Levi Cooper


Levi Cooper is an Orthodox Jewish teacher, author, and community leader who lives in Tzur Hadassah, Israel. He is a faculty member of the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where he teaches Midrash, Talmud, Rambam, and Hasidism. Originally from Australia, Cooper lectures extensively on the topics of law and Halakha, Jewish spirituality and Hasidic thought. Since 1996, he has also served as a historian with Heritage Seminars. He has studied at Chabad, Yeshivat Sha'alvim, the Kollel at Bar-Ilan University and Beit Morasha.
He has been a post-doctoral fellow in Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Law and Inter-University Academic Partnership in Russian and Eastern European Studies. Cooper established the synagogue HaTzur VeHaTzohar Congregation in the Jerusalem suburb, Tzur Hadassah.

Works

Cooper has a monthly column on Hasidism called The Tisch, which appears in The Jerusalem Post. In March 2019, the column name was changed to Maggid of Melbourne.
Cooper has presented research papers for the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Bar-Ilan University, the Foundation for Jewish Studies, the World Congress of Jewish Studies, and has published in many journals, such as the Cambridge Journal of Law and Religion and the Jewish Political Studies Review.
His first book, Relics for the Present was published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem in June 2012. Alan Jay Gerber, writing in The Jewish Star called the work an application of Dr. Israel Drazin's observation "Many rabbis write books based on Torah verses, which they use as a backdrop for their ideas about contemporary society and the application of what they consider moral principles to various modern problems.” A second volume followed in 2016.
Since 2015, the Maggid of Melbourne has a popular ongoing podcast series, where he shares snippets of his research, learning, and teaching.