Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae
Books:
Between Worlds – The Life and Thought of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon (Albany: SUNY Press, 1991).
Editor, Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word ( Cambridge , Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2002).
Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge, and Well-Being ( Cincinnati : Hebrew Union College Press, 2003).
Editor, Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy ( Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2004).
Editor (with Christian Wiese), The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life (Boston and Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2008).
Articles and Book Chapters:
“The Concept of Torah in the Work of David Messer Leon,” (in Hebrew), Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 2 (1982) 94-117.
“Sefirot as the Essence of God in the Writings of David Messer Leon,” AJS Review 7-8 (1982-1983): 409-425.
“Maimonides and Aquinas: The Interplay of Two Masters in Medieval Jewish Philosophy,” Conservative Judaism 39 (1986): 54-66.
“The Political Philosophy of Abraham Shalom – The Platonic Tradition,” (in Hebrew), Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 9 (1990) (= Shlomo Pines Jubilee Volume vol. 2): 409-440.
“In Defense of Jewish Humanism,” Jewish History 3 (2) (1989) 31-57.
“Medieval Judaism: The State of the Field: Response” in The State of Jewish Studies , edited by Shaye J.D. Cohen and Edward L. Greenstein (Detroit: Wane State University Press, 1990), pp. 132-48.
“Jewish Culture in Renaissance Italy – A Methodological Survey,” Italia 9 (1990): 63-96.
“Continuity and Revision in the Study of Kabbalah,” AJS Review 18 (1991): 161-192.
“'Dare to Know – Feminism and Jewish Philosophy,” in Feminist Perspectives on Jewish Studies , edited by Lynn Davidman and Shelly Tenenbaum (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 84-119.
“The Ultimate End of Human Life in Post-Expulsion Philosophical Literature,” in Crisis and Continuity in the Sephardic World: 1391-1648 , edited by Benjamin R. Gampel (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 223-254, notes, pp. 351-380.
“Human Felicity – Fifteenth-Century Sephardic Perspectives on Happiness,” in In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews between Two Cultures , edited by Bernard Dov Cooperman ( Newark : University of Delaware Press ), pp. 191-243.
“Jewish Philosophy on the Eve of Modernity,” in History of Jewish Philosophy , editd by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 499-573.
“Maimonides' View of Happiness: Philosophy, Myth, and the Transcendence of History,” in Jewish History and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, edited by Elisheva Carlebach, David N. Myers, and John M. Efron (Hanover NH and London: Brandeis University Press, 1998), pp. 189-213.
“Theology of Nature in Sixteenth-Century Italian Jewish Philosophy,” in Science in Context 10 (no. 4) (Winter 1997): 529-570.
“A Jewish Perspective on Religious Pluralism,” Macalester International 8 (Spring 2000):73-112. Volume entitled: “Contending Gods: Religion and the Global Moment”
“Nature in the Sources of Judaism,” Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ,” 130 (4) (2001): 99-124.
“Editor's Introduction: Judaism and the Natural World,” in Judaism and Ecology , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson ( Cambridge Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2000), xxxiii-lxii.
“The Textualization of Nature in Jewish Mysticism,” in Judaism and Ecology , edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson ( Cambridge Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2002), 389-406.
“Jewish Spirituality: Past Models and Present Quest, in Studies in Jewish Civilization 13: Spiritual Dimensions in Judaism , edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon and Ronald R. Simkings ( Omaha : Creighton University Press, 2003), 1-30.
“Philosophy and Kabbalah: 1200-1600,” The Cambridge Companion of Medieval Jewish Philosophy , edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman ( Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003), 218-257.
“The Bible in the Jewish Philosophical Tradition,” The Jewish Study Bible , edited by Marc Brettler and Adele Berlin ( New York : Oxford University Press, 2003), 1948-75.
The book received the National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship in 2004.
“Editor’s Introduction: Jewish Philosophy in Conversation with Feminism,” Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 1-23.
“Rethinking the Past and Anticipating the Future of Science and Religion,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 40 (1) (2005): 33-42.
“Religion, Ecology, and Gender: A Jewish Perspective,” Feminist Theology 13 (3) (2005): 373-397.
“Judaism,” The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology, ed. Roger S. Gottlieb (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 25-64.
“Virtue and Happiness,” The Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy: From Antiquity through the Seventeenth Century, edited by Stephen Nadler and T. M. Rudavsky (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 707-767.
“Jewish Philosophy, Human Dignity, and the New Genetics,” for Biotechnology, Our Future as Human Beings and Citizens, ed. Sean D. Sutton (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009), pp. 81-122.
Book Reviews:
Review of Isaac Rabinowitz (ed. and trans.), The Book of the Honeycomb Flow Sepher Nophet Suphim by Judah Messer Leon (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1983), in Renaissance Quarterly 37 (1984): 234-38.
Review of Bernard Septimus, Hispano-Jewish Culture in Transition: The Career and Controversies of Ramah (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982) in Speculum 60 (1985): 199-201.
Review of Menachem Kelner, Dogmas in Medieval Jewish Thought: From Maimonides to Abravanel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986) in Critical Review of Books in Religion 3 (1990): 365-69.
Review of Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective ( San Francisco : HarperSanFrancisco1990) in Hadoar 70 (no. 32) (1991): 14-19 (in Hebrew).
Review of Yehuda Liebes, Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1990) in Critical Review of Books in Religion 7 (1994): 432-35.
Review of Robert Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) in American Historical Review (1995): 1615-1617.
Review of Elliot Wolfson, Through the Speculum that Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994) in The Journal of Religion 76 (1996): 506-509.
Review of Meir Zvi Bnaya, Moshe Almosnino of Salonika : His Life and Work (Ramat Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1996) (Hebrew), in Jewish Quarterly Review 89 (1998) 250-52.
Review of Joseph Davis, Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller: Portrait of a Seventeenth-Century Rabbi ( Oxford , England and Portland , Oregon : The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004) for Renaissance Quarterly 58 (3) (2005): 962-64.
Review of David B. Ruderman and Guiseppe Veltri (eds.), Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy ( Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), for The American Historical Review 100 (4) (2005): 1281-83.
Review of Moshe Idel, Kabbalah and Eros (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), AJS Review, (31) (no. 1) (2007): 187-190.
Review of Elliot R. Wolfson, Alef, Mem, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time, Truth and Death (Berkeley and Los Angels: University of California, 2006), Journal of Religion 87 (no. 3) (2007): 463-466.
Review of Shaul Regev (ed.), Mikve Israel by R. Israel Najara (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 2004) Renaissance Quarterly LX (no. 4) (Winter, 2007): 1329-1330.
Review of Robert Chazan, The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom: 1000-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), History: Reviews of New Books 36 (no. 3) Spring 2008): 108-110.
Review of Daniel Frank and Matt Goldish (eds.), Rabbinic Culture and Its Critics: Jewish Authority, Dissent and Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Times (Detroit: Wayne State, 2008), Renaissance Quarterly, vol. LXII (no. 1) (Spring, 2009): 279-281.
Review of Adam Shear, The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) for The American Historical Review 114 (3) (June 2009): 818-819.
Reviews On-Line
Review of Peter Ochs and Nancy Levene (eds.), Textual Reasonings: Jewish Philosophy and Text Study at the End of the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapid: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003), Review of Biblical Literature, posted 3/17/04.
Review of Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), Metanexus On-Line Journal: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Foundational Questions, posted 4/16/04.
“Facing the Challenges of Transhumanism: Philosophical, Religious, and Ethical Considerations,” The Global Spiral, e-publication of Metanexus Institute (posted 10/11/07).
“Kabbalah: A Medieval Tradition and Its Contemporary Appeal,” History Compass, Vol. 6, Issue 2 (2008): pp. 552-587 (posted 2/14, 2008).
Editor, Special Issue on Transhumanism, The Global Spiral, Vol. 9, Issue 3 (2008). Contributors: Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Don Ihde, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Katherine Hayles, Andrew Pickering, Ted Peters (posted 6/6 2008).
Encyclopedia Entries :
“Messer Leon, Judah,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Chief Editor, Edward Craig (Routledge: London, 1998), vol. 6, pp. 331-335;
“Shem Tov Family,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Chief Editor, Edward Craig, (Routledge: London, 1998), vol. 8, pp. 737-740.
“Kabbalah,” in Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999), General Editor, John H. Hayes, vol. 2, pp. 1-7.
“Jewish Philosophy,” The Encyclopedia of the Renaissance,” General Editor, Paul. F .Grendler (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999), vol. 3, pp. 314-318.
“Judaism,” for Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, Editor in Chief, J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen (New York: Macmillan, 2003), vol. 2, pp. 477- 483.
“Judaism,” The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, Editor-in-Chief Bron Taylor ( London : and New York : Continuum, 2005), vol. 1, pp. 525-537.
“Ecology and Religion: Ecology and Judaism,” Encyclopedia of Religion , Revised Second Edition, Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Jones (New York : Macmillan, 2005), vol. 4, pp. 2641-47.
“Beatitude,” Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition, ed. Michael Benerbaum and Fred Skolnik, vol. 3 (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), pp. 237-241.
“Philosophy, Jewish: Women and Gender” Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition, ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, vol. 16 (Detroit: Macmillan References USA, 2007), pp. 105-114.
“Happiness,” Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, edited by Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), vol. 1, 275-280.
“Nature in Judaism,” Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions, edited by Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007), vol. 2, pp. 442-443.
Semi-Academic Publications :
“Against Dogmatic Skepticism: A Response to Laura Levitt,” Sh'ma , 30/568 (January, 2000), pp. 9-10.
“The Jewish Feminist as Jewish Philosopher,” Outlook: Women's League for Conservative Judaism 70 (4) (Summer 2000): 11-14.
“Beyond Conflict of Science and Religion: The Case of Judaism.” Canyon Institute of Advanced Studies vol. 5, issue 11 (Spring 2006): 8-10.
“Environmentalism and Gender,” Sh’ma 38/651 (June 2008):7-8.
“Immortality of Immortality,” Religion Dispatches (daily online magazine edited by Gary Laderman, Linell Cady, Evan Derkaez and Lisa Webster), (posted July 2, 2008).
Awards :
Between Worlds was awarded the Arnold Vizhnitzer Award for the best work in Jewish history for 1991 given by the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Outstanding Young Faculty Award, Indiana University, December 1992.
Distinguished Alumna of Stony Brook University (Award given on November 15, 2007).
Organizational Activities :
February 2001, Conference: “On Being Human: Women in Jewish Philosophy” at Arizona State University; proceedings edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and published by Indiana University Press (2004).
February 2004, Conference: “Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Evolution” with Geoffrey Cantor (University of Leeds, England) and Marc Swetlitz (Chicago) at Arizona State University; proceedings were edited by Geoffrey Cantor and Marc Swetlitz and published by University of Chicago (2006).
November 2005, “Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life: The Legacy of Hans Jonas” at Arizona State University. The conference received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Proceedings are edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Christian Wiese (Sussex University, England ) to be published by Brill Academic Publishers (2007).
2004-09: Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar: “Being Human: Religion, Science, Technology and Law.”
2006-09: “Facing the Challenges of Transhumanism: Religion, Science, and Technology,” Templeton Research Lectures Series, Arizona State University.
Professional Organizations :
Association for Jewish Studies (in charge of Jewish Mysticism section, 1995-98; Member of Board of Directors 1998-2002).
American Academy of Religion (Steering Committee of the History of Judaism section, 1994-96).
Society of Biblical Literature
Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
Renaissance Society of America
American Historical Association
World Union of Jewish Studies
Professional Services
Referee of manuscripts for publications: AJS Review; Journal of the History of Ideas, Medieval Encounters, Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science; Frontiers: Journal of Women Studies; Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History; Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy; Journal of Hebrew Studies; Frontiers: Journal of Women Studies; Jewish Studies Quarterly; Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion; Journal of Religion, Nature, and Culture; American Journal of Bioethics; Hebrew Union College Annual; Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (Oxford, England); book manuscripts for Wiley-Blackwell (Oxford, England); Baylor University State University of New York Press; Indiana University Press, Hebrew Union College Press.
Referee of Grant Applications: National Endowment of the Humanities; Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture; National Foundation of Jewish Culture; Israel Science Foundation.
Institute de Estudos Politicos e Socias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Research Project: A Critical Study of History, Responsibility: “The Civilization of the Hebrews.”
1998-2001, 2006-2009: Editorial Board: Journal of American Academy of Religion.
1998-2002: Board of Directors of the Association for Jewish Studies.
2001: Member of the Forum on Religion and Ecology.
2002-2004: Board of Directors of Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science.
Academic Advisory Boards: Metanexus Institute of Science and Religion; Hebrew Union College.
