Rethinking Premodern Jewish Legal Cultures

This fellowship treats law in theory and practice, as both created by and imposed on Jews. It focuses on the broad contexts in which Jewish (and Israelite) law was developed by and for Jews, and in which it operated, treating law as a necessary component for understanding the broader dynamics of culture, history, governance, and economics of each place and period. Seeing law as constituted by and embedded within wider dynamics, the new fellows see law’s impact on various historical, religious, intellectual, artistic, and political moments, for a wide variety of actors: Jews and non-Jews, men and women, the empowered and the marginal. 

A book of essays featuring research from the year is currently being edited by Natalie Dohrmann, Marc Herman, and Micha Perry.