Sara Offenberg

Sara Offenberg is an associate professor at the Department of the Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where she also earned her interdisciplinary Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from the Department of Jewish Thought and the Department of the Arts.

Her educational background reflects her interdisciplinary approach to Jewish art history, combining expertise in both Jewish Thought and the Arts through her doctoral work at Ben-Gurion University.

Offenberg's research specializes in the intersection of medieval Jewish culture and visual representation, with particular focus on chivalry and warriors in Hebrew manuscripts, German Pietists, Hebrew illuminated prayer books, and Jewish-Christian relations in medieval art and literature. Her work explores how Jewish communities engaged with and adapted surrounding Christian visual cultures while maintaining distinct religious identities. She examines the symbolic meanings embedded in manuscript illustrations and how they reflect theological concepts and historical contexts.

Her publications reveal a consistent interest in the visual representation of religious concepts in medieval Jewish manuscripts, particularly focusing on how Jewish artists incorporated and transformed Christian imagery across different periods and geographic regions of medieval Jewish art.

Offenberg has held significant editorial positions, serving as co-editor of Ars Judaica: The Bar-Ilan Journal of Jewish Art (2014-2017) and currently as managing editor of Mabatim: Journal of Visual Culture (since 2021), contributing substantially to the field of Jewish visual culture studies.