Mika Ahuvia

Project Description

Director, Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

Herbert L. & Lucia S. Pruzan Chair in Jewish Studies

Associate Professor, Jackson School of International Studies

Ph.D. Princeton University (2014)

Faculty Profile

Mika Ahuvia was born in Kibbutz Beit Hashita in northern Israel. She researches the formative history of Jewish and Christian communities in the ancient Mediterranean world. Specializing in Late Antique Jewish history, she works with rabbinic sources, liturgical poetry, magical texts, early mystical literature, and archaeological evidence.

Her book “On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture” investigates conceptions of angels in foundational Jewish texts and ritual sources. In the book, Ahuvia uncovers how angels made their way into the practices and worldview of ancient Jews and makes sense of why angels continue to play such an important role within and outside of institutional religious settings.

Ahuvia teaches courses in Jewish Studies, comparative religion, and global studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and is also the Stroum Center’s Undergraduate Program Coordinator.

Public Scholarship

• “Book Preview: On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel” (2021, Ancient Jew Review)
• “Challenging stereotypes about Judaism in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting” (2018)
• “Reading the Rabbis in the Age of #MeToo” (2018, Feminist Studies in Religion)
• “Jewish Queens: From the Story of Esther to the History of Shelamzion” (2017, Torah.com)
• “An Ancient Jewess Invoking Goddesses: Transgression or Pious Adaptation?” (2017, Perspectives Magazine)
• “A Jewish Historian’s Plea for Global Refugees” (2015)