Research Fields

• Jewish Studies
• Medieval Studies
• Jewish-Christian Relations
• Medieval Jewish History
• Jewish Thought
• Jews of Medieval Spain
• Medieval Iberia
• Jews of Medieval France (Southern France)
• Religious Conversion
• Polemics and Apologetics
• Jewish mysticism
• Holocaust Studies

About

Prof. Ram Ben-Shalom is Professor of Jewish History and co-editor of the Hispania Judaica Bulletin. Since October 2021, Ben-Shalom has served as the Chair of the department of the History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published widely on medieval European Jewish history and is a specialist in the Jewish–Christian discourse of the Middle Ages.

 

Selected Publications

R. Ben-Shalom, Facing Christian Culture: Historical Consciousness and Images of the Past among the Jews of Spain and Southern France during the Middle Ages [Hebrew], 2006, Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

R. Ben-Shalom, Medieval Jews and the Christian Past: Jewish Historical Consciousness in Spain and Southern France, The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford 2016.

R. Ben-Shalom, The Jews of Provence: Renaissance in the Shadow of the Church [Hebrew], The Open University of Israel, Raanana 2017.

Forthcoming, an English translation: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Liverpool University Press); In editing. 

R. Ben-Shalom, The Letter of Salomea, Carmel. Publishing House, Jerusalem (forthcoming). [Hebrew].

R. Ben-Shalom, “The First Jewish Work on the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Virtues,” Mediaeval Studies, 75 (2013), pp. 205-270.

 

Selected Awards

2007 - Samuel Toledano Prize by the Misgav Institute in Jerusalem was awarded to the book "Facing Christian Culture: Historical Consciousness and Images of the Past among the Jews of Spain and Southern France during the Middle Ages (2006)", for its contribution to the Sephardi past in its Christian context.

2018 – Ben Zvi Institute Prize for the book "The Jews of Provence: Renaissance in the Shadow of the Church (2017)".

2019 - "Am Olam" Prize of the Historical Society of Israel for the book "The Jews of Provence: Renaissance in the Shadow of the Church (2017)".

 

Teaching

Bachelor's degree courses

The Jewish Renaissance in Medieval Provence

Jewish-Christian Polemics: History & Literature

Introduction to the History of the Jews in Spain

The Jews of Provence: Troubadours, Heretics and Mystics

The Jewish Culture in the 13th Century - A New World?

Jewish-Christian Encounter and Polemics

Under the Cross: Jewish Life in Medieval Europe

The Jews of Provence: Renaissance and Crisis

Facing the Cross: A Journey in Provence

Eros Romantics and Medieval Misogyny

 

Master's degree courses

The Jews in 15th Century Spain: Crisis or Flourishing?

The New language of Conversion in Christian Spain

Who is a Jew in Fifteenth Century Spain? Anusim, Jews and Christians

The Jews in Provence and the Mediterranean Sea.

History and Jewish Literature in Medieval Texts.

The Challenges of the 15th Century: Criticism and Intellectual Innovation