Rachel Werczberger

Rachel Werczberger

senior lecturer, Department of Psychology

Rachel Werczberger is an anthropologist of religion studying contemporary Jewish life. Her research interests include Jewish renewal and revival, New Age culture, contemporary spiritualities and New Religious Movements and lived religion. Werczberger was a visiting fellow at The Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at UPenn (2025-2026 and 2015-16) and at the Oxford center for Hebrew and Jewish studies (2022). She is the co-founder and director of Meyda Information Center on New Religious Movements in Israel (https://meida-center.org.il/ ). Together with Dr. Dana Kaplan from the Open University in Israel, she is the 2019 winner of The International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR) best article award for the paper: "New Age, New Economy, New Middle-Class: Jewish New Age in Israel." Her book Jews in the age of Authenticity: Jewish Spirituality Renewal in Israel was published in 2016 by Peter Lang publishing. Her edited volume (with Daniel Monterescu) Jewish Revivals inside out: The remaking of Jewishness in a transnational age was published by Wayne University Press in 2022. Among her current research projects are the study of lived Judaism in Israel and the study of 'Israeli Judaism' movement as a form of soft religious nationalism.

  • Sociology and Anthropology of Religion
  • Contemporary spiritualities and New Age culture
  • New Religious movements
  • Jewish Renewal in Israel and Israeli Judaism
  • Jewish spirituality and neoliberalism
  • Lived religion and lived Judaism in Israel
  • Material Religion

Collaboration with Dr. Dana Kaplan from the Open University:

1.      Classed dimensions of New Age Judaism in Israel

2.      The Israeli Judaism movement

Collaboration with Dr. Shlomo Guzman Carmeli from Bar-Ilan University: Everyday Judaism in Israel: Religious and spiritual experiences in a changing society (research project funded by the Israel Science Foundation; personal research grant 1352/20)

Collaboration with Prof. Boaz Huss from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev:
New religious movements in Israel

Collaboration with Prof. Ruth Illman, Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture, Åbo Akademi University, Finland: Lived religion – ethnographic and comparative perspectives

Collaboration with Prof. Gritt Klinkhammer from the University of Bremen, Germany: Memory work of religious renewal groups: a comparative perspective

Collaboration with Prof. Daniel Monterescu from CEU and the Tel Aviv–Yafo Academic College: Jewish renewal from a transnational perspective

Book and edited volumes 

Werczberger, Rachel. Jews in the Age of Authenticity: Jewish Spiritual Renewal in Israel. 178 p. 2016. Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/29658?format=EPDF

Nissim, Gadi, Shokeid Moshe, Rubin Nissan, Leon Nissim, Werczberger Rachel and Deshen Ezri.(eds.). 2024. The wisdom of Shlomo: Anthropological perspectives on the transformation in Israeli culture. Resling publishing. [Hebrew]

Rachel Werczberger and Daniel Monterescu (eds.) 2022. Jewish Revival(s) inside out: The remaking of Jewishness in a transnational age. Wayne State University Press 

Articles in scientific journals

Werczberger Rachel, Kaplan Dana and Nadia Beider. 2025. "From Jewish Renewal to Israeli Judaism: An analysis of emergent soft Religious Nationalism." Archives de sciences sociales des religions. 210-211, avril-septembre, 159-179. https://doi.org/10.4000/15a1x

Werczberger, Rachel. 2025. "Therapeutic Literacies: Text, Body, and Emotion in the Jewish Spiritual Renewal." Religions 16, no. 9: 1110. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091110

Sari Alfi Nisan, Shlomo Guzmen Carmeli and Rachel Werczberger. 2025. “The Light within Me": Celebrating the Self through Jewish Holidays in Israeli Public School Education." Journal of Contemporary Religion. 1-19. DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2025.2520059

Tammar Friedman, Shlomo Guzmen-Carmeli & Rachel Werczberger. 2024. "Faithful atheists: the paradox of Jewish nonbelievers in Israel." Religion, 4 November. DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2024.2423715

Werczberger Rachel and Monterscu Daniel. 2024. "Rebranding God: The Jewish Revival Movement Between Homeland and Diaspora." Religions. 15: 1255. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101255

Werczberger, Rachel. 2023 “New Age Judaism.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. Ed. Naomi Seidman. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199840731-0230

Werczberger Rachel. 2023. "Jewish Spirituality on both sides of the ocean: The adaptation of North American Jewish spirituality in Israel." Iyunim. Special Issue: American Judaism in Israel, 66-83. [in Hebrew].

Werczberger, Rachel. 2023. Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, by RACHEL B. GROSS. Sociology of religion. ‏ Online first https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad056

Ofira Fuchs, Rachel Werczberger and Shlomo Guzmen Carmeli. 2023. “Not Being Counted”: Women's Place and Religious Space in Jewish Orthodox Communities during the COVID-19 Crisis." The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 63(1). 181-193. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12885

Werczberger, Rachel. 2023. Secularize, Psychologize, Neoliberalize: The entangled Jewish Self of North American Jews. Ethos: Journal of the society of psychological anthropology.1-16 DOI: 10.1111/etho.12397

Werczberger Rachel. 2022. "Searching for Jewish Spirituality: The identity-narratives of New Age Jews in Israel." Journal of Modern Judaism. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2022.2142772

Werczberger Rachel. 2020. “Deep secrets and spiritual tools: The concept of the secret in contemporary forms of Jewish Spirituality”. Mahshevet 2. 488-503 [in Hebrew]

Werczberger Rachel. 2020. “The making of Jewish authenticity: The hybrid discourse of authenticity of New Age Judaism and the complexities of religious individualization.”. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. Vol 5(1) pp. 50-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008429820911592

Werczberger Rachel and Dana Kaplan. 2020. “Authenticity, cosmopolitanism and spiritual consumption: A new age for the new middle class in Israel” Megamot 55 [in Hebrew]

Werczberger Rachel and Dana Kaplan. 2019 “Spiritual openness as class distinction: New Age Judaism in Israel in a post-secular age.” Israeli Sociology 20(1):74-98 [in Hebrew]

Werczberger Rachel. 2018. Review on I have never called my wife: Domestic relation in Gur Hasidism by Nava Vaserman. Sde Boker: The Ben Gurion Research Institute-Ben Gurion University. Israeli Sociology 19(2) 246-248. [in Hebrew]

Kaplan, Dana and Werczberger, Rachel. 2017. "Jewish New Age and the Middle Class: Jewish Identity Politics in Israel under Neoliberalism". Sociology, 51(3), 575-591. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038515595953

Werczberger, Rachel and Huss, Boaz. 2014. "New Age Culture in Israel: Social, Ideological and Political Aspects; Guest Editor Introduction". Israel Studies Review 29(2):1-16. DOI: 10.3167/isr.2014.290202

Werczberger, Rachel .2014. "The Identity Narrative of Jewish Spiritual Renewal Proponents of Jewish Spiritual Renewal in Israel."  Iyunim Betkumat Israel, Thematic series 7:555-579. [in Hebrew]

Werczberger, Rachel. 2011. "Memory, Land and Identity: Visions of the Past and the Land in the Jewish Spiritual Renewal Movement in Israel". Journal of Contemporary Religion, 26(2): 269-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2011.573342

Werczberger, Rachel and Azulay, Na'ama. 2011. "The Jewish Renewal Movement in Israeli Secular Society. Contemporary Jewry, 31(2): 107-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-011-9063-x

Werczberger, Rachel and Azulay, Na'ama. 2008. "Jewish Renewal in the Israel Secular Sphere: from a Phenomenon to a New Social Movement. Politika 18: 141-172. [in Hebrew].  

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Werczberger, Rachel. 2024. Symbolic Jewish activity. in Nissim, Gadi, Shokeid Moshe, Rubin Nissan, Leon Nissim, Werczberger Rachel and Deshen Ezri.(eds.) The wisdom of Shlomo: Anthropological perspectives on the transformation in Israeli culture. Resling publishing, pp. 99-104.

Werczberger, Rachel. 2022. "Healing the self, renewing the tradition: The hybrid discourse of authenticity of New Age Judaism in Israel." in Daniel Monterescu and Werczberger Rachel (eds.) Jewish Revival(s) inside out: The remaking of Jewishness in a transnational age. Wayne State University Press, pp. 203-220.

Werczberger, Rachel and Monterescu Daniel. 2022. "Introduction: Riding the Jewish Renaissance – Survival, Revival and Renewal" in Daniel Monterescu and Werczberger Rachel (eds.) Jewish Revival(s) inside out: The remaking of Jewishness in a transnational age. Wayne State University Press, pp.1-20.

Werczberger, Rachel. 2021 “Not only in the brain but also from the body”: Text and learning in New Age Judaism” in Rubin, Nisan and Guzmen-Carmeli, Shlomo (eds.). The Power of Words: Anthropological Studies in Jewish Textuality. Haifa: Carmel Press [Hebrew].

Werczberger, Rachel and Guzman-Carmeli, Shlomo. 2020. “Judaism: rituals and practices”.  In Andrew Newberg, David Yaden and Yukun Zhao (eds.) Rituals and Practices in World Religions: A Cross-Cultural Classification. Springer Academic Press, pp. 113-126

Werczberger, Rachel. 2019. “Jewish Spirituality in Israel as lived religion: A new perspective for the study of contemporary Jewish life” in Wexler Philip (ed.) Jewish spirituality and society. New York: Crossroad publishing, pp. 245-264.

Werczberger Rachel. 2016. “A sacred time in a sacred land: Authenticating the past in New Age Judaism”. Lewis James and Ferraro Shai (eds.) Contemporary Alternative Spirituality in Israel. New York, NY: Palgrave Mcmillan. pp. 3-19

Werczberger, Rachel. 2016. "Secularization and Sacralization, Identity and Belonging: The New Age and Jewish Spiritual Renewal" in Yochi Fisher (ed.) Secularity and Secularization in a Post-Secular Age: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Jerusalem: Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. pp.288-313 [Hebrew]

Werczberger, Rachel. 2013."Spirituality, Charisma and Gender in a Jewish Spiritual Renewal Community in Israel". Anna Fedele and Kim Knibbe (eds.) Spirituality against Religion: The Role of Gender and Power. London and New York: Routledge, pp.135-151. 

Werczberger, Rachel. 2011. "Dynamic Belongings of Younger Jews and the Transformation of the Jewish Self" in Goldberg, Harvey E., Cohen, Steven M. and Kopelowitz, Ezra (eds.) Dynamic Belonging: Jewish Collective Identities in Israel and the United States. New York: Berghahn. Pp. 165-170 

Werczberger, Rachel. 2011. "Self, Identity and Healing in the Ritual of Jewish Spiritual Renewal in Israel" in Huss, Boaz (ed.). Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival. Be'er Sheva:  Ben-Gurion University Press. Pp. 75-100.

Cohen, Eric. H. & Werczberger, Rachel. 2009. "Jewish normativity: an explorative study". in D. Elizur & E. Yaniv (eds.) Theory Construction and Multivariate Analysis: Applications of Facet Approach, FTA Publications, 35-48.

Werczberger, Rachel. 2007. Items on “Tova Sanhadrai” and “Shoshana Arbeli Almoslino” in Hyman Paula E. & Ofer Dalia (eds.) Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical E-Encyclopedia. Shalvi & Co Publishing.

Werczberger, Rachel. 2006 “On Femininity and Messianism: Women New Returnee to Orthodox Judaism (Ba’alot Tshuva) in Lubbavitcher Hasidut”. In Cohen T. (ed.) To be a Jewish Women: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of Kolech-Religious Women’s Forum,173-184. [Hebrew]