Michael L. Sat­low is pro­fes­sor of reli­gious stud­ies and Juda­ic stud­ies at Brown Uni­ver­si­ty. He has a Ph.D. in Ancient Judaism from the Jew­ish The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary of Amer­i­ca and is also the author of Cre­at­ing Judaism: His­to­ry, Tra­di­tion, Prac­tice. He has held fel­low­ships from the J. S. Guggen­heim Foun­da­tion and the Amer­i­can Coun­cil of Learned Societies.