J. H. Chajes | |
---|---|
Born | Detroit, MI, U.S. | June 11, 1965
Other names | Yossi Chajes |
Alma mater | University of Michigan; Yale University |
Known for | The Ilanot Project |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Jewish history, Jewish culture, Kabbalah |
Institutions | University of Haifa |
Doctoral advisor | David B. Ruderman |
J. H. Chajes (/ˈhaɪɛs/ or /ˈhɑːjɛs/; Josef Hillel/Jeffrey Howard; Hebrew: יוסף (יוסי) חיות, Hebrew pronunciation: [joˌsef ˌjosi χaˈjut]; born June 11, 1965 ) is the Sir Isaac and Lady Edith Wolfson Professor of Jewish Thought in the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa. He is a Jewish cultural historian whose work has been devoted to the intersections of Kabbalah, magic, and science in the early modern period. In the last decade, he has become the leading scholar of visual Kabbalah, having founded The Ilanot Project and published the first major work on the previously unstudied genre of ilanot (scrolls featuring the arboreal diagram commonly known as the "Tree of life"). He is the author of Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism and The Kabbalistic Tree.[1] In 2013, he was elected to the Executive Board of the World Union for Jewish Studies, where he serves as Division Chair for rabbinic literature, Jewish law, and Jewish thought.[2]