Martha Himmelfarb

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Martha Himmelfarb (born 1952) is an American scholar of religion. Her areas of focus include the Second Temple period in Jewish history, Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, Hekhalot literature, early Christianity, early rabbinic Judaism after the fall of the Second Temple, and the Jewish priesthood. She became an academic at Princeton University in New Jersey in 1978, and eventually acquired the named chair of William H. Danforth Professor of Religion. She took on emeritus status at Princeton in 2022. Much of Himmelfarb's work is on the intersection of Hellenistic Judaism, Jewish Christianity, and early Christianity in general; she considers older approaches to have overly downplayed early Christianity's Jewish roots and Jewish influences, and advocates that the wider split between Judaism and Christianity occurred more slowly and gradually than traditional views portrayed it.

Contents

Biography

Martha Himmelfarb was born in 1952 in New York City to the Himmelfarb family, who descended from Russian Jews who emigrated to America. Her father was the sociographer Milton Himmelfarb who worked as director of research at the American Jewish Committee; and her aunt was Gertrude Himmelfarb, also known as Bea Kristol. Her family was not particularly observant to Jewish law, but took seriously Jewish life and culture. [1] She attended White Plains High School, then attended Barnard College for her undergraduate education. She also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1970–1974 and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972–1973. She received a bachelor's degree majoring in the Greek language from Barnard in 1974, with distinction. In her studies, she also learned Aramaic and Classical Hebrew. She received a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, studying under Bob Kraft. Her dissertation on Jewish origins of Christian apocalyptic literature such as the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul would be the foundation of her first scholarly book, Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature, a well-received and influential work published in 1983. [2] [3]

Himmelfarb joined the religion department at Princeton University in 1978, initially as a lecturer; gained a position as assistant professor after completing her PhD in 1981; and was promoted to full professor in 1994. In 1995, Ronald O. Perelman made a major donation to Princeton to establish a school of Judaic Studies, and Himmelfarb was a key player in establishing the academic background of what would become the Princeton program in Jewish studies from its beginnings in 1982 to becoming a full certificate program in 1995. She served as department chair of the Religion Department from 1999 to 2006, and gained the named chair of William H. Danforth Professor of Religion. [2] She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. [4] She then served as director of Judaic Studies in 2013–2020. She took emeritus status at Princeton in Spring 2022; in her final year she was awarded the Howard T. Behrman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities, an award given to Princeton faculty. [5] [2]

In 2023, the book Above, Below, Before, and After: Studies in Judaism and Christianity in Conversation with Martha Himmelfarb was published, a festschrift with articles related to Himmelfarb's research and in dialogue with her work. [3]

In Himmelfarb's personal life, she is married to Steven Weiss, a sculptor and draftsman who worked at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The couple has four children together. [6]

Selected works

Books

Articles

As an editor

Festschrift

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ George, Robert P. (November 23, 2011). "Keeping Faith: Martha Himmelfarb". The Daily Princetonian . Archived from the original on December 31, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "Martha Himmelfarb: Office of the Dean of the Faculty". Princeton University. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Boustan, Ra'anan; Frankfurter, David; Reed, Annette Yoshiko (2023). "Tours by the Light of Martha Himmelfarb". In Boustan, Ra'anan; Frankfurter, David; Reed, Annette Yoshiko (eds.). Above, Below, Before, and After: Studies in Judaism and Christianity in Conversation with Martha Himmelfarb. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 188. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 1–12. doi:10.1628/978-3-16-163192-4. ISBN   978-3-16-163192-4.
  4. ↑ "Martha Himmelfarb". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Martha Himmelfarb and Simon Morrison receive Behrman Award for the humanities". Princeton University. May 9, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Abigail Weiss, Samuel Lipson". The New York Times. August 30, 2015.
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