Graduate Students

Nazeer is a doctoral candidate specializing in the study of the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Jewish literature. He is interested in the representation of bodies and embodiment in ancient texts, especially in relation to questions of gender, (dis)ability, and categories of power and marginality. He is currently exploring these intersections through the lens of sight, and his dissertation investigates the role vision and visuality play in shaping traditions of pilgrimage into journeys of ethical self-formation. Nazeer holds an advanced certificate in Poetics and Theory through the Department of Comparative Literature at NYU and is also a member of the Authoritative Texts and Their Reception research program at the University of Oslo. Prior to coming to NYU, he received his MA in Religion and Literature, concentrated in Hebrew Bible from Yale University; a BA in English Literature and Judaic Studies from the University of Central Florida; and an AA from Valencia Community College. 

Nazeer can be reached at nazeer.bacchus@nyu.edu

Abigail Beech is a doctoral candidate studying Hebrew Bible within the Hebrew and Judaic Studies Department. Previously, she received her M.A. in Religion, specializing in Hebrew Bible, from Yale Divinity School and her B.A. in Religion from Temple University.  She is primarily interested in studying pentateuchal texts as literature, the Neo-Documentary Hypothesis, and considering the relationships between source material through philology and character development.  

Gavin Beinart-Smollan is a doctoral student in the joint PhD program in History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. He studies eastern European Jewish migrants from a global perspective, with a particular focus on food studies and the history of the family. Prior to NYU, Gavin completed an MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he wrote a thesis entitled "South African Jewish Community Cookbooks: Everyday Life and Culture under Apartheid, 1947-1994". Gavin is also a student in the Advanced Certificate in Public History program through the History department. 

Tova Benjamin is a joint PhD candidate in the Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History departments. Her current research focuses on Jewish economic life before and after the Russian Revolution. Her research interests include the political economy of Russia during the Revolutionary years, the history of global trade and capitalism, and Yiddish studies.

Aure Ben-Zvi Goldblum’s interests span the entire Bible but she is particularly interested in late Biblical texts, Apocrypha, Psedepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. She is currently focusing on aspects of authority and power, both in texts and people, in the Ancient Near East. She is also interested in language pedagogy and exploiting digital tools for making research more accessible.

To learn more about Aure and her interests, please visit her academic profile.  

Yael is a doctoral student at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, specializing in Hebrew and comparative literature. Her research interests focus on the relationship between the mind and the body in contemporary literature, and how this is impacted by global trends. Specifically, she is interested in studying the duality in which literary texts reflect a withdrawal from the world, while concurrently returning to a more physical, viscerally alive being. Prior to arriving at NYU, she earned an M.A. in Hebrew Literature from Ben-Gurion University, and a B.A. in Psychology and Hebrew Literature from Ben-Gurion University.

Hadas Binyamini is a doctoral student in the joint program in History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies. Her research focuses on Jewish politics in the 1970s, grassroots activism, and the religious right. Prior to starting her doctoral studies at NYU, she worked in Jewish museums and earned her Masters in Archives and Records Management at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies.

Idan Chazan is pursuing a PhD in the joint History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies program at NYU. His primary focus is on law and society in Israel, particularly the relationship between "ordinary people," especially Mizrahi immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s, and the institution of commissions of inquiry in Israel. His other interests include Mizrahi studies, Israeli legal history, and Middle East migration history.

Noam Cohen is a PhD student at NYU studying the Hebrew Bible and other ancient West Asian texts. He is currently working on his dissertation, entitled Scribing Violence: Biblical and Cuneiform Portrayals of Spousal Violence, in which he demonstrates that different legal systems and narrative worlds contain distinct perspectives on spousal rights and employ references to spousal violence to different rhetorical effects. In addition to gender and violence, Noam's other research interests include ritual texts, Northwest Semitic languages, ancient Semitic poetry, and the Masorah. Before he joined the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Noam received a combined BA/MA from Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. You can learn more about Noam at noamcohen.org

Alma N. Cortez Alvarez is a PhD student at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies in Hebrew Bible. Her research lies at the intersection of Hebrew Bible and Archaeology concerning place name identity. Alma is particularly interested by questions on how Biblical interpretation and identity affects excavation and handling of heritage in the Southern Levant. She previously obtained her Master of Arts degree in Archaeology from Cornell University as well as Bachelor of Arts in French Studies and a Bachelor of Sciences in Behavioral Sciences with a minor in Religion from Andrews University.

Eui-Hyun Chung is a PhD student in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. His work focuses on the literary expressions of images in the Hebrew Bible and their intersection with ancient Near Eastern art and material culture. He is also pursuing a broad interest in Northwest Semitic epigraphy, Assyrian and Babylonian monumental inscriptions, and Israelite wisdom literature. Eui-Hyun holds two Master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University and Columbia Theological Seminary, and a B.Th. from Methodist Theological University in Seoul, South Korea.

Natalia Dubno Shevin is a doctoral student in the joint program in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History studying American Jewish History.  She holds a B.A. in history from Oberlin College. Her research interests include labor history, labor diplomacy, and late twentieth century Jewish history.

Netta Ehrlich is a doctoral student at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, where she studies Modern East European Jewish History. Her research interests include the relations between the Jews and their Polish, Russian and Ukrainian environment, the History of Zionism, and Holocaust History. She graduated with a BA in History from The Hebrew University and MA in Jewish History from Tel Aviv University, summa cum laude.

Spencer Elliott is a doctoral student in the Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies. Before coming to NYU, he earned two MA degrees, one from Trinity Western University, and the other from Jerusalem University College. His current assortment of interests includes the book of Psalms, public and private expressions of Israelite religion, historical geography, and the Septuagint. More information about Spencer’s research can be found on his Academia page https://nyu.academia.edu/SpencerElliott.

Aaron Forman is a doctoral student in the Hebrew and Judaic Studies department from Los Angeles, CA, whose research focuses on Mediterranean interconnectivity in the medieval Jewish world. Using medieval texts, Aaron seeks to extrapolate how Jews from different regions defined themselves and their communities in relation to non-Jews and Jews from other parts of the world with whom they came into contact. Aaron graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College with distinction in the History major, where his thesis explored how the twelfth-century travel narratives of Benjamin of Tudela and Petachia of Regensburg contributed to a sense of global unity among medieval Jews in the Mediterranean basin and beyond. Outside of his studies, Aaron can be found playing in soccer, basketball, and volleyball pickup games or seeking out the best spicy Chinese food in the city.

Aaron can be reached at: alf9559@nyu.edu

Andrew Gerstenberger is a doctoral student in the joint program in History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. His research focuses on transnational migration, with an emphasis on German- and Yiddish-speaking migrants.

Benjamin Gladstone is pursuing his PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History at the Taub Center for Israel Studies. His research focuses on Operation On Eagles' Wings and on Yemeni Jewish history and politics in the Yishuv and Israel. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Judaic Studies and Middle East Studies from Brown University, where he wrote his thesis on the idea of an "Ingathering of Exiles" in relations between Jewish communities in the United States, Israel, Yemen, and 'Aden during Operation On Eagles' Wings and his capstone on state-sponsored secularism and anti-Mizrahi racism in 1940s-50s Israel. In 2018-19, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research in Jerusalem examining Yemeni Jewish narrative construction in Israel and the relationship between British colonialism and anti-Jewish violence in 'Aden, Tripolitania, and Mandate Palestine. His research interests include Mizrahi and Sephardi history, Zionist thought, migration and refugee histories, nationalism and narrative construction, colonialist violence, and the role of religion and secularism in state-building.

Jonathan Green is a doctoral candidate in Hebrew and Judaic Studies. He wrote his MA thesis on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's enigmatic interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Jonathan's research interests include Jewish thought, religion and politics, and the history of biblical interpretation. 

Christine is a doctoral student studying the Hebrew Bible in the Hebrew and Judaic Studies Department. Prior to this, Christine received her MA in Religious Studies and BA in Religious Studies and Jewish Studies from Rutgers University. She is interested in theoretical readings of biblical texts, particularly gendered readings. Alongside this, she is also interested in questions of ritual, especially with their connections to the household and family units.

Olga Kartashova is a PhD candidate in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. Her research focuses on Eastern European Holocaust history, its aftermath, memory, historiography, and trials. She is writing a dissertation on the role of international Jewish networks in postwar justice with a focus on Poland under the supervision of Professor David Engel. Prior to her candidacy, Olga received a bachelor of arts in Polish and Jewish studies from the University of Wrocław, a master of arts in comparative history from Central European University, and a master of arts in Holocaust studies from Haifa University. In 2020, Olga worked as a researcher at the USHMM Mandel Center on a project broadly devoted to genocide and justice, with a focus on legal aspects of the history of the Holocaust. In 2021, she began leading a monthly seminar on the East European and Jewish roots of international law, in cooperation with the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University, where she was a visiting fellow during 2021-2022. Olga is a recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships, including the Saul Kagan Claims Conference Fellowship for Advanced Shoah Studies, the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, the Manya Friedmann Memorial Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, at Dubnow Institute in Leipzig, as well as from EHRI in the Wiener Library Archives in London. She works with sources in Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, English, German, and Yiddish. She is also engaged in digital humanities and exploring ways to incorporate technology into Holocaust research, archives, and museums.

Shiyong Lu is a joint doctoral student in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and History. She is interested in American Jewish history and history of immigration. Her research focus on interactions between Jews and Chinese in America. She holds a BA with research distinction from The Ohio State University, and a MA in history from NYU.

Matheus Machado Rinco is a doctoral student in Hebrew and Judaic Studies, focusing on Rabbinics and the literature of the Second Temple period. He holds an LLB from the University of Brasília, an MA in Jewish Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an MA in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from the University of Connecticut. Matheus is interested in the development of Jewish law and the evolution of Talmudic reasoning as well as the relationship rabbis maintained with the broader Jewish society in Roman Palestine. In his MA thesis for the University of Connecticut, he surveyed the rules of legal competence formulated by the rabbis of Palestine in the first and second centuries C.E. and the prominent role non-rabbis assumed in the rabbinic depiction of Jewish judicial practices.

Daniel Mackler is a doctoral student in Hebrew and Judaic Studies focusing on modern Jewish thought. He is interested in the permeable boundaries between rabbinic literature, modern philosophy, and historical consciousness. Daniel holds a BA in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a BA in Philosophy from Columbia University. His 2021 article at Jewish Studies Quarterly, “The Place of Maimonides in Zechariah Frankel’s Darkhei HaMishnah,” was adapted from his undergraduate thesis on the same. His current research centers on the thought of 19th-century Galician rabbi Nachman Krochmal. 

Maytal Mark is a doctoral student in Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She holds a BA in History from Northwestern University and an MA in Modern Middle East History from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research languages are Arabic and Hebrew and her research interests include the history of Zionism, Ottoman and Mandate era Jewish-Arab relations in Palestine, and Sephardi and Mizrahi history.

Alexander Maro is a doctoral student in the joint PhD program in History and HJS. His research focuses on fascism and empire in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century.

Avi Miller is a doctoral candidate at New York University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, where he studies rabbinic literature.  His current research focuses on the role of documentary writing in rabbinic legal culture.  His work encompasses material culture, scribalism, history of the book, Roman law in the provinces, and textuality/orality.  Before he joined the department, Avi earned an M.A in Jewish Philosophy at the Bernard Revel Graduate School and an A.B. in Philosophy from Princeton University.

Yael Mizrahi-Arnaud is a doctoral student in the joint PhD program in History and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Her research interests include Mizrahi and Sephardi intellectual history, the history of Zionism, ethnic politics in Israel and the settlement enterprise. 

Prior to NYU, Yael worked as a senior research assistant in Middle East Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution, In addition, she was a project manager at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa, Israel, and is currently a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, and a David Hartman Center Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Yael received her Masters from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and graduated cum laude from Reichman University.

Before NYU, Laura Pisoni earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies, a Master of Environmental Management, and a Juris Doctor at Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College. Laura's research interests include "otherness" and specifically the treatment and understanding of non-Jews in rabbinic and medieval Jewish literature. Outside of academics, Laura spends her time doing cat rescue in the Bronx and teaching Hebrew school in Brooklyn.

Idan Rochell is a PhD student in Hebrew and Judaic Studies affiliated with the Taub Center for Israel Studies. His M.A. thesis at the University of Haifa was "The United States Policy towards Israel regarding the Arab-Israeli Dispute over the Jordan River Water between the years 1953- 1964." His main research interest is the American influence on Israel's diplomatic, economic, and state development policies. 

To learn more about Idan and his interests, please visit his LinkedIn page.  

Isaac Roszler is a doctoral candidate in the Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies focusing on Talmud and Rabbinic literature. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Isaac received a B.A. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His current research focuses on the development of narratives in the Babylonian Talmud. 

To learn more about Isaac and his interests, please visit his Academia webpage https://nyu.academia.edu/IsaacRoszler.

Jonathan Schmidt-Swartz is a doctoral student in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies focusing on Bible and the Ancient Near East. He received his A.B. summa cum laude in Religious Studies and Comparative Literature with minors in Near Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies from Cornell University in May 2015. He spent his junior year abroad at the University of Cambridge focusing on Bible and Modern Judaism. His primary research interests and dissertation focus broadly on the intersection of ancient scribal culture, critical theory, and kingship. 

You may find more information about Jonathan via his Academia webpage. 

Ena Raphaëlle Oskar Schulz is a PhD candidate in Rabbinic Literature at the Hebrew and Judaic Studies department at New York University. A performing multimedia artist herself, Raphaëlle's interests revolve around performance and performativity of the Talmud. 

Kylie Unell is a doctoral student in the department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies studying modern German Jewish thought. Her particular area of focus is the intersection between Moses Mendelssohn and Booker T. Washington's philosophies of self-cultivation. She is interested in the cross-pollination of ideas across denominational, racial, and national lines. Her research interests include modern German Jewish thought, American Jewish thought, and German Romanticism. 

N. D. van Renswoude is a doctoral student in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Prior to arriving at NYU, N.D. completed the M.A. in North-West Semitic Philology at the University of Chicago and a Ba(Hons) Oriental Studies: Egyptology at Liverpool University. His research focuses on multilingualism and language contact in the early Second Temple Period. His research interests include cultural contact, language contact, multilingualism, socio-historical linguistics, and Northwest Semitic Philology with a focus on Aramaic and Hebrew.