From the Maccabees to the Mishnah by Shaye J.D. Cohen

He has been honored by appointment as Croghan Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion (Williams College), the Louis Jacobs Lecturer (Oxford University), the David M. Cohen has received several honors for his work, including an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary and various fellowships. He has also appeared on educational television, including From Jesus to Christ and Nova on PBS, Mysteries of the Bible on A&E, and various programs on the History Channel. He is perhaps best known for From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (1987 second edition 2006), which is widely used as a textbook in colleges and adult education, and his The Beginnings of Jewishness (1999), which has been widely discussed in scholarly circles. He has recently published a study of circumcision and gender in Judaism, entitled Why aren't Jewish Women Circumcised? (2005).

Cohen has written or edited ten books and over sixty articles.

What makes a Jew a Jew, and what makes a non-Jew a non-Jew? Can a non-Jew become a Jew, and can a Jew become a non-Jew? How does the Jewish boundary between Jew and non-Jew compare with the Jewish boundary between male Jew and female Jew? On these and other subjects Prof. Cohen's research is the boundary between Jews and gentiles and between Judaism and its surrounding cultures. in Ancient History, with distinction, from Columbia University in 1975. Cohen began his career at the Jewish Theological Seminary where he was ordained and for many years was the Dean of the Graduate School and Shenkman Professor of Jewish History. Cohen was for ten years the Samuel Ungerleider Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. Before arriving at Harvard in July 2001, Prof. This is one of the oldest and most distinguished professorships of Jewish studies in the United States. Professor Cohen is the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University.

From the Maccabees to the Mishnah by Shaye J.D. Cohen