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Academic Staff of the Centre

President

Peter Oppenheimer MA (Oxon)
Student (Fellow) of Christ Church
e-mail: peter.oppenheimer@chch.ox.ac.uk
Economics

Peter Oppenheimer, President of the Centre since April 2000, is a distinguished Oxford economist with strong record of involvement in the Anglo-Jewish community. He has been Chairman of the Jewish Chronicle since January 2001, having served on its board for some fifteen years. He is also a board member of Jewish Policy Research (formerly the Institute of Jewish Affairs) in London, the communal think-tank. His academic roots are at Christ Church, Oxford, where among other things he served his turn as 'Senior Censor', though his period of office was truncated because the college (and the University) generously allowed him a two-year leave of absence in 1985-6 to become Chief Economist at Shell.

Peter is a qualified Russian interpreter and the later stages of his career in economics have brought him into close and frequent contact with post-Communist Russia, where his language skills, coupled with the fact that he is not a Sovietologist, have made him a usefully objective observer and advisor. He continues to pursue his interest in economic affairs, and although he has resigned his tutorship at Christ Church, he remains on the governing body of the college.

The President sees it as a major strategic objective to secure endowment funding so that the Centre will be able to make longer-term academic appointments as part of its ongoing development and growth. It is thanks to the Centre that Jewish Studies have at last, after centuries on the margins of Christian theology, come into their own within the complex structure of Oxford University. Peter will be seeking to build on existing relationships with donors and to win additional assistance by emphasizing the Centre's track record and acknowledged international reputation.

Fellows

Glenda Abramson MA (Rand); MA (Oxon); Ph.D. (Rand)
Jacob and Shoshana Schreiber Fellow in Modern Jewish Studies
Cowley Lecturer in Post-Biblical Hebrew, Oxford University
Fellow of St. Cross College
e-mail: glenda.abramson@stx.ox.ac.uk
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Hebrew Literature of the State of Israel - novels, plays, poetry; Jewish Literature; Literary Criticism

Martin Goodman MA (Oxon); D.Phil. (Oxon); FBA
Solon Fellow in Jewish-Christian Relations in the Early Centuries
Professor of Jewish Studies, Oxford University
Professorial Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford
e-mail: martin.goodman@orinst.ox.ac.uk
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Jewish history of the Second Temple and Talmudic periods.

Ronald Nettler Ronald L. Nettler BA (Roosevelt University, Chicago); MA (McGill); MA Status (Oxon)
Fellow in Muslim-Jewish Relations in the Modern Period
Hebrew Centre Lecturer in Oriental Studies, Oxford University
Fellow and Tutor in Oriental Studies, Mansfield College
email: ronald.nettler@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
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Relationship of Judaism and Islam in the Middle Ages and the Modern Period.

Emanuele Ottolenghi Laurea (Bologna); D.Phil. (Heb. Univ. Jerusalem)
Junior Research Fellow in Israel Studies, OCHJS & Middle East Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford
Israeli Politics; Comparative Constitutional Law; Political Theory 18th-century Liberalism; Judicial Politics and Supreme Court Studies

David Rechter BA (Hons); MA (Hons) (Melbourne); Ph.D. (Heb. Univ. Jerusalem)
Director of Studies and Fellow in Modern Jewish History
University Research Lecturer, Oxford University
Research Fellow, St. Antony's College
e-mail: david.rechter@history.oxford.ac.uk
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Modern Jewish History, especially the Jews of Habsburg Austria

Alison Salvesen Alison G. Salvesen MA, D.Phil. Oxon
Fellow in Aramaic and Syriac and Lector in Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew Centre Lecturer in Oriental Studies, Oxford University
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford
email: alison.salvesen@orinst.ox.ac.uk
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Jewish Aramaic - Talmud, Targum, Jewish Greek - Septuagint and Minor Versions

Joseph Sherman Ph.D. (Rand); LTCL; TTHD
Woolf Corob Fellow in Yiddish
Honorary Research Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Yiddish Literature; Special interests: Isaac Bashevis Singer, Dovid Bergelson, Ayzik-Meir Dik, I.J. Singer

Joseph Sherman Piet W. van Boxel MA(Rome), D.Theol. (Tilburg)
Librarian
Fellow in Early Judaism and origins of Christianity
email: vanboxel@ochjs.ac.uk
Pseudepigrapha, Early Christian Literature, Rabbinic Literature.

Joanna Weinberg BA (University College, London); Ph.D. (London)
Fellow in Rabbinics
Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
James Mew Lecturer in Rabbinic Hebrew, Oriental Institute
Reader of Rabbinics, Leo Baeck College, London
Rabbinic Literature

Other Academic Staff

Tali Argov MA (Heb. Univ., Jerusalem); Ph.D. candidate (Heb. Univ., Jerusalem)
Lector in Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew Language and Literature

John Elwolde BD (Aberd); Ph.D. (Hull)
Lecturer
Associate member, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
Developments in Hebrew language between Bible and Mishnah
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Miri Freud-Kandel MA (Cantab); Ph.D. (Cantab)
Lecturer in Modern Judaism, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Modern Jewish Theology

Kerstin Hoge MA (Ohio State Univ.), MPhil (Oxford), DPhil (Oxford)
Lector in Yiddish
Junior Lecturer in German Linguistics, Oxford University/St Anne's College
Yiddish Language and Linguistics, Comparative Germanic Linguistics, Theoretical Syntax

Jeremy Schonfield BA (Hons) (East Anglia); MA (Cantab.); Ph.D. (Cantab)
Mason Lecturer
Literary-critical approaches to rabbinic Judaism, in particular biblical exegesis and liturgy

Norman Solomon MA (Cantab.); Ph.D. (Manchester)
Lecturer in Theology, Oxford University;
former Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (1995-2000)
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Modern Jewish Thought

Sara Sviri Ph.D. (Tel Aviv)
Senior Associate
Catherine Lewis Lectureship for Medieval Studies, University College London
Islamic Mysticism; Medieval Jewish Philosophy; Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Spirituality in Spain; Judaeo-Arabic Literature