Research Fellow – Dr. Orr Scharf
Dr. Orr Scharf teaches at the Cultural Studies M.A. Program at The University of Haifa. His research explores the cross-fertilization of ideas and methodologies between Jewish and Christian thinkers, and the ways in which the historical evolution of the two faiths—from antiquity through the modern era—has shaped modern discourses in philosophy, theology, and related disciplines. He is author of Thinking in Translation: Scripture and Redemption in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig (De Gruyter, 2019), and editor of volume 5 in the critical edition of Martin Buber’s complete works, Vorlesungen über Judentum und Christentum (Gütersloh, 2017). He has published articles on topics such as translation and cultural appropriation, theology and political thought, and on the impossibility of translation.
Education
2010 – 2015 The University of Haifa, PhD, (Philosophy)
2008 The University of Haifa, M.A., (Philosophy)
2004 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Preparatory year for M.A., Philosophy
2003 The University of Melbourne, Australia, BMus, The Faculty of Music. Major: Musicology
Full CV
Books:
Thinking in Translation: Scripture and Redemption in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig. Berlin: De Gruyter 2019
Journal Articles:
- “A Tale of Light and Darkness: Martin Buber’s Gnostic Canon and the Birth of Theo-Politics.” Religions Special Issue: “Religion and Modern Jewish Thought. 10.4, 2019.
Chapters in Refereed Books
- “Taking Josephus Personally: The Curious Case of Emanuel bin Gorion.” In ed. Andrea Schatz. Preface by Martin Goodman, Tessa Rajak and Andrea Schatz. The Reception of Josephus in Modern Jewish Culture. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019, pp.281-308.
- ‘“Bleakness in the Age of Google: Walter Benjamin and the Possibility of Redemptive Translation.” In eds. Madeleine Kasten and Gerard Visser. Benjamin Figures: Dialogues on the Vocation of the Humanities. Nordhausen: Verlag Bautz Traugott, 2018, pp.237-258.
- “Overcoming Untranslatability: Walter Benjamin’s Das Paris des Second Empire bei Baudelaire as a Translation Project.” In eds. Sonja Klein, Karl Solibakke, Bernd Witte: Benjamin’s Translation. Benjamins Übersetzung. Benjamin – Blätter Bd. 7. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 2018, pp.135-162.
- “Whose Bible is it Anyway? The Buber-Rosenzweig Translation as a Bible for Christian Readers.” In eds. Magdalena Waligorska and Tara Kohn, Jewish Translation – Translating Jewishness. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018, pp.39-68.
Work in Progress:
Journal Articles
- ‘“From Sinai to ‘This Day’: Hermann Cohen’s and Franz Rosenzweig’s Recasting of the Giving of the Torah.” (Shortlisted for the Joel and Jeane Novak Essay Contest in Jewish Thought). Jewish Quarterly Review.
- Meeting the Eternal Thou at the Corner Shop: Reflections on the Role of the Intellectual Historian in light of Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent. Chidushim: Studies in the History of German and Central European Jewry.
- Franz Delitzsch’s Hebrew Translation of the New Testament and the Revival of the Hebrew Language.