Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Department Faculty

Guy Antebi
Guy Antebi
Senior Lecturer in Hebrew
781-736-2952 ASAC 312
Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays, 12:05 - 1:15 p.m. (at The Brandeis Library Starbucks)

Expertise: Hebrew language, educational technology

Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom
Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Associate Professor of Christian Studies
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, by Appointment
Pronouns: she/her

Expertise: Archaeology and history of ancient and late antique Christianity. Material culture and religions of eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Monasticism in Eastern Mediterranean World. Foodways in Late Antiquity.

Jonathan Decter
Jonathan Decter
Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies
781-736-2960 Lown 210
Office Hours: On Sabbatical 2023-2024

Expertise: Jews of the Islamic world, medieval Hebrew literature, medieval Jewish studies, Separdic studies, medieval Jewish thought

Carl Sharif El-Tobgui
Carl Sharif El-Tobgui
Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Director of the Arabic Language Program
781-736-2071 Lown 206
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (and by appt.)

Expertise: Islamic thought, theology, law and jurisprudence; Arabic language (Qur'anic, classical & modern) and Classical Arabic literature and poetry

Yuval Evri
Yuval Evri
Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies on the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jewish Studies
781-736-6220 MCH 319
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 - 11:00 am

ExpertiseCultural and intellectual history of Palestine/Israel; Mizrahi/Sephardi modern history; Israeli society and culture; Hebrew-Arabic literary history  

ChaeRan Freeze
ChaeRan Freeze
Frances and Max Elkon Chair in Modern Jewish History
781-736-2987 Lown 312
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Expertise: Russian-Jewish historian with research interests in gender, family, sexuality, radical movements, and everyday life

Sara Hascal
Sara Hascal
Director of the Hebrew Language and Literature Program
Associate Professor of the Practice of Hebrew
781-736-2955 ASAC 326
Office Hours: Mondays, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. and Wednesdays, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m, 9 (and by appt.)

Expertise: Hebrew language, modern Israeli literature and culture, Israeli theater and drama pedagogy, creative reading and writing, theories and methodologies in second language acquisition

Laura Jockusch
Laura Jockusch
Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies
Director of Graduate Studies
781-736-2959 Lown 310
Office Hours: By Appointment

Expertise: Modern Jewish history, Holocaust studies

Alexander Kaye
Alexander Kaye
Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies
Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
781-736-5927 MCH 317
Office Hours: By Appointment

Expertise:  Ancient, medieval and modern Jewish history and European intellectual history, legal and political thought of religious Zionists in the 20th century, relationship between law, religion and politics in Mandate Palestine and Israel

Lynn Kaye
Lynn Kaye
Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Thought
Office Hours: By Appointment

Expertise: Law, hermeneutics, narrative and thought in rabbinic literature, philosophies of time, legal theory, religions of late antique Mesopotamia and critical and literary theory

Ellie Kellman
Ellie Kellman
Associate Professor of Yiddish
781-736-2129 Lown 300b
Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. (and by appt)

Expertise: Yiddish language and literature, East European Jewish cultural history

Hanan El-Sayed Khashaba
Hanan El-Sayed Khashaba
Senior Lecturer in Arabic
781-736-2973 Lown 207
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 9:00 - 10:00 am (and by appt.)

Expertise: Arabic language

Reuven Kimelman
Reuven Kimelman
Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
781-736-2963 Lown 208
Office Hours: On Sabbatical Spring 2024

Expertise: Classic Rabbinic literature, Talmud, Midrash, liturgy, ethics and Jewish political tradition

Jonathan Krasner
Jonathan Krasner
Undergraduate Advising Head and Study Abroad Advisor
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Education Research
781-736-2372 ASAC 123
Office Hours: Tuesdays. 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. (and by appt.)

Expertise: History of American Jewish education, teaching and learning of Jewish history and social studies, Jewish youth, and LGBT Jews

Jon Levisohn
Jon Levisohn
Department Chair
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Educational Thought
781-736-2941 ASAC 125
Office Hours: Mondays, 3:00 - 5:00 pm

Expertise: Philosophy of education, with particular interest in purposes, processes, and outcomes of Jewish education in all of its various settings, scholarship of teaching classical Jewish texts

Yehudah Mirsky
Yehudah Mirsky
Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
781-736-3977 MCH 318
Office Hours: By Appointment

Expertise: Jewish thought, Jewish law and ethics, Israeli religion and culture and Zionist intellectual history, political thought and human rights

Madadh Richey
Madadh Richey
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
781-736-2957 Lown 309
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 11:00 - 12:30 p.m., and Fridays, 11:00 - 12:30 p.m.

Expertise: Hebrew Bible, religion, literature, and history of the Late Bronze and Iron Age Levant, Northwest Semitic languages and texts (Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic), critical theory and the ancient Middle East

Jonathan Sarna
Jonathan Sarna
University Professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History
781-736-2977 MCH 307
Office Hours: On Sabbatical Spring 2024

Expertise: American Jewish history, religion and life

mariam sheibani
Mariam Sheibani
Assistant Professor of Islamic Thought
781-736-2953 Lown 209
Office Hours: Thursdays, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Expertise: Islamic thought; Islamic law in theory and practice; Islamic history (late antique and medieval); Ethics and Sufism; Contemporary Muslim thought and practice; Gender and sexuality in Muslim societies. 

Eugene Sheppard
Eugene Sheppard
Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought
781-736-2965 Lown 307
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. (and by appt.)

Expertise: Modern Jewish history and thought

Esther Shorr
Esther Shorr
Senior Lecturer in Hebrew
781-736-2975 ASAC 314
Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays, 12:10 - 1:00 p.m.

Expertise: Hebrew language

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Ilana Szobel
Ilana Szobel
Professor on the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Chair in Hebrew Literature
781-736-5230 MCH 313
Office Hours: On Sabbatical 2023-2024

Expertise: Israeli society and culture in modern Hebrew literature as it relates to feminism, war and peace, the Holocaust, family structure, economic and cultural dislocation

Affiliated

Ziva Hassenfeld
Ziva Hassenfeld
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Assistant Professor of Jewish Education
781-736-5018 ASAC 119 (ground floor)
Office Hours: On Sabbatical Spring 2024

Expertise: Reading comprehension, biblical hermeneutics, both contemporary and rabbinic, as well as literary theory and criticism

Lisa Joffe
Lisa Joffe
Shulamit Reinharz Director of Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
781-736-3116 Epstein Building 129
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 10:00 - 12:00 p.m. (and by appt.)

Expertise: Philosophy of multiculturalism, women’s rights under Jewish and secular family law, social movements in support of Agunot, children's rights

David Katz
David Katz
Professor of History
Director, History of Ideas Program
781-736-2799 MCH 108

Expertise: The history of ideas in the long early modern period (1500-1900), early modern English history, early modern European religious history

Jehuda Reinharz
Jehuda Reinharz
President Emeritus and Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History
Director, Tauber Institute
781-736-8581 Lown 304

Expertise: Modern Jewish history

Sharon Pucker Rivo
Sharon Pucker Rivo
Executive Director & Co-Founder of the National Center for Jewish Film
781-736-8658 Lown 102

Expertise: Jewish and Holocaust film, archivist and producer

Amy Singer
Amy Singer
Hassenfeld Chair in Islamic Studies and Professor of History
781-736-2281 Olin-Sang 217

ExpertiseOttoman history; charity and poverty in Islamic Societies; agrarian relations in Ottoman Palestine; city of Edirne, exploring how the city participated in the formation of Ottoman state and society in the first half of the 15th century.

Aaron Spevack
Aaron Spevack
Affiliated Research Faculty, Islamic Philosophy and Theology
Muslim Chaplain, Center for Spiritual Life
781-736-8742 Usdan 101-07
Office Hours: By Appointment

Expertise: Islamic intellectual history (law, theology, philosophy, Sufism), Islam and modernity, classical Islamic curricula and education, Muslim musical practices

Shayna Weiss
Shayna Weiss
Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
781-736-5923 Mandel 316

Expertise: Israeli history, gender, Orthodox Jews, politics of popular culture, television and film, nationalism, politics

Faculty Emeriti (Retired)

Tzvi Abusch
Tzvi Abusch
Rose B. and Joseph Cohen Professor Emeritus of Assyriology and Ancient Near Eastern Religion
781-736-2969 Golding 14

Expertise: Languages and cultures of ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Near Eastern religions, magic, literature and thought, Hebrew Bible

Bernadette Brooten
Bernadette Brooten
Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Professor Emerita of Christian Studies

Expertise: Early Christian literature and history, women and religion, history of sexuality and history of slavery, Christian studies, New Testament, Post-Biblical Judaism, Feminist Sexual Ethics

Sharon Feiman-Nemser
Sharon Feiman-Nemser
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor Emerita of Jewish Education
781-736-2946 ASAC 111
Office Hours: Not teaching

Expertise: Jewish education, curriculum and pedagogy in teacher education, learning to teach, mentoring and new teacher induction, professional development of teachers

Sylvia Fishman
Sylvia Fishman
Emerita Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life

Expertise: Contemporary Jewry, American Jewish sociology, Jewish literature, film and popular culture; changing construction of Jews gender roles and Jewish families

Avigdor Levy
Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Expertise: Ottoman and modern Middle Eastern history; history of the Jewish people in Muslim lands

Antony Polonsky
Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies

Expertise:  Polish-Jewish history, Holocaust studies, East European Jewish history

Benjamin Ravid
Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Expertise: Medieval and early modern Jewish history, Jews of Venice, institution of the ghetto

Ellen Smith
Ellen Smith
Associate Professor Emerita of the Practice in the Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership

Expertise: Jewish leadership, Jewish visual and material culture, museum studies

Ilan Troen
Karl, Harry and Helen Stoll Professor of Israel Studies, Emeritus

Expertise: American, Jewish, and Israeli history

David Wright
David Wright
Professor Emeritus of Bible and the Ancient Near East
781-736-2957 Lown 309

Expertise: Hebrew Bible, biblical and Near Eastern ritual, law and history, Northwest Semitic languages and linguistics