Ari Mermelstein is Associate Professor of Bible and Second Temple Literature at Yeshiva University and Chair of the Department of Bible, Hebrew, and Near Eastern Studies at Yeshiva College. He holds a PhD in Ancient Jewish History from NYU's Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and a JD from NYU Law School. He is also the assistant director of the YU Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization and the Israeli Supreme Court Project, both of which are based at Cardozo Law School. Dr. Mermelstein’s most recent book, Power and Emotion in Ancient Judaism: Community and Identity in Formation, published by Cambridge University Press, was selected as a finalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Award in the category of scholarship. He is also the author of Creation, Covenant, and the Beginnings of Judaism: Reconceiving Historical Time in the Second Temple Period (Brill), which focuses on conceptions of history in the Second Temple period. Dr. Mermelstein has been teaching at Yeshiva University since 2007 and has twice been voted the William L. and Lillian Silber Professor of the Year in Yeshiva College.
