Aviad Kleinberg

In 2019 he wrote A Guide for the Non Believer and in 2020 A Short Guide to the Western Middle Ages(both in Hebrew).

In a later book, "Flesh Made Word" (Harvard University Press, 2008), Kleinberg moved from studying live interactions to the role of stories in creating a saintly repertoire. He argued that saints' stories are often used to "domesticate" living saints, by offering an impossibly successful model of sainthood. No saint can live up to the expectations created by hagiography, hence the saint is driven to collaborate with hagiographical creators who can strengthen his or her reputation by making him fit the inflated model. This creates a "debt" that can be used by the producers of stories in their interactions with saintly aspirants. The other phenomenon he notes in this book is the tendency stories to stretch the limits of "orthodox" sainthood.

Between 2001 – 2021 he was Director of Tel Aviv University Press. In 2021 he was elected president of the Ruppin Academic Center.

His first book, "Prophets in Their Own Country" (published by Chicago University Press in 1992) is based on his thesis. It examines the interaction between would-be saints and their audiences. Kleinberg argues that sainthood as a social fact is found in the dynamic dialogue between a claimant and his or her interlocutors and is not a personal quality that can be understood outside what he calls "the saintly interaction".

From 1990 to 2021 he was professor of medieval history at the department of History, Tel Aviv University. Between 2015 – 2019 he was head of the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies.

Born and raised in Beer Sheva, Aviad Kleinberg completed his BA in history at Tel Aviv University (1982) and his PhD at University of Toronto in medieval studies. His doctoral thesis, under the supervision of Brian Stock, studied the making of saintly reputation from the 12th -15th centuries.

Aviad Kleinberg (Hebrew: אביעד קליינברג, born November 25, 1957) is an Israeli historian whose academic work focuses on religious phenomena from Late Antiquity to the Reformation. From 1990 to 2021 he was professor of medieval history at the department of History, Tel Aviv University. Between 2015 – 2019 he was head of the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies. Between 2001 – 2021 he was Director of Tel Aviv University Press. In 2021 he was elected president of the Ruppin Academic Center.