Erin Leib-Smokler

Erin Leib-Smokler, PhD completed her dissertation in 2014.  She examined wartime Jewish theology in her dissertation entitled, “God in the Ruins: Theodicy and Anti-Theodicy in the Holocaust Writing of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira.” The study analyzed the  the ways that the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto reinterpreted, appropriated, and, in some cases, abandoned traditional theodic paradigms in an effort to render the suffering of his community spiritually sufferable. In the process, the seeds for post-Holocaust liberal theology were born. In addition to her native English, Dr. Leib has mastery of Hebrew. Her dissertation advisors were Professors David Nirenberg and Paul Mendes-Flohr of the University of Chicago and Professor Gershon Greenberg of American University. Dr. Leib currently serves as Director of Spiritual Development at Yeshivat Maharat in New York City.