Public Scholarship

Online Lectures

Judaism, Jewish History, and Anti-Jewish Prejudice: An Overview
Hybrid public lecture and course lecture, Lessons (Not) Learned from the Holocaust. Stroum Center for Jewish Studies. October 6, 2020.
Viewed by 245,895 people from 190 countries since October 7.

Book Launch: On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel
Department of Jewish Studies, Fordham University. April 29, 2021.

Book Launch: On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel
Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Webinar, University of Washington. October 14, 2021.

Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture
Elizabeth A. Clark Center for the Study of Late Antiquity, Duke University. October 28, 2021.

Ancient Jewess Magic
Jewish Community Library of San Francisco. June 6, 2021.

Essays & Writing

Women in Ancient Judaism

“Shelamzion Alexandra.” Bible Odyssey (forthcoming).

“The Forgotten Jewish Queen: Shelamzion Alexandra.” My Jewish Learning (November 24, 2025).

Contributor to “Judaism” entry in Why Faith Matters: Responding to Sexual Violence and Abuse. A Handbook for Advocates and Allies (December 2019).

“A Patriarchal Miseducation.” AJS Perspectives: The Patriarchy Issue (Summer 2019).

“Reading the Rabbis in the Age of #MeToo.” Feminist Studies in Religion Blog (October 23, 2018).

“An Ancient Jewess Invoking Goddesses: Transgression or Pious Adaptation?” AJS Perspectives: The Transgression Issue (Summer 2017): 24–25.

“Jewish Queens: From the Story of Esther to the History of Shelamzion.” The Torah & Biblical Scholarship (March 18, 2016). Translated into Hebrew (March 2022).

“On the Scholarship of Bernadette Brooten.” An introduction written for Prof. Brooten’s visit to my Gender, Sex, and Religion course (2020). I later invited her to deliver the Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures at the University of Washington, held in May 2025.

Other Essays

“The Angels of the Nations.” Pasts Imperfect (March 19, 2026).

“Publication Preview: On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel.” Ancient Jew Review (June 30, 2021).

“Us vs. Them: Challenging Stereotypes about Judaism in the Wake of the Pittsburgh Shooting.” Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Blog (November 1, 2018).

“A Jewish Historian’s Plea for Global Refugees.” Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Blog (September 9, 2015).

“A Quick Introduction to Toledot Yeshu.” Ancient Jew Review (December 25, 2014).

Book Reviews (Online)

Review of Posthuman Transformation in Ancient Mediterranean Thought: Becoming Angels and Demons by M. David Litwa. Review of Biblical Literature (April 2025).

Review of When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species by Rafael Rachel Neis. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 18 (2024). Open access.

Review of Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late Antique Palestine by Megan Nutzman. Ancient Jew Review (November 2023).

Review of Religious Studies and Rabbinics: A Conversation by Elizabeth Shanks Alexander and Beth Berkowitz. Ancient Jew Review (June 2020).