Benjamin Fisher, Ph.D.

Biography

Benjamin Fisher is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Jewish Studies graduate program at Towson University. He is the author of Amsterdam’s People of the Book: Jewish Society and the Turn to Scripture in the Seventeenth Century (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2020), which explores the central and changing role of biblical studies among Amsterdam’s Spanish and Portuguese Jews. He is interested broadly in the Reformation era European world, and how it influenced Jewish thought and culture. His current research focuses on the reception of the writings of Flavius Josephus among early modern Jewish authors, in Amsterdam and beyond.

He earned his Ph.D. in History at the University of Pennsylvania in 2011, and since coming to Towson has also been a Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University (2014) and a Dorset Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (2015).

Monograph

Amsterdam’s People of the Book: Jewish Society and the Turn to Scripture in the Seventeenth Century (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2020)

Articles and Book Chapters

"God's Word Defended: Menasseh ben Israel, Biblical Chronology, and the Erosion of Biblical Authority," in Dirk van Miert et al, eds. Scriptural Authority and Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Golden Age: God's Word Questioned (Oxford: University of Oxford Press, 2017 - forthcoming), 155-174.

"From Boxes and Cabinets to Bibliotheca: Building the Jewish Library of the Ex-Conversos in Amsterdam, 1620-1665," European Journal of Jewish Studies 13 (2019): 43-7).

“For God and Country: Jewish Identity and the State in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam,” Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of David B. Ruderman, ed. Richard Cohen et al.  (Hebrew Union College Press and University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014), 50-62.

“Opening the Eyes of the Novos Reformados: Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira, Radical Christianity, and the Jewish Reclamation of Jesus, 1620-1660,” Studia Rosenthaliana 44 (2012), 117-148.

Encyclopedia Entries

“Leon, Jacob Judah.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. Ed. Constance Furey, et. al (De Gruyter: Berlin and Boston, 2018), 119-120.

“Menasseh ben Israel.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. Ed. Constance Furey, et. al (De Gruyter: Berlin and Boston), 613-615.

Recent Lectures and Presentations

“Amsterdam’s People of the Book: Sacred Scriptures and the Threat of History: Jews, Christians, and the Origins of Modern Biblical Scholarship.” St Joseph’s University, Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations. Philadelphia, PA. October 21, 2021.

“Sefer Hizzuk Emunah for Sephardi Eyes: Manuscripts, Marginalia, and Translation.”  University of Oxford: Oxford Seminar in Advanced Judaic Studies Conference: Jewish Books in Amsterdam 1600-1850 – Authors, Producers, Readers, and the Construction of Jewish Worlds.  June 15, 2015.

“From Boxes and Cabinets to the Bibliotheca: Building the Jewish Library of the Ex-Conversos, 1620-1670.” University of Oxford: Oxford Seminar in Advanced Judaic Studies Presentation, May 12, 2015.

 “‘The greatest problem that there is in Scripture:’ Menasseh ben Israel, Mathematics, and the Authority of the Bible in Early Modern Europe.”  Harvard University, Starr Seminar Presentation: Center for Jewish Studies, March 11, 2014.

"Reading the Bible Through a Historical Lens: Biblical Scholarship, Memory, and Religious Identity in Early Modern Europe." Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. San Francisco, California. November 21, 2011.

"Menasseh Ben Israel's Infallible Bible: The Limits of Biblical Chronology." Sixteenth Century Society Conference. Montreal, Canada. October 17, 2010.

"Saul Levi Morteira: A Jewish Reader of the New Testament." Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. Los Angeles, California. December 21, 2009.

Honors and Awards

Dorset Visiting Fellowship, University of Oxford:  Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Trinity Term, 2015)

Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica: Harvard University, Center for Jewish Studies (January - June, 2014)
Adjunct Fellow, Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania: Jan. – Feb., 2011.
Doris Quinn Dissertation Completion Fellowship: 2010.
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Dissertation Scholarship: 2009, 2010
Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, Department of History: 2004-2009.
Canada Graduate Scholarship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: 2003-2004.

Courses Taught

Fall 2024
HIST 102	Europe: From the Age of Caesar to the Age of Calvin, 1st to 17thCentury
HIST 300	Introduction to Historical Study: Protestant Reformation