Lawrence H. Schiffman
Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

Lawrence H. Schiffman is the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Director of the Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies. He has served as the Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University.

He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.

He has been a visiting professor at Yale University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Duke University, the University of Toronto, the Johns Hopkins University, the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), the University of Hartford, Queens College, Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), Yeshiva University, and the University of Vienna.

Active in many professional societies, Dr. Schiffman served as President of the Association for Jewish Studies and is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Friends of the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem and Chair and Representative of the Orthodox Union for the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultation (IJCIC), the Jewish liaison committee to the Vatican and other religious groups. He is a member of the steering committee of the Orthodox Forum of Yeshiva University and has edited several volumes in the Orthodox Forum Series.

Dr. Schiffman was featured in the PBS Nova series documentary, “Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” four BBC documentaries on the scrolls, a Discovery special, the series “Mysteries of the Bible” (A&E) and “Kingdom of David” (PBS) and other documentaries. He recorded two audio lecture series for Recorded Books, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth behind the Mystique and The Hebrew Bible and is a contributing editor of the Long Island Jewish World newspaper. Most recently he served as the academic advisor to the exhibition at Discovery Times Square entitled, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times.

 

Selected Publications

Who Was a Jew? Rabbinic Perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism (1985)

From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (1991)

Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (1995)

The Courtyards of the House of the Lord: Studies on the Temple Scroll (2008)

Qumran and Jerusalem: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism (2010)