Portrait of Rabbi Sharon Shalom

Dr. Shalom Z. Sharon

Senior Lecturer & Director of the International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry at Ono Academic College in Israel

About

Rabbi Dr. Sharon Z. Shalom immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia on his own at the age of about nine. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, where he received his rabbinic ordination. Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom has a broad education in theology and philosophy. His M.A. thesis was on “Circumcision in the Beta Israel Community,” and his Ph.D. thesis was on “Judaism of Fate? A Case Study on Theology of the Ethiopian Jewish Community,” both completed at Bar-Ilan University.

In addition to being a Senior Lecturer at Ono Academic College, he was a visiting scholar of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and also teaches at Bar Ilan and Tel Aviv Universities. and is a member of Beit Hillel and Tzohar, an Orthodox Rabbinic organization. He is a graduate of the Hartman Institute’s “Rabbanut Yisraelit.” He is the Rabbi of the “Kdoshei Israel” synagogue in Kiryat Gat, a community of Holocaust survivors. He serves as a Captain in the IDF Reserves.

Education

Ph.D.

Philosophy, Bar Ilan University (2014)

M.A.

Talmud, Bar Ilan University (2003)

B.A.

Educational Consulting, Bayit Vegan College (2001)

Teaching Areas

Pluralism and Multiculturalism, Introduction to Tolerance and Pluralism in the Sources of Israel Ethiopian Jewry as a Test Case, Pluralism and the Boundaries of Controversy, “Matzhaf Kadus”: The ID Card of Beta Israel, Practice and Tradition in the Ethiopian Community, Ethiopian Jews between Segregation and Ghettoism, Introduction to the History of Ethiopian Jews, Christian Censorship in the Talmud

Research interests

Modern Jewish Philosophy, History and Culture of Ethiopian Jewry, Philosophy of Jewish Law (Halakha), Hermeneutics of Religious Texts, Rabbinic Literature.