Flight of the DuckFish (oil on canvas, 4 ft. 6 in. x 7 ft., 2020)

Flight of the DuckFish (oil on canvas, 4 ft. 6 in. × 7 ft., 2020)

Rafael Rachel Neis is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and scholar of Talmud and ancient history. Rafe works across different forms, including painting, comics, installation/sculpture, and writing. They are an award-winning author of two books, most recently, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (available open access and softcover use UCPSAVE30 to get it for $24.47 from indiepubs).

LATEST NEWS!

As of July 2026, Rafe is the Hermann P. & Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley. They were previously the Jean and Samuel Frankel Professor of Rabbinic Literature and Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

Rafe delivered the 2026 Stroum Lectures at the the University of Washington on May 12 and May 14, 2026. They also delivered a faculty and graduate student colloquium, as well as an undergraduate zine-making workshop.

The article, “Undoing the Cisness of Late Ancient (Jewish/Religious) Studies,” is out in QTR: a Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Religion 2:2.

Rafe has work in the group show RECIPROCITY at the DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE in DETROIT. OPENING August 17th, 2025.

The comic “Bava Qamma 16a” and short essay is out in the Frankel Annual 2025.

Rafe’s comic bHagigah 12a-b is out in Religious Studies Review.

Jessie DeGrado, Dorothy Kim, Scott Larson, Rafe Neis, and Max Strassfeld presented on “Trans” Before the Modern, as part of the Frankel Institute Critical Trans Studies Symposium, March 18, 2026.

When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species is out. Purchase your hard copy here. Open access available here. Thanks to UC Press, Luminos, and the UM Library’s TOME Award for making open access scholarship possible.