Aaron Koller
American scholar, born 1978
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aaron J. Koller (born 1978 in Baltimore) is an American scholar of Hebrew and Semitic languages. He was a student of Professor Richard C. Steiner at Yeshiva University's Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, and later co-edited a volume in honor of Steiner.[1] He also studied Near Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania under Jeffrey H. Tigay and Barry L. Eichler; Arabic at Columbia University; and Egyptian hieroglyphs at the Brooklyn Museum. Lawrence Stager was on his dissertation committee.[2] Koller began teaching at Yeshiva University in 2008, rising to become Professor of Near Eastern Studies.[3][4] In April 2025, he was announced as the next Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, England.[5] He is the first Jewish person to hold the chair that was established by King Henry VIII.[6][7]
While at Yeshiva University, Koller argued that traditional Jewish law needed to be flexible enough to accommodate the full acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.[8] His position was condemned by many senior rabbis in the institution[9] but found support among many students.[10] Yeshiva has adopted a policy of barring LGBTQ+ students from forming a student club.[11][12]
Selected works
- Koller, Aaron J. (2012). The semantic field of cutting tools in biblical Hebrew: the interface of philological, semantic, and archaeological evidence. Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series. Vol. 49. Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America. ISBN 978-0915170487.
- Koller, Aaron J. (2014). Esther in ancient Jewish thought. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107048355.
- Koller, Aaron J. (2020). Unbinding Isaac: the significance of the Akedah for modern Jewish thought. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 978-0827614734.