Elisheva Carlebach Jofen

Career Carlebach obtained her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College. In 1986 she completed her PhD in Jewish History at Columbia University. Since 2008 she has been the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish history, culture and society at Columbia University.

Carlebach is married to Rabbi Mordechai Jofen, the rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the Novardok yeshiva Beis Yosef in Brooklyn, New York City. She uses her maiden name professionally and her married name in her personal life.

Carlebach's family was one of the preeminent rabbinical families in Germany before the Holocaust. Her grandfather was Rabbi Joseph Carlebach, the last chief rabbi of Hamburg, and her father is Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach who served as the mashgiach ruchani at the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and author of the commentary on the Humash Maskil Lishlomo.

Publications

Books Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe, (Belknap Press, 2011) ISBN-10: 0674052544 The Pursuit of Heresy :Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversies, (Columbia University Press, 1990; 1994) Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1500-1750 Yale University Press, 2001 . Finalist for the 2001-02 National Jewish Book Award Co-editor, History and Memory: Jewish Perspectives, Brandeis/University Press of New England, 1998.

Articles Source: "Redemption and Persecution in the Eyes of R. Moses Hayim Luzzatto and his Circle", Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, 54 (1987), 1-29. "Converts and their Narratives in Early Modern Germany", Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, 1995 "Rabbinic Circles on Messianic Pathways in the Post- Expulsion Era", Judaism: A Quarterly Journal, Special Symposium issue on the impact of the Spanish Expulsion, 41 (1992), pp. 208–216. "Two Amens that Delayed the Redemption: Jewish Messianism and Popular Spirituality in the Post-Sabbatian Century", Jewish Quarterly Review, 82 (1992): 241-261. "Sabbatianism and the Jewish-Christian Polemic", Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division C, Vol. II: Jewish Thought and Literature (Jerusalem, 1990): 1-7.

Theses

Awards

1991: National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish History category for The Pursuit of Heresy :Rabbi Moses Hagiz and the Sabbatian Controversies