The Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization

2010-2011 Fellows

Gary Anderson (Joint Straus/Tikvah Fellow)

Received his Ph.D from Harvard University in 1985.  He has taught at the University of Virginia, Harvard and most recently at Notre Dame.  His work focuses on the Hebrew Bible and its history of interpretation in both Jewish and Christian sources. 

Research:

Charity: A History

Gabriella Blum (Berkowitz Fellow)

Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, as well as the co-director of the HLS-Brookings Project on Law and Security at Harvard Law School, where she teaches international law and international conflict management.

RESEARCH:

The Fog of Victory

Elisheva Carlebach

Salo W. Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society in the Department of History at Columbia University. She has served as a fellow in the New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers, and has held National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships twice. She is Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History; Secretary of the American Academy for Jewish Research; Chair, Doctoral Fellowship Awards Program at the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and co-editor of AJS Review.

RESEARCH:
Cities within Cities: Jewish Communal 
Structure and Governance in Early Modern Europe

Robert Chazan

Currently S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.  Professor Chazan has published widely in medieval Jewish history.

RESEARCH:

Christian Constructions of Jewish History

Perry Dane

Professor of Law at the Rutgers School of Law, Camden.  He was previously on the faculty of the Yale Law School, and served as a law clerk to William J. Brennan, Jr., Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 

RESEARCH:

'Hanging By a Thread': Toward a Jurisprudence of Jewish Law

Rabbi Tully Harcsztark

Founding Principal of SAR High School in Riverdale, New York. He is co-founder and spiritual leader of Davar, a unique learning community in Teaneck, New Jersey. He also served as Rabbi of Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck. He received his ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and earned an M.A. in Jewish History from Bernard Revel Graduate School.

RESEARCH:

Talmud Torah as Social Criticism: Developing Interdisciplinary Torah Study for Contemporary Adult Learning in the U.S.

Maoz Kahana

Received a Torah education from a variety of Yeshivot. He studied Talmud, History, comparative religion, and Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

RESEARCH:

"The Scientific Revolution and Jewish Jurisprudence: Halacha and Medical Knowledge in Early Modern Europe"

Yair Lorberbaum

Born in Israel, and received his doctorate in Jewish thought from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yair Lorbebraum is a professor at Bar-Ilan University’s Law School and he is a Senior Researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Yair has served as a lecturer at Cardozo Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Princeton University, and Yale University. 

RESEARCH:
Two Concepts of gezerat ha-katuv (Decree of Scripture) - A Chapter in Maimonides' Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy

Ephraim Shoham-Steiner

Graduated Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2002). He teaches Medieval Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Specializing in Medieval Jewish History his research focuses on the social and intellectual aspects of Jewish history with a special interest in social information that can be extracted from medieval rabbinic source material.

RESEARCH:

Jewish Underworld: Crime and Jewish Society in Medieval Europe

Michael Walzer (Joint Straus/Tikvah Fellow)

Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. As a professor, author, editor, and lecturer, Michael Walzer has addressed a wide variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy: political obligation, just and unjust war, nationalism and ethnicity, economic justice and the welfare state. 

RESEARCH:

A Political Theorist Reads the Hebrew Bible