Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, PhD
Director of Jewish Studies Program | George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Endowed Chair | Professor of Religion
Dr. Yudit Kornberg Greenberg is the George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Endowed Chair and Professor of Religion and Founding Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Dr. Greenberg is the author and editor of books and articles in modern and contemporary Jewish thought, comparative religion, women and religion, and cross-cultural views of love and the body, including the 2-volume Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions (2008), From Spinoza to Levinas: Hermeneutical, Ethical, and Political Issues in Modern and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy (2009), The Body in Religion: Crosscultural Perspectives, Bloomsbury Academic (2017), Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion, Lexington Publishers (2018), and the Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body (March 2023). At present, she is working on a monograph titled “Food and Religion: Crosscultural Perspectives.” Dr. Greenberg is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and serves on the AAR’s Body and Religion and the Comparative Studies in Religion committees.
Dr. Greenberg lectures nationally and internationally and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Cornell Distinguished Faculty Award, the Arthur Vining Davis Award, and the Presidential Award for the Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion from Rollins College. In 2017, she was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in 2018, she was a Research Fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität in Bad Homburg and Frankfurt. During her most recent Fulbright-Nehru Scholar Award in 2019, she taught at the University of Mumbai in India, and conducted research on love and the body in Hindu-Jewish comparative philosophy and religion.
Dr. Greenberg is active in interreligious dialogue, having been a delegate and speaker at several international meetings including: The International Conference on Cohesive Societies, sponsored by The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2019); TheIII Scholas Chairs International Congress: Peacebuilding through Culture of Encounter, Truman Research Institute, Jerusalem (2017); “Healing Hatred: Spiritual Challenges in a Context of Political Conflict,” co-sponsored by the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, Jerusalem (2017); India-Israel Academic Dialogues: Political and Cultural Crossings,” New Delhi, India (2017);Asian-Israel Interfaith Meeting, Jerusalem (2016); Senior Investigator, Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, Garrison, New York (2016); International Scholars’ Abrahamic Trialogue, Amman, Jordan (2008); and the Parliament of the World’s Religions Meetings in Chicago, (1993); Cape Town, 1999; Barcelona, 2004, and 2021 meeting (virtual). In the 2020-2021 Academic year, she received the Interreligious Chaplaincy Program Award from the Graduate Theological Union and in 2022, she graduated as interreligious chaplain.
Research & Publications
Books
Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body, Co-Editor with George Pati, Routledge, 2023
Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, Co-Editor with Zayn R. Kassam and Jehan Bagli. Dordrecht: Springer, 2018
Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion, Co-Editor with Ithamar Theodore, Lexington Publishers, 2018
The Body in Religion: Cross-cultural Perspectives. London: Bloomsbury Academic, December 2017
From Spinoza to Levinas: Hermeneutical, Ethical, and Political Issues in Modern and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy, Edited with Zeev Levy. New York: Peter Lang, 2009
The Encyclopedia of Love in World Religions (2 Volumes), Author and Editor, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2008
Better than Wine: Love, Poetry, and Prayer in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig, AAR Series Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion, Atlanta: Scholars Press/Oxford University Press, 1997
Articles and Book Chapters
Integrating The Natural, the Divine and the Erotic in the Gita Govinda and Shir Ha-Shirim, Finding Radha: The Quest for Love, co-edited by
Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal. Penguin, 2018
Introduction and Reading Eros, Sacred Place, and Divine Love in the Gitagovinda and Shir Ha-Shirim, Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion. Co-Edited by Ithamar Theodore and Yudit Greenberg, Lexington Publishers, 2018
Women in the Jewish Tradition: Contemporary and Future Trends, Religion and the Future of Women, Edited by Arvind Sharma. Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2019
Religion and Ritual: Contemporary Views and Traditional Practices, with Hanna Cody in A Cultural History of Hair in the Modern Age, Edited by Geraldine Biddle-Perry. London: Bloomsbury Publishers, 2018
Erotic Representations of the Divine, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, December 2016
Hinduism and Judaism, Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. VI, 2014
The Languages of Love and Desire in the Gitagovinda and the Song of Songs, Journal of Vaishnava Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1, Fall 2013
Hindu-Jewish Dialogue: A New Tradition in the Making, Between Mumbai and Manila, Ed. Manfred Hutter, Bonn University Press, 2013
Love in the Jewish Tradition, The Cambridge Dictionary of Jewish Religion, History, and Culture, Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2011
Hindu-Jewish Summits 2007-2008: A Postmodern Religious Encounter, Interreligious Insight, January 2009
Prayer for Redemption and Redemption as Prayer in Judaism, Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, vol. 56, 1-2, 2009
From Death to Immortality: Eros in Plato, Rosenzweig, and Levinas, The Proceedings of the International Symposium of the Brazilian Society for Phenomenology, 2007
What Does Revelation in the Star of Redemption Reveal? Negotiating the Spaces between Rosenzweig’s Life and Thought. The Proceedings of the International Congress of Franz Rosenzweig’s New Thinking, Edited by Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik, 2006
Gene Borowitz’ Renewing the Covenant: A Theology for the Postmodern Jew, in Reviewing the Covenant, ed. Ochs with Borowitz, Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 2000
The Choosing, Not the Chosen People, in Jewish Identity in the Postmodern Age, Paragon House Press, 1999
Towards a Dialogical Postmodern Jewish Philosophy, in Reasoning After Revelation: Dialogues in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy, co-authored by Gibbs, Kepnes, and Ochs, Westview Press, 1998
Love and Reason in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig and Hermann Cohen, The European Legacy 2:1, 1997
Kabbalah and Postmodern Jewish Philosophy: A Response, Textual Reasoning, Journal of the Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Network, Vol. 4, Number 3, 1997
The Hermeneutic Turn in Franz Rosenzweig’s Theory of Revelation, Interpreting Judaism in a Postmodern Age, Edited by Steven Kepnes, New York University Press, 1996
F. Rosenzweig and M. Heidegger on the Limits of Language as Poetry, History of European Ideas, Vol. 20, Number 4, 1995
A Postmodern Jewish Critique of Rosenzweig's Speech Thinking and the Concept of Revelation, in Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Vol. II, No. 1, 1992
Book Reviews
Review of Benjamin Sommer, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition, in Reading Religion. August 2018
Review of Bhattacharya Saxena, Neela. Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali Lover’s Journey into Christianity and Judaism in the Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, August 2018
Courses Taught
Jewish Life and Thought; The Hebrew Bible; Love and Sex in the Hebrew Bible; Mysteries and Marvels in the Bible (Rfla), Modern and Contemporary Jewish Thought; Modern and Contemporary Jewish Literature; Portraits of the Modern Jew in American Film and Fiction; Introduction to Modern Hebrew and Contemporary Israeli Culture (RCC) Women in Judaism and Islam; Love, Eros, and Religion; Religion and the Body; Body in Religion: Crosscultural Perspectives (Honors); Jerusalem: History, Religion, Politics (Semester-long course; Field Study); Jewish New York (Field study); Introduction to Islam; Far Eastern Religions; Near Eastern Religions; Innovate, Create, Elevate your Spiritual Identity (Rfla); India and the Infinite (Field Study); Spiritual Technologies of Yoga, Meditation, and Prayer (Community Engagement); Jewish Life in Central Florida (Community Engagement); Women and Religion (Community Engagement); Religion and Science in Dialogue
REL 217 Jewish Life and Thought
Examine historical, literary, and theological masterpieces that explore law, ritual, Zionism, Israel, American Judaism, and the changing roles of women in contemporary Judaism.
REL 300 Religion and the Body
Unpack Eastern and Western traditions, beliefs, and notions of the body and embodiment. You’ll focus on mind/body dualism, sexual norms and taboos, purity and impurity, gender, and sexual identity.
Professional Organizations
American Academy of Religion; Association for Jewish Studies; European Association for Jewish Studies; World Congress of Jewish Studies; Franz Rosenzweig International Society; Society for the Scientific Study of Religion; Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy; Fulbright Association; Mediterranean Studies Association European Association for Jewish Studies
Features
April 28, 2023
Around the World in 8 Days
With passion and purpose, Tars set out this past spring break to explore real-world issues and grow as global citizens.
January 13, 2023
Greenberg Publishes Book on Religion and the Body
The Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body is the first comprehensive volume of its kind to feature multi-religious perspectives on the body and embodiment.
May 05, 2022
Tars Taking Action
A trio of Tars are putting the “act” in “activist” through educational outreach and the creation of the first-ever Take Action Institute.
March 24, 2022
Greenberg Publishes Response to Online Hate
Religion professor Yudit Greenberg responds to recent synagogue attacks with an article addressing the issue of online hate.
August 14, 2021
Greenberg speaks at Harvard University Symposium
Religion professor Yudit Greenberg speaks at the Harvard University Symposium on topics related to Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
May 04, 2021
Peak Performance
Rollins’ seven valedictorians reminisce about favorite memories, share secrets to success, reveal aspirations, and look forward to what’s next.