Naomi Seidman

Naomi Seidman
Occupation(s)Jackman Humanities Professor, University of Toronto
Academic background
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley, University of California, Davis, Brooklyn College
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisorChana Kronfeld
Other advisorsRobert Alter, Bluma Goldstein
Academic work
DisciplineJewish studies, Comparative literature
Sub-disciplineYiddish literature, Yiddish and Hebrew literature in translation, Haskalah
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto, Graduate Theological Union

Naomi Seidman is Chancellor Jackman Professor in the Arts at the University of Toronto, and was previously Koret Professor of Jewish Culture and the Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.[1] In 2016, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.[2] In 2019, she won a National Jewish Book Award.[3]

Biography

Seidman comes from an Orthodox, Yiddish-speaking rabbinic family, and was a daughter of Hassidic Jewish writer Dr. Hillel Seidman, author of Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, and Sara Abraham Seidman.[4][5][6][7][8] Her parents met in the displaced persons camp in Föhrenwald, where he was working for Agudah and she was teaching.[9]

She was raised in Boro Park, Brooklyn and attended Bais Yaakov schools; she left Orthodoxy at 18, on the verge of an arranged marriage.[10][11][12][13]

She received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1981, a M.A. from UC Davis in 1984, and a Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1993.[14][15]

Her writings focus on the relationship between Judaism, literature, gender studies, translation studies, and sexuality.[16][17] She has written extensively on Yiddish literature, translation, and the Haskalah.[15] She is a leading scholar of the Bais Yaakov movement and the work and life of Sarah Schenirer.[18][19][3] In 2022, she hosted "Heretic in the House," a limited-series podcast from the Shalom Hartman Institute about leaving Orthodox Judaism.[20][21] In 2024, she published Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish.[22]

Selected works

  • Seidman, Naomi (1996), "Elie Wiesel and the scandal of Jewish rage", Jewish Social Studies, 3 (1): 1–19, JSTOR 4467484.
  • Seidman, Naomi (1997), A marriage made in heaven: The sexual politics of Hebrew and Yiddish, Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society, vol. 7, University of California Press.
  • Seidman, Naomi (2006), Faithful renderings: Jewish-Christian difference and the politics of translation, University of Chicago Press.
  • Seidman, Naomi (2016), The Marriage Plot, Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature, Stanford University Press.
  • Seidman, Naomi (2019), Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition, Littman.
  • Seidman, Naomi (2024), Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish, Stanford University Press.

References

  1. ^ "Department for the Study of Religion – Naomi Seidman to join the Department for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies as a Chancellor Jackman Professor in the Arts". Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  2. ^ T324Admin (April 7, 2016). "Naomi Seidman Is Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship". Graduate Theological Union. Retrieved February 7, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b Paull, Laura (January 30, 2020). "Bay Area scholar Naomi Seidman nabs a National Jewish Book Award". J. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  4. ^ "Dr. Hillel Seidman Passes Away". Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  5. ^ Pine, Dan (April 26, 2013). "Berkeley scholar exalts father who archived life in the ghetto". J. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  6. ^ "Meet the Family: Hillel Seidman". polin.pl. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  7. ^ Pine, Dan (April 26, 2013). "Berkeley scholar exalts father who archived life in the ghetto". J. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  8. ^ Seidman, Naomi (August 1, 2020). "My Father, Myself". In Cappell, Ezra (ed.). Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism. State University of New York Press. pp. 3–24. ISBN 978-1-4384-7726-8.
  9. ^ "Naomi Seidman". thebaisyaakovproject.religion.utoronto.ca. Retrieved July 21, 2025.
  10. ^ Frieda Vizel (July 20, 2025). "I never felt female. I didn't fit in." | Naomi Seidman. Retrieved July 20, 2025 – via YouTube.
  11. ^ ProfessorOTD (July 14, 2020). "I am an OTD Jewish Studies Professor, author of a book on Bais Yaakov: AMA!". r/Judaism. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  12. ^ Weissman, Debbie (2019). "Review of Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition". Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues (35): 209–211. doi:10.2979/nashim.35.1.10. ISSN 0793-8934.
  13. ^ Rabbi Daniel Levine (April 29, 2025). unErasing Women in Orthodox Judaism w/ Prof. Naomi Seidman. Retrieved July 20, 2025 – via YouTube.
  14. ^ MHartman_1 (July 23, 2021). "Naomi Seidman". Graduate Theological Union. Retrieved July 20, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ a b "PopUp Exhibition | Jewish Family Trees with Naomi Seidman | The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life". Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  16. ^ "Naomi Seidman, Scholar of Jewish Art, to Deliver Carleton College's Forkosh Lecture in Judaic Studies". Carleton Academics. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  17. ^ "Naomi Seidman, 2016 Bender Visiting Scholar, to Explore Tevye's Dream, Marriage". Boulder Jewish News. February 29, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  18. ^ "The Bais Yaakov Project". thebaisyaakovproject.religion.utoronto.ca. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  19. ^ Seidman, Naomi (May 2, 2023). "Looking back on a revolutionary movement to educate Orthodox Jewish girls". The Forward. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  20. ^ "Heretic in the House". Shalom Hartman Institute. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  21. ^ "AJPA - JRelease: Hartman Digital releases Heretic in the House, - A Groundbreaking Podcast Dismantling Stereotypes About Orthodox Jews Hosted by Naomi Seidman on November 21st". ajpa.org. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  22. ^ Translating the Jewish Freud | Stanford University Press. June 4, 2024. ISBN 978-1-5036-3926-3.
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