Benjamin Steiner
Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies
Benjamin Steiner received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University, where his dissertation examined the Jewish marriage contract as a window into Jewish social history. His first book, Translating the Ketubah: The Jewish Marriage Contract in America and England, was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2025. His research focuses on American Jewish life and the institutional history of modern Judaism. Steiner has published in Modern Judaism, American Jewish History, and the American Jewish Archives Journal, and his current projects include a study of American Jewish movements in the 1950s and a guide to teaching Judaism at the college level. He has taught courses in Jewish tradition, American Jewish history, Jewish feminism, literature, spirituality, and mysticism.
Recent Courses Taught
American Jewish History
Ancient Jewish Wisdom
Research Interests
American Jewish history, Jewish marriage law, Jewish gender and women's studies, Conservative Judaism, pastoral care, Jewish social history
Distinctions
- Nahum and Anne Glatzer Endowed Prize (best doctoral dissertation in NEJS), Brandeis University (2020)
- Leo Wasserman Endowed Graduate Fellowship, Brandeis University (2015–2020)
- Scholar-in-Residence, Hadassah Brandeis Institute (2019)
- Bancroft Library Robert E. Levinson Fellowship, UC Berkeley (2018)
- Starkoff Fellow, American Jewish Archives (2018)
Selected Publications
Books
-
Translating the Ketubah: The Jewish Marriage Contract in America and England (Alabama University Press, 2025)
Peer-reviewed Articles
- “The Battle for the Souls of Indian Jews” Modern Judaism (February 2026)
- “Postscript on the Charleston Shtar Halitzah.” American Jewish Archives Journal 73:1 (2021): 66- 77.
- “The Lieberman Clause Revisited.” American Jewish Archives Journal 69:1 (2017): 41-70.
- “Victorian Jewry, Religious Reform, and the Ketubah of the British Chief Rabbinate.” Modern Judaism 37:3 (October 2017): 316-337.
Professional Affiliations
Association for Jewish Studies
American Academy of Religion
Appointed to the Faculty
2026Educational Background
Ph.D., Brandeis University
M.A., Jewish Theological Seminary
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles
