Dr. Miriam Feldmann-Kaye

Dr Miriam Feldmann-Kaye is Senior Lecturer the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Bar Ilan University, where she serves on the faculty as Academic Head of the Maayan Institute for Sustainability and Jewish Philosophy. Feldmann-Kaye is Visiting Associate Professor at Jewish Theological Seminary and she is Editor in Chief of Judaism for the new St Andrews University Encyclopaedia of Jewish Theology.

A winner of the University of Cambridge Theological Studies Prize, Feldmann-Kaye holds a BA from the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University. At Gonville and Caius College Cambridge she won a prize for Contribution to College Life. She gained her MA from the University of London, and her PhD in Jewish Thought from the University of Haifa summa cum laude. She was appointed a Lady Davis Post-Doctoral Fellow, and subsequently a Post-Doctoral Associate Fellow at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and Reconciliation, both at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The 2025 winner of the Riklis Prize for Academic Excellence, Feldmann-Kaye’s fields of research span modern and contemporary Jewish philosophy, continental philosophy of religion, the Study of Religion and interreligious theology, with an expertise in the schools of thought of Existentialism, deconstructionism and hermeneutics. Her scholarly works in top publications include her Jewish theological studies of the concept of “Anatheism” via Buber, Rosenzweig, Ricoeur and Derrida; the Phenomenology of Time According to Abraham Joshua Heschel and the philosopher Edmund Husserl; the deconstructionist post-Holocaust theology of Derrida and Cixous, and more.

Feldmann-Kaye's first book, “Jewish Theology for a Postmodern Age,” was published by Liverpool University Press in association with the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Her second book, a co-edited volume with Professor Ben Pazi on the philosophy of Rav Shagar, “Illuminated Fragments: The New Jewish Philosophy of Rav Shagar” was published in 2024.

She has delivered lectures, presented research and participated in conferences and workshops at internationally renowned institutions, such as at the World Congress of Philosophy (Italy) the Association for the Continental Philosophy of Religion (UK), Study of Religions Academy (Finland) and in addition to this at places of theological and Jewish significance, such as the Rosenzweig Society (Portugal) and the European Congress of Jewish Studies (Germany). In 2025 she will participate in Georgetown University's working group on Jewish Thought in Washington DC, lecture at Yeshiva University in New York, and participate in the Oxford University Religions Symposium.

A dedicated student of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Feldmann-Kaye co-organised the international academic conference dedicated to Rabbi Sacks in 2023 at Bar Ilan University, and was recently appointed as a “Sacks Scholar” by the Rabbi Sacks Legacy. At Bar Ilan University's Jonathan Sacks Institute, Feldmann-Kaye will serve on its main faculty. She has two forthcoming articles on the philosophy and theology of Rabbi Sacks at Modern Judaism and Tradition. Her 'Mooc' ('massive online open course') on the thought of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks will go live in 2025 and is set to attract thousands of participants worldwide. She serves on numerous committees such as the Laboratory for Interreligious Studies at Haifa University, the Israel Academy for the Study of Religions annual conference, the Matanel Research Group for Continental Jewish Philosophy, as well as in her community for schools and youth movements.

Feldmann-Kaye is a member of the Beit Hillel Rabbinic Institute and a Fellow of Ohr Torah Stone's Interfaith Centre for Religious Leaders. She previously founded and co-directed the Middle East branch of the Faith and Belief Forum, pioneering interreligious programmes between Muslims, Christians, Jews and Druze around Israel and abroad. In this capacity she received several grants for interfaith relations which she led in collaboration with scholars at Van Leer Institute, and at universities around the world.

Feldmann-Kaye was listed in the “Top 70 British People Shaping the Modern State of Israel” by the UJIA and Jewish News, and appears on the Aliya 100 List. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband, two daughters, and two sons.