Ira L. Shafiroff

I was born in Brooklyn, New York, in an area known as Bensonhurst. If you’ve ever seen “The Honeymooners” or “Welcome Back, Kotter,” you’ve seen my neighborhood. A somewhat shy Jewish kid, I liked nothing better than taking the subway to Greenwich Village to play chess. In later years, I added the occasional good cigar to those chess games.

After graduating from Brooklyn College with a major in history, I moved to Los Angeles to attend Southwestern Law School at night, because I needed to work during the day. I had my own law office for a number of years, taught part-time, and finally, in 1989, became a full-time tenured law professor at Southwestern.

Much of my writing has been academic: books on tax procedure, wills and trusts, and property law. My real passion, however, is writing about Judeo-Christian ethics and the relationship between law and religion. The course I taught on Jewish law eventually morphed into the Trial of Jesus Seminar, which I have been teaching since 2007. Students, and particularly Christian students, love this course.

I’m the author of EVERY CHRISTIAN’S BOOK ON JUDAISM: EXPLORING JEWISH FAITH AND LAW FOR A RICHER UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIANITY. This is a book that explains Judaism as lived and taught by Jesus.

I reside in Los Angeles, with my wonderful wife and continually amazing teenage daughter.

Thanks for reading this. When you get a chance, please check out my blog at www.jesusandtheprofessor.com, which discusses many themes in the Gospels from a distinctly Jewish perspective. Also, watch for my upcoming book that deals with repentance.