Leora Batnitzky Explained

Leora Faye Batnitzky
Birth Date:	6 May 1966
Birth Place:	Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.
Education:	Jewish Theological Seminary of America (BA) Princeton University (PhD)
Notable Works:	How Judaism Became a Religion (2011)
Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies
Awards:	PROSE Award, Theology & Religious Studies (2011) American Theological Society Society (2011)

Leora Faye Batnitzky (born 1966) is an American philosopher and the current Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies at Princeton University.^[1] Her research interests include religion, modern Jewish thought, hermeneutics, and contemporary legal and political theory. She served as Chair of the Department of Religion from 2010 to 2019 and currently serves as Director of Princeton's Program in Judaic Studies.^[2]

She has been called "the most incisive and remarkable scholar of modern Jewish thought of our time," and is considered to have introduced a paradigm shift to academic political theology, Zionism, and Judaic Studies.^[3] She is recognized as the leading scholar of Leo Strauss.^[4]

How Judaism Became a Religion was named by The Forward as one of the most important books to read to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.^[5] She has published in popular journals on Jewish-Catholic relations.^[6]

Personal life

Batnitzky married Robert Lebeau, the son of Rabbi William H. Lebeau, in 1990. Her mother taught Judaic studies at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in Overland Park, Kansas. Her father-in-law was the vice chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.^[7] Batnitzky is a descendant of a line of prominent European rabbis.^[8]

Books

• Jewish Legal Theories: Writings on Religion, State and Morality, (Brandeis University Press, 2018). .
• Institutionalizing Rights and Religion: Competing Supremacies (Cambridge University Press, 2017). .
• The Book of Job: Ethics, Aesthetics and Hermeneutics, (De Gruyter Press, 2014). .
• How Judaism Became a Religion (Princeton University Press; 2011). .
• Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation (Cambridge University Press, 2006). .
• Idolatry and Representation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered (Princeton University Press, 2000). .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Leora Batnitzky Department of Religion . 2023-02-08 . religion.princeton.edu.
2. Web site: Senior Fellows Shalom Hartman Institute . 2023-02-08 . hartman.org.il.
3. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43744036
4. Leo Strauss, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed 9 March 2023.https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/strauss-leo/
5. What books should Jared Kushner have read about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?, The Forward. Accessed 9 March 2023. https://forward.com/israel/439246/what-books-should-jared-kushner-have-read-about-the-israeli-palestinian/
6. The Holocaustum of Edith Stein Liberties Journal. Accessed 9 May 2023. https://libertiesjournal.com/articles/the-holocaustum-of-edith-stein/
7. Leora Batnitzky Weds in Kansas, The New York Times. Accessed 9 March 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/02/style/leora-batnitzky-weds-in-kansas.html
8. Noteworthy Jewish Descendantsof Mariampole and Vicinity, University of Washington Press. Accessed 9 March 2023. https://staff.washington.edu/sunnieg/mariampolehistory/3%20Ch%20II%20Noteworthy%20Descendants.pdf