Barbara Lerner Spectre, Founding Director of Paideia

Barbara Lerner Spectre is the Founding Director of Paideia, the European Institute of Jewish Studies in Sweden, an academic institute established in 2001 through a grant of the Swedish Government that serves as a resource and stimulus for the renewal of European Jewish culture. She was formerly on the faculty of the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem, where she taught Jewish Thought, the Melton Center of the Hebrew University, and Yellin College of Education. Her area of research is Models of Response to the Holocaust in Christian and Jewish Theology. Her publications include: “A Theology of Doubt” (Hebrew) and, together with Noam Zion of the Hartman Institute, the two volume: “A Different Light: The Hanukkah Book of Celebration”. She is the recipient of the 2007 Max Fisher Prize for Jewish Education in the Diaspora, and the ICRF “2008 Women in Action” award.

Noa Hermele, Deputy Director and Head of One Year Program

Noa Hermele is the Deputy Director of Paideia and heads the One Year Jewish Studies Program. Noa is currently completing a Master in Educational Management. He holds an MA in mathematics from the University of Stockholm and has done a Master’s program in philosophy at Sorbonne Paris 1. Noa also completed a two-year art education at the Stockholm School of Printmaking Arts.

Noa worked at several Jewish summer camps and taught in the Hebrew Sunday school as well as in the Jewish day school in Stockholm. Noa has created and conducted leadership programs for young adults in the Jewish community. He was part of the founding group for the Network of Multi-religious Guides in Sweden and worked both as a guide and as a guide trainer for the interfaith exhibition “God has 99 Names”.

Frida Schatz, Hebrew teacher and Dean of Students

Frida Schatz is Hebrew lecturer and Dean of Students at Paideia. She has taught Hebrew at the Ulpan of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and worked as a Senior Lecturer teaching Hebrew at the Institute for Near Eastern Studies at the University of Copenhagen and at the Department of Middle East Languages at the University of Lund and at Stockholm University.

Inbal Jaeger, Scholar in Residence 2009-2010

Inbal was born in Jerusalem, and served in the army as a teacher for new immigrants. After her IDF service, she worked as an instructor at the Adam Institute for Peace and Democracy and as a Hebrew teacher for Palestinian students. Inbal holds a B.A. degree in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and M.A. in Jewish Education from the Shechter Institute.
For the last 10 years, Inbal has been working in the Masorti high school in Jerusalem, teaching Jewish Philosophy and Bible, and serving as a home-room teacher for 10-11th graders. She was also a part of team constructing innovative curricula in Jewish culture for secular high schools.

Rani Jaeger, Scholar in Residence 2009-2010

Rani was born in Tel-Aviv, and served as a medical officer in the IDF. He holds a B.A. degree in Jewish Philosophy and History from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an M.A. in American History (focusing on 17th century Christian-Puritan theology) from the same institution. Rani is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the Bar Ilan University, at the department of Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies. For the past 10 years, Rani has been on the faculty of the Shalom Hartman Institute, and currently holds the position of Pedagogical Manager of the Be'eri program for pluralistic Jewish learning in public Israeli high schools. He also teaches at Alma College in Tel-Aviv and at the Tel-Aviv University.
Rani is one of the founders of Beit Tefilah Israel (Israeli House of Prayer), a "secular" synagogue that offers the creation of a new spiritual community in the heart of Tel-Aviv.

Dr Rachel Livneh-Freudenthal, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Dr. Rachel Livneh-Freudenthal is a lecturer of Jewish History and Jewish Thought.
Her fields of research are: the emergence of the Science of Judaism, Modern Jewish Thought, Judaism as culture, Jewish Hermeneutics. She has taught at the Freie Universität Berlin, at the Open University, Israel, and at Alma College in Tel-Aviv. She is currently an academic adviser in the Leo Baeck Institute for the Study of the History and Culture of the German-speaking Jewry.

Dr Avriel Bar-Levav, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Dr. Avriel Bar-Levav, Ph.D. Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is senior lecturer at the department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies at the Open University of Israel, and was head of the department between 2005 and 2008. Since 2001 he is the editor of the scholarly quarterly Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry, published by the Ben-Zvi institute in Jerusalem. His publications are on Jewish attitudes towards death, Jewish magic and history of the Jewish book.

Professor Mordechai Zalkin, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Prof. Mordechai (Motti) Zalkin was born in Jerusalem and received his university training at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is an associate professor of modern Jewish history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. His special fields of interest are the social and economic history of the Jews in Eastern Europe, mainly in Lithuania, and the history of Jewish education in Eastern Europe. Among his publications are A New Dawn: The Jewish Enlightenment in the Russian Empire – Social Aspects (2000); From the Hidden Treasures of Jewish Vilna: Historical Documents From the Annals of Lithuanian Jewry (2001); The City of Vilna (Ed.)(2002); From Heder to School: Modernization Processes in Nineteenth Century East European Jewish Education (2008).

Yair Lipshitz, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Yair Lipshitz is currently completing his PhD at the Department for Theatre Arts in Tel Aviv University, writing on the body as a hermeneutical site for Jewish textual culture in theatre and drama. He is a Junior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, as well a lecturer at Department for Theatre Arts in Tel Aviv University and at Alma College for Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv. His book, The Holy Tongue, Comedy's Version: Intertextual Dramas on the Stage of "A Comedy of Betrothal," is forthcoming from Bar-Ilan University Press, as part of the “Hermeneutics and Culture” series. He has also published papers on theatre as Midrash, Renaissance Italian-Jewish theatre, early 20th century Jewish theatre and drama, and the body in Rabbi nic literature. Lipshitz is also a published playwright, working with Jewish cultural sources in his drama. His play, A Moment of Relief, was included in the Hebrew anthology New Voices in Israeli Drama (2006).

Dr Rachel Ofer, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Rachel Ofer's academic studies for the first and second degree (BA, MA) in Hebrew Literature were at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her Ph.D. Thesis (recently submitted) was written at Bar Ilan University, and deals with "The Transformations of King Saul in Modern Hebrew Literature: Themes, Poetics and Inter-textuality". Her main field of research is Modern Hebrew Literature and its Dialogue with the Bible. She published about 20 articles.
R. Ofer established the Department of Hebrew Literature in Herzog College, Allon Shevut, where she teaches Modern Hebrew Literature. She also teaches in Efrata College in Jerusalem. She advised high-school teachers, and was a member of different committees in the Ministry of Education that determine the curriculum of Literature in Israeli schools. She is married to Prof. Yosef Ofer.

Professor Jesper Svartvik, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Jesper Svartvik is the Krister Stendahl Professor of Theology of Religions at Lund University and the Swedish Theological Institute. He is also a member of the Peer Review Board of Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations.

Pinchas Roth, Visiting Scholar Spring 2010

Pinchas Roth is a doctoral student in the Talmud Department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he is writing about Halakhic literature from 13th century Southern France. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1978, Pinchas moved to Israel with his family in 1988. His research combines methodologies of Talmudic philology, medieval history and manuscript studies. His publications include ‘On Some Rabbinic Fragments from the European Genizah’, Materia Giudaica 10 (2005).

Levi Spectre, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2009

Faculty, Open University, Israel, he is a PhD candidate at Stockholm University and library fellow at the Van Leer institute in Jerusalem. Levi Spectre specializes in epistemology (issues pertaining to philosophical accounts of knowledge, evidence, belief, rationality and justification). As part of his philosophy studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem he tutored several courses (relevantly Aristotle’s metaphysics and ethics).

Dr Miriam Frenkel, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2009

Dr. Miriam Frenkel, Ph.d. is Genizah researcher. She teaches medieval Jewish history in the lands of Islam at the Hebrew University. Her recent book, The Compassionate and Benevolent; the Leading Elite in the Jewish Community of Alexandria in the Middle Ages, Jerusalem 2007, offers a new perspective on Jewish Medieval leadership. Her other publications concern many aspects of Jewish Life under Islam: literacy, slavery, gender, children and adolescents, material culture and mental patterns.

Professor Boaz Huss, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2009

Professor Boaz Huss teaches Kabbalah at the Goren-Goldstein Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is an expert of various areas of Kabbalah, including the Zohar and contemporary Kabbalah. His recent publications include: Like the radiance of the Sky: Chapters in the Reception History of the Zohar and the Construction of its Symbolic Value, Ben Zvi: Jerusalem, 2008; “All you Need is LAV”: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah, The Jewish Quarterly Review 95, 2005; The New Age of Kabbalah: Contemporary Kabbalah, The New Age and Postmodern Spirituality, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 6, 2007; Authorizes Guardians: The Polemics of Academic Scholars of Jewish Mysticism Against Kabbalah Practitioners, Political Encounters: Esoteric Discourse and its Others O. Hammer, K. von Stuckrad eds, Brill: Leiden and Boston 2007. He is currently engaged in a research project Major Trends in 20th Kabbalah, funded by Israeli Science Foundation.

Professor Avigdor Shinan, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2009

Professor Shinan was born in Prague 1946 and arrived to Israel in 1949. His academic studies (BA, PhD) were at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has taught since 1972 at the Department of Hebrew Literature (full professor since 1998). His fields of research are the Midrashic and Aggadic literature, the Aramaic Translations of the Bible and the Jewish Prayer book. His list of publication contains more than 120 scholarly articles and 8 books.

Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2009

Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov, Ph.D. Bible, teaches at the Bible department of Haifa University. He studies approaches towards nature in Hebrew religion – the Bible, apocalyptic literature, Dead sea Scrolls – and in the Mesopotamian culture. His book "Head of All years: Astronomy and Calendars at Qumran" appaered in 2008. His studies involve the history of science as well as the Israelite responses towards ancient religions of nature and towards the emerging natural sciences in the early Hellenistic period.

Yehudit Mazal, Scholar-in-Residence 2008-2009

Yehudit Mazal has a rich background in different Jewish study groups (Batei-Midrash), both as a participant and instructor. Her education includes a bachelor degree in Jewish thought and psychology from the Hebrew University and a bachelor degree in social work from Bar Ilan University. In the last years she has been working as a social worker with homeless youth in Jerusalem, participated in “Elul” Beit-Midrash, and was a staff member in ''Maagal" (a Beit-midrash program for high-schools).

Assaf Rosen-Zvi, Scholar-in-Residence 2008-2009

Assaf Rosen-Zvi obtained his B.A. and M.A. in Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His Master thesis is on ’The Halachic Authority of Non-Halachic Scriptures, and he is currently working on his doctorate thesis on the subject of Midrashic Hermeneutics and the relations between Halacha and Agadah. In the last two years he was teaching Talmud at the Hebrew university. He previously studied for two years at the Department of Film and Television in the Faculty of the Arts, Tel-Aviv University.
Assaf Rosen-Zvi is the Scholar-in-Residence at Paideia 2008/09.

Professor Hamutal Bar-Yosef, Visiting Scholar Spring 2009

Professor Hamutal Bar-Yosef is a poet (9 collections), a translator of poetry (Russian, French, English), and a professor emerita of modern Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva. Her main fields of research are modern Hebrew literature, the East-European context of modern Jewish culture and mysticism in modern Hebrew literature.

Professor Meir Bar Asher, Visiting Scholar Spring 2009

Professor Meir M. Bar-Asher has done his academic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He teaches at the department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and until a few months ago he was the director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies there.
Professor Bar-Asher is an expert on Quranic Studies and Shi`i Islam. He is the author of Scripture and Exegesis in Early Imami Shiism (Jerusalem and Leiden 1999), and of numerous articles in the field of Imami Shi`ism, and Quran. Professor Bar-Asher has written (in collaboration with his colleague Dr. Aryeh Kofsky) the book, The Nusayri-Alawi Religion: An Enquiry into its Theology and Doctrine (Leiden 2002).

Dr. Aviezer Cohen, Visiting Scholar Spring 2009

Dr. Aviezer Cohen's academic studies include doctoral studies at Ben Gurion University, with the thesis on the topic: "Self-Consciousness in Mei Ha-Shiloah - As the Nexus Between God and Man". Dr Cohen has been a lecturer at Michelet (College) Herzog in Alon Shvut, at the Ben Gurion University and various other institutions.

Professor Elchanan Reiner, Visiting Scholar Spring 2009

Professor Elchanan Reiner teaches in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. His study of early modern Jewish society in Europe has recently focused on the cultural history of the Ashkenazi society in central and Eastern Europe between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. He is currently writing a book on the transformation and preservation of knowledge as expressed in the Ashkenazi attitude toward the printed book. Reiner’s scholarly work also examines the popular religion of medieval Jewish society, with a particular interest in the study of pilgrimage and sacred space in Palestine.

Ynon Wygoda, Visiting Scholar Spring 2009

Ynon Wygoda obtained his B.A. in classics and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently pursuing his graduate studies in the same institute with a thesis on “The phenomenology of silence”.

He previously worked as the archivist of the Salman Schocken Institute, in various research projects in the Spinoza Institute and at the Hebrew University and served as the “Amalie Beer” Scholar-in-Residence at Paideia in 2007-2008.

Dr. Yair Shiffman, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2008

Dr. Yair Shiffman was born in Haifa, Israel in 1940. He has conducted all his academic studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His Ph.D. (1991) dissertation was: “Rabbi Shem Tov ben Joseph Falaquera’ Moreh Ha-Moreh: A Philosophical and Philological Analysis with an Appendix Containing an Annotated Critical Edition”. His M.A. (cum laude) was in History of the Jewish People, and his B.A. (1965) was in History of Islamic Peoples and Arabic Language and Literature. Dr. Shiffman also holds a Teaching Certificate for teaching Arabic from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In David Yellin Teachers College he headed the History and Jewish Department and the Department of Arabic and Islam.

Dr. Israel Knohl, Visiting Scholar Autumn 2008

Israel Knohl is Y. Kaufmann Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He earned his Ph. D. at the Hebrew University and did postdoctoral studies at Princeton. He has taught as visiting professor at Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago. His first book, The Sanctuary of Silence won the Z. Shkop Award for Biblical Studies. His second book The Messiah before Jesus was published in eight languages. His third book The Divine Symphony was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.