Scienceמנחם לורברבוים

Menachem Lorberbaum

Menachem Lorberbaum is an Israeli professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University who studies religion, state and politics in the Jewish tradition.

born 1958Jewish political thought researchThe Jewish Political Tradition seriesFounding Tel Aviv's Hebrew Culture departmentHebrew poetry

Born: 14 March 1958, New York City
Occupation: historian, poet, docent
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Menachem Lorberbaum was born in 1958 in New York City

Menachem Lorberbaum was born in New York City on March 14, 1958, to Yosef Lorberbaum and Rachel née Yulus. On his father's side he descends from Rabbi Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa, author of Netivot HaMishpat. His family returned to Israel when he was 11, and he grew up in Jerusalem.

He studied at the Bnei Akiva yeshiva Netiv Meir, at Mercaz HaRav and at the Har Etzion hesder yeshiva. He later studied with David Hartman and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earning a master's degree in 1988. His doctorate, on politics and the limits of law in medieval Jewish thought, was supervised by Aviezer Ravitzky and Michael Walzer.

He began teaching at Tel Aviv University, where he founded the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies and became chair of the School of Philosophy. He is a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. His books include Politics and the Limits of Law, and he co-edits the Jewish Political Tradition series and edited a Hebrew translation of Hobbes' Leviathan.

He has published three volumes of Hebrew poetry. In 2002 he was among the founders of the Shira Hadasha synagogue in Jerusalem. He sits on the board of the New Israel Fund, lives in Jerusalem and has 3 children.