Laura Arnold Leibman

Laura Arnold Leibman is the Leonard J. Milberg ’53 Professor in American Jewish Studies at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the intersection of religion, gender, and material culture in early American Jewish communities, with a particular emphasis on women, children, and multiracial identities. She serves as President of the Association for Jewish Studies and has authored award-winning monographs like The Art of the Jewish Family (2020), which won three National Jewish Book Awards, and Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism (2012), a Jordan Schnitzer and National Jewish Book Award winner.

Her work explores the fluidity of racial and religious boundaries in the 19th-century Atlantic World, using artifacts to reconstruct marginalized histories. Her Once We Were Slaves (2021) examines the journey of a multiracial Jewish family from Caribbean slavery to New York wealth, shedding light on the overlooked diversity of early American Jewish communities.

• Research Interests: American Jewish history, material culture, multiracial identities, Atlantic World, gender studies.
• Current Projects: Research on Jews and textiles during the long nineteenth century.

Scientific Honors:

• National Jewish Book Award (2020, 2012)
• Jordan Schnitzer Book Award (2012)
• Finalist, National Jewish Book Award and Saul Viener Book Prize (2021)