Laura Yares

Laura Yares is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. Her scholarship examines Jewish education through historical and contemporary lenses, with particular focus on American Jewish communities. She authored 'Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth Century America' (2023 National Jewish Book Award finalist), which analyzes the development of supplementary Jewish education in the United States.

Her current research project, forthcoming as a book with NYU Press (2025), employs ethnographic methods to investigate Jewish learning in cultural arts contexts. This work explores how artistic practices—including music, visual arts, and performance—facilitate religious identity formation and community building within contemporary Jewish settings.

Yares' research contributes to understanding how religious education adapts to cultural contexts and evolves through community practices. Her historical and ethnographic approaches reveal connections between educational innovation, cultural preservation, and identity negotiation in American Judaism.