Eric Lawee

Eric Lawee holds a Ph. D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civiliations.  His served in Stanford University 's Religious Studies Department and is now an Associate Professor in York University 's Division of Humanities and Centre for Jewish Studies.

Lawee's scholarly interests center on Judaism in medieval and early modern times, taking in various centers, southern Mediterranean ones especially, with a special focus on Spain .  They embrace a diversity of literary genres and encompass such subject-areas as biblical interpretation, messianism, and the dynamics of medieval Jewish-Christian social and intellectual interaction.

Lawee's first book ( Isaac Abarbanel's Stance Toward Tradition: Defense, Dissent, and Dialogue [ Albany , 2001]) won a Canadian Jewish Book Award for Biblical and Rabbinic Scholarship.  It was a finalist in the area of Scholarship for a National Jewish Book Award (USA).  The book explores the religious configuration of Isaac Abarbanel from the integrating perspective of his negotiations with texts and teachings bequeathed to him from the Jewish past.  Lawee is currently doing research into Sephardic attitudes towards Rashi's Commentary on the Torah and the process whereby Rashi's commentary achieved "canonical" status in premodern Judaism.