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Mara Benjamin

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Mara Benjamin
OccupationJewish studies scholar
Partner
​
(m. 2004)​
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2024)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisFranz Rosenzweig and scripture (2005)
Doctoral advisorArnold Eisen
Academic work
DisciplineJewish studies
Sub-disciplineModern Jewish studies
Institutions

Mara H. Benjamin is an American scholar of modern Jewish studies. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, she is the author of Rosenzweig's Bible and The Obligated Self and is Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor of Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College.[1]

Biography

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Mara Hillary Benjamin was born to Judith Benjamin, a North Seattle College ESL teacher, and Kenneth Collins, a Los Alamos National Laboratory senior security advisor.[2] Her paternal grandfather, Samuel Carl Collins, was born to Jewish parents from Brownsville, Brooklyn, who had previously emigrated from Odesa in present-day Ukraine.[3][4] She later adopted the surname of her stepfather, environmental engineer and University of Washington professor Mark M. Benjamin.[2][5] She attended Garfield High School, during which, amidst warming Soviet Union–United States relations, she was part of the KING-TV/Gosteleradio Teen Space Bridge project with students in 1988.[6]

Benjamin obtained her BA at Hampshire College and her PhD (2005) in modern Jewish thought at the Stanford University Department of Religious Studies, as well as a diplomat in Jewish studies at Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.[7][8] Her doctoral dissertation Franz Rosenzweig and scripture was supervised by Arnold Eisen.[9] She was the 2004-2005 Hazel D. Cole Fellow at the University of Washington Stroum Center for Jewish Studies[10] and the 2005-2007 Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University.[11] In 2008, she joined St. Olaf College as Assistant Professor of Religion.[12] In 2017, she moved to Mount Holyoke College, where she had previously worked as an auditor for Mount Holyoke professor Lawrence Fine while studying at Hampshire, and subsequently became the Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor of Jewish Studies.[13]

Benjamin specializes in modern Jewish studies.[1] In 2009, she published her first book, a monograph on Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig named Rosenzweig's Bible.[1] She won the 2019 American Academy of Religion Book Award in Constructive-Reflective Studies for her next book The Obligated Self (2018).[14] In 2024, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Religion.[15]

Personal life

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In 2004, Benjamin entered a partnership with social worker Miryam Kabakov.[2]

Originally frequenting a Conservative synagogue, Benjamin later shifted towards being shomer Shabbat after meeting Kabakov.[16] She also planned to attend a Jewish seminary but decided against it after realizing that she would have to work on Shabbat as a rabbi.[16]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Mara Benjamin". Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Mara Benjamin, Miryam Kabakov". New York Times. June 27, 2004. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  3. ^ "Samuel Collins Obituary (2006) - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Sun-Sentinel". Legacy.com. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  4. ^ "Samuel Carl Collins recollections of Jewish life in Brooklyn, New York". Library of Congress Catalog. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  5. ^ "Mark M. Benjamin". UW Civil & Environmental Engineering. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  6. ^ Zaugg, Karin (January 1, 1988). "Teens have their own Russian link". Kitsap Sun. pp. A4 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Biography". www.marabenjamin.com. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  8. ^ "Graduate Alumni". Stanford University Department of Religious Studies. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  9. ^ Dissertation Abstracts International: The humanities and social sciences. University Microfilms. 2005. p. 214.
  10. ^ "Hazel D. Cole Fellows" (PDF). University of Washington Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Stroum. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  11. ^ "Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Postdoctoral Associates in The Program in Judaic Studies" (PDF). Yale University. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  12. ^ "Academic Catalog 2008-09". St. Olaf College. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  13. ^ Nyary, Sasha (August 25, 2017). "Benjamin joins MHC as Jewish studies chair". Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  14. ^ "Winners Book Awards". American Academy of Religion. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  15. ^ "Announcing the 2024 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows" (Press release). John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved December 15, 2024 – via PRWeb.
  16. ^ a b Benjamin, Mara (2023). "Ecological disaster, grief, and hope: We need a new Jewish theology" (PDF). Washtenaw Jewish News (Interview). Vol. XXIII, no. 8. Interviewed by Meg Bernstein. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  17. ^ Plevan, William (2012). "Rosenzweig's Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity". Conservative Judaism. 64 (1): 81–83. ISSN 1947-4717 – via Project Muse.
  18. ^ Sheppard, Eugene R. (2009). "Rosenzweig's Bible: Reinventing Scripture for Jewish Modernity". AJS Review. 33 (2): 412–414. ISSN 0364-0094 – via JSTOR.
  19. ^ Bahler, Brock (2020). "The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought". Journal of Jewish Identities. 13 (1): 127–130. ISSN 1946-2522 – via Project Muse.
  20. ^ Groenhout, Ruth (2023). "The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought". Hypatia. 38 (4). doi:10.1017/hyp.2023.17. ISSN 0887-5367 – via Cambridge University Press.
  21. ^ "The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought". Jewish Book Council. 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
  22. ^ Pollock, Benjamin (2020). "The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought". Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues. 37 (1): 188–193. ISSN 1565-5288 – via Project Muse.
  23. ^ Sullivan-Dunbar, Sandra (December 12, 2019). "The Obligated Self: Maternal Subjectivity and Jewish Thought". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 87 (4): 1228–1231. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfz063. ISSN 0002-7189 – via Oxford University Press.
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