Aryeh Cohen Minneapolis

Aryeh Cohen Minneapolis is an American rabbi and scholar who serves as a professor of Rabbinic Literature at American Jewish University. His scholarship focuses on the Talmud, Jewish ethics, and social justice. He received his BA in Philosophy and Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was ordained as a rabbi by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.

Aryeh Cohen Minneapolis is the author of two books: Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law and the Poetics of Sugyot and Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. Also, Rabbi Aryeh Cohen co-edited the Beginning/Again: Towards a Hermeneutics of Jewish Texts. He has also written about modern figures including Aharon Shmuel Tamares and Emmanuel Levinas. Andrew Flescher has argued that Cohen's work on Tamares and Levinas "makes a compelling case in his own right for the counter-productive nature of violence under all circumstances."

Over the years, he has held appointments at American Jewish University since 1995. He was Chair of Jewish Studies in the College of Arts and Science from 1995–2000 and Chair of Rabbinic Studies in the Ziegler School from 2001–2005.

Aryeh Cohen Minneapolis is a Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He is also the Rabbi in Residence for Bend the Arc: Jewish Action in Southern California. His academic work focuses on the intersection of Talmudic discussions and contemporary issues of justice. His earlier work focused on developing a methodology for reading legal texts in Talmud as literary texts to ask questions about gender and diaspora. He has written two books, Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism (2012) and Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law, and the Poetics of Sugyot (1998). He is currently working on a project called The Space of Politics and the Politics of Space in Rabbinic Literature and the Contemporary World.

In his work as a rouser of rabble and Rabbi in Residence at Bend the Arc, Aryeh develops and works in interfaith coalition to advance domestic issues, focusing mainly on immigrants rights and the protection of undocumented residents and asylum seekers. Over the past two years Aryeh has helped organize five major nonviolent direct actions which helped to pass California’s state sanctuary law (SB54) and moved the city of Los Angeles away from any involvement with immigration enforcement.

Aryeh also writes topical essays on domestic social justice issues such as Islamophobia, racism and racial justice, immigration, housing and homelessness, as well as on Israel/Palestine.