Stephen P. Garfinkel

Assistant Professor Emeritus of Bible and Its Interpretation
Department: Bible, Jewish Education, Ancient Semitic Languages
Phone: (212) 678-8042
Email: stgarfinkel@jtsa.edu
Building Room: Schiff 508
Office Hours: By Appointment
BIOGRAPHY
BA, University of Pennsylvania; MA, Rabbinical Ordination, and DHL (hon.), The Jewish Theological Seminary; MA and PhD, Columbia University
Dr. Stephen Garfinkel has previously served as a visiting faculty member at Yale University and Hunter College. While serving as educational coordinator for United Synagogue Youth, Dr. Garfinkel wrote and/or edited more than 15 books on Jewish education. He is a member of the Association for Jewish Studies, Columbia University Hebrew Biblical Seminar, and the Society of Biblical Literature. Dr. Garfinkel’s scholarly publications have appeared in a variety of journals, including Vetus Testamentum, Conservative Judaism, and the Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society.
Dr. Garfinkel has received many academic awards throughout his career, including a JTS Stroock Faculty Fellowship, a Dancinger Fellowship, and grants from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. For more than two decades, he was dean of The Graduate School of JTS; and, for several years, he was chair of the Council on Graduate Studies in Religion.
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS
- JTS Stroock Faculty Fellowship
- Dancinger Fellowship
- National Foundation for Jewish Culture
Publications
- “Conservative Jewish Bible Interpretation.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation. Oxford University Press, 2013.
- “Burning Bush, II: Judaism.” In Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, vol. 4. Walter de Gruyter, 2012.
- “Ecclesiastes.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible. Oxford University Press, 2011.
- “Clearing Peshat and Derash.” In Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation, edited by Magne Sæbø.
- “Moses: Man of Israel, Man of God.” In Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, edited by David Lieber. Jewish Publication Society, 2001.
- “The Man Moses, the Leader Moses.” In Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and Reality, edited by Jack Wertheimer. The JTS Press, 2014.
- “Qoheleth: The Philosopher Means Business.” In Bringing the Hidden to Light: Studies in Honor of Stephen A. Geller, edited by Kathryn Kravitz and Diane Sharon. Amer Oriental Society, 2007.
Lectures
- “How True Is the Torah?”
- “How to Read the Bible and How Not To”
- “Moses and God: Face to Face”
- “Biblical Prophecy: Why It Began and Why It Ended”
- “Qohelet [Ecclesiastes]: Pessimist or Optimist?”
- “A Convincing Prophet: The Persuasive Techniques of Amos”
- The Conservative Movement and Study of Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible)
- Classical Jewish Texts
- Modes of Biblical Interpretation
- Biblical Prophecy
Research
Dr. Garfinkel’s current research is focused on early popular perceptions of Moses as a divine figure.