Yale University
The Ban on Images and the Prohibition of Idolatry in German-Jewish Thought
Ido Ben Harush’s dissertation examines the literary variations and afterlives of the prohibition of idolatry and the biblical ban on images (Bilderverbot) in the work of modern German Jewish authors and shows how concerns about idolatry reflect and constitute a central way of writing in modern Jewish thought.
Ido Ben Harush is a scholar of modern Jewish philosophy and literature, and his work explores the role of religious categories in social critique and aesthetic theory. His research includes the afterlives of the biblical prohibition of idolatry in modern German-Jewish thought, which he examined in his dissertation at Yale University. Ido holds an M.A. from the philosophy department of Tel-Aviv University, where he wrote his master’s thesis on the concept of gesture in Walter Benjamin and Franz Rosenzweig. Currently, he is a College Fellow in Modern Jewish Thought in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Yale University in 2025. His work explores the intersection of religion, political critique, and aesthetic theory in modern German Jewish thought. His research has been supported by the Leo Baeck Fellowship Programme of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. In 2027–28, he will be an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at Goethe University Frankfurt.