Talya Fishman

Talya Fishman
Born (1955-04-30) April 30, 1955 (age 71)
Hackensack, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationJewish studies scholar
SpouseMax Apple
RelativesSam Apple (stepson)
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2004)
Academic background
Education
ThesisKol Sachal's Critique of Rabbinic Tradition: A Solution to the Problem of Galut (1986)
Academic work
DisciplineJewish studies
Sub-discipline
Judaism in pre-18th-century Christian and Muslim societies
Institutions

Talya Fishman (born April 30, 1955) is an American scholar of Jewish studies. A 2004 Guggenheim Fellow, she specializes in Judaism in Christian and Muslim societies up until the 18th century, and she is author of Shaking the Pillars of Exile (1997) and Becoming the People of the Talmud (2011). She is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania.

Biography

Talya Fishman was born on April 30, 1955, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Her father Hertzel Fishman was a rabbi and writer who served in the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli government. She obtained her BA from Wesleyan University in 1976, her MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1979, and her PhD from Harvard University in 1986. Her doctoral dissertation was titled Kol Sachal's Critique of Rabbinic Tradition: A Solution to the Problem of Galut.

Fishman became an instructor in religion at Boston University in 1984 and was promoted to assistant professor in 1986, before leaving in 1988 to become a visiting assistant professor at Columbia University during the spring 1989 semester. In 1989, she joined Rice University as an assistant professor of history and was promoted to associate professor in 1998. in 2001, she joined the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor of religious studies.

Fishman was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Jewish Studies (1986-1987) and the Rothschild Foundation (1991-1992), as well as a visiting associate professor at Stanford (1996-1997, 2000) and the University of California, Berkeley (1999). She was a 1995-1996 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, a 1995-1996 Stanford Humanities Center Fellow, a 2000-2001 American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, and a 2003-2004 Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Fellow.

Fishman specializes in Judaism in Christian and Muslim societies up until the 18th century. In 1997, she released her book Shaking the Pillars of Exile, a book analyzing the Venetian religious critique Kol Sakhal. In 2004, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for "a study of the inscription of Oral Torah and the formation of Jewish culture in the Middle Ages". She won the Jewish Book Council's 2011 Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award for her book Becoming the People of the Talmud, which is about "the circumstances that have shaped the cultural meaning of Jewish traditions". She has also taught courses on Jewish literature, law, mysticism, and politics. She has written for the Jewish Review of Books.

Fishman has two children with his husband, writer Max Apple, as well as two stepchildren from Apple's previous marriage (including Sam Apple). One of her daughters suffered from cerebral palsy.

Works

Notes

  1. ↑ Reviews of this book:
  2. ↑ Reviews of this book:

References

  1. 1 2 "Talya Fishman". live-sas-www-history.pantheon.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2004. p. 71.
  3. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths FISHMAN, RABBI HERTZEL". The New York Times. March 19, 2005. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
  4. ↑ Fishman, Talya (1986). Kol Sachal's Critique of Rabbinic Tradition: A Solution to the Problem of Galut (PhD thesis). Harvard University. OCLC 18392351.
  5. ↑ "Shaking the Pillars of Exile". Stanford University Press. Retrieved May 12, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Talya Fishman". Guggenheim Fellowships. Retrieved May 10, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Jewish Book Council Honors Talya Fishman with the Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award | School of Arts and Sciences - University of Pennsylvania". pan-school.sas.upenn.edu. January 23, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Talya Fishman". jwst.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Talya Fishman". Jewish Review of Books. Retrieved May 10, 2026.
  10. ↑ "APPLE: Rice professor living it up as scriptwriter". The Houston Post. January 5, 1995. p. D2. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
  11. ↑ "OT Students Provide Care and Companionship to Family with Special Needs". www.jefferson.edu. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
  12. ↑ Adelman, Howard Tzvi (1999). "Review of Shaking the Pillars of Exile: "Voice of a Fool," an Early Modern Jewish Critique of Rabbinic Culture". AJS Review. 24 (2): 398–401. ISSN 0364-0094. JSTOR 1486772.
  13. ↑ Bell, Dean Phillip (1998). "Review of Shaking the Pillars of Exile: "Voice of a Fool": An Early Modern Jewish Critique of Rabbinic Culture". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 29 (2): 599–601. doi:10.2307/2544576. ISSN 0361-0160. JSTOR 2544576.
  14. ↑ Goldish, Matt (1999). "Review of Shaking the Pillars of Exile: 'Voice of a Fool,' an Early Modern Jewish Critique of Rabbinic Culture". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 90 (1/2): 184–185. doi:10.2307/1455408. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1455408.
  15. ↑ Kanarfogel, Ephraim (1999). "Review of Shaking the Pillars of Exile: "Voice of a Fool," an Early Modern Jewish Critique of Rabbinic Culture". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 565: 234–236. ISSN 0002-7162. JSTOR 1049559.
  16. ↑ Lesley, Arthur M. (1999). "Jews at the Time of the Renaissance". Renaissance Quarterly. 52 (3): 845–856. doi:10.2307/2901921. ISSN 0034-4338. JSTOR 2901921.
  17. ↑ Melzi, Robert C. (1998). "Review of Shaking the Pillars of Exile: Voice of a Fool, an Early Modern Jewish Critique of Rabbinic Culture". Italica. 75 (3): 467–468. doi:10.2307/480068. ISSN 0021-3020. JSTOR 480068.
  18. ↑ Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte Miriam (2012). "Review of Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures". Law and History Review. 30 (2): 643–645. ISSN 0738-2480. JSTOR 23209699.
  19. ↑ Boyarin, Daniel (2013). "Review of Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures. (Jewish Culture and Contexts)". Speculum. 88 (3): 796–798. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 43576810.
  20. ↑ Marcus, Ivan G. (2012). "Review of Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures". The American Historical Review. 117 (5): 1647–1649. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 23426676.
  21. ↑ Novick, Tzvi (2013). "Greenblatt and the Blatt: New Perspectives on the Nature and Reception of the Bavli". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 103 (2): 259–270. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 43298696.