Jonathan Garb

I was born in South Africa, and have lived in Jerusalem since 1973. Since 1983 I have observed the spread of Kabbalah in Israel first-hand. Over the last few years I have conducted fieldwork in two kabbalistic Yeshivas and an elite Yeshiva.

I completed my PHD on power in classical Kabbalah at the Hebrew University in 2000, advised by Professor Moshe Idel. An updated version of this work was published in Hebrew by Magnes Press in 2004. I was appointed as lecturer at the Hebrew University (department of Jewish thought) in 2003, as senior and tenured lecturer in 2007, as Associate Professor in 2011 and as Full Professor in 2015.

I have taught numerous courses on classical and modern Kabbalah, including a course on twentieth century Kabbalah. I have also taught or co-taught several courses on comparative religion, including one (2010) in the Hebrew University's' new Cornerstone Program. In 2007, I delivered a series of guest lectures on "Twentieth century Kabbalah" at L'ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris. In 2009 I was co-leader, with Professor Philip Wexler, of an international research group on the sociology of contemporary Jewish mysticism at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem. In 2010, the President of Hebrew University awarded me the Pollack/Ben-Porat Prize for excellence in research. In 2011-2012, I was a research fellow at the Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization at New York University. Between 2012-2014 I chaired the Amirim honors program at Hebrew University (also teaching about connections between psychology, religion and culture in the program) and in 2017-2018 I chaired my own department. In 2014 I received the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities' Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah research.In that year I also taught a mass online course (on psychology and mysticism) via the Coursera platform. In 2019, I was a fellow at the Maimonides Center for Advanced Studies at Hamburg University.