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Avriel Bar-Levav, Associate Professor

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:972-9-7781371 Mobile:052-3220117 Email:avribar@openu.ac.il

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

Areas of Interest
  • Jewish mysticism
  • Magic
  • Jewish ethical literature
  • Jewish attitudes toward death
  • Cemeteries
  • Jewish ritual
  • History of the book
  • Egodocuments

    

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1997
Ph.D., Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1990
M.A. (summa cum laude), Jewish Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1985
B.A., Philosophy and Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

1997 - 1998 - Harvard University, Center for the Study of World Religions

2015 – present
Associate Professor, The Open University of Israel, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies
2016 – 2017
Visiting Scholar, University of Amsterdam, Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Feb. – Mar., 2017
Professeur Invité, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, Centre de recherches historiques.
Seminar: Jewish textual intimacy
2003 – 2015
Senior Lecturer, The Open University of Israel, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies
2001 – 2003
Candidate for Senior Academic Faculty, The Open University of Israel, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies
2000 - 2001
Research Fellow, Ben-Gurion University, Department of History
1998 - 2000
Teaching Fellow, University of Haifa, Department of Jewish History
1997 - 1998
Senior Fellow, Harvard University, Center for the Study of World Religions

2020 - 2022 - PI - ISF - The role of Broadsheets in Jewish Ritualistic and Culturall Space in the Early Modern Period

2014 - PI - The Open University of Israel - Jewish Death Rituals

2003 - 2007 - PI - The Ben-Zvi Institute and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Mourning in Jewish Eastern Communities

2020
Am ve-Olm prize for excellent paper in history - The Israeli Historical Society - Textual Intimacy and the bond of reading between the expulsion from Spain and Amsterdam (Hebrew)
2005
Scholarship of the Halpern Center - Bar-Ilan University
1999
Warburg Prize - Hebrew University - Jewish Death Rituals
1999
Post-Doctoral Fellowship - Council for Higher Education, Ben-Gurion University
1997
Fellowship, Center for the Study of World Religions - Harvard University - Death in Jewish Culture
1996
Abraham Isaac Katch Award to an outstanding doctoral student - Institute for Jewish Studies, HUJI
1994
Yaniv Foundation Scholarship - Tel Aviv University
1994
Niselevich Prize
1993
Gerstenfeld Prize
1992-1995
Doctoral fellowship for outstanding research students in the humanities - Council for Higher Education

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1997 - Ph.d, Hebrew Univerity - The Concept of Death in Sefer ha-Ḥayyim (The Book of Life) by Rabbi Shimon Frankfurt

1990 - M.A., Hebrew University - Death in the Thought of the Kabbalist Rabbi Naftali Hakohen Katz.

The Path of the Book: Tribute to Ze'ev Gries, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Oded Yisraeli, Jonatan Meir, and Rami Reiner, Jerusalem: Carmel, 2021, 650 pages, Hebrew.

Prognostication in the Medieval World: A Handbook, eds. Matthias Heiduk, Klaus Herbers, and Hans-Christian Lehner, in collaboration with Avriel Bar-Levav, Charles Burnett, Michael Grünbart and Petra G. Schmidl, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021, 1027 pages.

Studies in Contemporary Jewry, vol. 31: Textual Transmission in Modern Jewish Culture, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav and Uzi Rebhun, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, 224 pages.

Paths to Modernity: A Tribute to Yosef Kaplan, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Claude Stuchinsky, and Michael Heyd, Jerusalem: Zalman Shazer Center, 2018, 759 pages, Hebrew and English.

A Detailed Index of The Wisdom of the Zohar by Isaiah Tishby and Y. F. Lachower. Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 2015, 390 pages, Hebrew.

Death in Jewish Life: Burial and Mourning Customs among Jews of Europe and Nearby Communities. eds. Stefan C. Reif, Andreas Lehnardt and Avriel Bar-Levav, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014, 379 pages.

The Past and Beyond it: Festschrift for Elazar Weinrib, eds. Amir Horowitz, Ora Limor, Ram Ben-Shalom, and Avriel Bar-Levav. Raanana: The Open University Press, 2006, 712 pages, Hebrew.

Peace and War in Jewish Culture. Jerusalem: Zalman Sahzar Center, 2006, 363 pages, Hebrew.

Table Talk and the Bond of Reading: A Jewish Broadsheet for Meals. Polin 33 (2020): 97-113.

Library Awareness and Textual Intimacy in Contemporary Jewish Culture. Studies in Contemporary Jewry, vol. 31 (2020): Textual Transmission in Modern Jewish Culture, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav and Uzi Rebhun, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 3-14.

Libraries and Cultural Memory. Henoch 40 (2018): 95-102. [SJR=.1]

The Religious Order of Jewish Books: Structuring Hebrew Knowledge in Amsterdam. Studia Rosenthaliana 44 (2012): 1-27. [SJR=.101]

a. Steinschneider in Memoirs. Pe'amim 129 (2012): 225-238 (Hebrew).
b. A Living Citizen in a World of Dead Letters: Steinschneider Remembered. Reimund Leicht and Gad Freudenthal, eds. (with the collaboration of Rachel Heuberger), Studies on Steinschneider. Moritz Steinschneider and the Emergence the Science of Judaism in Nineteenth-Century Germany, Leiden: Brill, 2012: 339-348.

What Could be Done with Four Hundred Books? A Proposal for a Jewish Library, Krakow 1571. Zmanim 112 (2010): 42-49 (Hebrew).

On the Absence of a Book from a Library: Gershom Scholem and the Shulhan Arukh. Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 6 (2009): 71-73. [SJR=.101]

Magic in Jewish Ethical Literature. Tarbiz 72 (2003): 389-414 (Hebrew).

a. We Are Where We Are Not: The Cemetery in Jewish Culture. Jewish Studies 41 (2002): 15-46.
b.Another Place: The Cemetery in Jewish Culture. Pe'amim 98-99 (2003): 5-38 (Hebrew).

Ritualisation of Jewish Life and Death in the Early Modern Period. Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 47 (2002): 69-82. [SJR=.107]

Death and the (Blurred) Boundaries of Magic: Strategies of Coexistence. Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 7 (2002): 51–64.

Dying by the Book: Jewish Books for the Sick and the Dying, and the Ritualization of Death in the Early Modern Period. Zmanim 73 (2000): 71-78 (Hebrew).

Games of Death in Jewish Books for the Sick and the Dying. Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 5 (2000): 11–34.

Books for the Sick and the Dying in Jewish Conduct Literature. Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 14 (1998): 341–391 (Hebrew).

Rabbi Aaron Berakhiah of Modena and Rabbi Naftali Hakohen Katz: Founding Fathers of Books for the Sick and the Dying. Asufot 9 (1995): 189–233 (Hebrew)

Libraries and the Collecting of Jewish Books. Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures, ed. Emille Schrijver, Leiden: Brill, 2022 (forthcoming).

Death’s Ritual-Symbolic Performance in the Early Modern Period.  A Cultural History of Death: The Enlightenment, ed. Jeffrey Friedman, New York: Bloomsbury, 2022 (forthcoming).

a. This is the Record of Adam's Line: Zeev Gries and the Study of Agents of the Hebrew Book (with Oded Israeli, Jonatan Meir, and Avraham (Rami) Reiner). The Path of the Book: Tribute to Ze'ev Gries, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Oded Israeli, Jonatan Meir and Rami Reiner, Jerusalem: Carmel, 2021, ix–xii.

 b. This is the Record of Adam's Line: Zeev Gries and the Study of Agents of the Hebrew Book (with Oded Israeli, Jonatan Meir, and Avraham (Rami) Reiner). The Path of the Book: Tribute to Ze'ev Gries, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Oded Israeli, Jonatan Meir and Rami Reiner, Jerusalem: Carmel, 2021, 13–15 (Hebrew).

Prognostication in Medieval Jewish Culture. Prognostication in the Medieval World: A Handbook, eds. Matthias Heiduk, Klaus Herbers, and Hans-Christian Lehner, in collaboration with Avriel Bar-Levav, Charles Burnett, Michael Grünbart and Petra G. Schmidl, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021: 175–188

a. Yosef Kaplan and the Paths to Modernity: New Christians, New Jews, Their Interactions, and Their Surroundings (with Claude B. Stuczynski, Michael Heyd). Paths to Modernity: A Tribute to Yosef Kaplan, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Claude Stuchinsky and Michael Heyd, Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2018: 11-25 (Hebrew).

b. Yosef Kaplan and the Paths to Modernity: New Christians, New Jews, Their Interactions, and Their Surroundings (with Claude B. Stuczynski, Michael Heyd). Paths to Modernity: A Tribute to Yosef Kaplan, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Claude Stuchinsky and Michael Heyd, Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2018: 9*–28*.

Textual Intimacy and the bond of reading between the expulsion from Spain and Amsterdam. Paths to Modernity: A Tribute to Yosef Kaplan, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Claude Stuchinsky and Michael Heyd, Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2018: 145-168 (Hebrew). Recipient of Am-Ve-Olam Prize for Outstaning paper in History.

The Amsterdam Way of Death: R. Shimon Frankfurt's Sefer Ha-Hayyim (The Book of Life), 1703. The Religious Cultures of Dutch Jewry, ed. Yosef Kaplan, Leiden: Brill, 2017: 100-123.

On the Abjection of Hebrew Texts and Books. Milestones: Essays in Jewish History Dedicated to Zvi (Kuti) Yekutiel, eds. Immanuel Etkes, David Assaf and Yosef Kaplan, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2015: 207-218 (Hebrew)

Jewish Attitudes towards Death: A Society between Time, Space and Texts. Death in Jewish Life: Burial and Mourning Customs among Jews of Europe and Nearby Communities, eds. Stefan C. Reif, Andreas Lehnardt and Avriel Bar-Levav, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014: 3-15.

Ausdrucksformen jüdischer Religiosität in Deutschland zu Beginn der Neuzeit. Handbuch der Religionsgeschichte im deutschsprachigen Raum, Bd. IV, 1650-1750, eds. Kaspar von Greyerz und Anne Conrad, Paderborn: Fredinand Schöningh, 2012: 411-464.

a. Secularization and the Jews in Islamic Countries. Secularization in Jewish Culture, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Ron Margolin, and Shmuel Feiner, Raanana: The Open University of Israel Press, 2012: 329-386.
b. Secularization and the Jews in Islamic Countries. Secularism and Secularization: Interdisciplinary Studies, ed. Yochi Fischer, Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute 2015: 170-196 (Hebrew).

The Complete Return to Hebrew. Secularization in Jewish Culture, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Ron Margolin, and Shmuel Feiner, Raanana: The Open University of Israel Press, 2012: 857-876 (Hebrew).

Introduction: Two Personal Stories about Secularization (with editors). Secularization in Jewish Culture, eds. Avriel Bar-Levav, Ron Margolin, and Shmuel Feiner, Raanana: The Open University of Israel Press, 2012: 13-68 (Hebrew).

The Sacred Space of the Portable Homeland: An Archeology of Unseen Libraries in Jewish Culture from the Medieval Period to the Internet. Ut videant et Contingant: Essays on Pilgrimage and Sacred Space in Honour of Ora Limor, eds. Yitzhak Hen and Iris Shagrir, Raanana: Open University Press. 2011: 297-320 (Hebrew).

Food for Thought. Yosef Da'at: Studies in Modern Jewish History in Honor of Yosef Salmon, ed. Jossi Goldstein, Beer Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2010: 277-288 (Hebrew).

a. Between Library Awareness and the Jewish Republic of Letters. Libraries and Book Collections, eds. Yosef Kaplan and Moshe Sluhovsky. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2006: 201-224 (Hebrew).

b. Amsterdam and the Inception of the Jewish Republic of Letters. The Dutch Intersection: The Jews and the Netherlands in Modern History, ed. Yosef Kaplan. Leiden: Brill, 2008: 225-237.

Cercles messianiques: les mouvements messianiques des Juifs d’Orient. Le monde sépharade, ed. Shmuel Trigano. Paris: Le Seuil, 2006: 171-190.

Death and Mourning among Oriental Jewry.  Jewish Communities in the East in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Life Cycle, ed. Shalom Sabar, series ed. Haim Saadoun. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2006: 281-323 (Hebrew).

Story, Ritual and Metaphor: Comprehending the day of Death as a Spiritual Exercise and the internal War in Jewish Ethical Literature. Peace and War in Jewish Culture, ed. Avriel Bar-Levav. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2006: 145-163(Hebrew).

Reading Grave Inscriptions and Looking at the Sky: Some Aspects of Magic and Memory in Jewish Culture. Memoria: Wege jüdischen Erinnerns: Festschrift für Michael Brocke, eds. Birgit Klein and Christiane E. Müler, Berlin 2005: 41-52.

The Bridge to the Human: The Myth of Tantalus in the Story of the Marriage of a Man and Demon. The Cradle of Creativity: Shlomo Giora Shoham Jubilee Volume, ed. Chemi Bin-Nun. Hod ha-Sharon: Sha’arei Mishpaṭ, 2004: 199-206 (Hebrew).

Leon Modena and the Invention of the Jewish Death Tradition.  The Lion Shall Roar: Leon Modena and His World, ed. David Malkiel. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2003: 85-102.

a. ‘When I was Alive’: Jewish Ethical Wills as Egodocoments. Egodocuments and History: Autobiographical Writing in its Social Context since the Middle Ages, ed. Rudolf Dekker, Rotterdam: Erasmus University Rotterdam and Hilversum Verloren, 2002: 45-59.
 

b. Jewish Ethical Wills as Egodocoments. The Past and Beyond it: Festschrift for Elazar Weinrib, eds. Amir Horowitz, Ora Limor, Ram Ben-Shalom and Avriel Bar-Levav. Raanana: The Open University Press, 2006: 263-282 (Hebrew).

c. „Als ich noch lebte“: Jüdische ethische Testamente als Egodokumente (German). Perspektivenwechsel: Ego-Dokumente. Selbst- und Fremddarstellungen frühneuzeitlicher Juden, Birgit E. Klein / Rotraud Ries (Hgg.) / Désirée Schostak (Red.). Berlin 2011 (minima judaica; 9): 27-46.

Ritualization of Death and Life: The Ethical Will of Rabbi Naphtali Ha-Kohen Katz. Judaism in Practice, ed. Lawrence Fine.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001: 155–167.

Pinchas Hakohen Peli: A Biography. Rabbi Professor Peli Memorial Volume, ed. Aviv Melzer. Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1998: 157–165 (Hebrew).

Bibliography of Pinchas Hakohen Peli Rabbi Professor Peli Memorial Volume, ed. Aviv Melzer. Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1998: 166–214 (Hebrew).

Encyclopedia of the Bible and is Reception, eds. Hans-Josef Klauck, Bernard McGinn et al., Berlin: De Gruyter 2012. Entry: Burial in Medieval and Modern Judaism, vol. 4

Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, ed. Norman Stillman, Leiden: Brill 2010, 3: 523-532. Entry: Mysticism and Kabbalah (with Moshe Idel).

The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, ed. Gershon David Hundert, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Entries: Amulets and Talismans (45-46), Death and the Dying (396-399), Magic (1113-1114).