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Dr Idan Breier, PhD

2nd December 2020

is a Senior Lecturer in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University (Ramat-Gan, Israel), Dr Idan Breier received both his graduate and post-graduation degrees from this institution. His principal scholarly interest lies in biblical and ancient Near Eastern history in general and the international relations of this period in light of modern political science theories in particular. His publications in this area including discussions of the political and social history during the extended El-Amarna period (1460–1200 BCE) and the late First Temple period (640–586 BCE). In recent years, he has expanded his focus to human-animal relations in biblical and ancient Near Eastern societies and the ethical aspects of this field as reflected in the primary sources and Second Temple, talmudic, and modern Jewish theologico-philosophical literature. His third book—An Ethical View of Human-Animal Relations in the Ancient Near East (forthcoming in the Palgrave-Macmillan Animal Ethics series), complements various scholarly articles on related subjects: “Humans and Wild Animals in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Texts:  Interactions and Metaphors,” Anthrozoӧs 31.6 (2018), pp. 657–72; “Animals in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law: Tort and Ethical Laws,” Journal of Animal Ethics 18.2 (2018), pp. 166–81; “Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935): Biblical Ethics as the Basis of Rav Kook’s Vision of Vegetarianism and Peace,” in A. Linzey and C. Linzey (eds.), Animal Theologians (forthcoming).