Ephraim (Fred) Kanarfogel (born November 19, 1955) is a professor and dean at
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU on the Yeshiva Universi ...
and one of the foremost experts in the fields of medieval
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...
and
rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writ ...
, as well as an ordained rabbi and
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
scholar.
Education
Nearly all of Kanarfogel's formal education took place at Yeshiva University: He attended Yeshiva University's
Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy
The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, also known as Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB), MTA (Manhattan Talmudical Academy) or TMSTA, is an Orthodox Jewish day school (or yeshiva) and the boys' prep school of Yeshiva University (YU) ...
for high school, and earned his BA from Yeshiva College and both an MA and PhD from the
Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies The Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies was Yeshiva University’s first graduate school. Founded in 1937, it was named for Yeshiva University's first president, Bernard Revel. Its curriculum prepares highly trained teachers, researchers ...
. Kanarfogel also received rabbinical ordination from the
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS ) is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Named after Yitzchak Elchanan ...
A native of White Plains, New York, Kanarfogel practiced as a pulpit rabbi for Congregation Beth Aaron, then a growing, youthful synagogue in
Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck () is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 39,776, reflecting an increase of 516 (+1.3%) f ...
, from 1984 to 2003. In 1979, Kanarfogel began teaching at the university, and was soon recognized as the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva's
Stern College for Women
The Stern College for Women (SCW) is the undergraduate women's college of arts and sciences of Yeshiva University. It is located at the university's Israel Henry Beren Campus in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan.
The college provides progra ...
. In 1984, he became the head of the Jewish Studies program at Stern and was later appointed chairman of the Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies and director of the Graduate Program for Women in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS) at Yeshiva University. Named the Ivry University Professor of Jewish History, Literature, and Law in 2013, he also teaches and directs doctoral dissertations at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies.
Kanarfogel has authored or edited eleven books and published nearly 100 articles and reviews. Some of his works have been translated to Hebrew.
Awards
In 2002, Kanarfogel became the first person to win Yeshiva University's Samuel Belkin Literary Award on multiple occasions. He was also awarded the
National Jewish Book award
The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.rail fan, and in his youth was a star lefty softball pitcher at Camp Massad.
Authored Books
*''Jewish education and society in the High Middle Ages''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992. (A Hebrew translation of this book, by Ruti Bar-Ilan, was published by the Kibbutz Ha-Me'uchad Press in 2003.)
*''Peering through the lattices: mystical, magical, and pietistic dimensions in the Tosafist period''. Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c2000. In this volume he disputes classically accepted views held about the
Tosafists
Tosafists were rabbis of France and Germany, who lived from the 12th to the mid-15th centuries, in the period of Rishonim. The Tosafists composed critical and explanatory glosses (questions, notes, interpretations, rulings and sources) on the Ta ...
, and shows that many were interested in mysticism. (A Hebrew translation of this book, by Ruti Bar-Ilan, was published by Merkaz Shazar in 2011.)
*''The Intellectual History and Rabbinic Culture of Medieval Ashkenaz''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013.
*''Brothers from Afar: Rabbinic Approaches to Apostasy and Reversion in Medieval Europe''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2021
Edited Books
*''Between Rashi and Maimonides: Studies in Medieval Jewish Thought, Literature, and Exegesis''. New York : Ktav, 2010.
*''Regional Identities and Cultures of Medieval Jews''. London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2018.
*''Scholarly Man of Faith: Studies in the Thought and Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik''. Urim, 2018.