Faculty & Scholars

Ofra Arieli Backenroth

Associate Dean of The Davidson School and Assistant Professor of Jewish Education

Dr. Ofra Arieli Backenroth is the associate dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary and an assistant professor of Jewish education. She has taught Hebrew literature and modern dance in numerous schools in New York City and Israel. Her interests reflect an integration of the arts in Jewish education, Hebrew language, Hebrew and Israeli literature, and teaching Israel. Dr. Backenroth earned an MFA in dance education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA in comparative literature and an education diploma from Tel Aviv University. In 2006, she participated in the Summer Institute for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and in Israel.

Shira Billet

Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics

Shira Billet is assistant professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics. Before joining the faculty at JTS, she was a postdoctoral associate in Philosophy and Judaic Studies at Yale University, and she completed her doctorate at Princeton University in 2019.  Dr. Billet’s research is focused on 19th-century and early 20th-century German Jewish philosophy, both in historical context and in relation to contemporary conversations in philosophical ethics.

Rabbi Ayelet Cohen

Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and Dean of the Division of Religious Leadership

As Pearl Resnick Dean of The Rabbinical School and dean of the Division of Religious Leadership, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen leads The Rabbinical School and H. L. Miller Cantorial School. In this role, she works to shape the next generation of Jewish clergy, cultivating students’ spiritual and intellectual lives so they can meet the challenges of Jewish life with wisdom, creativity, and resilience. 

Alan Cooper

Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies

Alan Cooper joined the faculty in 1997 as a professor of Bible, and has served as director of publications, chair of the Bible faculty, and, from 2007 to 2018, provost of JTS. In 1998, he was appointed professor of Bible at the Union Theological Seminary, a nondenominational Christian seminary, becoming the first person to hold concurrent professorships at JTS and Union. Previously, Dr. Cooper was a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, where for six years he was director of its School of Graduate Studies. He also taught religious studies for ten years at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Eliezer B. Diamond

Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Eliezer Diamond is the Rabbi Judah Nadich Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He teaches courses in rabbinic literature and introductory, intermediate, and advanced Talmud studies. Dr. Diamond is the author of a chapter on the rabbinic period in the Schocken Guide to Jewish Books, and entries in the Reader’s Guide to Judaism and The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. He is the author of Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture (Oxford University Press, 2003). The book provides a thorough reassessment of the role that asceticism plays in rabbinic Judaism, suggesting that asceticism is more pervasive than is generally thought. Dr. Diamond has written on prayer, asceticism, and issues of environmental law and ethics.

Arnold M. Eisen

Chancellor Emeritus; Professor of Jewish Thought

Arnold M. Eisen, one of the world’s foremost authorities on American Judaism, is chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary and professor of Jewish Thought. Dr. Eisen became chancellor in 2007 and stepped down in spring 2020 to return to teaching and scholarship as a full-time member of the JTS faculty. During his tenure as chancellor, he transformed the education of religious, pedagogical, professional, and lay leaders for North American Jewry, with a focus on graduating highly skilled, innovative leaders who bring Judaism alive in ways that speak authentically to Jews at a time of rapid and far-reaching change.

Eitan Fishbane

Professor of Jewish Thought

Dr. Eitan P. Fishbane is professor of Jewish Thought at JTS, where he teaches courses in the literature and history of Jewish mysticism, from medieval Kabbalah to modern Hasidism. The author or editor of six books, the latest of which will be published by Oxford University Press, Dr. Fishbane has devoted his research and writing primarily to the development of Kabbalah in medieval Spain. Dr. Fishbane has been a member of the JTS faculty since 2006, participating in governance through his service on the Rabbinical School Council, the faculty committees of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School and the Department of Community Engagement, the Faculty Executive Committee, and as advisor for BA and MA concentrators in Jewish Thought.

David Fishman

Professor of Jewish History

David E. Fishman is a professor of Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in modern Jewish history. Dr. Fishman also serves as director of Project Judaica, JTS’s program in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), which is based at Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow) and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy University (Kiev). Dr. Fishman travels frequently to Moscow and other parts of the FSU on behalf of Project Judaica. He directs its Jewish Archival Survey, which publishes guides to Jewish archival materials in the FSU. Recently he coedited a guide to Jewish collections in the previously top-secret Special Archive in Moscow. Dr. Fishman also writes for the Jewish Daily Forward on Jews and the current situation in Russia and Ukraine.

Benjamin R. Gampel

Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History

Dr. Benjamin Gampel serves as the Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History at JTS. A specialist in medieval and early modern Jewries, Dr. Gampel recently published Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392, which was granted the 2016 National Jewish Book Council’s Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award in Scholarship. This prizewinning volume treats the riots and forced conversions of 1391 in the Iberian peninsula and explores why monarchic authority failed to protect the Jews during these fate-filled months.

Robert Harris

Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages

Robert A. Harris is professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in biblical literature and commentary, particularly medieval Jewish biblical exegesis. Over the years, Dr. Harris has served JTS in a variety of roles, including assistant to the director of The JTS Library, professor-in-residence at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, and director of several musical theater productions. Dr. Harris is an expert in the history of medieval biblical exegesis. His dissertation was titled The Literary Hermeneutic of Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency. In 2004 he published a book in the Brown Judaic Studies series, Discerning Parallelism: A Study in Northern French Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis. In addition, he has published many articles and reviews in both American and Israeli journals. 

Barry Holtz

Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education

Barry W. Holtz is the Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary. From 2008 to 2013 he served as dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of JTS. He leads courses in teaching classical texts, professional development for teachers, philosophy of Jewish education, and current issues confronting Jewish education. Dr. Holtz has written and edited numerous publications in the field of Jewish education. His Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, is widely used as a textbook for university and adult education courses.

Naomi Kalish

Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education; Assistant Professor of Pastoral Education

Rabbi Naomi Kalish is the Harold and Carole Wolfe Director of the Center for Pastoral Education and assistant professor of Pastoral Education. Prior to coming to JTS, Rabbi Kalish taught clinical pastoral education (CPE) at New York–Presbyterian Hospital to students from diverse religious, denominational, national, and cultural backgrounds. Rabbi Kalish has served on the Interprofessional Education Faculty at Columbia University Medical Center. She has taught chaplaincy and pastoral care courses and programs for the Academy for Jewish Religion, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Yeshivat Maharat, and JTS. Rabbi Kalish has extensive experience in interreligious dialogue and its application for peace-building and community relations. She earned her BA from Tufts University and an MA in Jewish Philosophy and rabbinic ordination from JTS. She is a doctoral candidate in Education and Jewish Studies at New York University.

Amy Kalmanofsky

Dean, List College and Kekst Graduate School; Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor, Bible

Dr. Amy Kalmanofsky is dean of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies and the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, as well as the Blanche and Romie Shapiro Professor of Bible. Previously, Dr. Kalmanofsky was associate vice chancellor, serving as an ambassador for JTS, teaching in communities across North America, building relationships with supporters, and sharing the impact of JTS on the Jewish world. As professor of Bible, she teaches courses on biblical literature, religion, and feminist interpretation of the Bible. In her writing and teaching, Dr. Kalmanofsky combines contemporary ideas and critical methods with traditional text study, teaching students to be careful, creative interpreters of Torah. 

Richard Kalmin

Theodore R. Racoosin Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Richard Kalmin is the Theodore R. Racoosin Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary, where he has taught since 1982. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on the interpretation of rabbinic stories, ancient Jewish history, and the development of rabbinic literature. His publications include the award-winning Jewish Babylonia Between Persia and Roman Palestine, published in 2006 by Oxford University Press, and Sages, Stories, Authors, and Editors in Rabbinic Babylonia, considered a classic in its field. He has been a visiting professor at Hebrew Union College, Union Theological Seminary, and Yale University, and a faculty fellow at the University of Michigan and the Institute of Advanced Studies at Hebrew University. He is the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of his most recent book, Migrating Tales: The Talmud’s Narratives and Their Historical Context, published in September 2014 by the University of California Press. Dr. Kalmin was elected to the American Academy of Jewish Research in 2015.

David C. Kraemer

Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

David Kraemer has been part of the JTS community since 1977, when he enrolled at The Graduate School after completing his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University. He began teaching as a graduate student in 1980, receiving his PhD in 1984. Dr. Kraemer’s focus as a professor was on the literary analysis of rabbinic literature, rabbinic ritual, and the social and religious history of Jews in late antiquity. He accepted the position of Librarian in 2004, in which he has played a crucial role in forging policy and expanding the impact of The Library’s world-renowned collections and programs. 

Jeffrey Kress

Provost and Dr. Bernard Heller Professor of Jewish Education; Interim Dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education

Dr. Kress’s interests include social, emotional, and spiritual development and education. He has written about experiential Jewish education, particularly as it takes place in formal settings. He has also conducted research and professional development on inclusion of learners with disabilities in camp settings. His book Development, Learning, and Community: Educating for Identity in Pluralistic Jewish High Schools (Academic Studies Press, 2012) won a National Jewish Book Award. His latest book is Nurturing Students’ Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social and Emotional Learning (Routledge Press, 2020), written with Dr. Maurice Elias. He has also published numerous journal articles and book chapters and regularly presents at academic and professional-development conferences.

Yitz Landes

Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures

Dr. Yitz Landes (he/him) is Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures. His research focuses on the premodern transmission of Jewish knowledge, primarily vis-à-vis the history of rabbinic education and the history of the Jewish book. Additionally, Landes works on the development of Jewish ritual and liturgy, topics he addressed in his first monograph, Studies in the Development of Birkat ha-Avodah (The Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, 2018).  

Yael Landman

Assistant Professor of Bible

Biography BA, University of Pennsylvania; PhD, Yeshiva University Dr. Yael Landman is assistant professor of Bible. Her most recent book, Legal Writing, Legal Practice: The Biblical Bailment Law and Divine Justice (Brown Judaic Studies, 2022), examines the biblical laws of bailment (i.e., temporary safekeeping) in Exodus 22 as a lens through which to explore the relationship of […]

Marjorie Lehman

Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Marjorie Lehman is professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary and the Area Coordinator of Rabbinic Literatures and Cultures. She teaches a wide range of courses in Rabbinics, including courses on gender in Talmudic literature, aggadah, halakhah, the history of the Jewish book, and pedagogy. Her scholarly journey reflects a commitment to balancing the historical and intellectual aspects of Jewish texts while also focusing on the ways they speak to and help us to understand our place in the contemporary moment.

Miriam Meir

Senior Lecturer of Hebrew Language

Miriam Meir is the Area Coordinator of Jewish Languages and a senior lecturer of Hebrew language. She has been teaching Hebrew language and literature at JTS since 2008, and joined the JTS faculty as a full-time member in 2011. She has led the Hebrew language program at JTS since 2014.

Jonathan Milgram

Associate Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Milgram is associate professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

He holds two bachelor’s degrees: one in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and the other in Talmud from JTS. He earned his master’s degree in Talmud and his rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva University, and his doctorate in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. 

Dr. Milgram has been visiting assistant professor at Hunter College and has lectured in New York City at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, as well as at other universities in this country and abroad.

Edna Nahshon

Professor of Jewish Theater and Drama

Dr. Edna Nahshon is professor of Theater and Drama at The Jewish Theological Seminary. In 2013 she served as producer and dramaturg of JTS’s milestone production Bratslav-Beethoven-Bratslav, directed by Yossi Yizraely. She is currently the curator and catalog contributing editor of “From the Bowery to Broadway: New York’s Yiddish Theater,” a landmark exhibition scheduled to open in February 2016 at the Museum of the City of New York. Dr. Nahshon’s specialty is the intersection of Jewishness, theater, and performance. She is the editor of (and a contributor to) the volumes Jewish Theatre: A Global View (Brill Academic Publishers, 2009) and Jews and Theater in an Intercultural Context (Brill Academic Publishers, 2012). In 2003, she was guest editor of a special issue of American Jewish History (91:1) devoted to the theme of “Jews and Performance,” which included her essay “The Pulpit and the Stage: Rabbi Joseph Silverman and the Actors’ Church Alliance.” Dr. Nahshon’s forthcoming book is titled Countering Shylock: Jewish Responses to The Merchant of Venice (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

Ismar Schorsch

Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish History and Chancellor Emeritus

Ismar Schorsch is chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish History. Since retiring as chancellor in 2006, Dr. Schorsch has returned to his first love: the life of the mind and serious scholarship. He is currently at work on a biography of Moritz Steinschneider and more generally on the interdisciplinary nature of Oriental studies in the 19th century. His last book, Canon Without Closure (March 2007, Aviv Press), is a wide-ranging collection of Torah commentaries written during his tenure as chancellor. In 2004, he published a two-volume collection of the articles and essays he wrote while chancellor titled Polarities in Balance; and in 1995, he published The Sacred Cluster: The Core Values of Conservative Judaism, a highly acclaimed monograph outlining the seven fundamental tenets of the Movement. 

Marcus Mordecai Schwartz

Ripps Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections; Assistant Professor, Talmud and Rabbinics

Rabbi Marcus Mordecai Schwartz serves as the Ripp Schnitzer Librarian for Special Collections of The Library of JTS. He is a past recipient of the prestigious Professor Saul Lieberman and Dr. Judith Berlin Lieberman Graduate Fellowships in Talmudic Studies. He is also an alumnus of the University of Nebraska.

Stefanie B. Siegmund

Women's League Chair in Jewish Gender and Women's Studies

Dr. Stefanie B. Siegmund—the first person to hold the Women’s League Chair in Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies at JTS—is associate professor of History and director of the Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies program at JTS. She also serves as the area coordinator for the program in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Studies. She specializes in the history of the Jewish family and the Jews of the early modern Italian states, her current research focusing on the subject of conversion of Jews to Catholicism in 16th-century Italy. Her work engages questions concerning gender and its role in creating Jewish custom, culture, and law, as well as the history and status of Jewish women. Dr. Siegmund was a professor in the Department of History and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan for 10 years prior to her appointment at JTS. Earlier, she was the Samuel Melton Legislative Professor in Jewish Studies and an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Florida. 

Brian Smollett

Associate Provost, Curriculum and Instruction; Dean, Academic Affairs; Assistant Professor, Modern Jewish Thought

Before coming to JTS as a teacher and administrator, Dr. Smollett taught both Jewish and European history at Binghamton University, Queens College, and Hunter College, where he served as associate director of the Jewish Studies program. At JTS, he served for six years as assistant and then associate dean of List College, where he advised students in the dual-degree programs with Columbia and Barnard, and managed academic policy.

Benjamin D. Sommer

Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages

Benjamin D. Sommer joined The Jewish Theological Seminary faculty as professor of Bible in July 2008. Previously, he served as director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies at Northwestern University, where he had taught since 1994. Dr. Sommer has been a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Tikvah Center for Jewish Law and Civilization at the New York University School of Law, and the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He has served as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Bible of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. He has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Yad Hanadiv/Berakha Foundation.

Boaz Tarsi

Professor of Jewish Music and Liturgy

Boaz Tarsi is a professor of music at The Jewish Theological Seminary. His main research area is the theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music and its role within the liturgical experience as a whole. As a secondary area of academic pursuit, he works on issues in music of the modern era, particularly the composer Arnold Schoenberg. He has published a long line of articles on these subjects in leading scholarly journals, and presented papers and lectures at academic conferences and institutions worldwide. He earned his doctorate at Cornell University.

Gordon Tucker

Vice Chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, Assistant Professor of Jewish Philosophy

As vice chancellor for Religious Life and Engagement, Rabbi Gordon Tucker focuses on enhancing Jewish life at JTS, enriching our study of Judaism with the joy and deep understanding that only lived experience can provide. A leading scholar and interpreter of Conservative Judaism, he also articulates the enduring power of JTS’s compelling approach to Jewish law and Jewish life, while strengthening JTS’s religious leadership through partnerships with organizations in the Conservative Movement and beyond.

Jan Uhrbach

Director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts

Rabbi Jan Uhrbach brings a passion for prayer to the JTS community. Through her work as founding director of the Block / Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts, she develops and oversees programs and discussions, as well as prayer services on Shabbat and festivals, for the JTS community and the general public. 

Abigail Uhrman

Assistant Professor of Jewish Education

Abigail Uhrman completed her PhD in 2013 at New York University, where her dissertation, Alike and Different: Parenting a Child with Special Needs in the Jewish Community, focused on parents’ experiences in Jewish day schools and educational decision-making for their children with disabilities. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in history and minor in education studies in 2001.  

Outside of her academic interests, Dr. Uhrman has considerable experience working in teaching, administrative, and consulting capacities in the Jewish community. Her work in the field deeply informs her research and teaching practice.

Jack Wertheimer

Joseph and Martha Mendelson Professor of American Jewish History

Dr. Jack Wertheimer is the Joseph and Martha Mendelson Professor of American Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary. His area of specialization is modern Jewish history, with a focus on trends in the religious, educational, and organizational sectors of American Jewish life since World War II. Dr. Wertheimer is the author or editor of more than a dozen volumes, including Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany (Oxford University Press, 1987); The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed (Cambridge University Press, 1987); The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era (JTS/Harvard, 1992); and The Modern Jewish Experience: A Reader‘s Guide (NYU Press). His book, A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America (Basic Books, 1993), which won a National Jewish Book Award for best study on contemporary Jewish life. A People Divided was reissued by the University Press of New England in September 1997. Dr. Wertheimer’s 2018 book, The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today (Princeton), won a National Jewish Book Award for the best book in American Jewish Studies.

Sarah Wolf

Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Sarah Wolf’s research focuses on legal textual cultures in rabbinic Judaism. Her dissertation, The Rabbinic Legal Imagination: Narrativity and Scholasticism in the Babylonian Talmud, traced the development of literary elements in the Talmud’s legal passages in the context of the rise of the rabbinic academy. Her current book project examines the construction of emotions as legal categories in rabbinic literature. Dr. Wolf received her PhD from Northwestern University and her BA in Literature from Yale University. She is also a faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America.

Joseph Brodie

Vice President Emeritus, Instructor of Professional Skills and Bible

Rabbi Brodie began as an undergraduate at JTS in 1956 and retired from the administration in 2006. In 1975, Rabbi Brodie founded JTS’s Office of Student Life, which flourished under his direction. Student Life is a Hillel-like office whose functions include counseling students, programming extracurricular student activities, and overseeing the Va’ad Gemilut Hasadim. The Va’ad, a cocurricular community outreach organization founded by Rabbi Brodie in the mid-1980s, is his proudest accomplishment in the realm of student affairs.

Burton I. Cohen (z”l)

Associate Professor Emeritus

Burton Cohen is associate professor emeritus of Jewish Education and former chair of the Department of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Ordained by JTS in 1957, Dr. Cohen earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Philosophy of Education from the University of Chicago. In his teaching, research, and writing, Dr. Cohen’s areas of interest include informal settings for Jewish education, the preparation of teachers and principals for Jewish schools, teaching rabbinic literature to adults, and the use of computers in Jewish learning and educational research. 

Aryeh Davidson

Assistant Professor Emeritus of Jewish Education

Aryeh Davidson is assistant professor emeritus of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Davidson, a member of the JTS faculty since 1983, is the founder and former dean of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, established in 1996. Dr. Davidson has extensive practical experience in both Jewish and general education, as a classroom teacher and administrator, in both formal and informal educational settings. Dr. Davidson’s research interests include teacher preparation, leadership development, and program evaluation. For the past several years he has focused on a series of empirical studies that explore the identity development of Jewish professionals. His publications include The Test Resource Guide (1981), Seminary Rabbinical Students: Who Attended and Why (1997), and Making a Difference: Jewish Identity and Education (1995).

Israel Francus (z”l)

Judge Abraham Lieberman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Talmudic Exegesis

Israel Francus is Judge Abraham Lieberman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Talmudic Exegesis of The Jewish Theological Seminary. A native of Poland, Dr. Francus received a bachelor’s degree in 1956 and a master’s degree in 1958 from Columbia University. He also received a bachelor’s degree in 1956, a master’s degree in 1962, and rabbinic ordination from JTS, in addition to receiving a doctorate from Hebrew University in 1962. Dr. Francus has been an active member of the JTS community for more than forty years, and he was one of the first two graduates of JTS’s Joint Program with Columbia University.

Shamma Friedman

Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Shamma Friedman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Talmud and Rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Friedman has been associated with JTS since he entered The Rabbinical School as a student in 1958. He was appointed to the JTS faculty in 1964. After ordination, he pursued a PhD at JTS and was one of two students who comprised the first graduating class to this degree, working under the tutelage of Professor Haim Zalman Dimitrovsky. Dr. Friedman has served the institution in a variety of roles, including professor, acting librarian, editor of Hebrew publications, and director of the Schocken Institute. During the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Friedman was the dean and director of JTS’s Jerusalem campus, now known as the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies.

Stephen P. Garfinkel

Faculty Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Its Interpretation

Dr. Garfinkel has previously served as a visiting faculty member at Yale University and Hunter College. While serving as educational coordinator for United Synagogue Youth, Dr. Garfinkel wrote and/or edited more than 15 books on Jewish education. He is a member of the Association for Jewish Studies, Columbia University Hebrew Biblical Seminar, and the Society of Biblical Literature. Dr. Garfinkel’s scholarly publications have appeared in a variety of journals, including Vetus Testamentum, Conservative Judaism, and the Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society.

Stephen A. Geller

Irma Cameron Milstein Professor Emeritus in Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages

Stephen A. Geller is the Irma Cameron Milstein Chair Emeritus of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Geller teaches courses in biblical literature, with special emphasis on the Book of Psalms, biblical poetry, and the prophets. Dr. Geller has published numerous books and articles on biblical language, poetry, literature, and religion. His dissertation, “Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry,” was published in 1979. His most recent book is Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Geller’s article “Wisdom, Nature, and Piety in Some Biblical Psalms” appeared in Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen (edited by I. Tzvi Abusch). He is currently completing a commentary on the Book of Psalms for the Hermeneia series of commentaries.

Michael B. Greenbaum

Vice Chancellor Emeritus

Rabbi Michael B. Greenbaum is vice chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary, where he served, in a career spanning 40 years, as an administrator and member of the faculty. For a quarter-century as JTS vice chancellor and chief operating officer, Rabbi Greenbaum oversaw many significant milestones and accomplishments. Among them, he directed the construction of Kripke Tower and the complex that houses The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary; provided active counsel to the Ramah camping movement; served on the search committees for two chancellors; and represented JTS on numerous boards, including those of Masorti Olami, The Jewish Museum, the Association of Theological Schools, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and MERCAZ, as well as the Executive Council of the Rabbinical Assembly. 

Judith Hauptman

E. Billi Ivry Professor Emerita of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture

Judith Hauptman is the E. Billi Ivry Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Hauptman’s scholarly research focuses on two areas. The first is unraveling the mystery of how the Talmud came into being—i.e., how the many strands of rabbinic teachings coalesced into one coherent document. Her work may be classified as synoptic studies—a specialized area of Talmudic research in which related texts are examined for their implications about the history of the texts themselves and of Jewish law. Her first book in this area is titled Development of the Talmudic Sugya: Relationship Between Tannaitic and Amoraic Sources (University Press of America, 1987). Her most recent book, Rereading the Mishnah: A New Approach to Ancient Jewish Texts (Mohr Siebeck, 2005), examines the relationship of the Mishnah and the Tosefta, two early rabbinic works. 

Walter Herzberg

Assistant Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Its Interpretation and Professional Pastoral Skills

Dr. Walter Herzberg, assistant professor emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Its Interpretation and Professional Pastoral Skills at The Jewish Theological Seminary, has devoted the bulk of his career to working directly with students in the United States and Israel. He teaches introductory and advanced courses in Bible and traditional biblical commentary in The Rabbinical School, H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of Jewish Music, and the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of JTS, and guides students in the classroom and online in the reading of the Bible, using a methodological approach and integrating modern literary close reading techniques with the study of traditional Jewish commentary.

Carol K. Ingall

Dr. Bernard Heller Professor Emerita of Jewish Education

Dr. Carol K. Ingall is the Dr. Bernard Heller Professor Emerita of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Her areas of expertise are curriculum and instruction, moral education, and the history of American Jewish education, affording her ample opportunities to teach and explore what constitutes effective Jewish education. Dr. Ingall’s publications include: Moral Education in Middle Schools (Ablex, 1997); Transmission and Transformation: A Jewish Perspective on Moral Education (Melton Research Center, 1999), winner of the National Jewish Book Award in education; Down the Up Staircase: Tales of Teaching in Jewish Day Schools (JTS Press, 2006); and The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910–1965 (Brandeis University Press, 2010). 

Nitza Krohn

Assistant Professor of Hebrew Language Instruction

Nitza Krohn, an assistant professor of Hebrew Language Instruction, has been at The Jewish Theological Seminary since 1987. She has an EdD in applied linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Krohn has written extensively on Hebrew language pedagogy and methodology. Her book Reading Academic Hebrew: An Advanced Learner’s Handbook, published by Brill in 2011, articulates the grammatical and semantic knowledge that native Hebrew readers bring to the task of reading complex academic prose. Dr. Krohn has been a frequent presenter on topics related to the teaching of Hebrew at the annual meetings of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH). She has also presented at the annual conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics. She chairs the Pedagogy Committee of NAPH and is on the editorial board of its publication, Hebrew Higher Education.

Anne Lapidus Lerner

Assistant Professor Emerita of Jewish Literature

A member of the JTS faculty since 1969, Dr. Lerner was the first woman to serve as a JTS vice chancellor, and thus was one of the highest-ranking women in American Jewish institutional life. She had previously served as dean of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies, and as associate dean of the now Gershon Kekst Graduate School. In 2014 she inaugurated the Paula E. Hyman Mentoring Program to provide mentors for emerging scholars in the fields of Jewish and gender studies. The Program is supported by Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Association for Jewish Studies and its Women’s Caucus.

Morton M. Leifman z”l

David Marcus

Professor Emeritus of Bible and Masorah

David Marcus is professor emeritus of Bible and Masorah at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in Bible and ancient languages, including Babylonian Aramaic and biblical Hebrew. His area of expertise is the Bible and the ancient Near East. Dr. Marcus’s book Jephthah and His Vow challenges the widespread opinion that Jephthah put his daughter to death, and his book From Balaam to Jonah explores the use of satire in the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Marcus is part of a team involved in the production of a new critical Hebrew Bible being produced by the German Bible Society. He was the editor for the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and is the Masorah editor for the entire series.

Alan Mittleman

Aaron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Emeritus Professor of Jewish Philosophy

Alan Mittleman’s teaching focuses on the intersection between Jewish thought and Western philosophy in the fields of ethics, political theory, and metaphysics.

His many articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in such journals as Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, Jewish Political Studies Review, Journal of Religion, and First Things. He is a contributor to the Cambridge Companion to American Judaism. Dr. Mittleman’s current project is a study of the conceptual relations among holiness, goodness, and violence. He hopes thereby to better understand the connections and ruptures between religion and ethics.   

Mayer Rabinowitz

Associate Professor Emeritus of Talmud and Rabbinics

Mayer E. Rabinowitz is associate professor emeritus of Talmud and rabbinics at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He served as JTS’s librarian from 1987 to 2002; under his leadership, the reputation and accessibility of The Library grew to new heights. Rabbi Rabinowitz is the chairman of the Joint Bet Din of the Conservative Movement, which deals with matters of marriage and divorce as well as arbitration and mediation. He served as both secretary and research consultant to the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly; he was a committee member for 25 years, until 2006. Over the years, he served as director of the Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmudic Research, dean of The Graduate School of The Jewish Theological Seminary, associate dean of The Graduate School, and dean of students at The Seminary College of Jewish Studies / Teachers Institute (now List College of The Jewish Theological Seminary).

David G. Roskies

Sol and Evelyn Henkind Chair in Yiddish Literature and Culture and Professor of Jewish Literature Emeritus

David G. Roskies is the Sol and Evelyn Henkind Chair in Yiddish Literature and Culture and a professor of Jewish literature at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Since 2013, he has also served as the Naomi Prawer Kadar Visiting Professor of Yiddish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Roskies was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. Dr. Roskies is a cultural historian of Eastern European Jewry. A prolific author, editor, and scholar, he has published nine books and received numerous awards. In 1981, Dr. Roskies cofounded with Dr. Alan Mintz Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History, and served for seventeen years as editor in chief of the New Yiddish Library series, published by Yale University Press.

Joel Roth

Louis Finkelstein Professor Emeritus of Talmud and Jewish Law

Joel Roth is Louis Finkelstein Professor Emeritus of Talmud and Jewish Law at The Jewish Theological Seminary and Rosh Yeshiva Emeritus of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Rabbi Roth previously held four administrative positions at JTS, serving as dean of students of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies (then called Seminary College), director of the Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, and associate dean and dean of The Rabbinical School.

Raymond Scheindlin

Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature

Dr. Scheindlin specializes in medieval Hebrew poetry, with a special interest in Spain and other regions of Arabic culture. He is also active as a literary translator of medieval and other Hebrew texts. His books on medieval Hebrew poetry are Wine, Women, and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life (1986); The Gazelle: Medieval Hebrew Poems on God, Israel, and the Soul (1991); The Song of the Distant Dove: Judah Halevi’s Pilgrimage (2007), and Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol (2016).

Menahem Schmelzer (z”l)

Albert B. And Bernice Cohen Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature and Jewish Bibliography

Menahem Schmelzer was Albert B. and Bernice Cohen Professor Emeritus of Medieval Hebrew Literature and Jewish Bibliography at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He served as a full-time member of the JTS faculty beginning in 1961 and was librarian from 1964 to 1987.

Ismar Schorsch

Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish History and Chancellor Emeritus

Ismar Schorsch is chancellor emeritus of The Jewish Theological Seminary and Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish History. Since retiring as chancellor in 2006, Dr. Schorsch has returned to his first love: the life of the mind and serious scholarship. He is currently at work on a biography of Moritz Steinschneider and more generally on the interdisciplinary nature of Oriental studies in the 19th century. His last book, Canon Without Closure (March 2007, Aviv Press), is a wide-ranging collection of Torah commentaries written during his tenure as chancellor. In 2004, he published a two-volume collection of the articles and essays he wrote while chancellor titled Polarities in Balance; and in 1995, he published The Sacred Cluster: The Core Values of Conservative Judaism, a highly acclaimed monograph outlining the seven fundamental tenets of the Movement. 

Leonard A. Sharzer

Associate Director for Bioethics Emeritus, The Finkelstein Institute of Religious and Social Studies

Associate Director for Bioethics Emeritus, The Finkelstein Institute of Religious and Social Studies

Rabbi Leonard A. Sharzer, MD, is Senior Fellow in Bioethics of the Finkelstein Institute of Religious and Social Studies at The Jewish Theological Seminary. His current research is in the field of bioethics, especially as it pertains to Jewish law. A native of Boston, Rabbi Sharzer graduated from Boston University School of Medicine and completed residency training in general surgery at the University of Iowa, also earning an MS in surgery for work in organ preservation for transplantation.

Burton L. Visotzky

Nathan and Janet Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies Emeritus

Burton L. Visotzky joined the faculty upon his ordination as rabbi in 1977. Visotzky was a dean of Gershon Kekst Graduate School and founding rabbi of the egalitarian worship service of the Seminary Synagogue. He now serves as the Louis Stein Director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at JTS, charged with programs on public policy. Rabbi Visotzky also directs the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue at JTS. He has been visiting faculty at Oxford, Cambridge, and Princeton Universities; the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow; and served as the Master Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (where he met Pope Benedict in 2007). He recently served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he met Pope Francis.