Participant Bios
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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 Israel 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 Judaism and Torah) 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 Knesset, 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 kashrut system in Israel. He is married to Livia, and they live in Jerusalem. Levi Cooper, Advanced Institute Participant Israel Levi Cooper has taught at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies 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 Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapira: The Hasidic Posek – 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 Talmud, 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 Jewish philosophy 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. THE TIKVAH FUND 165 E. 56th Street New York, New York 10022 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 Jewish education and modern Jewish history from Yeshiva University. She has spent time studying in education programs in Israel, including Midreshet Lindenbaum and Pardes, and has completed Yeshiva University'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 Bnei Akiva'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 Midrash Fellowship and the graduates' program while teaching advanced Judaic studies classes. As spiritual leader of Young Israel Ohab Zedek, he leads a vibrant community synagogue 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 (Oxford, 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 halakha 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 rabbis 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 shiur, 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.