Isaac “Yitz” Landes

Work Address: The Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Room 135, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel, 9190501

Home Address: Emek Refaim 37/7, Jerusalem, Israel, 9310419

Email: isaac.landes@mail.huji.ac.il

Phone: +972-52-663-1110

 

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Student in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity, Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey. To matriculate September 2016.

Ph.D. Studies in Talmud and Halakha, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel. October 2015 – Present.

M.A. in Talmud and Halakha, with a Concentration in the Study of Late Antiquity and its Legacy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel. October 2013 – September 2015 (to be awarded Spring 2016).

Thesis: “Studies in the Development of Birkat ha-Avodah,” written under the guidance of Prof. Menahem Kister and Prof. Shulamit Elizur. Grade: Excellent.

Dean’s list (2013–2014, 2014–2015).

Summer 2015. The Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. Jerusalem, Israel.

Participated in the summer course “Jews on the Move: Translocations, Transmissions & Transformations in Jewish Culture.”

Summer 2014. The Central European University. Budapest, Hungary.

Participated in the summer course “’Luminosus Limes’: Geographical, Ethnic, Social and Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity.”

B.A. in Talmud and Halakha and Comparative Religion, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel. October 2010 – September 2013.

Dean’s list (2010–2011, 2012–2013).

Seminar Papers: “An Introduction to the Study of R. Abraham ben R. Nathan haYerkhi’s Sefer haManhig,  With Examples from Hilkhot Shabbat haTzrikhot” (for Prof. Simcha Emanuel) and “The Substitution of Sacrifice in Rabbinic Thought According to Bavli Menahot 110a and its Parallels” (for Prof. Menahem Kister).

Summer 2011.  Princeton University.  Princeton, New Jersey.

Participated in The Tikvah Project on Jewish Thought’s undergraduate summer seminar, “Jewish Thought and Enduring Human Questions.”

Yeshivat Har Etzion

Alon Shvut, Israel. April 2010 – July 2010.

Traditional Yeshiva studies.

Yeshivat Hesder Otniel

Otniel, Israel. September 2006 – March 2008, October 2009 – March 2010.

Traditional Yeshiva studies.

RAMAZ Upper School

New York, New York. 2002-2006.

High School. Received awards for excellence in music and Jewish Studies. Editor-in-Chief of School Yearbook, President of the Intellectual History Club and of the school band.

 

FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

October 2015 – Present. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel.

Presidential Scholarship for Ph.D. Studies in The Humanities at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

October 2015 – Present. Jerusalem, Israel. The Shalom Hartman Institute.

Fellow in the Advanced Beit Midrash for graduate students in Jewish Studies.

October 2014 – September 2015. The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Awarded scholarship for excellent MA students in Jewish Studies.

October 2013 – September 2015. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel.

Fellow in the Program for Excellent MA Students of The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

October 2013 – September 2015. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel.

Participant in the first cohort of The Program for the Study of Late Antiquity and Its Heritage for Outstanding MA Students at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Summer 2005.   Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel.  Jerusalem, Israel.

Participated in a fellowship that selects twenty-six outstanding Jewish North American teenagers every year to participate in a five week summer program in Israel.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE AND ACADEMIC SERVICE

July 2014 – June 2015. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel.

Co-director of the university’s “Group for The Study of Late Antiquity”.

Fall 2014 – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Israel.

Co-organizer of the graduate workshop “Abrahamic Absolutism: Violence and Intolerance in the Monotheistic Religions,” of the Oxford-Jerusalem Polonsky Programme in the Abrahamic Religions, headed by Prof. Martin Goodman and Prof. Guy Stroumsa.

July 2011 – Present.

Co-editor of and contributor to The Talmud Blog (thetalmudblog.wordpress.com).

March 2011 – February 2014.  The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies.  Jerusalem, Israel.

Research assistant to Prof. Shamma Friedman, Benjamin and Minna Reeves Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics and Israel Prize recipient.

 

CONFERENCE PAPERS

“Birkat ha-Avodah and the Making of Post-Temple Judaism,” presented at the 47th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, December 2015.

“What it is Sacrifice? The Rabbis on Leviticus 22,” presented at Bikurei Mehkar: The Thirteenth Graduate Student Conference of the Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, March 2015.

“Jewish Sacrifice: From Hubert and Mauss to the Rabbis,” presented at the graduate student workshop “Abrahamic Absolutism: Violence and Intolerance in the Monotheistic Religions,” of the Oxford-Jerusalem Polonsky Programme in the Abrahamic Religions, Jerusalem, October 2014.

LANGUAGES

Fully bilingual in English and Hebrew.

Completed coursework in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Syriac and Pahlavi-Middle Persian. Currently studying Attic Greek.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Spring 2010 – Present. Encounter Programs. Jerusalem, Israel; Bethlehem, Palestine.

Trip leader and facilitator on educational tours for North American Jews in the Palestinian Authority.

MILITARY SERVICE

March 2008 – October 2009.  Israel Defense Forces.

Tank Commander and Platoon Sergeant. Received Exemplary Trainee award (“hanikh li-mofet”) upon completion of Tank Commander’s course, and Distinguished Commander award from the Chief Officer of the Armored Corp for service as Platoon Sergeant (“mitztayen ketzin shiryon rashi”).