I study the Jewish tradition, religious thought, and theories and methods in the study of religion. My research focuses on the modern period, with particular areas of interest including Jewish thought, Jewish-Christian relations, philosophy of religion, religion and politics, hermeneutics, and religious ethics. I have published a book on Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), the Enlightenment philosopher generally seen as the founder of modern Jewish thought. Reading Mendelssohn’s well-known German works alongside his neglected Hebrew writings, I offer a far-reaching reassessment of this influential figure, recovering previously unrecognized arguments by Mendelssohn about philosophy, citizenship, and religious authority, and showing that his thought has much to offer broader conversations about modernity and religion. I have also published some of the first translations of Mendelssohn’s Hebrew writings (in a volume that was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award).

My current research focuses on Nachman Krochmal (1785-1840), one of modernity’s first Eastern European Jewish philosophers. A businessperson, teacher, and communal leader born in what is now Ukraine, he is often described as central to Judaism’s encounter with developments such as historicism, biblical criticism, and German Idealism. However, his work is rarely subject to scrutiny, especially in North America, and his unfinished Hebrew magnum opus—published posthumously as The Guide of the Perplexed of the Time—remains largely unavailable in English. With Lawrence Kaplan, I am currently producing the first English translation of Krochmal’s Guide for the Yale Judaica Series, a joint initiative of the Yale University Jewish Studies Program and Yale University Press. I am also writing a book—tentatively entitled Nachman Krochmal and the Struggle for Modern Jewish Politics—that recovers Krochmal’s thought for contemporary readers, proposing a far-reaching reinterpretation of his philosophical goals and drawing on his work to rethink the emergence and contours of Jewish modernity.

You can watch an interview with me about my work—and the public relevance of Jewish philosophy more broadly—here.

Peer-Reviewed Books

Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2017; Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award, University of Colorado Boulder)

Peer-Reviewed Critical Translations

Nachman Krochmal, The Guide of the Perplexed of the Time (Moreh Nevukhei Ha-zeman), translated, introduced, and annotated with Lawrence Kaplan, Yale Judaica Series (Yale University Press, under contract)

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

“Liturgical Counter-Symbols: Jacob Taubes, Franz Rosenzweig, and the Politics of Redemption,” Rosenzweig Jahrbuch 12 (2021): 127-141

“Exegesis and Politics Between East and West: Nachman Krochmal, Moses Mendelssohn, and Modern Jewish Thought,” Harvard Theological Review 114.4 (2021): 508-535

“Poetry, Music, and the Limits of Harmony: Mendelssohn’s Aesthetic Critique of Christianity,” in Sara Levy’s World: Bach, Gender, and Judaism in Enlightenment Berlin, eds. Nancy Sinkoff and Rebecca Cypess, Eastman Studies in Music (University of Rochester Press, 2018), 122-146

“Worlds to Come Between East and West: Immortality and the Rise of Modern Jewish Thought,” in Olam Ha-zeh v’Olam Ha-ba: This World and the World to Come in Jewish Belief and Practice, ed. Leonard Greenspoon, Studies in Jewish Civilization (Purdue University Press, 2017), 171-195

“Is God Eternal? Revisiting Mendelssohn and Rosenzweig on Reason, Revelation, and the Name of God,” Modern Theology 33.1 (2017): 69-91

“Law, Ethics, and the Needs of History: Mendelssohn, Krochmal, and Moral Philosophy,” Journal of Religious Ethics 44.2 (2016): 352-377

“Civic Freedom out of the Sources of Judaism: Mendelssohn, Maimonides, and Law’s Promise,” Journal of Jewish Ethics 2.1 (2016): 86-111

“Spinoza, Maimonides and the Politics of Prophecy,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 21.1 (2014): 67-98

“‘Finden Sie mich sehr amerikanisch?’: Jacob Taubes, Hermann Cohen, and the Return to German-Jewish Liberalism,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 57 (2012): 187-210

“Moses Mendelssohn,” Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies, ed. David Biale (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Non-Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (Co-Authored)

“Introduction” to “Rosenzweig’s The Star of Redemption and the Contemporary Moment,” Political Theology 22.8 (2021): 720-724, co-authored with Sarah Pessin

Edited Book Chapters and Articles

“The Promise and Perils of Perplexity: Jewish Philosophy and Public Culture, Yesterday and Today,” in The Future of Jewish Philosophy, volume 21 of The Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers, eds. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron Hughes (Brill, 2018), 79-97

“Anarchy and Law: Mendelssohn on Philosophy and Judaism,” in Moses Mendelssohn: Enlightenment, Religion, Politics, Nationalism, eds. Charles Manekin and Michah Gottlieb, Studies and Texts in Jewish History and Culture (University Press of Maryland, 2015), 237-273

Selections in Critical Translations

Selections from the writings of Samuel David Luzzatto, Mordecai Gumpel Schnaber-Levison, Meir Halevi Letteris, Salomon Rubin, Abraham Isaac Kook, and Micha Joseph Berdichevsky (Hebrew), in Spinoza’s Challenge to Jewish Thought: Writings on His Life, Philosophy, and Legacy, ed. Daniel Schwartz, Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought (Brandeis University Press, 2019)

Selections from the writings of Moses Mendelssohn (Hebrew), in Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible, ed. Michah Gottlieb, trans. Allan Arkush, Curtis Bowman, and Elias Sacks, Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought (Brandeis University Press, 2011; Finalist for 2011 National Jewish Book Award)

Edited Journal Issues

“Jewish Thought in Times of Crisis,” Special Issue of Religions (2023), co-edited with Andrea Cooper

“Rosenzweig’s The Star of Redemption and the Contemporary Moment,” Special Issue of Political Theology 22.8 (2021), co-edited with Sarah Pessin

Review Essays

Review of Randi Rashkover, Nature and Norm: Judaism, Christianity, and the Theopolitical Problem, in Modern Theology 38.4 (2022): 835-839

Review of Paul Guyer, Reason and Experience in Mendelssohn and Kant, in Kantian Review 26.3 (2021): 486-491

Review of Abigail Gillman, A History of German Jewish Bible Translation, in H-Judaic (2020)

Review of Ofri Ilany, In Search of the Hebrew People: Bible and Nation in the German Enlightenment, in H-Judaic (2019)

Review of Edward Breuer and David Sorkin, eds., Moses Mendelssohn’s Hebrew Writings, in Reading Religion (2018)

“Saving the World,” Jewish Review of Books 7.1 (2016): 23-25

Public Scholarship

“What’s a ‘Gender-Sensitive’ Bible Translation?” Jewish Women’s Archive, co-authored with Beth Lieberman

“Moses Mendelssohn’s Hebrew Politics,” Oxford University Press Blog

Pedagogy

“Expanding the Jewish Studies Classroom: Citizenship, Vulnerability, and the Trinity,” Association for Jewish Studies Conference Papers on Pedagogy