Columbia University, New York, NY.

Ph.D. History and Jewish Studies, 2003

M. Phil. History and Jewish Studies, 2002

Memorial Foundation for Jewish Studies, Dissertation Fellowship, 2003-2004

Starr Fellow, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, 2002-2003

Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University, 1993-1995, 2002-2003

Jacob Rader Marcus Fellow, Center of the American Jewish Archives, 2002-2003

Columbia University, History Department Graduate Stipend, 2002.

Dorot Foundation, 1993-1995.

Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, NY.

Rabbinical Ordination, 1990.

M.A. Judaic Studies, 1990.

Dorot Foundation, 1988-1989.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Graduate School of Humanities, 1987-1988.

Melton Centre for Jewish Education, 1986.

Dorot Foundation, 1987-1988.

 

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.

B.A. History, 1989.

College of Liberal Arts Honors Division.

Regents Scholar.

PUBLICATIONS: 

Articles:

“The Importance of Being Frank: Solomon Schechter’s Departure from Cambridge,” Jewish Quarterly Review, (2004)

“The Case of Me’ah: Institutional Responses to Educational Needs,” Jewish Education News, Winter 2001.

“Me’ah: The Quest for Personal and Communal Transformation,” Wexner Heritage Foundation Jewish Leadership Case Series, No. 2, 1999.

"This is Only the Fact, But We Have the Idea: Solomon Schechter's Path to Zionism,"  Jewish Political Studies Review 9:1-2 (Spring 1997), pp. 15-32.

"A Response to Harvey Shapiro's Paper," in "Whither Zionism? The Challenge of the Second 100 Years," Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education & the Department of Jewish Education, Jewish National Fund of America, 1997.

"We Cannot Escape History:  Solomon Schechter and Zionism," Proceedings of the Rabbinical Assembly, Volume LV, 1993.

"Call Me Ishmael?: A Midrash For Conservative Judaism," Conservative Judaism,   1996.

"Richard Hofstadter," Encyclopedia of History and Historians (London: Fitzroy &   Dearborn, 1999) 548-550.

"Jacob Katz," Encyclopedia of History and Historians,  (London: Fitzroy & Dearborn, 1999) 635-636.

"C. Vann Woodward," Encyclopedia of History and Historians, (London: Fitzroy &           Dearborn, 1999) 1329-1330.

"Solomon Schechter," American National Biography (New York: Oxford, 1999).

Book Reviews:

Mark Raider, The Emergence of American Zionism, Sh’ma, 29:562, 8.

David Sorkin, Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment. Contemporary Jewry

Jeffrey S. Gurock and Jacob J. Schacter, Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism, Jewish Political Studies Review, 10:1&2, 138-141.

Eli Lederhendler, Jewish Responses to Modernity: New Voices in Eastern Europe and America, American Jewish History, 84:2, June 1996.

Academic Papers:

Discussant, “The Synagogue in America as a Mediating Institution,” Presentation by David Kaufman, Wilstein Institute Conference on Re-Envisioning the Synagogue, 2003.

“Portrait of the Scholar as a Young Man: Solomon Schechter’s Flight from Hasidism,” Hasidic Text Institute, Hebrew College, 2003.

“Lower Critics and Higher Criticism: Solomon Schechter and Modern Bible Criticism,” Association of Jewish Studies, 2003.

“Rabbis and Public Intellectuals: Solomon Schechter’s Views of Jewish Education,” Philosophy of Education Research Center, Harvard University, 2003.

“Higher Critics and Higher Criticism: Solomon Schechter and Modern Bible Criticism,” Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, 2003.

“A Rumanian Jew in Queen Victoria’s Country: Solomon Schechter in England,” Assocation of Jewish Studies, 2002.

“’My People Are Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge,’ Solomon Schechter on the Problem of Jewish Education,” Joint International Conference of The Israeli Association for Research in Jewish Education and the North American Network for Research in Jewish Education, 2002

“Assessing Schechter’s Impact on Conservative Judaism: the Case of Political and Spiritual     Zionism,” Rabbinical Assembly Convention, 2002.

“"This Is Only the Fact, But We Have the Idea: Solomon Schechter

Becomes a Zionist," Modern Jewish Studies Colloquim, Brandeis University, 2002.

“What’s American and Jewish About Jewish Adult Learning in America: Resonace, Consonance, and Dissonance; the Case of Me’ah,” Network for Research in Jewish  Education, June 2001.

“Cognitive Frameworks and Affective Outcomes: Institutional Responses to Educational Needs—the Case of Me’ah,” Gender Issues and Adult Jewish Education, Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women, Brandeis University, 2000.

“Creating Jewish Learning Communities,” National Leaders’ Consultation on Adult Jewish Learning in North America, Washington D.C. 1998.

"Build It and They Will Come": Me'ah and the Transformation of A Community." (coauthored with Carolyn Keller). First  International Conference on Adult Jewish Learning, Jerusalem 1997.

"Changing the Adult Educational Paradigm: the Me'ah Model," Jewish Educators Assembly, 1997.

"This Is Only the Fact, But We Have the Idea: Solomon Schechter Becomes a Zionist," Association of Jewish Studies, 1995.       

"We Cannot Escape History: Solomon Schechter and Zionism," Rabbinical Assembly Convention, 1993.

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Hebrew College, Brookline, MA.

Dean, Me'ah.  

Assistant Professor, 2003.

Instructor, 1994-2003.

Harvard Radcliffe Hillel

1994-1999

Rabbinic Advisor

Student Conservative Minyan

Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.

Lecturer, Hornstein Program for Jewish Communal Service.

1997-2003

           

Temple Israel of Great Neck, Great Neck, NY

Associate Rabbi

1990-1994.

TEACHING:

Hebrew College

1994 to present:

History of Judaism in America.

Responses to Enlightenment and Emancipation

History of Zionism

Modern Varieties of Judaism

Jewish Life in Eastern Europe: 1750-1917

Study of Judaism 2: Medieval and Modern Jewish Experience

History of Anti-Semitism

American Jewish Culture

History of Ancient Israel

 

Brandeis University

Zionism and Israel in Historical Perspective, 1997-2003.

Jewish Labor Committee

The Jewish Political Tradition: 2002-present.

Maimonides: Text and Thought; 1997-2002

           

Me’ah

Medieval Jewish Experience, 1998 to present.

Modern Jewish Experience, 1994 to present.