Raymond Scheindlin

Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature

Department: Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Studies , Hebrew Literature, Medieval Hebrew Poetry

BIOGRAPHY

BA, University of Pennsylvania; teacher’s certificate, Gratz College; MHL and rabbinical ordination, The Jewish Theological Seminary; PhD, Columbia University

Dr. Scheindlin specializes in medieval Hebrew poetry, with a special interest in Spain and other regions of Arabic culture. He is also active as a literary translator of medieval and other Hebrew texts.

His books on medieval Hebrew poetry are Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life (1986); The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul (1991); The Song of the Distant Dove: Judah Halevi’s Pilgrimage (2007); and Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol (2016). He has published a verse translation, with introduction and notes, of the book of Job (1998). As an Arabist, he published Form and Structure in the Poetry of al-Mu’tamid Ibn Abbad (1975) and 501 Arabic Verbs (2007; second ed., 2017) and was coeditor of a volume of the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature titled The Literature of Al-Andalus (2000). Other translations of his include a Yiddish novella by Mendele Mocher Seforim, and Ismar Elbogen’s monumental history of Jewish liturgy. He has also written A Short History of the Jewish People (1998).

Recipient of the Cultural Achievement Award of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture (2004), Scheindlin was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1988, a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library (2005–2006), and a visiting professor at Harvard University (spring 2007). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research and is on the editorial boards of several academic journals.

Dr. Scheindlin served on the faculties of McGill and Cornell Universities before assuming his position at JTS. A native of Philadelphia, he received a BA in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, an MHL and rabbinic ordination from JTS, and a PhD from Columbia University.

Dr. Scheindlin’s personal website contains additional information about his work.

GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS

Visiting professor, Harvard University, spring 2007
Cullman Fellow, New York Public Library, 2005–2006
Cultural Achievement Award of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, 2004
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1988

BOOKS

Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Brooklyn, NY: Archipelago Books, 2016.
The Song of the Distant Dove: Judah Halevi’s Pilgrimage. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
501 Arabic Verbs. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, 2007; second ed., 2017.
The Literature of Al-Andalus, coeditor with María Rosa Menocal and Michael Anthony Sells. Vol. 5 of Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood. New York: Macmillan, 1998; paperback, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000; Japanese edition, Tokyo, 2004.
The Book of Job, translated, introduced, and annotated. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998; paperback, 1999.
The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991; paperback, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1986; paperback, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
201 Arabic Verbs. Woodbury, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, 1978.
Form and Structure in the Poetry of al-Mu’tamid Ibn ‘Abbād. De Goeje Fund, no. 24. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974.

OTHER

Translated poetry for Lady, Take a Lover Now: Music and Poetry from the Ghettos of Renaissance Italy, 2002.
“Old Age in Hebrew and Arabic Zuhd Poetry.” In Judíos y Musulmanes en al-Andalus y el Magreb: Contactos Intelectuales, Colección de La Casa de Velázquez, edited by Maribel Fierro, 85–104. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2002.
“Communal Prayer and Liturgical Poetry.” In Judaism in Practice, edited by Lawrence Fine, 39–51. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

RESEARCH

Hebrew and Arabic cultures in Spain