I am Israeli born and a permanent resident of the UK. I obtained my BA and PhD in Jewish History from University College London, where I am now Reader (Associate Professor) in Jewish History and Head (since 2002) of the department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies. I had previously taught at Oxford University's Oriental Institute, and, over the years, have held various Visiting Professorships and Research Fellowships at e.g. Harvard Divinity School, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania's Institute of Advanced Judaic Studies, and Ludwig-Maximilans University, Munich. I am also past President of the British Association for Jewish Studies. I have published extensively on various aspects, including gender, of Hasidism and Sabbateanism, and am currently heading two major 5-year long collaborative research projects, on the Aramaic language of the Zohar, and on the Jewishpress in inter-war Czernovitz respectively.
I have two books forthcoming with the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, one - an English version of my Hebrew monograph (published 2001) on women in Sabbateanism, and the other, Female Bodies - Male Souls, on asceticism and gender in the Jewish mystical tradition.
