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Ophir Münz-Manor, Professor

Hebrew
Prof. Ophir Münz-Manor
Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies One University Road, P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7781165 Fax:972-9-7781416 Email:ophirmm@openu.ac.il

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Areas of Interest
  • Liturgical Poetry in Late Antiquity
  • Early Judaism and Christianity
  • Rabbinic Culture and Society
  • Digital Humanities

Ophir Münz-Manor, a Full professor of Rabbinic Culture, is a specialist in Jewish liturgy and liturgical poetry from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. His studies focus on the intersections with contemporary Christian texts as well as questions of ritual, performance and gender in late antique Near Eastern cultures. In recent years Prof. Münz-Manor has embarked on several projects that combine traditional literary analysis with quantitative and computerized methods from the realm of Digital Humanities.
 
In October 2019 Prof. Münz-Manor has been appointed Dean of Academic Studies. 
 
 

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2007
Ph.D., Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2002
M.A.(magna cum laude), Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 
2000
B.A. (magna cum laude), Hebrew Literature and Interdisciplinary Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2023
Full Professor, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2018-2019
Visiting Professor, Interdisciplinary Center for Narratology, University of Hamburg
2016-2023
Associate Professor, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2009-2016
Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2008-2009
Visiting Faculty, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2007-2008
Fellow, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
2006-2007
Visiting Scholar, Department of Religious Studies, Brown University

2011-2014  Allon Fellowship for Outstanding Young Researchers, Council for Higher Education

2007-2008 David and Penina Zoller Fellowship - Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

2006-2007 Rothchild Postdoctoral Fellowship – Yad Hanadiv Foundation 

2005-2006 Mark Uveeler Special Doctoral Scholarship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture 

2004 The Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines, Authority for Research and Development, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

2003-2006 Doctoral Research Fellowship, Scholion – Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

2019  Dean of Academic Studies 

2015-2018 Chair, Curriculum Committee

2013-2018 Chair, Labor Union of the Senior Faculty

2012-2013 Chair, Disciplinary Committee

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Gender and Sexuality in Rabbinic Culture, The Open University of Israel Press, Ra'anana 2016 (Hebrew) 

Early Piyyut - An Annotated Anthology, Tel Aviv University Press, Tel Aviv 2015 (Hebrew)

Psalms In/On Jerusalem, De Gruyter, Berlin 2019 (with Ilana Pardes)

Soundscapes of Salvation: Resounding Refrains in Jewish and Christian Liturgical Poems, Studies in Late Antiquity 3:1 (2019), pp. 36-55 (with Thomas Arentzen).

Imagined Journeys: Travel Narratives in Judah Alharizi's Tahkemoni and Zachariah Aldahiri's Sefer Hamusar, Jewish Studies Quarterly 26:1 (2019), pp. 43-58.

The Parable of the Lame and the Blind in Epiphanius and its Relation to Jewish Sources: New Texts, The Journal of Theological Studies 68:2 (2017), pp. 593-606.

The Payytanic Epithet and its Connections with Figurative Language, Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 28 (2015), pp. 93-112 (Hebrew).

Jewish and Christian Dispute Poems on the Relationship between the Body and the Soul, Textures: Culture, Literature, Folklore for Galit Hasan-Rokem (Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature, 2013), pp. 187-209 (Hebrew).

Christians and Christianity in Payytanic Literature: Between Typological and Concrete Representations," Ot Le-Tova: Studies Presented to Professor Tova Rosen, a special volume of Mikan - Journal for Hebrew and Israeli Literature and Culture Studies 11 (2012), pp. 43-56 (Hebrew).

Figurative Language in Pre-Classical Piyyut: Between Biblical Models and Poetic Innovations, Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 24 (2011), pp. 1-22 (Hebrew).

Liturgical Poetry in the Late Antique Near East: A Comparative Approach, Journal of Ancient Judaism 1:3 (2010), pp. 336-361.

Reflections on Jewish and Christian Liturgical Poetry in Late Antiquity, Peamim: A Quarterly for the Study of Oriental Jews 119 (2009), pp. 131-172 (Hebrew).

As the Apple Among Fruits, so the Priest When He Emerges: Poetic Similies in Pre-Classical Poems of the 'How Lovely' Genre, Ginzei Qedem - Genizah Research Annual 5 (2009), pp. 165-188 (Hebrew).

All about Sarah: Questions of Gender in Yannai's Poems on Sarah's (and Abraham's) Barrenness, Prooftexts – A Journal of Jewish Literary History 26 (3), (2006), pp. 344-374.

Structural Ornamentations and Figurative Language in the Ancient Piyyut, Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 21 (2006), pp.19–38 (Hebrew).

From Seder HaMaaracha to Seder HaMaamadot – The Emergence and Transformations of a Liturgical Rite in the Middle Ages, rom Seder HaMaaracha to Seder HaMaamadot – The Emergence and Transformations of a Liturgical Rite in the Middle Ages, Tarbitz – A Quarterly for Jewish Studies 73 (2004), pp. 293-310 (Hebrew).

The Creation, The Mishakn and Moshe Hadarshan, Tarbitz – A Quarterly for Jewish Studies 71 (2002), pp. 265-268 (Hebrew).

"Towards the Solution of the Shabuoth Piyyutim Censorship," Tarbitz – A Quarterly for Jewish Studies 70 (2001), pp. 637-644 (Hebrew).

"Take Pity on Zion, Rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem: A Late Antique Hebrew Elegy on the Destruction of Jerusalem," in I. Pardes, O. Münz-Manor (eds.), Psalms In/On Jerusalem  (Berlin: De Gruyter 2019), pp. 27-42. 

“In Situ: Liturgical Poetry and Sacred Space in Late Antiquity,” in M. Ahuvia , A. Kocar (eds.), Placing Ancient Texts: The Ritual and Rhetorical Use of Space (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2018), 87-98.

"The Ritualization of Creation in Jewish and Christian Liturgical Texts from Late Antiquity," in L. Jenott, S. Kattan-Gribetz (eds.), Jewish and Christian Cosmogony in Late Antiquity (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2013), pp. 271-286.

"A Prolegomenon to the Study of Hekhalot Traditions in European Piyyut," in P. Schäfer , M. Himmelfarb and R. Boustan (eds.), Hekhalot Literature in Context: Between Byzantium and Babylonia (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2013), pp. 110-122.

"Narrating Salvation - Verbal Sacrifices in Late Antique Liturgical Poetry," in A. Y. Reed, N. Dohrmann (eds.), Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire: The Poetics of Power Late Antiquity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2013), pp. 154-166, 315-319.

"Figurative Language in Early Piyyut," in W. van Bekkum and N. Katsumata (eds.), Giving a Diamond: Essays in Honor of Joseph Yahalom on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday (Leiden: Brill 2011), pp. 51-68.

"Carnivalesque Ambivalence and the Christian Other in Jewish Poems from Byzantine Palestine," in R. Bonfil, O. Irshai, G. Stroumsa and R. Talgam (eds.), Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures (Leiden: Brill 2011), pp. 831-845.

"Other Voices: Haman, Jesus and the Representations of the Other in Purim Poems from Byzantine Palestine," in Y. Shapira, O. Herzog and T. S. Hess (eds.), Popular and Canonical: Literary Dialogues (Tel Aviv: Resling 2007), pp. 69-79, 211-217 (Hebrew).

Studies in Figurative Language of Pre-Classical Piyyut, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Hebrew University of Jerusaelm 2007 (Hebrew) 

"Piyyut", "Yannai", "El'azar birabi Qilir," in Eric Orlin, Michael Satlow (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, London: Routledge 2016, pp. 279, 791, 1014-1015

"Jacob of Serug’s Homily on Jephtah’s Daughter", in Metrical Homilies of Mar Jacob of Sarug, New Jersey: Gorgias Press 2010 (with Susan Ashbrook Harvey).

"Jacob of Serug's Homily on Jephtah's Daughter,“ in The Cave of Treasures: Syriac Literature from Late Antiquity in Hebrew Translation, Bar Blinitzky and Yuval Rotman (eds.), Tel Aviv University Press 2018, pp. 243-255 (Hebrew)
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A. Fraenkel, A. Gross, and P. Sh. Lehnardt, Hebräische liturgische Poesien zu den Judenverfolgungen während des Ersten Kreuzzugs. Hebräische Texte aus dem mittelalterlichen Deutschland, 3. Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz Verlag 2016, For the Medieval Review 17.12.06 (2017) 

M. Florentin, Samaritan Elegies - A Collection of Lamentations, Admonitions, and Poems of Praising God God (Bialik Institute 2012), for the European Journal of Jewish Studies 11(2017), pp. 111-114

M. Florentin, Samaritan Elegies - A Collection of Lamentations, Admonitions, and Poems of Praising God (Bialik Institute 2012), for Cathedra - For the History of Eretz Israel and its Yishuv 167  (2017), pp. 176-178 (Hebrew)

M. Rand, Introduction to the Grammar of Hebrew Poetry in Byzantine Palestine (New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2006), for the Journal of Semitic Studies 54 (2009), pp. 595-597.