
Aryeh Cohen is an American rabbi and scholar who serves as a professor of Rabbinic Literature at
American Jewish University
American Jewish University (AJU) is a Private university, private Jewish university in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 2007 from the merger of the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
AJU's academic division includes ...
. His scholarship focuses on the
Talmud
The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
,
Jewish ethics
Jewish ethics are the ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people. A type of normative ethics, Jewish ethics may involve issues in Jewish law as well as non-legal issues, and may involve the convergence of Judaism and the Western phil ...
, and
social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
.
Education
Cohen received his BA in
Philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
Jewish Thought
Jewish thought (, ''Machshevet Yisrael''), also known as Judaic thought or Hebraic thought, is a field of Jewish studies that deals with the products of Jewish thought and culture throughout the ages, and their historical development. The field a ...
from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
. He was ordained as a rabbi by the
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies is the graduate program of study leading to ordination as a Conservative rabbi at the American Jewish University (formerly known as the "University of Judaism"), offering a Masters in Rabbinic Studies (or ...
and received his Ph.D. from
Brandeis University
Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
.
Career
Cohen has held appointments at
American Jewish University
American Jewish University (AJU) is a Private university, private Jewish university in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 2007 from the merger of the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
AJU's academic division includes ...
since 1995. He was Chair of Jewish Studies in the College of Arts and Science from 1995–2000 and Chair of Rabbinic Studies in the Ziegler School from 2001–2005.
Cohen has also taught at
Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion, the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Assoc ...
and at
Brandeis University
Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
.
Activism
Cohen is also the Rabbi-in-Residence for
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice in Southern California.
He has been active in protesting deportations carried out by
ICE
Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...
and “zero tolerance” US immigration policies.
In 2017, Cohen was one of the rabbis who signed a statement by
Jewish Veg encouraging
veganism
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...
for all Jews.
Cohen is one of the founders of the Shtibl minyan.
Scholarship
Cohen is the author of ''Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law and the Poetics of Sugyot'' and ''Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism''. Rabbi
Alana Suskin has described ''Justice in the City'' as essential reading for the
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...
.
Cohen is also co-editor of ''Beginning/Again: Towards a Hermeneutics of Jewish Texts.'' He has also written about modern figures including
Aharon Shmuel Tamares and
Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Levinas (born Emanuelis Levinas ; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the rel ...
.
Andrew Flescher has argued that Cohen's work on Tamares and Levinas "makes a compelling case in his own right for the counter-productive nature of violence under all circumstances."
His articles and book chapters include:
* “‘The Foremost Amongst the Divine Attributes Is to Hate the Vulgar Power of Violence’: Aharon Shmuel Tamares and Recovering Nonviolence for Jewish Ethics,” ''Journal of Jewish Ethics'', vol. 2.
* “Justice, Wealth, Taxes: A View from the Perspective of Rabbinic Judaism,” ''Journal of Religious Ethics''.
* “Hagar and Ishmael: A Commentary,” ''Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theolog'', 68:3 (2014).
* “Land and Messianism,” ''Journal of Scriptural Reasoning'' Volume 10.1.
* “A Response to Menachem Fisch’s ‘Berakhot 19b: The Bavli’s Paradigm of Confrontational Discourse’,” ''The'' ''Journal of Textual Reasoning'', Volume 4.2.
* “Why Textual “Reasoning”?” ''Journal of Textual Reasoning'' (2002): 1.1.
* “Giddul’s Wife and the Power of the Court: On Talmudic Law, Gender, Divorce and Exile,” ''RLAWS: Review of Law, Women and Society'', Volume 9.2.
* “‘This Patriarchy Which is Not One’: The Ideology of Marriage in Rashi and Tosafot, ''Hebrew Union College Annual''. Volume 70 (1999).
* “‘Do the dead know…’ The Representation of Death in the Bavli,” ''AJS Review,'' vol. xxiv, no 1, 1999.
* “Towards an Erotics of Martyrdom,” ''The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy'', Volume 7, Number 2 1997.
* “The Violence of Poverty,” in ''Wealth and Poverty in the Jewish Tradition'', Studies in Jewish Civilization, Vol. 26, ed. Leonard J. Greenspoon, Purdue University Press (2015).
* “The Divine Voice of the People,” ''Cross Currents,'' September, 2014, 404–409
* “The Gender of Shabbat,” in ''Introduction to Seder Kodashim'', ed. Tal Ilan, Monika Brockhaus and Tanja Hidde, Mohr-Siebeck (2012)
* “The Sage and the Other Woman: A Rabbinic Tragedy,” in ''The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism'', ed. Danya Ruttenberg, NYU (2009).
* “Hearing the Cry of the Poor,” in ''Crisis, Call, and Leadership in the Abrahamic Traditions'', ed. Peter Ochs and William Stacy Johnson Palgrave Macmillan, (2009).
* “Beginning Gittin/Mapping Exile,” in ''Beginning/Again: Toward a Hermeneutics of Jewish Texts'', ed. Aryeh Cohen and Shaul Magid, Seven Bridges Press (2002).
* “The Task of the Talmud: On Talmud as Translation,” in A.A. den Hollander, Ulrich Schmid, Willem Smelik, eds. ''Paratext and Megatext as Channels of Jewish and Christian Traditions: The Textual Markers of Contextualization'', E.J. Brill, 2003.
* “Response to ‘Revelation Revealed’,” in ''Textual Reasonings'', ed. Nancy Levene and Peter Ochs SCM Press, 2002.
Cohen has presented at many academic conferences. In May 2024, he spoke on a panel "The Black-Jewish Alliance: Its History, Demise, and Possible Futures" at a "Jews and Black Theory" conference at Harvard.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Aryeh
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American rabbis
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American rabbis
Activists from California
American Conservative rabbis
American male non-fiction writers
Jewish American activists
Jewish American non-fiction writers
Jewish ethicists
Jewish scholars