Jewish history

history of science

postmodern theory

Holocaust

Education

• Ph.D., M.A., Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• B.A., History, New York University

Research Interests 

Samuel Kessler’s research focuses on the interaction of religion and modernity in European history and literature, and he has written on topics in Jewish history, the history of science, travel writing, postmodern theory, Holocaust, and American literature. He is the author of "The First Modern Rabbi: The Life and Times of the Nineteenth-Century Scholar and Preacher Adolf Jellinek" (Brown Judaic Studies, 2022) and co-editor (with Prof. George Y. Kohler, Bar-Ilan) of "Modern Jewish Theology: The First One Hundred Years, 1835-1935" (JPS/Nebraska, 2023). He is currently editing two books—the travel diary of James George Frazer and an essay collection on modern Jewish theology (also with Prof. Kohler)—and writing a book on modern midrash.  

Selected Publications 

• Samuel J. Kessler and George Y. Kohler, eds., "Modern Jewish Theology: Writings from the First Hundred Years, 1835-1935." JPS Anthologies of Jewish Thought. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2023.  
• Emanuel Fiano and Samuel J. Kessler, “‘My Program is Still Broader Than the Sea:’ The Scholem-Heschel Correspondence, 1940-1953,” New German Critique 148, vol. 50, no. 1 (February 2023): 179-210.
• “‘Let There Be No Strife Between Me and You’: On the Relationship Between Judaism and Christianity in an 1859 Sermon by Adolf Jellinek,” in Religious Knowledge and Positioning, ed. David Käbisch, Christian Wiese, and Kerstin von der Krone (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023).
• "The Formation of a Modern Rabbi: The Life and Times of the Viennese Scholar and Preacher Adolf Jellinek." Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2022.
• “‘My Father’s Face:’ Judaism, God, and Ritual Practice in Philip Roth’s Nemesis, Indignation, and Everyman,” Studies in American Jewish Literature 41, no. 1 (2022): 34-59.

Affiliations 

• American Academy of Religion
• Association for Jewish Studies
• German Studies Association
• Lawrence Durrell Society
• Philip Roth Society