ÌÇÐijöÆ·

Ofra Arieli Backenroth

Associate Director of The Davidson School and Assistant Professor of Jewish Education

Dr. Ofra Arieli Backenroth is the associate director of The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of ÌÇÐijöÆ· and an assistant professor of Jewish education. She has taught Hebrew literature and modern dance in numerous schools in New York City and Israel. Her interests reflect an integration of the arts in Jewish education, Hebrew language, Hebrew and Israeli literature, and teaching Israel. Dr. Backenroth earned an MFA in dance education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA in comparative literature and an education diploma from Tel Aviv University. In 2006, she participated in the Summer Institute for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and in Israel.

Shira Billet

Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics

Shira Billet is assistant professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics at JTS, academic director of JTS’s Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice, and the BA and MA advisor for the Jewish Ethics program at JTS. Before joining the JTS faculty in 2022, she was a postdoctoral associate in Judaic Studies and Philosophy at Yale University, following the completion of her doctorate in the Religion and Philosophy subfield in Princeton University’s Department of Religion.

Rabbi Ayelet Cohen

Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership

As Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership at JTS, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen leads The Rabbinical School and H. L. Miller Cantorial School. In this role, she works to shape the next generation of Jewish clergy, cultivating students’ spiritual and intellectual lives so they can meet the challenges of Jewish life with wisdom, creativity, and resilience. Rabbi Cohen assumed this position in 2022, becoming the first woman to hold this role. 

Arnold M. Eisen

Chancellor Emeritus; Professor of Jewish Thought

Arnold M. Eisen, one of the world’s foremost authorities on American Judaism, is chancellor emeritus of ÌÇÐijöÆ· and professor of Jewish Thought. Dr. Eisen became chancellor in 2007 and stepped down in spring 2020 to return to teaching and scholarship as a full-time member of the JTS faculty. During his tenure as chancellor, he transformed the education of religious, pedagogical, professional, and lay leaders for North American Jewry, with a focus on graduating highly skilled, innovative leaders who bring Judaism alive in ways that speak authentically to Jews at a time of rapid and far-reaching change.

Eitan Fishbane

Professor of Jewish Thought

Dr. Eitan P. Fishbane is professor of Jewish Thought at JTS, where he teaches courses in the literature and history of Jewish mysticism, from medieval Kabbalah to modern Hasidism. The author or editor of six books, the latest of which will be published by Oxford University Press, Dr. Fishbane has devoted his research and writing primarily to the development of Kabbalah in medieval Spain. Dr. Fishbane has been a member of the JTS faculty since 2006, participating in governance through his service on the Rabbinical School Council, the faculty committees of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School and the Department of Community Engagement, the Faculty Executive Committee, and as advisor for BA and MA concentrators in Jewish Thought.

David Fishman

Professor of Jewish History

David E. Fishman is a professor of Jewish History at ÌÇÐijöÆ·, teaching courses in modern Jewish history. Dr. Fishman also serves as director of Project Judaica, JTS’s program in Ukraine, which is based at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He directs its Jewish Archival Survey, which publishes guides to Jewish archival materials in Ukraine. He the author of numerous books and articles on the history and culture of East European Jewry.

Sandra Fox

Robert S. Rifkind Chair in American Jewish history

Sandra Fox is the Robert S. Rifkind Chair in American Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Her research interests include American Jewish history, the history of youth and childhood, Yiddish culture, and the history of sexuality. Her first book, The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America (Stanford University Press) addressed the experiences of youth in postwar Jewish summer camps and the place of intergenerational negotiation in the making of American Jewish culture.

Benjamin R. Gampel

Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History

Dr. Benjamin Gampel serves as the Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History at JTS. A specialist in medieval and early modern Jewries, Dr. Gampel’s Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392, won the National Jewish Book Council’s Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award in Scholarship. This prizewinning volume treats the riots and forced conversions of 1391 in the Iberian peninsula and explores why monarchic authority failed to protect the Jews during these fate-filled months.

Robert Harris

Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages

Robert A. Harris is professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at ÌÇÐijöÆ·, teaching courses in biblical literature and commentary, particularly medieval Jewish biblical exegesis. Over the years, Dr. Harris has served JTS in a variety of roles, including assistant to the director of The JTS Library, professor-in-residence at  in the Poconos, and director of several musical theater productions. Dr. Harris is an expert in the history of medieval biblical exegesis. His dissertation was titled The Literary Hermeneutic of Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency. In 2004 he published a book in the Brown Judaic Studies series, Discerning Parallelism: A Study in Northern French Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis. In addition, he has published many articles and reviews in both American and Israeli journals. 

Barry Holtz

Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education

Barry W. Holtz is the Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education at ÌÇÐijöÆ·. From 2008 to 2013 he served as dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of JTS. He leads courses in teaching classical texts, professional development for teachers, philosophy of Jewish education, and current issues confronting Jewish education. Dr. Holtz has written and edited numerous publications in the field of Jewish education. His Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, is widely used as a textbook for university and adult education courses.

Naomi Kalish

Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education; Assistant Professor of Pastoral Education

Rabbi Naomi Kalish is the Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education and assistant professor of Pastoral Education. Prior to coming to JTS, Rabbi Kalish taught clinical pastoral education (CPE) at New York–Presbyterian Hospital to students from diverse religious, denominational, national, and cultural backgrounds. Rabbi Kalish has served on the Interprofessional Education Faculty at Columbia University Medical Center. She has taught chaplaincy and pastoral care courses and programs for the Academy for Jewish Religion, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Yeshivat Maharat, and JTS. Rabbi Kalish has extensive experience in interreligious dialogue and its application for peace-building and community relations. She earned her BA from Tufts University and an MA in Jewish Philosophy and rabbinic ordination from JTS. She earned her doctorate in Education and Jewish Studies at New York University.

Amy Kalmanofsky

Dean, List College and Kekst Graduate School; Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor, Bible

Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky is dean of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies and the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, as well as the Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor of Bible. As professor of Bible, she teaches courses on biblical literature, religion, and feminist interpretation of the Bible. In her writing and teaching, Dr. Kalmanofsky combines contemporary ideas and critical methods with traditional text study, teaching students to be careful, creative interpreters of Torah. 

Richard Kalmin

Theodore R. Racoosin Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Richard Kalmin is the Theodore R. Racoosin Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at ÌÇÐijöÆ·, where he has taught since 1982. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on the interpretation of rabbinic stories, ancient Jewish history, and the development of rabbinic literature. His publications include the award-winning Jewish Babylonia Between Persia and Roman Palestine, published in 2006 by Oxford University Press, and Sages, Stories, Authors, and Editors in Rabbinic Babylonia, considered a classic in its field. He has been a visiting professor at Hebrew Union College, Union Theological Seminary, and Yale University, and a faculty fellow at the University of Michigan and the Institute of Advanced Studies at Hebrew University. He is the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of his most recent book, Migrating Tales: The Talmud’s Narratives and Their Historical Context, published in September 2014 by the University of California Press. Dr. Kalmin was elected to the American Academy of Jewish Research in 2015.

Benjamin Kamine

Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures and Associate Director, Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue

Benjamin Kamine holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures at ÌÇÐijöÆ· and Assistant Teaching Faculty in Interreligious Engagement at Union Theological Seminary.  In this role, he also works as Associate Director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at JTS and as a Special Advisor in the Office of the President at Columbia University.  He earned his PhD in Midrash at JTS.  Kamine serves as 2nd Vice President of the Executive Board of the International Council of Christians and Jews and Jewish Co-Chair of the International Abrahamic Forum. 

David C. Kraemer

Gerson D. Cohen Chair in Talmud and Rabbinic Culture

David Kraemer has been part of the JTS community since 1977, when he enrolled at The Graduate School after completing his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University. He began teaching as a graduate student in 1980, receiving his PhD in 1984. Dr. Kraemer’s focus as a professor was on the literary analysis of rabbinic literature, rabbinic ritual, and the social and religious history of Jews in late antiquity. He served in the role of Librarian from 2004–2026, in which he has played a crucial role in forging policy and expanding the impact of The Library’s world-renowned collections and programs. 

Jeffrey Kress

Provost and Dr. Bernard Heller Professor of Jewish Education

Dr. Kress’s interests include social, emotional, and spiritual development and education. He has written about experiential Jewish education, particularly as it takes place in formal settings. He has also conducted research and professional development on inclusion of learners with disabilities in camp settings. His book Development, Learning, and Community: Educating for Identity in Pluralistic Jewish High Schools (Academic Studies Press, 2012) won a National Jewish Book Award. His latest book is Nurturing Students’ Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social and Emotional Learning (Routledge Press, 2020), written with Dr. Maurice Elias. He has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters and regularly presents at academic and professional-development conferences.

Yitz Landes

Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures

Dr. Yitz Landes (he/him) is Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures. His research focuses on the premodern transmission of Jewish knowledge, primarily vis-à-vis the history of rabbinic education and the history of the Jewish book. Dr. Landes also works on the development of Jewish ritual and liturgy, a topic he addressed in his first monograph, Studies in the Development of Birkat ha-Avodah (The Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, 2018). Additionally, Dr. Landes researches the relationship between Jews and Christians in antiquity and the history of the modern academic study of Rabbinic Literature. 

Yael Landman

Assistant Professor of Bible

Biography BA, University of Pennsylvania; PhD, Yeshiva University Dr. Yael Landman is assistant professor of Bible. Her most recent book, Legal Writing, Legal Practice: The Biblical Bailment Law and Divine Justice (Brown Judaic Studies, 2022), examines the biblical laws of bailment (i.e., temporary safekeeping) in Exodus 22 as a lens through which to explore the relationship of […]

Marjorie Lehman

Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Marjorie Lehman is professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at ÌÇÐijöÆ· and the Area Coordinator of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures. She teaches a wide range of courses in Rabbinics, including courses on gender in Talmudic literature, aggadah, halakhah, the history of the Jewish book, and pedagogy. Her scholarly journey reflects a commitment to balancing the historical and intellectual aspects of Jewish texts while also focusing on the ways they speak to and help us to understand our place in the contemporary moment.

Miriam Meir

Senior Lecturer of Hebrew Language

Miriam Meir is the Area Coordinator of Jewish Languages and a senior lecturer of Hebrew language. She has been teaching Hebrew language and literature at JTS since 2008, and joined the JTS faculty as a full-time member in 2011. She has led the Hebrew language program at JTS since 2014.

Jonathan Milgram

Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Milgram is associate professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at ÌÇÐijöÆ·.

He holds two bachelor’s degrees: one in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and the other in Talmud from JTS. He earned his master’s degree in Talmud and his rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva University, and his doctorate in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. 

Dr. Milgram has been visiting assistant professor at Hunter College and has lectured in New York City at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, as well as at other universities in this country and abroad.

Edna Nahshon

Professor of Jewish Theater and Drama

Dr. Edna Nahshon is professor of Theater and Drama at ÌÇÐijöÆ·. In 2013 she served as producer and dramaturg of JTS’s milestone production Bratslav-Beethoven-Bratslav, directed by Yossi Yizraely. She is currently the curator and catalog contributing editor of “From the Bowery to Broadway: New York’s Yiddish Theater,” a landmark exhibition scheduled to open in February 2016 at the Museum of the City of New York. Dr. Nahshon’s specialty is the intersection of Jewishness, theater, and performance. She is the editor of (and a contributor to) the volumes Jewish Theatre: A Global View (Brill Academic Publishers, 2009) and Jews and Theater in an Intercultural Context (Brill Academic Publishers, 2012). In 2003, she was guest editor of a special issue of American Jewish History (91:1) devoted to the theme of “Jews and Performance,” which included her essay “The Pulpit and the Stage: Rabbi Joseph Silverman and the Actors’ Church Alliance.” Dr. Nahshon’s forthcoming book is titled Countering Shylock: Jewish Responses to The Merchant of Venice (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Luciana Pajecki Lederman

Director of the Beit Midrash and Nishma Summer Program, JTS Alum (Rabbinical School, Kekst Graduate School, Davidson School)

Rabbi Luciana Pajecki Lederman is the Director of the Beit Midrash and Assistant Professor of Talmud and Halakhah at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). She received rabbinic ordination in 2005 and a doctorate in Talmud and Education in 2024, both from JTS. Originally from Brazil, Rabbi Luciana has devoted many years to serving her home community — first as Assistant Rabbi at Comunidade Shalom in São Paulo, and later as an education consultant, scholar-in-residence, and High Holidays preacher.

Shuly Rubin Schwartz

Chancellor Emerita and Irving Lehrman Research Professor of American Jewish History

Marcus Mordecai Schwartz

Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, Talmud and Rabbinics

Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz serves as the Ripp Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of The Library of JTS. He is a past recipient of the prestigious Professor Saul Lieberman and Dr. Judith Berlin Lieberman Graduate Fellowships in Talmudic Studies. He is also an alumnus of the University of Nebraska.

Stefanie B. Siegmund

Women's League Chair in Jewish Gender and Women's Studies

Dr. Stefanie B. Siegmund—the first person to hold the Women’s League Chair in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies at JTS—is associate professor of History and director of the Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies program at JTS. She also serves as the area coordinator for the program in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Studies. She specializes in the history of the Jewish family and the Jews of the early modern Italian states, her current research focusing on the subject of conversion of Jews to Catholicism in 16th-century Italy. Her work engages questions concerning gender and its role in creating Jewish custom, culture, and law, as well as the history and status of Jewish women. Dr. Siegmund was a professor in the Department of History and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan for 10 years prior to her appointment at JTS. Earlier, she was the Samuel Melton Legislative Professor in Jewish Studies and an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Florida. 

Brian Smollett

Associate Provost, Curriculum and Instruction; Dean, Academic Affairs; Assistant Professor, Modern Jewish Thought

Before coming to JTS as a teacher and administrator, Dr. Smollett taught both Jewish and European history at Binghamton University, Queens College, and Hunter College, where he served as associate director of the Jewish Studies program. At ÌÇÐijöÆ·, he served for six years as assistant and then associate dean of List College, where he advised students in the dual-degree programs with Columbia and Barnard, and managed academic policy.

Benjamin D. Sommer

Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages

Benjamin D. Sommer joined ÌÇÐijöÆ· faculty as professor of Bible in July 2008. Previously, he served as director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies at Northwestern University, where he had taught since 1994. Dr. Sommer has been a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Tikvah Center for Jewish Law and Civilization at the New York University School of Law, and the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He has served as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Bible of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. He has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Yad Hanadiv/Berakha Foundation.

Boaz Tarsi

Professor of Jewish Music and Liturgy

Boaz Tarsi is a professor of music at ÌÇÐijöÆ·. His main research area is the theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music and its role within the liturgical experience as a whole. As a secondary area of academic pursuit, he works on issues in music of the modern era, particularly the composer Arnold Schoenberg. He has published a long line of articles on these subjects in leading scholarly journals, and presented papers and lectures at academic conferences and institutions worldwide. He earned his doctorate at Cornell University.

Gordon Tucker

Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, Assistant Professor of Jewish Philosophy

As vice chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, Rabbi Gordon Tucker focuses on enhancing Jewish life at JTS, enriching our study of Judaism with the joy and deep understanding that only lived experience can provide. A leading scholar and interpreter of Conservative Judaism, he also articulates the enduring power of JTS’s compelling approach to Jewish law and Jewish life, while strengthening JTS’s religious leadership through partnerships with organizations in the Conservative Movement and beyond.

Jan Uhrbach

Director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach brings a passion for prayer to the JTS community. Through her work as founding director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts, she develops and oversees programs and discussions, as well as prayer services on Shabbat and festivals, for the JTS community and the general public. 

Abigail Uhrman

Director of The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and Associate Professor of Jewish Education

Abigail Uhrman completed her PhD in 2013 at New York University, where her dissertation, Alike and Different: Parenting a Child with Special Needs in the Jewish Community, focused on parents’ experiences in Jewish day schools and educational decision-making for their children with disabilities. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in history and minor in education studies in 2001.  

Outside of her academic interests, Dr. Uhrman has considerable experience working in teaching, administrative, and consulting capacities in the Jewish community. Her work in the field deeply informs her research and teaching practice.

Sarah Wolf

Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Sarah Wolf’s research focuses on legal textual cultures in rabbinic Judaism. Her dissertation, The Rabbinic Legal Imagination: Narrativity and Scholasticism in the Babylonian Talmud, traced the development of literary elements in the Talmud’s legal passages in the context of the rise of the rabbinic academy. Her current book project examines the construction of emotions as legal categories in rabbinic literature. Dr. Wolf received her PhD from Northwestern University and her BA in Literature from Yale University. She is also a faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.