Laura Arnold Leibman 鈥 2025 Sondra & Howard Bender Visiting Scholar

Laura Arnold LeibmanLaura Arnold Leibman is the听Leonard J. Milberg '53 Professor in American Jewish Studies.听Her work focuses religion and the daily lives of women and children in early America and uses everyday objects to help bring their stories back to life.听She is听President of the Association for Jewish Studies, and the author of the author of听The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects听(Bard Graduate Center, 2020) which won three National Jewish Book Awards. Her earlier book听Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life听(2012) won a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award and a National Jewish Book Award. Her most recent monograph,听Once We Were Slaves听(Oxford UP, 2021) was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award and the听Saul Viener Book Prize, and is about an early multiracial Jewish family who began their lives enslaved in the Caribbean and became some of the wealthiest Jews in New York. She is currently working on a book about Jews and textiles during the long nineteenth century.

In 2012, the Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholars Endowed Fund听was established to help bring leading scholars in Jewish culture, history, language and religion to CU campuses to further the curricular goals of CU鈥檚 Program in Jewish Studies. 听Attending lectures by leading scholars in this growing field provides students with the opportunity to learn from a broad range of academics. 听In addition, visiting lecturers create a unique opportunity for the Program in Jewish Studies and CU to engage both students and the local community. 听Public lectures catalyze discussions that include participants from a wide variety of backgrounds, enhancing students鈥 ability to think about issues beyond the walls of the classroom.