Noah Tetenbaum studies Jewish and Islamic history broadly and the dynamics of interreligious boundaries and exchange in the late-antique and medieval Near Eastern milieu. His current research focuses on the Karaites, the largest anti-rabbinic Jewish community in history, as well as concepts of sacrifice in medieval Jewish and Islamic thought. Tetenbaum’s research interests additionally include scriptural interpretation, mysticism, and ideas of orthodoxy and heresy across religious traditions, from ancient times to the present. He will be offering courses covering these topics over the course of the current academic year. Tetenbaum previously taught at Brown University and Smith College before coming to Kenyon.

Areas of Expertise

Jewish Studies, Islamic Studies

Education

2025 — Doctor of Philosophy from Brown University

2019 — Master of Arts from Brown University

2012 — Bachelor of Arts from Grinnell College

Courses Recently Taught

This course includes brief introductions to four or five major religious traditions while exploring concepts and categories used in the study of religion, such as sacredness, myth, ritual, religious experience and social dimensions of religion. Traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Native American traditions may be presented through important texts and practices. This counts toward the 100-level introduction to religious studies course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.

This course introduces the process by which Judaism became a religious tradition, particularly in the late ancient and medieval world. This period marked the rise of rabbis as an authoritative source of Jewish knowledge, tasked with updating biblical laws for their contemporary communities after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E. This course explains how rabbis created the major features of present-day Judaism — holidays, kosher and Sabbath laws, gender roles, charity/tzedakah, liturgy, and Jewish identity — and created their own power and authority at the same time. Attention is paid to Jewish debates, Jewish-Christian discourses, Jews as post-colonial subjects within historically contextual empires, and the ways ordinary Jews navigated rabbinic and non-Jewish power. By the end of this course, students have a sense of how "traditional Judaism" was created. No prior knowledge of Hebrew or Judaism is necessary. This counts toward the religious traditions requirement as Judaism. No prerequisite. Offered every two years.