Marc B. Shapiro

Not to be confused with Mark Shapiro.

Marc B. Shapiro (Hebrew: מלך שפירא, born 1966) is a professor and the author of various books and articles on Jewish history, philosophy, theology, and rabbinic literature.

Marc B. Shapiro

Education and career

Shapiro received his BA at Brandeis University and his PhD at Harvard University, where he was the last PhD student of Professor Isadore Twersky. He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Ephraim Greenblatt. Shapiro's father is Edward S. Shapiro, who has published books on American history and American Jewish history.

Shapiro holds the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton. Shapiro is an on-line lecturer for Torah in Motion, for which he also leads Jewish history tours to Europe, Morocco, and Tunisia. He often writes for the Seforim Blog.

Shapiro has been a resident of West Orange, New Jersey.^[1]

Writing

Shapiro's writings often challenge the bounds of the conventional Orthodox understanding of Judaism, using academic methodology while adhering to Modern Orthodox sensibilities. His publications have had mixed reception, ranging from criticism within the American publication Jewish Action,^[2] to support throughout the spectrum of Modern Orthodoxy ^{[citation needed]}.

Shapiro's book, Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg,^[3] a biography of Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. His second book, The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised,^[4] also a National Jewish Book Award finalist, argued against the popular Orthodox belief that Maimonides Thirteen Principles of Faith have always been regarded as unquestionable dogma.^[5] Gidon Rothstein, writing in the Association for Jewish Studies Review, called the book's collection of sources "remarkable."^[6]

Shapiro's 2006 book, Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox, discusses how the Orthodox world related to Saul Lieberman, who was a recognized talmudic scholar who chose to teach at the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Shapiro's 2008 book, Studies in Maimonides and His Interpreters, looks at how Maimonides has been understood in both the traditional and the academic worlds. It also deals with Maimonides' attitude towards superstition.

In 2015, Shapiro's book Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History,^[7] was released, documenting the phenomenon of internal censorship in Orthodoxy; where Adam Ferziger said the book "is the outstanding product of a master of rabbinic literature and an extraordinarily sharp-eyed and meticulous scholar."^[8] Yair Hoffman, writing in the Hareidi online website Yeshiva World News, criticized the book, saying that "there is a plethora of material that simply should not have been included in the book because it does not back up his thesis."^[9] Ezra Glinter, writing in The Forward, praised Shapiro's "evenhanded, evidence-heavy approach" and that he was not a "polemicist," but said "his argument could also have benefited from a more critical thrust."^[10]

In 2019 Shapiro published Iggerot Malkhei Rabbanan which contains more than thirty years of correspondence with some of the world's most outstanding Torah scholars.

Books, Articles, Lectures

• Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884–1966 (London, 1999)
• Collected Writings of R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 2 Volumes (Scranton, 1998, 2003)
• The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised (Oxford, 2004)
• Saul Lieberman and the Orthodox (Scranton, 2006)
• Studies in Maimonides and His Interpreters (Scranton, 2008)
• Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History (Oxford, 2015)
• Iggerot Malkhei Rabbanan (Scranton, 2019)
• Shapiro posts at the Seforim Blog
• Shapiro series on the Mir Yeshiva escape to Shanghai
• Shapiro series on Saul Lieberman
• Shapiro series on his latest book, Iggerot Malkhei Rabbanan
• Shapiro series on the rise of Reform and the rabbinic response
• Shapiro series on Zechariah Frankel and the Positive-Historical School
• Shapiro series on Rav Soloveitchik's letters
• Shapiro series on Rabbi Seligmann Baer Bamberger
• Shapiro series on the Mussar Dispute
• Shapiro podcasts, "Jewish History Uncensored"
• Shapiro class on kitniyot
• Shapiro class on Torah study on Christmas Eve
• Shapiro class on Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim
• Shapiro class on Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh
• Shapiro class on Rabbi Shalom Messas
• Shapiro class on Rabbi Joseph Kafih
• Shapiro class on Rabbi Shlomo Goren
• Shapiro class on Judaism and Islam
• Shapiro lecture on Rabbi Joseph Messas
• Shapiro lecture on Rabbi Jacob Israel Kanievsky (The Steipler)
• Shapiro lecture on Rabbi Zvi Yehuda and the Hazon Ish
• Shapiro lecture on Issues of Dogma in Recent Orthodox Literature
• Shapiro lecture on Subjectivity and the Role of Values in Halakhah
• Shapiro discussion of R. Esriel Hildesheimer and women's education
• Seforim Chatter interview
• Seforim Chatter interview, "Was there a Herem to Live in Spain?"
• Credo 13
• Shapiro Academia page

References

1. Ginsberg, Johanna. "Local scholar organizes conference on history of Modern Orthodoxy" 2013-09-16 at the Wayback Machine, New Jersey Jewish News, June 1, 2006. Accessed June 28, 2018. "A West Orange scholar is the co-organizer of the first-ever conference in America on the history of Modern Orthodoxy, to be held June 13–15 in Scranton, Pa. Marc B. Shapiro, who holds the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Scranton, said the conference will take a historical view of the movement in order to explore its meaning for today."
2. Leff, Zev. "Dual Book Review: The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised by Marc B. Shapiro and Even Shisiya on the Thirteen Principles of the Rambam by Rabbi Yochanan Meir Bechhofer" (PDF). Jewish Action. Summer 67 (2007). Orthodox Union: 91–110. Retrieved September 27, 2020. I cannot recommend it to the general public, who can be easily misled by some of the questionable theses in this book. For the discerning reader who will carefully check the sources, this book will provide an interesting historical perspective as to the various opinions surrounding the Thirteen Principles.
3. Shapiro, Marc B. (June 1, 2002). Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy: The Life and Works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, 1884-1966. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford. ISBN 978-1874774914.
4. Shapiro, Marc B. (2004). The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised. The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford. ISBN 978-1906764234.
5. Shapiro, Marc B. (1993). "Maimonides' Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?". The Torah U-Madda Journal. 4 (1993). Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University: 187–242. JSTOR 40914883. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
6. Rothstein, Gidon (2005-04-01). "Marc B. Shapiro. The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised. The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 221 pp". AJS Review. 29 (1): 169–171. doi:10.1017/S0364009405260099. ISSN 1475-4541. S2CID 161234673.
7. Shapiro, Marc B. (2015). Changing the Immutable: How Orthodox Judaism Rewrites Its History. The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford. ISBN 978-1904113607.
8. [1] "The Sagacious Scholar and the Censor"
9. "Book Review: Marc Shapiro's "Changing the Immutable"". Retrieved 2017-02-26.
10. Glinter, Ezra (2015-07-13). "Orthodoxy's Inconvenient Truths". The Forward. Retrieved 2017-03-05.