THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022

The Rabbinic Mind and Divine Law August 3rd, 2014 – August 8th, 2014

Participant Biographies

Noam Benaiah, Tikvah Summer Fellow

Noam Benaiah was born in Denmark and moved to Israel at a young age. He grew up in Ra’anana, where he attended the AMIT (Organization of Volunteers for and ) Technology high school and majored in history, Arabic, and biotechnology. After high school he joined the army, where he served as an intelligence officer in the 8200 unit for five years. Upon completion of his army service, Mr. Benaiah began his studies at the Hebrew University Law School. He is a research analyst at the Legislative Research Institution, which promotes social legislation in the , and a student at the Jewish Statesmanship Center, which deals with fundamental questions of public policy in Israel. In 2012 Noam established Hashgaha Elyona, an organization that addresses religion and state issues through legal tools, and is currently working on a legislative proposal concerning the system in Israel. He is married to Livia, and they live in .

Levi Cooper, Advanced Institute Participant Israel

Levi Cooper has taught at the Pardes Institute of since 1998 and is currently a post- doctoral fellow with I-CORE (Israel Centers of Research Excellence) and Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Law. His doctoral dissertation, “The Admor of Munkatch Chaim Elazar Shapira: The Hasidic – Image and Approach,” explores the interaction between Jewish law and hasidism. His current research focuses on aspects of the evolution and normatization of hasidic tales and the interface between hasidic lore and Jewish law. He is the rabbi and spiritual leader of Kehillat HaTzur VeHaTzohar in Zur Hadassa, a mixed religious and secular neighbourhood. Rabbi Cooper served in the IDF’s Golani Brigade and continues to do reserve duty as a commander in an infantry unit. He is the author of Relics for the Present: Contemporary Reflections on the , which was published by Maggid Books in 2012. A second volume of Relics is due to be published in 2014.

Zvi Friedlander, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Zvi Friedlander, 27, is a third year student in Hebrew University’s Revivim program. He is working on his Master’s degree in history of the Jewish people after completing a Bachelor’s degree in and Bible studies. Next year will be his third year teaching Jewish studies in one of Jerusalem's high schools. Aside from his teaching and studies, he works as a research assistant for a history professor and as a DJ at parties and weddings. Mr. Friedlander is married to Hallel, whom he met in Scouts in middle school.

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Sarah Gordon, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Sarah Gordon is originally from Montreal, Canada. She currently teaches Talmud and Jewish philosophy at Ma'ayanot High School and serves as its director of student activities. Ms. Gordon spent two years studying in the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies at Stern College and holds dual M.A. degrees in and modern from University. She has spent time studying in education programs in Israel, including and Pardes, and has completed 's certificate program in experiential Jewish education. She has extensive experience in informal Jewish education, having served in a number of leadership positions at Camp Stone, including that of educational director, and worked as a program head for 's MachHach Ba'Aretz Israel trip.

Shmuel Hain, Advanced Institute Particpant United States

Shmuel Hain is an educator and pulpit rabbi. As rosh beit Mmdrash (head of the study hall) at SAR High School, he directs the Beit Fellowship and the graduates' program while teaching advanced Judaic studies classes. As spiritual leader of Young Israel Ohab Zedek, he leads a vibrant community in North Riverdale. Rabbi Hain has co-authored and edited several volumes of Torah and academic scholarship. His most recent book was a volume in the Orthodox Forum (Yeshiva University) series titled, The Next Generation of Modern Orthodoxy (Ktav: 2012). He is currently completing the next volume of the series, From Fervor to Fanaticism, an examination of the rise of extremism in the 21st century from religious and academic perspectives. He was recently named chair and series editor of The Orthodox Forum.

Sohail Hashmi, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Sohail Hashmi is professor of international relations and Alumnae Foundation Chair in the Social Sciences at Mount Holyoke College, where he has taught since 1994. His teaching and research focus on comparative international ethics, particularly concepts of just war and peace, and on the study of religion in politics, mainly Islam in domestic and international politics. He has published on a range of topics in Islamic ethics and political theory, including constitutionalism, sovereignty, humanitarian intervention, tolerance, civil society, and the theory of jihad. His most recent book is an edited volume titled, Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges (, 2012). He also served as senior editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, published earlier this year. Dr. Hashmi received a B.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard and an M.A. in Near Eastern studies from Princeton.

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022

William Herlands, Tikvah Summer Fellow United States

William Herlands is an incoming Ph.D. candidate in Carnegie Mellon’s machine learning and public policy program. He graduated from Princeton in 2012 with a degree in electrical engineering and minors in computer science and Near Eastern studies. After college, William worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, researching robotic cyberscurity. He attended Yeshivat Maale Gilboa from 2007 to 2008 and has since taught classes on and Tanach through Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life and the Rimon Program. He is an amateur ornithologist and avid hiker.

Jacob Howland, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Jacob Howland is McFarlin Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tulsa. A past winner of the University of Tulsa Outstanding Teacher Award and the College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award, he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Littauer Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, and the Koch Foundation. He has published roughly 40 articles, chapters in books, and review essays, including “Fear and Trembling’s ‘Attunement’ as Midrash” and “Intellectuals at Auschwitz: Jean Améry and Primo Levi on the Mind and its Limits” (both forthcoming). He is the author of Plato and the Talmud (2011), Kierkegaard and Socrates: A Study in Philosophy and Faith (2006), The Paradox of Political Philosophy: Socrates’ Philosophic Trial (1998), and The Republic: The Odyssey of Philosophy (1993); the last three have been translated into Chinese. He also edited A Long Way Home: The Story of a Jewish Youth, 1939-1948, by Bob Golan (2005).

Charles Lesch, Tikvah Summer Fellow United States

Charles H. T. Lesch is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of government at Harvard University. His work lies at the intersection of political theory, moral psychology, social theory, and the study of religion. He has written on the relationship between ethics and politics, political violence, the philosophy of history and memory, and the role of religion in our political and social thinking. The historical dimensions of his research center around Continental philosophy from the late 18th to the late 20th centuries with an emphasis on German Idealism, the Frankfurt School, and critical theory; modern and classical Jewish thought; and the development of civil society, focusing on questions of pluralism, social integration, and moral community. His dissertation examines the moral- psychological foundations of political community, exploring the ways in which our aesthetic and non-rationalist experiences shape the way we view our ethical and political obligations. His article, “Against Politics: Walter Benjamin on Justice, Judaism, and the Possibility of Ethics” (American Political Science Review, February 2014), situates Benjamin’s critique of Kant’s juridical thought in the tradition of Jewish political theology, yielding a novel theory of the normative status of politics. A former Fulbright Fellow, Safra Center Ethics Fellow, Harvard Presidential Scholar, and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale College, he is also the co-author, with

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022

Nancy Rosenblum, of the chapter “Civil Society and Government” for the Oxford Handbook of Civil Society (2011). He lives with his wife in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Dov Linzer, Advanced Institute Particpant United States

Rabbi Dov Linzer is rosh hayeshiva and dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT) Rabbinical School, a groundbreaking Orthodox semicha program, now in its 14th year with close to 100 serving in the field. Rabbi Linzer spearheaded the development of YCT, creating an innovative four year semicha program that provides its students with rigorous talmud Torah and halakhic study and sophisticated professional training in the context of a religious atmosphere of openness and inclusiveness. He has published and lectures widely on topics relating to halakha, Orthodoxy, and modernity. Rabbi Linzer writes a weekly parasha sheet and teaches a daf yomi , which has a wide audience on YouTube and iTunes. He was a recent recipient of the prestigious Avi Chai Fellowship and was the convener of the 2012 Modern Orthodox Siyyum HaShas.

Hadas Ofir, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Hadas Ofir is a 21-year-old student at Shalem College. She graduated from the Bnei-Akiva High School for Girls in Pisgat-Ze’ev, Jerusalem, where her major subjects were biology, Russian, Jewish history, and Tanach. After three years working as an intelligence team officer in the Prime Minister’s office—two years of national service and one year of employment—she entered Shalem not only to study the Jewish world but to be a part of its repair. It is imperative that the State of Israel refocus on the neshama, the soul, that we once had. What drives her is this fight for the greater good of Israel and the Jewish people.

Roie Ravitzky, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Roie Ravitzky is a student of philosophy and Jewish thought in the honors program in humanities at the Hebrew University. He is a graduate of Yeshivat Ma'ale Gilboa. Trained as a tour guide in Jerusalem, he is also active in various interfaith and multicultural learning encounters.

Eliyahu Rosenfeld, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Eliyahu Rosenfeld is completing his B.Ed. in education in the Herzog College, majoring in Jewish oral law and literature. Next year, he will continue his studies in an M.A. program in Hebrew literature. In the past two years he participated in Tikvah's Great Books program at Herzog College. For the last three years he has attended the Siach Yitshak Yeshiva and presently serves as the editor of its scholarly journal, Kuntres. He is currently a research assistant to Dr. Asael Abelman, who is publishing the writings of Hillel Zeitlin.

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Hananel Ross, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Hananel Ross is currently finishing his B.Ed. in Talmud and Jewish thought at Herzog College. Over the past two years he has participated in the Tikvah Fund's Literature and Philosophy Program at the college. He works as an editor for several periodicals. He completed his army service as a paratrooper in the program in . There he subsequently began his rabbinical semicha studies, which he is now continuing at Yeshivat Machanaim. Next year he will study psychology at the Hebrew University. He is married to Smadar and lives in Jerusalem.

David Sabato, Advanced Institute Participant Israel

David Sabato lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Elisheva, and two children. He recently completed his M.A. thesis at the Hebrew University on the topic of “Noahide Laws in Tannaic Literature” and intends to begin his doctorate next year. He has received rabbinic from the Chief Rabbinate in Israel and teaches Bible studies and at a variety of institutions in Israel, such as the Hebrew University, Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Adanced for Women ( Seminary,) and the Birkat Moshe hesder yeshiva in Maale Adumim.

Efrat Sagy, Tikvah Summer Fellow Israel

Efrat Sagy graduated from Haifa University with a B.A. in philosophy and Middle Eastern studies, as part as the Chavatzalot program, an IDF program aimed at creating leadership ideals in the intelligence corps. She currently serves as an intelligence officer in the IDF. Before enlisting in the army, she pursued Judaic studies in Midreshet Lindenbaum.

Emmanuel Sanders, Tikvah Summer Fellow United States

Emmanuel Sanders will begin studies pursuing a J.D. at the New York University School of Law this fall. He holds a Master’s degree in Jewish philosophy from the Bernard Revel Graduate School and has participated in both undergraduate and graduate fellowships at the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Before starting his undergraduate studies, Mr. Sanders spent two years in Israel studying Talmud at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh; he recently received rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He is deeply interested in the relationship between ethics and law and would like to pursue a career in special education law and advocacy. He lives on the Upper West Side of New York with his wife Anna and daughter Rutie.

THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022

Yoni Schimmel, Tikvah Summer Fellow England

After graduating from Hasmonean High School in , Yoni Schimmel studied at Yeshivot of Har Etzion, Yeshiva University, and Mir, in Jerusalem, for four years. He is currently in his final year of a history B.A. program at University College London.

Brian Smollet, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Brian Smollett is a graduate of Binghamton University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the City University of New York Graduate Center, where he earned his Ph.D. in Jewish history (2014). He currently teaches Jewish and European history at Hunter College, where he also serves as associate director of the program in Jewish studies. He has published a number of essays and reviews in the field of modern Jewish thought and is co-editor, with Christian Wiese, of the forthcoming volume, Reappraisals and New Studies of the Modern Jewish Experience (Brill, 2014).

Roslyn Weiss, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Roslyn Weiss is Clara H. Stewardson Professor of philosophy at Lehigh University. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University (1982) and an M.A. in Jewish studies at Baltimore Hebrew University (1992). She has published four books on Plato’s dialogues and many articles on Greek philosophy and Jewish philosophy. She has lectured widely in the United States, Israel, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Her current project is a translation of Hasdai Crescas’s magnum opus, Or Hashem (Light of the Lord). She is heavily involved in Jewish education in her synagogue and community.

Chana Zuckier, Advanced Institute Participant United States

Chana Zuckier received her B.A. in physics and Jewish studies and an M.A. in Biblical and Talmudic interpretation from Yeshiva University. As an undergraduate, she was editor-in-chief of Kol Hamevaser, Yeshiva University's undergraduate Jewish thought magazine. She served as an educational intern at Congregation Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C. and has taught Talmud, Jewish law, and Bible at various and communities throughout the United States. She is currently a Goldman Fellow in the Office of Governmental and International Affairs at the American Jewish Committee and will attend Yale Law School this fall.