Faculty

A Rich History

The Center for Jewish Studies was founded in 1968, among the first of the GTU initiatives, with the appointment of David Winston as professor and director. At first CJS served the seminary community, but it soon acquired students of its own and began offering degree programs. In the next few decades the faculty included Daniel Matt, David Biale, Joshua Holo, and Dina Stein. Among the visiting faculty have been: Jo Milgrom, Joshua Levinson, Yair Zackovitsh, Marcia Falk, Rachel Biale, the late Rabbi Alan Lew, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, and Peter Stein.

Naomi Seidman Ph.D. UC Berkeley, Center for Jewish Studies Director, and Koret Professor of Jewish Culture She is author of A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and Yiddish, and Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation.

Deena Aranoff Ph.D. Columbia University, Assistant Professor of Medieval Jewish Studies Her interests include rabbinic literature, medieval patterns of Jewish thought, and the broader question of continuity and change in Jewish history.

CJS hosts renowned visiting professors and authors.

Shana Penn Visiting scholar She is completing a book on the revitalization of Jewish culture in Poland after Communism. The author of Solidarity's Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland (University of Michigan Press, 2005), Penn has organized CJS symposia on Polish Jewish history and on oral history as counter narrative in Jewish studies.