CURRICULUM VITAE 1. PERSONAL ETAILSjewish-history.haifa.ac.il/images/lecturers/CHAJES_CV.pdf · CURRICULUM VITAE 1. PERSONAL DETAILS Permanent Home Address: Remez 2, Zichron Ya'akov

Name: Dr. J. H. Chajes [Yossi Hayyut] Date: 4 January 17

CURRICULUM VITAE

1. PERSONAL DETAILS

Permanent Home Address: Remez 2, Zichron Ya'akov 3091803

Home Telephone Number: +972 4 639-8959

Office Phone Number: +972 4 824-9464

Cellular Phone: +972 52-6606031

Fax Number: +972 4 8288812

Electronic Address: [email protected]

2. HIGHER EDUCATION

a. Undergraduate and Graduate Studies

Period of Study Name of Institution and Department Degree

1983-1988 University of Michigan Department of History

B.A. with High Distinction; High Honors in Jewish History

1988-1989 University of Michigan Department of History

M.A.

1995-1996 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Jewish History

Fulbright Visiting Research Fellow

1991-1993 Yale University, Department of Religious Studies

M.A.


M. Phil.


Ph.D. with Highest Distinction

b. Post-Doctoral Studies

Period of Study Name of Institution and Department Name of Host

1996-2001 Senior Fellow, Hartman Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel

Prof. David Hartman

Chajes CV 2

1998-1999 Yad haNadiv Post-Doctoral Fellowship at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Department of Jewish History

Prof. Yosef Kaplan

3. ACADEMIC RANKS AND TENURE IN INSTITUTES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Years Name of Institution and Department Rank/Position

11.1999 – 6.2006 University of Haifa Department of Jewish History

Lecturer

11.1999 – 8.2002 Oranim College Department of Jewish History

Lecturer

08.2000 - 09.2000 Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City Visiting Professor of Jewish History

09.2003 - 06.2004 University of Pennsylvania Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Visiting Professor of Jewish History Betty and Morris Shuch Term Fellowship

07.2006 - Present University of Haifa Department of Jewish History

Senior Lecturer

* 01.2014 - 05.2014

University of Pennsylvania Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Visiting Professor of Jewish History Robert Carrady Fellow

* 07.2014 - 06.2015

Institute for Advanced Studies The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Fellow

* 06-07.2016 The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften (Institute for Advanced Studies) Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

Fellow

4. OFFICES IN UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION

Role Name of Institution and Department Years

Member Pedagogy Committee, Department of Jewish History

2004-2005

Responsible for the internet resources of the Department of Jewish History

Academic Liaison to Humanities Computing Center

2004-2013

Member Doctoral Committee, Department of Jewish History

* 2009-Present

Co-director (with the late Prof. Michael Goodich, and subsequently with Dr. Zur Shalev)

University of Haifa Medieval and Renaissance Association

* 2009-2013

Chajes CV 3

Director Center for the Study of Jewish Culture * 2012-Present

Chair N.B. This committee has been formed but has not yet convened, as negotiations with the Carlebach for creating the archive are still underway.

Academic Steering Committee of the Carlebach Audio Archive [10000+ hours of recorded teachings of R. Shlomo Carlebach] [Prof. Dina Stein (folklore); Prof. Gur Alroey (Ruderman American Jewish Culture program); Prof. Yuval Shaked (Jewish Music); Dr. Abigail Wood (Ethnomusicology)]

* 2015-Present

Chair MA Committee * 2016-Present

Co-Director Departmental Seminar * 2016-Present

5. SCHOLARLY POSITIONS AND ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITY

Role Memberships in Academic Professional

Associations

Years

Member The Historical Society of Israel 1999-Present

Member The European Society for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism

* 2011-Present

Member Societas Magica (communication and exchange among scholars interested in the study of magic)

* 2011-Present

Co-Founder & Co-director (with Prof. Boaz Huss)

Israeli Network for the Study of Western Esotericism

* 2011-Present

Founding Board Member Israeli Association for the Study of Religion * 2015-Present

Executive Committee, Division Chair: Rabbinic literature, Jewish law and Jewish thought

World Union of Jewish Studies * 2013-2017

Public Intellectual Activities Years

Ta-Shma Institute for Pluralistic Jewish Education, Jerusalem, Israel 1996-2000

Ha-Bimah National Theatre Company, Tel Aviv, Israel. Production Consultant for production of Ansky’s “The Dybbuk”

1997-1998

Academic Envoy to the Former Soviet Union of the Joint Distribution Committee 2000-2001 Expert commentator, “Reshet ‘al ha-boker” Israeli news program 2005 Lecturer in Yad Ben-Zvi Seminars on Medieval European and Jewish History * 2008

Humanities at the Bar, Haifa * 2012 Profile in Haaretz – interview with Ayelet Shani “Ani be-siha” “In Conversation” - http://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/ayelet-shani/.premium-1.2118527

* 2013

Chajes CV 4

Evaluation - Academic Awards Years

Referee for Israel Science Foundation Research Grants 2003; 2006; * 2009; 2013; 2016

Referee for Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Program * 2010

Referee for Israel Science Foundation Publication Subsidies * 2012, 2015

Referee for Bahat Prize for Best Original Hebrew Monograph * 2010, 2013

Referee for World Congress of Judaic Studies Book Award * 2013, 2015

Referee for Matanel Book Prize * 2014 Israel Science Foundation Research Grant Committee Member * 2017

Evaluation - Scientific Books and Journals Years

Referee for Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts 1996-Present

Referee for Jewish History 2000-Present

Referee for Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Studies 2000-Present

Referee for Jewish Quarterly Review 2000-Present

Referee for Italia Judaica * 2013 Referee for Journal of Jewish Studies * 2013, 2015,

2016

Referee for Journal of Religion * 2015 Referee for European Journal of Jewish Studies * 2016 Referee for Correspondences * 2016 Referee for Studia Orientalia Electronica * 2016

Evaluation - University Promotion Committees Years

Bar-Ilan University, for Lecturer in Jewish Thought * 2013

Evaluation - Theses and Doctoral Exams Years

Thesis Referee for the Gewurz Center for Gender Studies, Bar-Ilan University 2004

Zippora Luria, “Hasidim and Mitnagdim” M.A. Thesis (University of Haifa) 2006

Doctoral Committee Examiner, The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

* 2009-Present (most years)

Chajes CV 5

Ph.D. Proposal Referee, Bar Ilan University (Prof. Zvi Mark) * 2011

Ph.D. Thesis Referee, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Jewish Thought

* 2014

Ph.D. Thesis Referee, Tel Aviv University, Department of Jewish History * 2015

Ph.D. Thesis Referee, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Jewish Thought

* 2016

Editorships - Scholarly Journal Years

Assistant Editor, Jewish History 2005-2009 Book Review Editor, Jewish History * 2009-

Present

Chajes CV 6

6. ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN SCHOLARLY CONFERENCES

a1. International Conferences - Held Abroad

Date Name of Conference Place of Conference

Subject of Lecture/Discussion

Role

December 16, 1996

Association for Jewish Studies

Boston, MA. “The Reformation that Wasn’t: Exorcism and Magical Recidivism in Early Modern Judaism”

Lecture

December 21, 1997

Association for Jewish Studies

Boston, MA. “In Search of Women’s Mystical Piety in Early Modern Jewish Culture.”

Lecture

January 25 -27, 2000

First International Judaic Studies Conference of the International Institute of Humanities of the Belorussian State University

Belorussian State University, Minsk, Belorussia

"The Female Mystic in Early Modern Jewish Culture."

Invited Lecture

January, 31 - February, 2, 2000

Seventh Annual International and Interdisciplinary conference on Jewish Studies, "Sefer"

Moscow "The Oracle of Damascus: A Chapter in the Still-to-be-Written History of Jewish Women's Magio-mystical Religiosity"

Invited Lecture

January, 30 - February, 1, 2001

Eighth Annual International conference on Jewish Studies, "Sefer"

Moscow “Menasseh ben Israel and Early Skepticism”

Invited Lecture

October 21-22, 2001

Jewish Religious Leadership: Image & Reality

The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York

“Women Leading Women (and Attentive Men): Early Modern Jewish Models of Pietistic Female Authority”

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 7



Role

April 26-28, 2004 Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies Challenging Boundaries: History and Anthropology in Jewish Studies

University of Pennsylvania

He Said She Said: Reported Speech and Female Religious Virtuosity in Early Modern Rabbinic Literature

Invited Lecture

July 2006 Reconsidering the Borderlines between Early Modern and Modern Jewish History

University of Leipzig, Dubnov Center, Leipzig, Germany

Magic and the Ethos of Modernity in Jewish Culture

Invited Lecture

* Feb 1-2, 2010 Kabbalah on the Margins: Sabbatian, Jewish-Christian, and Theatrical Transformations of the Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Society

University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

The Fall is the Ascent: Ancient-Modern Myth in An-sky's Dybbuk

Invited Lecture

* July 6-10, 2011 Lux in Tenebris: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism

University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

Visual Representation and Kabbalistic Pedagogy

Lecture

* May 21-22, 2012

Kabbalah and Science in Modern Jewish Culture

ETH Zürich Kabbalah and the Diagrammatic Phase of the Scientific Revolution

Invited Lecture

* October 2012 The Dybbuk: Scholarly and Artistic Approaches

University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

The Fall is the Ascent: Ancient-Modern Myth in An-sky's Dybbuk

Invited Lecture

* 26-29 June 2013 Western Esotericism and Health

University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Re-envisioning the Evil Eye

Lecture

Chajes CV 8



Role

* November 17-20 2013

The Roads Not Taken: Scholarly Adaptations and Appropriations of Kabbalah in the 19th and Early 20th Century”

Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Critically Traditional: Moshe Kunitz’s RASHBI

Lecture

+ Session chair

* March 17 2014 Jews, Christians, and Hebraic Scholarship in Early Modern Europe

Folger Library, Washington D.C.

Kabbalistic Divinity Maps in Christian Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata

Invited Lecture

* April 29–May 1 2014

Transformations of Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe

University of Pennsylvania, USA

Beyond Borders: The Divinity Maps of Kabbala denudata

Invited Lecture

* June 22-23 2014 Controversies, Conversion, and Dialogue: Jews and Christians in Time and Place

Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Kabbala denudata: Between (Beyond?) Jewish and Christian Kabbalah

Invited Lecture

* June 2-3, 2015 How Jews Know:

Epistemologies of Jewish Knowledge

Freie Universität Berlin,

Diagram as Epistemic Image

Invited Lecture

* July 12-14, 2015 The Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation: Jews and Medicine: An Embodied History

Villa La Collina at Lake Como (Italy)

Evil Eye Invited Lecture

* July 30-August 2, 2015

Echoes of Sabbateanism in Jewish Literatures

Ulcinj, Montenegro

What is a Sabbatean Ilan?

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 9



Role

* September 1-2 2015

Depicting Jewish Thought

University College London, UK

Sabbatian Thought Depicted

Invited Lecture

* May 22-24, 2016

Monsters, Demons & Wonders in Jewish History & Thought

Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main

Ansky’s Dybbuk as Heretical Midrash

Invited Lecture

* July 1-2, 2016 Vater und Sohn Helmont: Alchemie, Kabbala, Seelenwanderung

Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany

The Kabbalistic Trees of Kabbala denudata

Keynote Lecture

a2. International Conferences - Held in Israel



Role

May 20-22, 2001 International Conference, Dreams and Social Change: Cross-Cultural Comparisons

University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Jewish, Christian and Islamic Dreaming in the Middle Ages

Chair and Commentator

August 2005 The World Congress of Jewish Studies, Plenary Session

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Too Holy to Print: Taboo Anxiety and the Publishing of Hebrew Esoterica

Keynote Lecture (Plenary Session)

* June 11-12, 2008

Scholion Conference

“Between Worlds: Spirits in Jewish & World Traditions”


Fallen Angels: A Mythic Reading of Ansky’s Dybbuk

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 10



Role

* May 11-13, 2009 Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance: Sources & Encounters


It’s Good to See the King: Toward an Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Jewish Cosmological Cartography

Invited Lecture

* December 7, 2009

Phénomènes surnaturels, superstitions et elites Européennes (Moyen Age et début des temps modernes)

University of Haifa (with the Sorbonne), Haifa, Israel

Rabbis and their (In)Famous Magic: Classical Founations, Medieval, and Early Modern Reverberations

Invited Lecture

* May 18, 2011 Western Esotericism: Historical Contexts & Cultural Contacts

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Kabbalistic Divinity Maps in the Kabbala Denudata

Organizer; Session Chair; Lecturer

* July 25-27, 2011 Text & Image in Religious Cosmography: Reading Ilanot and Parallel Artifacts


Cosmological Forests: A Cultural History of Kabbalistic Cartography


* March 22, 2012 Lux et tenebrae: Scientific & Demonic Dimensions of Western Esotericism


Kabbalah and Early Modern Science Reconsidered


* May 27 2013 Methods in the Study of Esotericism


Seeing the Forest, Seeing the Trees: Methodological Approaches to Graphical Kabbalah

Invited Lecture

* July 29 2013 World Congress of Jewish Studies

The Hebrew University of

Between Anatomy and Astronomy: Modes of Visualization and

Lecturer

Chajes CV 11



Role

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Representation in Seventeenth-Century Kabbalah

* July 30 2013 World Congress of Jewish Studies


Jewish and Indian Spirituality and Nationalism in the 20th Century: Encounters and Parallels


* November 26 2013

Histoire et République des Lettres XV-ème – XVIII-ème Siècle

(Université de Paris IV – Sorbonne Conference)


Early Modern Iberian Historiography


* December 18 2013

Theosophy and Kabbalah

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

Kabbalah and Occultism in Eastern Europe


* June 8-12 2014 Scripted Forms of Magical Knowledge

Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem

Practically Kabbalah: Ilanot Diagrams and their Deployments

Lecturer

* December 27 2015

The Zohar, East & West


The Reception of the Zohar


* June 5, 2016 Measuring Shadows: Kepler’s Optics

Einstein History of Science Institute

Evil Eye and Optics Lecturer

Chajes CV 12



Role

* June 6-9, 2016 Visualization of Knowledge

Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem

Visualizing Knowledge in the Kabbalah

Conference Organizer and Lecturer

a3. Local Conferences



Role

May 5, 1997 Hebrew Creativity in Italy Conference


“Fidelity and Flexibility: Magic in the Writings of R. Moses Zacuto” [Hebrew]

Invited Lecture

May 10, 1998 Theoretical Approaches to An-Sky’s Dybbuk Conference

Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

“‘The Voice of My Beloved Knocks’: Sex, Heresy, and Spirit Possession, from Safed to An-Sky” [Hebrew]

Invited Lecture

May 18, 2000 Safed, City of the Kabbalah: New Historiographical Developments

Safed Regional College, Tzfat, Israel

"The Mystical Women of Sixteenth-Century Safed"

Invited Lecture

March 24, 2003 New Trends and Methodologies in the Research of Jewish Thought

Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva

Unseen Seers: The Study of Jewish Women’s Mysticism

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 13



Role

April 1-2, 2003 Texts and Context in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Periods

Beit Daniel, Zikhron Yaaqov (Open University)

Early Modern History

Roundtable discussant

June 21-22, 2005 Texts and Context in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Periods


Presenter: The Jewish Grimoire of R. Moshe Zacuto, Shorshei ha-Shemot

Invited Lecture

* March 6, 2007 Biography, Autobiography, and Hagiography in Jewish Culture

Bar Ilan University, Bnai Brak, Israel

Religious Self Documentation in Judaism Before the Era of Autobiography

Invited Lecture

* March 23, 2009 First Israeli Conference on the Study of Contemporary Spirituality


Reflections on Spirituality and Art


* March 8, 2010 Second Israeli Conference on the Study of Contemporary Spirituality


Hasidism & Neohasidism


* March 28, 2010 Annual Israeli Jewish Thought Conference


Visual Representation and Kabbalistic Pedagogy

* December 8, 2010

Asian Studies & Philosophy Mini-conference: Forgiveness East & West


Panel Chair & Discussant

Chajes CV 14



Role





* June 2012 Faith and Heresy: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement


Organizer, Chair, and Discussant

* December 22 2013

Israeli Society for History & Philosophy of Science

Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem

Discourses of Kabbalah and Science in the Early Modern Period


* February 11-12 2015

Texts and Context in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Periods


Kabbala Denudata and its Hebrew Sources

Lecturer

* December 6-7 2015

Safedian Kabbalah and its Backgrounds

Zefat Academic College, Zefat, Israel

The Epistemological Status of the Lurianic Diagram

Lecturer

* December 31 2015

Spirituality Conference


Twentieth-Century Kabbalah


* June 1, 2016 Kabbalah and Art Bar Ilan University, Bnai Brak, Israel

The Visual Kabbalah of Sabbatianism

Lecturer

Chajes CV 15

b. Organization of Conference or Sessions

Date Name of Conference

Place of Conference

Subject of Conference

Role

* 2009-2015 Annual International Conference for the Study of Contemporary Religion and Spirituality

2009-2011, University of Haifa

2012-2015, Tel Aviv University

Contemporary Religion and Spirituality

Scientific Committee


University of Haifa


Organizer (Israel Science Foundation funded international workshop)

* May 18, 2011 Western Esotericism: Historical Contexts & Cultural Contacts


Kabbalistic Divinity Maps in the Kabbala Denudata

Co-organizer with Prof. Boaz Huss

* March 22, 2012 Lux et tenebrae: Scientific & Demonic Dimensions of Western Esotericism

University of Haifa

Kabbalah and Early Modern Science Reconsidered

Organizer

* June 14 2012 Faith and Heresy: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement

University of Haifa

Chair and Discussant Organizer

* Nov 27 2012 Jewish-Asian Studies Conference

University of Haifa

Chair and Discussant Organizer with Dr. Ithamar Theodor

Chajes CV 16

Date Name of Conference

Place of Conference

Subject of Conference

Role

* 2013-2017 (five years) Annual Jewish-Asian Studies Conference

University of Haifa; Tel Aviv University

Comparative religion; Economic cooperation between Israel & India

Organizing committee

* May 27 2013 Methods in the Study of Esotericism

Sidney M. Edelstein Centre for History and Philosophy of Science Technology and Medicine

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Research methodology in the research of western esotericism

Scientific and Organizing committees with Dr. Reimund Leicht and Prof. Boaz Huss

* 2014 Scripted Forms of Magical Knowledge

Institute for Advanced Studies, Givat Ram, Jerusalem

Scripted Forms of Magical Knowledge

Scientific Committee

* June 2-3 2016

INASWE International Conference

University of Haifa

Western Esotericism, Past & Present

Organizer

* June 6-9 2016 IIAS Workshop The Institute for Advanced Studies, Givat Ram, Jerusalem

Text & Image Organizer (Israel Science Foundation funded international workshop)

* 2015-2017 The Seventeenth World Congress of Jewish Studies

The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Jewish Studies Academic Council and Division Chair for Rabbinic literature, Jewish law and Jewish thought

Chajes CV 17

7. INVITED LECTURES

Abroad

Year Place of Lecture Name of Forum Subject of Lecture Role

March 1995 Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

Vassar College Department of History

Jewish Magic in the Italian Renaissance

Invited Lecture

March 1995 New Haven, CT, USA

Yale University

Jewish Studies Seminar

Contextualizing Demonic and Inspirational Possession in Early Modern Jewish Culture

Invited Lecture

December 1997

Champagne-Urbana, IL, USA

University of Illinois Department of History

Magical-Mystical Women: Possession and Women’s Religiosity in Early Modern Jewish Culture

Invited Lecture

December 1997

Ann Arbor, MI, USA

University of Michigan Department of History


Invited Lecture

February 1998

Boston, MA, USA

Boston University Department of History


Invited Lecture

February 1998

New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Rutgers University

Department of History


Invited Lecture

December 1998

Northampton, MA, USA

Smith College

Department of History

Ghost Stories: Menasseh ben Israel's Nishmat Hayyim and the Epistemology of Experience

Invited Lecture

January 1999

New York, NY, USA

Jewish Theological Seminary Department of Jewish History

Menasseh ben Israel's Nishmat Hayyim

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 18


January 1999

Boston, MA, USA

Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Menasseh ben Israel's Nishmat Hayyim

Invited Lecture

February 2001

Moscow, Russia Moscow State University Winter School in Judaic Studies, faculty

Lecture Series: Early Modern Jewish Culture (3 lectures)

Invited Lecture

August 2-9, 2001

Miami, FL, USA Wexner Heritage Foundation Summer Institute

Gender and Jewish Mysticism Reconsidered

Invited Lecture

September 14, 2003

New York, NY, USA

Skirball Center The Women of Sefer ha-Hezyonot by R. Hayyim Vital

Invited Lecture

November 18, 2004

New York, NY, USA

Hebrew Union College Penitence and Piety: The Liturgical Innovations of Sixteenth-Century Safed

Invited Lecture

March 21, 2004

New York, NY, USA

Harry G. Friedman Art Historical Society

Aesthetic Dimensions of Jewish Exorcism

Invited Lecture

March 24, 2004

New York, NY, USA

Columbia University Seminar on Israel and Jewish Studies

Jewish Magic in Early Modern Ego documents

Invited Lecture

February 27, 2004

Cleveland, OH, USA

Siegal College of Judaic Studies

Roundtable Discussion of my book, Between Worlds

Invited Lecture

April 19, 2004

Long Beach, CA, USA

Long Beach State University Department of History

Female Piety as Reflected in Early Modern Jewish Literature

Invited Lecture

April 20, 2004

Los Angeles, CA, USA

University of California, Los Angeles Amato Lecture

Jewish Exorcism: A Structural Analysis

Invited Lecture

May 2, 2004 New York, NY, USA

Skirball Center Penitence and Piety: The Liturgical Innovations of Sixteenth-Century Safed

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 19


May 21, 2004

Columbus, OH, USA

The Ohio State University Early Modern Seminar

Roundtable Discussion of my book, Between Worlds

Invited Lecture

August 8-13, 2003

Aspen, CO, USA Wexner Heritage Foundation

Penitence and Piety: The Liturgical Innovations of Sixteenth-Century Safed

Invited Lecture

February 7, 2006

Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

Vassar College Magic and Jewish Healing Traditions

Invited Lecture

February 9, 2006

Swarthmore, PA, USA

Swarthmore College Magic and Modernity in Jewish Cultural History

Invited Lecture

* February 12, 2009

Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

Vassar College

Dr. Maurice Sitomer Annual Lecture

Dr. Maurice Sitomer Annual Lecture

Songs of the Lord in Strange Lands: Sacred Music and the Faces of Contemporary Jewish Spirituality

Invited Lecture

* February 28, 2009

Columbus, OH, USA

Ohio State University Melton Center Annual Lecture

Songs of the Lord in Strange Lands: Sacred Music and the Faces of Contemporary Jewish Spirituality

Invited Lecture

* February 4, 2010

Gainesville, FL, USA

University of Florida It's Good to See the King: The Nature & Function of Kabbalistic Divinity Maps

Invited Lecture

* February 10, 2010

New York, NY, USA

Columbia University It's Good to See the King: The Nature & Function of Kabbalistic Divinity Maps

Invited Lecture

* January 22, 2014

Philadelphia, PA, USA

University of Pennsylvania Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Shadow Seminars

Ilanot: Discovering a New Genre of Early Modern Judaica in the 21st Century

Invited Lecture

* February 13, 2014

Nashville, TN, USA

Vanderbilt University Department of Religious

Visual Kabbalah and the Diagramming of the Divine

Chajes CV 20


Studies & Department of History of Art

* March 7, 2014

San Diego, CA, USA

San Diego State University Department of Religious Studies Colloquium


Invited Lecture

* April 8, 2014

New Haven, CT, USA

Yale University Colloquium


Invited Lecture

* May 2, 2014

Montreal, Canada Concordia University Program: Israeli Scholarship on Jewish Mysticism


Invited Lecture

* May 12 2014

Detroit, MI, USA Wayne State University Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies


Invited Lecture

* Oct 29 2015

Prague, Czech Republic

Charles University in Prague Institute of Near Eastern and African Studies

Sabbatean Diagrams Invited Lecture

* Jan 27 2016

Houston, TX, USA

Rice University Jewish Studies Lecture Series


Invited Lecture

* Feb 16 2016

Caldwell, Idaho, USA

College of Idaho Jewish Studies Lecture Series


Invited Lecture

* Feb 19 2016

Seattle, WA, USA University of Seattle Jewish Studies Lecture Series


Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 21


* July 7 2016

Dusseldorf, Germany

Heinrich Heine Univerität Institut für Jüdische Studien

Jewish and Christian Forms of Kabbalah in the 17th Century

Invited Lecture

* July 11 2016

Frankfurt, Germany

Goethe-Universität Masterclass an zum Thema „Kosmologie – Theosophie – Naturwissenschaft: Perspektiven der frühneuzeitlichen Kabbala und der modernen Theosophie“

Spheres to Sefirot: Kabbalah and the Visualization of the Invisible

Invited Lecture

* July 19 2016

Münster, Germany

Westfälische Wilhems-Universität Colloquium of the Institute for Jewish Studies and the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”

From the Spheres to the Sephirot: Kabbalah and the Visualizing of the Invisible

Invited Lecture

* February 6, 2017

Toronto, Canada Dr. Max and Gianna Glassman Israel Exchange Scholar Lecture, Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto (CJS)

Jewish & Christian Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century

Invited Lecture

* February 8-9, 2017

Storrs, Connecticut, USA

Public Lecture and Guest Professor Lecture, University of Connecticut

1. Trees with Roots in Heaven: Visualizing the Kabbalistic Cosmos

2. Magical Judaism and Jewish Magic

Invited Lectures

* July 2017 Frankfurt, Germany

Goethe Universität – Guest Professorship

Kabbalah in the Early Modern Period

Invited Lectures

* July 10, 2017

Hamburg, Germany

The Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion and Institute for the History of German Jewry

Depictions of God in Jewish Art: Kabbalistic Visions

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 22


at the University of Hamburg

In Israel


December 26, 2002

Haifa University of Haifa

Medieval and Renaissance Studies Association

Department of History, Invited Guest Lecture

Invited Lecture

January 7, 2003

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University Respondent to Prof. Ada Rapoport

Invited Lecture

May 26, 2003

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University The Practice of Magic in Jewish Egodocuments

Invited Lecture

April 1, 2005

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University Jewish Magical Manuscripts and the Sociology of Knowledge

Invited Lecture

April 4, 2006

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University The Occult Tradition in Jewish History (Early Modern History Seminar)

Invited Lecture

May 10, 2006

Akko Western Galilee College Philosophical Society Address

Kabbalah, Spirits, and Demons

Invited Lecture

June 2007 Jerusalem Wexner Heritage Foundation

“The Many Faces of Israel” Invited Lecture

* June 23, 2008

Tel Aviv Inbal Ethnic Center Roundtable - On Boaz Huss’s Ke-zohar ha-rakia

Boaz Huss’s Ke-zohar ha-rakia

Invited Lecture

* May 31, 2009

Haifa University of Haifa “Do Not Chase Me Away”: New Studies on The Dybbuk

Invited Lecture

Chajes CV 23


* December 13, 2016

Haifa University of Haifa Reflections of an Early Modernist on Gershom Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism

Invited Lecture

8. COLLOQUIUM TALKS

Year Name of Forum Place of Lecture Presentation

2004 School of History, Sex and Sexuality in Historical Perspective

University of Haifa Sex in Medieval Jewish Kabbalah and Pietism

2005 Trends in Judaic Studies Research: Literature and History

University of Haifa Early Modern Jewish Egodocuments

2006 Manuscripts, the Book, and Libraries: Historical and Cultural Perspectives

University of Haifa Jewish Magical Manuscripts

Chajes CV 24

9. RESEARCH GRANTS

A. Grants Awarded

Years Amount Funded by (C= Competitive Fund)

Title Other Researchers (Name & Role)

Role in Research

2008-2011

63000NIS C Israel Science Foundation

Cosmic Forests – A Cultural-Historical Study of Kabbalistic Divinity Maps

* PI

2011 $20000 (+ $5000 + 10000NIS raised internally)

C Israel Science Foundation Workshop Grant

Text & Image in Religious Cosmography: Reading Ilanot and Parallel Artifacts

* PI

2011-2014

156000nis C Israel Science Foundation

The Ilanot—Cosmographical Diagrams and the Practice of Kabbalah

* PI

2014-2018

580000NIS C Israel Science Foundation

The Earthly Journeys of Cosmic Maps: The "Poppers" Diagrams and the Cultural History of Early Modern Kabbalah

* PI

2014 24000NIS C Israel Science Foundation

Friedenberg Award of Excellence of the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities for outstanding research project in the humanities in 2014

* PI

2016 104000NIS = 52000NIS from ISF + matching

C Israel Science Foundation

"Visualization of Knowledge in the Medieval and

* PI

Chajes CV 25

funds from the IIAS

Workshop Grant

Early Modern Periods"

B. Submission of Research Proposals – Pending

Years Funded by (C= Competitive Fund)

Title Other Researchers (Name & Role)

Role in Research

2018-2021

C Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Images of the Temple: The Migration of Jewish Esoteric Visualization from Spain to Italy, 1400-1800

Prof. Katrin Kogman-Appel, Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Jewish Studies, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Co-PI

* Co-PI

C. Submission of Research Proposals – Not Funded Years Funded by

(C= Competitive Fund) Title Other Researchers

(Name & Role) Role in Research

2014 C German-Israel Foundation (high rating, not granted)

Mystical Shapes of the Divine: A New Visual History of Kabbalah

Prof. Dr. Giulio Busi, Institut für Judaistik, Freie Universität Berlin, Co-PI

* Co-PI

2014 C Israeli-Italian Scientific & Technological Cooperation Proposal - Restoring, Preserving, Valuing, and Managing Culture Heritage

Recovering Treasures of Sixteenth-Century Renaissance Jewry: The Great Cosmological Diagrams of Italian Kabbalists

Prof. Fabrizio Lelli, Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy), Co-PI

* Co-PI

2015 C Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DIP)

Visual Kabbalah: Tools and Editions to Establish a New Field of Judaica Research

Prof. Dr. Giulio Busi, Institut für Judaistik, Freie Universität, Co-PI

* Co-PI

10. SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS AND PRIZES

• Yad Hanadiv (Rothschild) Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1998-1999

• Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women at Brandeis University Research Award, 2001-2002

Chajes CV 26

• Koret Foundation Publication Award, 2003

• Koret Jewish Book Award Finalist: Best Book in Jewish History, 2003

• Outstanding Lecturer Award, University of Haifa, 2004-2005

11. TEACHING

Courses taught in recent years:

Year Name of Course Type of Course Level

Number of Students

* 2009 Zohar Reading Course – Saba di-mispatim

Seminar M.A. 7

* 2009 “Taste and See that the Lord is Good”: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism

Introduction Course (Mandatory)

B.A. 12

* 2009, 2011 Jewish Magic: The History of a Taboo Seminar M.A. 19, 14

* 2009 Dybbuk Depart! Spirit Possession & Judaism

Lecture B.A. 24

* 2010 Self-Fashioning in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Autobiography

Seminar B.A. 5

* 2010 Gilgul: Reincarnation in Jewish Thought

Lecture B.A. 9

* 2010, 2011, 2012

Reading Zohar in Light of Rabbinic Literature

Seminar M.A. 16, 6, 6

* 2010, 2016

* 2011, 2012

Safed in the Sixteenth Century Lecture

Seminar

B.A.

M.A.

8, 10

11, 8

* 2011 Alienated Minority: An Introduction to Medieval Jewish History

Lecture B.A. 18

* 2012 Introduction to Jewish History in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Lecture B.A. 21

* 2012 Elohim = haTeva: Conceptualizing God and Nature in the Early Modern Period

Seminar B.A. 8

* 2013

2015

From Chazal to Kabbalah: Readings in Zoharic Literature

Seminar B.A.

M.A.

10

17

Chajes CV 27

Year Name of Course Type of Course Level

Number of Students

* 2013 Lurianic Kabbalah Seminar B.A. 2

* 2015 World Religions: Hinduism & Judaism Compared & Contrasted

Lecture B.A. 33

* 2015, 2016 Visual Kabbalah Seminar M.A. 8, 7

* 2015, 2016 History of Judaisms: Constructions of the Religion of Moses and Israel

Seminar M.A. 12, 19

* 2015 Introduction to Jewish Thought Lecture B.A. 15

* 2016 A History of Hasidism (English) Seminar M.A. 4

B. Supervision of Graduate Students

Name of Student Name of Other Mentors

Title of Thesis Degree Year of Completion/ In Progress

Students’ Achievements

M.A. Students

* Anatoly Meshaev

Kuzari Historiography and Modern Nationalism

M.A. 2011 MA Award for Exceptional Excellent, Haifa; Presidential Fellowship for Ph.D. Studies, Bar Ilan University (2012); Rector’s Prize for Excellence (2015)

Chajes CV 28

Name of Student Name of Other Mentors

Title of Thesis Degree Year of Completion/ In Progress

Students’ Achievements

* Yael Friedman The Imagery of the Gazelle in Rabbinic Literature and the Zohar

M.A. November 2013

Ph.D. Students

* Yossef Stamler Prof. Ron Margolin, TAU

Intellect, Philosophy and Faith in the Thought of Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Ph.D. October 2012 Ph.D. revised for publication; submitted to Bar Ilan University Press

* Irmi Dubrau Physiognomy in Medieval Jewish Esotericism

Ph.D. in progress Bamah Prize, 2014

* Rute Yair Nussbaum

Churban (Destruction) in the Post-Shoah Hasidic Teachings of R. Shlomo Carlebach

Ph.D. in progress Presidential Direct Ph.D. Fellow

* M. D. Hakohen R. Shlomo Carlebach and the Counterculture Revolution

Ph.D. in progress Presidential Direct Ph.D. Fellow

Post Doctorate Students

* Dr. Menachem Kallus

Yarton Fellowship, University of Oxford

* Dr. Eliezer Baumgarten

Digital humanities initiatives; Co-author of several publications (see below)

Chajes CV 29

II. PUBLICATIONS

A. PH.D. DISSERTATION

Title: “Spirit Possession and the Construction of Early Modern Jewish Religiosity"

Date of submission: 1999

Number of Pages: viii, 321, 85-page appendix.

Language: English

Name of Supervisor: Prof. David B. Ruderman

University: Yale University

Publications: B1, B1a,

B. SCIENTIFIC BOOKS (REFEREED)

AUTHORED BOOKS - PUBLISHED

1. J. H. Chajes, Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists and Early Modern Judaism.

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 288 pages.

• Between Worlds is a thorough revision of the Yale Ph.D. thesis. Rewritten and reorganized to ensure that it would be received as a contribution to the broader community of early modern scholars, the book also includes analysis of significant new material and introduces a comparative historical dimension—particularly regarding Islamic culture—absent in the Ph.D.

• Koret Prize Finalist: Best Work of Jewish History, 2003

* Five Best, Wall Street Journal: Named one of the five best books of all time on

possession and exorcism. Brian P. Levack, “Five Best.” 20-21 July, 2013 -

https://goo.gl/c3Dzvr

Reviews:

1. Sylvie Anne Goldberg, Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales (January 2004, pp. 201-203).

2. Gideon Bohak, Journal of Jewish Studies (55/1:2004, pp. 181-183). 3. Nathaniel R. Deutsch, Choice (March 2004). 4. Gershon David Hundert, American Historical Review (June 2005, pp. 910-911). 5. Adam Shear, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring, 2005), pp.

309-312. 6. Jonathan Garb, Zion (70/1, 2005, pp. 122-126). 7. Anne Oravetz, AJS Review (29/02, 2005, pp. 378-380). 8. Frederic Krome, Menorah Review, Summer/Fall 2005, Number 63. 9. Stuart Clark, The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 96, No. 2 (Spring 2006) 272–

275. 10. Eli Yassif, History of Religions Nov 2006, Volume 46, Issue 2, pp. 179 - 184. 11. Nina Caputo, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Volume 38, Number 1,

Summer 2007. pp. 103-104

Chajes CV 30

1a. * Revised Italian Edition: J. H. Chajes, Posseduti ed esorcisti nel mondo ebraico,

Bollati Boringhieri, 2010. 315 pages.

Reviews:

1. Valentina Pisanty, il Manifesto, 23 November 2010. 2. Rossella De Pas, Mosaico http://www.mosaico-cem.it/articoli/esorcisti-e-zombie-

ma-con-la-kippa, 20 May 2011. 3. Giulio Busi, Il Sole 24 ORE, 10 April 2011. 4. Luca Baraldi, Fondazione Collegio San Carlo Notiziario 674, 2011. 5. Sergio Franzese, Ha-kehilla, 2011.

AUTHORED BOOKS - ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

3. * Edited and with an Introduction by J. H. Chajes, with #Eliezer Baumgarten

and #Menachem Kallus, The Tree of Holiness: A Nineteenth-Century

Visualization of Kabbalah. Cherub Press, forthcoming. [Baumgarten and Kallus

assisted in the preparation of the volume, and are listed according to their

relative contribution]

N.B. Cherub Press is a peer-reviewed academic publisher that has published books by

Elliot R. Wolfson, Moshe Idel, Charles Mopsik, Jonathan Meir, and Pawel Maciejko

among others.

EDITED BOOKS - PUBLISHED

N/A (see “In Preparation”)

C. MONOGRAPHS

See 1, 1a

D. ARTICLES IN REFEREED JOURNALS

Published

1. J. H. Chajes, “Judgments Sweetened: Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern

Jewish Culture.” Journal of Early Modern History I, no. 2 (1997): 124-169. Q2

2. J. H. Chajes, “Female Jewish Mystics? The Evidence of R. Hayyim Vital’s Sefer ha-

Hezyonot.” [Hebrew] Zion 67, 2 (2002): 139-162.

3. J. H. Chajes, “R. Moshe Zacuto, Exorcist: Kabbalah, Magic, and Healing in the

Early Modern Period.” [Hebrew] Pe’amim 96 (2004): 121-142.

Chajes CV 31

4. J. H. Chajes, “Accounting for the Self: Preliminary Generic-Historical Reflections on

Early Modern Jewish Egodocuments,” Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 95, No. 1

(Winter 2005): 1-15. Q1

5. J. H. Chajes, “He Said She Said: Hearing the Voices of Pneumatic Early Modern

Jewish Women.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Studies.

Vol. 10 (Fall 2005): 99-125. (Indiana University Press in cooperation with the

Brandeis Institute and Schechter Institute.) Q3

6. * J. H. Chajes, “Entzauberung and Jewish Modernity: On 'Magic,' Enlightenment,

and Faith,” Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook (Special Issue: Early Modern Culture

and Haskalah) 6 (2007): 191-200.

7. * J. H. Chajes, “‘Too Holy to Print’: Taboo Anxiety and the Publishing of Practical

Hebrew Esoterica.” Jewish History 26 (2012): 247-62. Q2

Accepted for Publication

8. * J. H. Chajes, “Critically Traditional: Moshe Kunitz’s RASHBI.” Kabbalah: Journal

for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts.

9. * J. H. Chajes, “Ansky’s Dybbuk as Heretical Midrash.” Jewish Studies Quarterly.

10. * J. H. Chajes, “Durchlässige Grenzen: Die Visualisierung Gottes zwischen jüdischer

und christlicher Kabbala bei Knorr von Rosenroth und van Helmont.” Morgen

Glanz.

E. ARTICLES OR CHAPTERS IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS (REFEREED)

Published

1. J. H. Chajes, “Jewish Exorcism: Early Modern Traditions and Transformations.”

Judaism In Practice: From the Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period. Ed. L. B.

Fine. Princeton University Press, 2001.

2. J. H. Chajes, “The Dead Among the Living in Sixteenth-Century Safed.” In Studies

in Spirit Possession in Jewish Culture, edited by M. Goldish. Detroit: Wayne State

University Press, 2003, pp. 124-58.

3. J. H. Chajes, Women Leading Women (and Attentive Men): Early Modern Jewish

Models of Pietistic Female Authority.” In Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and

Reality, ed. J. Wertheimer. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary Press, 2004.

Chajes CV 32

4. * J. H. Chajes, (With K. Stow), "The Scroll of Ahimaaz: Selections &

Commentary." In Medieval Italy: A Documentary History, eds. Jansen, K., J. Drell,

and F. Andrews. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, pp. 508-516.

5. * J. H. Chajes, “Rabbis and Their (In)Famous Magic: Classical Foundations,

Medieval and Early Modern Reverberations.” In Tradition, Authority, Diaspora:

Critical Terms in Jewish Studies, eds. Boustan, R., O. Kosansky, and M. Rustow.

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011, pp. 58-79 + 10pp. notes.

6. * J. H. Chajes, “Kabbalah and the Diagrammatic Phase of the Scientific

Revolution,” in Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of David B.

Ruderman, ed. Richard I. Cohen, Natalie B. Dohrmann, Adam Shear, and Elchanan

Reiner (Hebrew Union College Press, 2014). pp. 109-23.

7. * J. H. Chajes, ‘Kabbale et Magie Juive’, in Gideon Bohak, ed., Magie: Anges et

démons dans la tradition juive (Paris, 2015), pp. 104-112.

Accepted for Publication

8. * J. H. Chajes, “See the Whole World as a Ladder: A Kabbalistic Ilan of R. Joshua

ben Levi of Kurdistan” (with #Eliezer Baumgarten and #Uri Safrai). Meir Benayahu

Memorial Volume. (Hebrew) [The authors contributed equally]

9. * J. H. Chajes, “Magic, Mysticism, and Popular Belief in Jewish Culture, 1500-

1815,” In The Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. VII, edited by Jonathan Karp and

Adam Sudcliffe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

F. ARTICLES IN SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

None

G. ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES

1. J. H. Chajes, “Jewish Magic and Divination.” Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Ed. P.

F. Grendler. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999. Vol. IV, pp. 22-24.

2. J. H. Chajes, “Jews, Witchcraft, and Magic.” Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western

Tradition. Ed. R. Golden. ABC-CLIO, 2003. Vol. II, pp. 592-595.

3. J. H. Chajes, “Dybbuk.” Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition. Ed. Linsdsay Jones.

Macmillan Reference, 2005.

Chajes CV 33

4. * J. H. Chajes, “Rachel Aberlin,” Encyclopaedia Judaica. Eds. Michael Berenbaum

and Fred Skolnik. Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. p254.

22 vols.

5. * J. H. Chajes, “Dybbuk,” in Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions, ed.

Raphel Patai, and Haya Bar-Itzhak (Armonk, New York and London, England: M.

E. Sharpe, 2013). pp. 133-35.

H. OTHER SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS

1. J. H. Chajes, Review of G. Nigal, Sippurei Dibbuk be-Sifrut Yisrael. In: Kabbalah:

Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts I (1996): 288-293.

2. J. H. Chajes, Review of R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, R. Yosef Karo: Ba'al Halakha

u'Mequbal. In: Kabbalah: Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts V (2000):

224-228.

3. J. H. Chajes, Review of A. David, To Come to the Land: Immigration and Settlement

in Sixteenth-Century Eretz-Israel. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama

Press, 1999. Jewish Quarterly Review, 90:1-2.

4. J. H. Chajes, Review of R. L. Melammed, Heretics or Daughters of Israel? The Crypto-

Jewish Women of Castile. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Jewish Quarterly Review, 90: 3-4.

5. J. H. Chajes, Review of M. Ben-Sasson, W. Z. Harvey, Y. Ben-Naeh, and Z. Zohar,

eds. Studies in a Rabbinic Family: The de Botons. Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim,

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1998. Jewish Quarterly Review, 92:1-2.

(2001/2002)

6. J. H. Chajes, Review of C. Weissler, Voices of the Matriarchs. Boston: Beacon Press,

1998. Jewish Quarterly Review, 92:1-2. (2001/2002)

7. J. H. Chajes, Review of L. Fine, Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac

Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press,

2003. American Historical Review, 109, 3 (June 2004).

8. J. H. Chajes, Review of N. Deutsch, The Maiden of Ludmir: a Jewish Holy Woman

and Her World. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003. Jewish

Quarterly Review, Volume 95, Number 2, Spring 2005, pp. 360-365. (Extended

Hebrew version in Gal-Ed, 20, 2006, pp. 168-171.)

Chajes CV 34

9. J. H. Chajes, Review of S. Magid, Hasidim on the Margin: Reconciliation,

Antinomianism, and Messianism in Izbica and Radzin Hasidism. Madison: University

of Wisconsin Press, 2003. Journal of Religion, 86, 1 (January 2006), pp. 143-145.

10. J. H. Chajes, Review of M. Goldish, The Sabbatean Prophets. Cambridge, Ma:

Harvard University Press, 2004. Jewish Quarterly Review, 96.3 (2006). pp. 453-456.

11. * J. H. Chajes, Review of D. Assaf, Caught in the Thicket: Chapters of Crisis and

Discontent in the History of Hasidism, Jerusalem: Shazar, 2006. Zion 73.1 (2008), pp.

85-89.

H. OTHER SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS & DIGITAL HUMANITIES INITIATIVES

1. * The Ilanot Project Website - http://ilanot.haifa.ac.il/Ilanot_Site/project.html

2. * The Ilanot Database – A Joint Project of Dr. J. H. Chajes (The Ilanot Project),

The University of Haifa Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library, and the National

Library of Israel - https://goo.gl/1t6xzI

3. * Polin Jewish Museum in Warsaw – permanent “core” exhibition on Kabbalah

in Poland (I wrote all content for the exhibition display and provided visual

media.)

4. * Digital Humanities – Crowd Sourcing Initiative: Under the rubric of the

funded development project of Dr. Jonathan Ben Dov and Dr. Moshe Lavee,

Dr. Eliezer Baumgarten (post-doc under my supervision) and I are developing a

module on kabbalistic diagrams.

5. * Maps of God – the Online Encyclopedia of Kabbalistic Diagrams (In

development in cooperation with the University of Haifa Younes & Soraya

Nazarian Library Media Center and the University of Victoria’s Map of Early

Modern London (MoEML) project team. See

https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/index.htm)

I. OTHER WORKS AND PUBLICATIONS

1. * J. H. Chajes, “‘Too Holy to Print’: The Forbidden Books of Jewish Magic.” Tablet

Magazine. February 2014. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-

culture/books/164141/forbidden-jewish-magic-books

Chajes CV 35

2. * J. H. Chajes, “Our Magic” (Hebrew) Alaxon. March 24, 2014.

http://alaxon.co.il/?p=11510

3. * J. H. Chajes, “Kabbalistic diagrams in the British Library's Margoliouth

Catalogue” in The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew

Manuscripts, 2016. https://www.bl.uk/hebrew-manuscripts/articles/kabbalistic-

diagrams-in-the-british-librarys-margoliouth-catalogue

4. * J. H. Chajes, scientific editor of Boaz Huss, The Question of the Existence of Jewish

Mysticism: The Genealogy of Jewish Mysticism and the Theologies of Kabbalah Research.

Jerusalem: Ha-kibbutz ha-meuchad and Van Leer Institute, 2016.

J. SUBMITTED PUBLICATIONS

1. * J. H. Chajes, “The Epistemology of Kabbalistic Diagrams” (Hebrew), Pe’amim.

K. SUMMARY OF MY ACTIVITIES AND FUTURE PLANS

In many respects, I was and remain an historical anthropologist. My early work integrated

methodologies from cultural and intellectual history, the history of medicine and science,

anthropology, gender studies, and of course Jewish thought to explore the phenomenon of

spirit possession in the context of early modern Jewish society. For the last several years, I have

been working on very different material, but with many of the same “tools” – as well as some

new ones. This current research is devoted to kabbalistic diagrams, to the visualization of

kabbalistic knowledge. Although I have examined the diagrammatic illustrations of kabbalistic

manuscripts from the fourteenth century, I have given priority to large parchment scrolls

dedicated entirely to the mapping of the divine realm known as Ilanot (lit., Arborae). These

grand scrolls began to appear in Italy around 1500 and were regarded as a genre in their own

right, as attested by sixteenth-century sources.

It is a rare privilege to find an entire genre that has yet to be treated by scholars in the 21st

century, but that is in fact the situation. Although Prof. Giulio Busi published a precocious

survey of these materials in his Qabbalah visiva (2005), until I began The Ilanot Project with

ISF support (three consecutive grants, numbers 500/08, 85/11, 1259/14), these materials had

never been systematically studied. It has taken years, but together with dedicated postdocs, I

have created an unprecedented database that now provides detailed information on hundreds

of these artifacts in libraries and private collections around the world. This database, still under

development but already accessible to public searches, has been made possible through

negotiated and formalized partnerships between myself on behalf of the Ilanot Project, the

Chajes CV 36

University of Haifa Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library, and the National Library of Israel. I

have also secured cooperation agreements with the Columbia University Library (see, e.g.,

https://goo.gl/Hfygiz), the Jewish Theological Seminary Library, the Bodleian Library of the

University of Oxford, to name only a few. These agreements allow us to include artifacts in

their collections in our database in exchange for the provision of rich metadata that enhances

their own catalogues. I have also worked on exhibits with a number of institutions, including a

permanent exhibition at the new Polin Jewish Museum in Warsaw.

Over the last few years, working closely with my post-doctoral assistants Dr. Baumgarten and

Dr. Kallus, I have established manuscript families, and traced the transmission of kabbalistic

knowledge (and its visualizations) around the early modern Jewish world. We have also

prepared and will soon publish critical editions of a number of central artifacts. The database

and these editions will serve as the foundation for all future work on this genre.

As a cultural historian/historical anthropologist, with much of the groundwork now

established, I am enjoying the opportunity to leverage it in a series of studies that explore it

from a great variety of angles (see “In Preparation” below). My year at the Israel Institute of

Advanced Studies as part of a group of art historians who specialize in the visualization of

knowledge—particularly of a cartographic and diagrammatic nature—was particularly helpful

in broadening my approach to the Ilanot. Working closely with leading scholars including,

among others, Mary Carruthers, Lina Bolzoni, Bianca Kuehnel, and Adam Cohen, helped me

to see my own materials from fresh perspectives, and introduced the Ilanot to the large

community of scholars who take interest in “Text und Bild,” scientific illustration, mnemonics,

and more.

As for the next few years, it will take some time to polish and submit the large number of

publications currently in progress. Above and beyond all these disparate studies, however, is

the monograph Trees with Roots in the Sky: A Visual History of the Kabbalah, which will

provide the first comprehensive treatment of visual kabbalah to be based on years of

painstaking research. I have in mind something akin to my colleague Marc Michael Epstein’s

recent work The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative and Religious Imagination (Yale University

Press, 2011), which combined traditional monograph scholarship with “coffee-table book”

aesthetics, including extensive reproductions of never-before-seen manuscripts.

Chajes CV 37

IN PREPARATION

1. Visualization of Knowledge in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Edited

by J. H. Chajes, Adam Cohen, Marcia Kupfer, and Andrea Worm.

Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. [The editors contributing equally.]

2. The Ilanot of the Gross Family Trust: An Annotated Catalogue. Edited and

with an introduction by J. H. Chajes and #Eliezer Baumgarten. [The

editors contributing equally.]

3. * J. H. Chajes, “Now I Will Draw You a Circle and from It You Will

Understand What You Need to Understand: Lurianic Diagram as

Epistemic Image.” Journal of Jewish Studies

4. * J. H. Chajes, “Diagramming Sabbatianism”

5. * J. H. Chajes, “Spheres to Sephirot: Kabbalistic Ilanot and the Mapping

of the Divine,” In The Visualization of Knowledge in the Middle Ages and the

Early Modern Period, edited by J. H. Chajes, Adam Cohen, Marcia Kupfer,

and Andrea Worm. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017.

6. * J. H. Chajes, “Re-envisioning the Evil Eye: Magic, Optical Theory, and

Modern Supernaturalism in Jewish Thought” (for submission to Isis

[history of science])

7. * J. H. Chajes, “Kabbalistic Pedagogy” (On the use of diagrams in

kabbalistic works; including a critical edition and translation of a fifteenth-

century instructional manual with directions for making a grand scroll. For

submission to HUCA Annual.)

8. * J. H. Chajes, “Practically Kabbalah: Ilanot Diagrams and their

Deployments” (For submission to Aries: Journal for the Study of Western

Esotericism)

9. * J. H. Chajes, “The Kabbalistic Diagrams of Gershom Scholem.”

10. * J. H. Chajes, with #Eliezer Baumgarten, “The Ilanot of Seventeenth-

Century Yemenite Kabbalist R. Yizhak Wanne.” (Hebrew) [The authors

contributing equally.]

11. * J. H. Chajes, with Assaf Tamari, “Gershom Scholem’s Concept of Word,

Symbol and Allegory.” For publication in Gershom Scholem: Elements for an

Intellectual Biography. Edited by Andreas Kilcher and Daniel Weidner,

Wallstein Press. [The authors contributing equally.]

12. * J. H. Chajes, “Sexorcism,” In Monsters, Demons and Wonders in

European-Jewish History, edited by Iris Idelson-Schein, Bloomsbury Press.

Documents

CURRICULUM VITAE 1. PERSONAL ETAILSjewish-history.haifa.ac.il/images/lecturers/CHAJES_CV.pdf · CURRICULUM VITAE 1. PERSONAL DETAILS Permanent Home Address: Remez 2, Zichron Ya'akov