Dr Daniel Weiss
Polonsky-Coexist Professor of Jewish Studies and Philosophy of Religion
University of Cambridge
 

Dr Daniel H. Weiss is a scholar of philosophy of religion, ethics, and interfaith engagement who joined the Divinity Faculty at Cambridge in 2010, following earlier academic appointments at the University of Virginia and Oberlin College. He earned his PhD from the University of Virginia.

 

Dr Weiss’s research spans three major areas. First, he works extensively in modern philosophy of religion and ethics within Jewish and Christian traditions, publishing on influential thinkers such as Wittgenstein, Levinas, Kierkegaard, Hermann Cohen, Rosenzweig, Aquinas, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Maimonides, Kant, Hegel, Benjamin, and Derrida. Second, he studies ethics, hermeneutics, and theopolitics in biblical and classical rabbinic literature, along with the complex relationships between early Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. Third, he investigates theories and practices of dialogue and communication across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, particularly the role of scriptural texts in shaping these interactions.

 

Committed to interfaith collaboration, Dr Weiss serves as Deputy Director of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme and is actively involved in Scriptural Reasoning. He also co-leads the Scripture & Violence Project, which critically examines assumptions linking sacred texts with real‑world violence.

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