Ep. 22 | Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, and the Legal Scholar Between Them | Prof. Noah Feldman

In this far-ranging discussion, Professor Noah Feldman talks to the Alwaleed Program team about his career of over 30 years at Harvard and beyond, from an undergraduate student in NELC to professor at Harvard Law School to advisor on the Iraqi and Tunisian constitutions. Professor Feldman talks about his early interests in Arabic and Islamic philosophy and his former professors and colleagues in Islamic studies at Harvard including Muhsin Mahdi and Shahab Ahmed. After writing multiple books pertaining to Islamic law, Islam and the state, and U.S. constitutional law, he expanded his work into Jewish studies and founded the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School. Finally, Professor Feldman talks about his recent book, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People (2024) and reflects on American Judaism, Zionism, and intercommunal relations between American Muslims and Jews.

Noah Feldman is Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard Law School, chair of Harvard's Society of Fellows, and Founder and Director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law. He is the author of many books and articles, including After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy (2003), What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building (2004), The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (2008), The Arab Winter: A Tragedy (2020), and To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People (2024). Professor Feldman is also a columnist for Bloomberg and host of the podcast, Deep Background with Noah Feldman.