Dr. Labendz’s area of specialization is Jewish Studies, and her research focuses on ancient Jewish literature and religion from a comparative perspective. Her first book, Socratic Torah: Non-Jews in Rabbinic Intellectual Culture (Oxford University Press, 2013), examines Late Antique rabbinic literature’s attitudes and discourse about non-Jews. Her current research project is on rabbinic eschatology and addresses why and how the rabbis of the Talmud talked about the end of the world. Dr. Labendz studied at Barnard College, Hebrew University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and taught at multiple colleges in New York and New Jersey before arriving at SFC in 2018. Dr. Labendz currently teaches three 1000-level courses: Survey of the World’s Religions, Hebrew Bible, and Judaism and two 5000-level honors courses: End of the World and Brooklyn Jews, with more in development. Dr. Labendz is also the director of the Women's and Gender Studies program at SFC.