; thematic structures of time and place; relations of center and periphery; and the application of these questions within multifaceted cultural, social and creative contexts. Her most recent studies deal with the Jewish–Arabic milieu from the viewpoint of theory and criticism, and with art and music. She has conducted two academic research groups at the Van Leer Institute: on the subject of Eastern culture, and on that of Jewish liturgical poetry (piyyut). She is a member of the steering committee of the website for piyyut and singing communities, and is President of the Hazon Association for rehabilitation of emotionally damaged women. She has published numerous articles (some of which have been published in English), three books of poetry, a book of prose, and five academic monographs. Her last two scholarly books are: Walking Beyond Trauma and Space and Place, in which she has proposed, among other things, models for brotherhood and for a world community. Pedaya is the scion of a noted family of Kabbalists from Baghdad. Her great-grandfather, Rabbi Yehudah Fetaya, was a well-known Kabbalist, described by Yehudah Liebes as the greatest Kabbalist of the twentieth century.

Peta Jones Pellach is an educator with expertise in adult education and dialogue facilitation. She served in senior positions in Sydney’s Jewish schools before making her career in Adult Education in 1997. Until Feb 2010, she was Director of Adult Education at The Shalom Institute, University of NSW, Sydney, and was the educator-in-residence. She conducted classes for the informal sector and the University of Sydney on the weekly Torah portion, Jewish Civilization & Culture, Biblical Studies, Jewish Studies Teaching Method and Arab-Israeli Conflict. Innovations under her leadership included the introduction of professionally-crafted programs of regular adult learning (Melton) and cross-generational community-wide learning ‘experiences’ (Limmud-Oz). She was a key player in inter-faith dialogue in Australia including in the Women’s Interfaith Network, the (Australian) Uniting Church-Jewish Dialogue, the Jewish ‘conversation’ with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews. In 2004 and 2006 she was a member of the Australian delegation to the Regional Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation, in Indonesia and the Philippines respectively. Her academic qualifications include BA (UNSW), Masters in International Affairs (Columbia University, NY), Jerusalem Fellow (1989-91).  Publications include ‘Human Rights, Religion & Gender –Jewish Perspective’ for the Australian Human Rights Commission (2010), ‘Without Prejudice – A Handbook for Teachers’ (2009);  We Offer Thanks in ‘Mosaic: Favourite Prayers and Reflections from Inspiring Australians’ (2008) Interfaith Dialogue and Israel   and Adult Education (co-authored with Paul Forgasz) in ‘New Under the Sun’ (2006), The Contribution of Nehama Leibowitz in the Journal of Studies of Religion (Aus), (2006). In June 2010, she joined Elijah to develop the work of the Educational Network.

A global religious leader, philosopher, author of over 25 books, renowned speaker and moral voice for our time, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is currently the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He has also been appointed as Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King’s College London. Previously, Rabbi Sacks served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth between September 1991 and September 2013. A frequent contributor to radio, television and the press both in Britain and around the world, Rabbi Sacks holds 16 honorary degrees and has been presented with several international awards in recognition of his work, including the Jerusalem Prize in 1995 for his contribution to diaspora Jewish life and The Ladislaus Laszt Ecumenical and Social Concern Award from Ben Gurion University in Israel in 2011. Rabbi Sacks has also recently been named as The Becket Fund’s 2014 Canterbury Medalist for his role in the defence of religious liberty in the public square. He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005 and made a Life Peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords in October 2009.

Rabbi David Seidenberg, the creator of NeoHasid, teaches text and music, dance, and ecology, and all aspects of Jewish thought and spirituality, in their own right and in relation to ecology and the environment. Areas include Kabbalah and Chasidut, Talmud, davening, evolution and cosmology, sustainability, Maimonides, Buber, and more. David has smikhah (ordination) from the Jewish Theological Seminary and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and is one of the world’s foremost scholars on Judaism and ecology. His book on ecology and Kabbalah, based on his doctorate at JTS, will be published in 2013. David has also worked as an activist and community organizer, and he founded the first Chasidic-egalitarian minyan in the world on NYC’s Upper West Side, which was the inspiration for neohasid.org. He has taught at well over 100 synagogues, communities, retreats and conferences across North America (and a few in Israel), and is published widely on ecology and Judaism.

Don Seeman, is Associate Professor at Emory University. He holds a joint appointment with the Department of Religion and the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1997, and taught previously at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Don is the author of One People, One Blood: Ethiopian-Israelis and the Return to Judaism (Rutgers University Press, 2009), and has published broadly in religion, anthropology, and Jewish studies. His research interests include the anthropology of experience and phenomenology of religion, modern Jewish thought and mysticism, medical anthropology, and the ethnography of contemporary Israel. He recently co-edited special issues of two different journals: “Jewish Mystical Poetics: The Jewish Mystical Text as Literature” in Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History, and “Horizons of Experience: Phenomenological and Psychoanaltic Anthropologies in Conversation” in Ethos: Journal of Psychological Anthropology.

Meir Sendor has been the Rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon, MA for over two decades. He received his ordination from the Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and his Doctorate in Medieval Jewish History from Harvard University. Rabbi Sendor has served as a visiting professor at Brandeis University, and an instructor for the Me’ah Program of Hebrew College. He lectures on medieval Jewish history, medieval Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah, the philosophy of Jewish law, the history of Jews and medicine and Jewish medical ethics, and serves on Bioethics Advisory Boards. He has written on issues in Jewish spirituality, Halakhah and Jewish history.

A research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Zvi Zohar is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar-Ilan University, where he teaches in the Faculties of Law and Jewish Studies and heads the Rappaport Center for Assimilation Research and the Strengthening of Jewish Vitality. At Shalom Hartman Institute, he heads the Alan and Loraine Fischer Family Center for Halakha. He has published more than 60 books and scholarly articles in Hebrew, English and French, the most recent of which isTransforming Identity: The Ritual Transition from Gentile to Jew – Structure and Meaning (co-authored with the Institute’s Avi Sagi), from the Institute’s Kogod Library of Judaic Studies, published in conjunction with Continuum Press.

Professor Michael Fishbane is an eminent American scholar of Jewish studies, renowned for his extensive contributions to biblical interpretation, rabbinic literature, Jewish mysticism, and modern Jewish theology. He holds the title of Nathan Cummings Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he served on the faculty for over three decades. 
Fishbane earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University, where he was mentored by notable scholars such as Nahum M. Sarna and Nahum N. Glatzer. His academic career includes significant tenures at both Brandeis University and the University of Chicago. 
His scholarly work encompasses a broad spectrum of Jewish thought, from ancient Near Eastern texts and biblical studies to rabbinics, the history of Jewish interpretation, Jewish mysticism, and modern Jewish philosophy. Among his numerous publications are Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (1985) and The Kiss of God: Spiritual and Mystical Death in Judaism (1994), both of which received the National Jewish Book Award. 
Fishbane’s later works, such as Sacred Attunement: A Jewish Theology (2008), reflect his development of a hermeneutical theology that bridges traditional Jewish exegesis with contemporary theological inquiry.
His contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in Textual Studies from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. 
Fishbane’s work continues to influence scholars and students in the fields of Jewish studies and theology, underscoring his role as a leading figure in the interpretation and understanding of Jewish texts and traditions.

Professor Jon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School, where he has taught since 1988. His scholarship focuses on the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, including its reinterpretations in Second Temple Judaism and rabbinic midrash. Levenson is particularly interested in the intersection of traditional modes of biblical interpretation and modern historical criticism, as well as the theological relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
He is the author of several influential books, including Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life, which won a National Jewish Book Award and the Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award. His other notable works include Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and The Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism
In recognition of his contributions to biblical scholarship and interfaith dialogue, Levenson received the 2023 Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement from the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.