University / institution contact details
Position: Lecturer/Professor
Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies, University College London
Department of Hebrew & Jewish Studies
Foster Court
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
Second university / institution contact details
Position: Lecturer/Professor
Teaches (T) and/or researches (R) in:
2. History of the Jewish People: TR
12: Medieval: T
Early Modern: TR
Historiography: TR
3. Religion and Religious Movements: TR
Sabbateanism: TR
Hasidism: TR
4. Jewish Thought and Philosophy: TR
Jewish Mysticism: TR
Description
Professor Rapoport-Albert\'s doctoral dissertation was a study of the process by which the Hasidic movement, which began in mid 18th century Poland, developed in the first half of the 19th century from a small, loosely affiliated group of charismatic individuals into a fully institutionalised mass movement of spiritual revival in Judaism, sweeping through much of Central-East European Jewry. Since then Prof. Rapoport-Albert has published many studies of Hasidism, focusing on particular institutions (e.g. confession before the Rebbe, hereditary succession in the leadership) or schools of thought (Braslav, Habad), as well as on particular topics (e.g. the perception of history and history writing within the movement, the position of women in Hasidism). She is currently a member of the international team of Hasidic scholars engaged in the collaborative production of a major new history of Hasidism, working under the auspices of the Simon Dubnow Institute in Leipzig.
In addition to her work on Hasidism, Prof. Rapoport-Albert\'s interests include gender issues in the history of Judaism, especially the gendered perception of the ascetic life and its implications fo the Jewish mystical tradition. She is currently completing a book entitled Female Bodies - Male Souls: Asceticism and Gender in the Jewish Mystical Tradition, to be published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, and has published a monograph in Hebrew on the position of women in the 17th-19th century messianic heresy of Sabbatai Zevi and his successors, including the Polish adventurer Jacob Frank and his daughter Eva. An English version of this, Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi, 1666-1816, was published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in March 2011.
Professor Rapoport-Albert directed a 5-year AHRC-funded research project on the linguistic (largely Aramaic) and literary context of the Zohar - the most influential literary product of the Jewish mystical tradition. She is currently co-editing two volumes of studies that have emerged from this project.
Prof. Rapoport-Albert teaches courses and supervises postgraduate research on the history and literature of Hasidism, on the Kabbalah and other schools of Jewish esoteric spirituality, and on various aspects of medieval and early modern Jewish history.
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