Eliyahu Lizorkin-Eyzenberg
President and Professor of Ancient Cultures
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Eliyahu Lizorkin-Eyzenberg holds a Ph.D. degree in Ancient Cultures from Stellenbosch University (2011). He serves as serves as the president of the Israel Study Center and holds a position of research fellow at the Galilee Center for Jewish-Christian Relations at the Jezreel Valley Academic College in Northern Israel.
His academic research is in New Testament, focused on recovering its the various contextual and cultural backgrounds without which it is not possible to understand the true meanings of its ancient words.
He lives with his wife Marina and their children in Tel Mond, Israel.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Yeshaya Gruber
Professor of Jewish History
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Yeshaya Gruber holds a Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University. He has traveled widely and held research and teaching positions in Jerusalem, Athens and Sydney. Currently, he is Professor of Jewish History at the Israel Study Center and a Research Associate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His professional academic work engages with a variety of topics related to the history of Jewish people.
His research focuses primarily on the long history of Jewish-Christian relations and on their interaction during medieval and early modern times.
Yeshaya lives with his family in a woodland village on the outskirts of Jerusalem.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Faydra Shapiro
Professor of Jewish-Christian Relations and Academic Advisor to the President
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Dr. Faydra Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew with a lifelong interest in Christianity. She holds a PhD in Religious Studies from McMaster University and directs the work of Israel Center for Jewish-Christian Relations.
Faydra began her career as a university professor in Canada in a department of Religion and Culture, where she worked for 13 years. Her first book won a National Jewish Book Award in 2006, and her second book on Christian Zionism was published last year. Faydra also writes regular academic articles and popular op-eds on Jewish-Christian relations. After immigrating to Israel with her family in 2008, Faydra was eager to bring her academic expertise, unique experience, warmth and charismatic teaching together to have an impact on the ground, in Israel.
Faydra is passionate about building greater understanding between Jews and Christians, and knows firsthand how we can strengthen one another in our own traditions. She is also a committed wife and mother. She and her husband Shaul, together with their six children live in a tiny little community on a hilltop in the Galilee.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
David Friedman
Professor of Jewish Studies
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]David Friedman earned his Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies at California Graduate School of Theology. He is a resident of Jerusalem, a Messianic Rabbi, ordained by the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. Dr. Freidman served as a Dean at Israel College of the Bible and continues to lecture at Messianic Jewish Theological Institute.
Dr. Friedman has authored several books: “They Loved the Torah: What Yeshua’s Followers Really Thought about the Law”, “Sudden Terror: Exposing Militant Islam’s War Against the United States and Israel”. His most recent book is a commentary on the book of James: “James the Just: Presents Applications of the Torah”.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Kathleen Troost-Cramer
Professor of Biblical Studies
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Kathleen Troost-Cramer holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Boston University. She presently teaches Bible courses online for several colleges and universities, including the Notre Dame University and Providence College.
Her academic interests are focused on recovering the Jewish Background of New Testament and on the long history of Jewish-Christian relations.
Kathleen currently resides in the USA.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Noel Rabinowitz
Professor of Biblical Studies
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Noel Rabinowitz earned his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He served as Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at The King’s College in New York City for ten years.
Dr. Rabinowitz’s academic focus is the Gospel of Matthew and its first-century Jewish community in the land of Israel. Rabinowitz also seeks to integrate his biblical research with contemporary issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the problem of theological supersessionism.
He and his wife reside in Israel, in the city of Rishon LeZion.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Yonatan Allon
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Yonatan Allon holds an M.A. in Jewish Studies from Washington University located in St. Louis.
His academic interests include issues in translation, particularly those related to Biblical texts, and the historical development of the Hebrew language. He is passionate about the Hebrew and the importance of its study for both Jews and Christians. Yonatan collects and studies rare Hebrew translations of the New Testament writings that date from the 16th-19th centuries.
Yonatan lives with his wife and two young daughters in northern Israel.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Pinchas Shir
Associate Professor of Ancient Cultures
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Prof. Pinchas Shir is currently working on finishing his Ph.D. dissertation at the department of Religion at Groningen University in Netherlands.
His area of academic interest is in intercultural meals, table interactions between Jews and non-Jews in antiquity, as well as dining culture and ancient culinary contexts in general. Pinchas is also keenly interested in Ancient Mediterranean and Israelite archaeology of the Second Temple era.
He currently resides in North America, but lectures internationally and online.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Cheryl Durham
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Cheryl Durham earned her Ph.D. in New Testament Culture at The Theological Research Institute at the Master’s International University of Divinity where she is a professor of NT History and Culture.
She is the founding Executive Director of Living Truth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of an authentic Biblical Worldview, since 2006, and teaches in-person and online classes in NT culture to various groups in the U.S. Dr. Durham’s academic research interest concentrates on the first-century cultural climate and its implications for today’s believers.
Cheryl and her husband live in the Northeast U.S.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Rabbi Ross Singer
Associate Professor of Jewish Studies
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Ross received his rabbinic ordination from the chief Rabbi of Haifa, Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen and the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Maale Gilboa, Rabbi David Bigman.
He is a graduate of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows, a Hartman Institute Senior Rabbinic Fellow, and received an MA in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Ross served as Rabbi of Shaarey Tefilah Synagogue in Vancouver Canada from 1996-2004 years and Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Baltimore from 2006 -2010.
He made aliyah to Israel in 2010 and currently lives with his family on Kibbutz Maale Gilboa.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Igal German
Professor of Hebrew Bible
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Igal German earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible at St. Michael’s College of the University of Toronto. He completed his BA and MA in Biblical Literature in Israel (University of Haifa). His research and teaching interests range from the Book of Genesis and its history of interpretation to the New Testament as Second Temple Jewish writings. His book The Fall Reconsidered got recently published by Wipf & Stock.
Dr. German currently lives and works in the United States in the city of Chicago.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
Lisa Loden
Professor of Reconciliation Studies
[email protected][/text_output][accordion id=”” class=”” style=””][accordion_item parent_id=”” title=”Read Bio” id=”” class=”” style=””]Lisa Loden serves on the Musalaha Reconciliation Ministries Advisory Board and is co-chair of the Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation in Israel-Palestine, is on the board of the Israel Bible Society, and is member of the Helsinki Consultation steering committee. In 2014, together with Salim Munayer she co-authored Through My Enemies Eyes- envisioning reconciliation in Israel-Palestine. Together with her husband David, in 1977 she co-founded Messianic congregation Beit Asaph in Netanya, Israel. From 2002-2007 she was the Director of the Caspari Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. She was a member of the International Board of Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism from 1999-2007, was board chair of the local board of Christian Witness to Israel from 2004-2015, was board chair of the Fellowship of Christian Students in Israel from 2007-2015. She served on the faculty of the Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary from 2008-2012 and headed their Leadership Development Program. From 2000 – 2016, when the group disbanded, she was member of the Roman Catholic/Messianic Theological Group and served on the steering committee from 2010.
From 2012 she works as a Project Manager with Israel Firstfruits Center for Economic Advancement. She has one daughter and two granddaughters.[/accordion_item][/accordion]
