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JUDAISM
Orthodox
Judaism: from decline to renewal
IN
THE NORTHEAST
• Alan M. Dershowitz is Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law
School. He wrote The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity
for the Next Century. Contact 617-495-4617, dersh@law.harvard.edu.
• Barry
A. Kosmin is director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society
and Culture at the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life
at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. He co-wrote The Next Generation: Jewish
Children and Adolescents. Contact 860-297-2353, Barry.Kosmin@trincoll.edu.
• Karla
Goldman is a historian in residence at the Jewish
Women’s Archive in Brookline, Mass. She is an expert on how women have shaped
American Judaism. Contact 502-852-6817, kgoldman@jwa.org.
• Noah
Feldman is a law professor at Harvard University and adjunct senior fellow
at the Council on Foreign Relations. He wrote a July 22, 2007, essay in The
New York Times Magazine (subscription required) titled “Orthodox Paradox,”
about his drift away from the Orthodox Judaism of his youth. Contact 617-495-9140,
nfeldman@law.harvard.edu.
IN
THE EAST
• Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
is an Orthodox rabbi from Englewood, N.J., who has become a nationally known
figure through his writings and television appearances. Boteach (pronounced
boh-TAY-ock) offers family and personal advice based in traditional Jewish wisdom.
He hosts The Learning Channel program “Shalom in the Home” and became popular
through his book Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy. Contact
Boteach through his Web
site.
• Robert
M. Seltzer is a history professor at Hunter College, City University of New
York. He has written books on the Jewish experience in America, including Toward
the 21st Century: Is There a Modern Judaism? Contact 212-772-5490, rseltzer@hunter.cuny.edu.
• Jacob
Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology at Bard College in
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., and one of the leading scholars of Judaism in America.
Contact 845-758-7389, neusner@bard.edu.
IN
THE SOUTHEAST
• Ira
Sheskin is a specialist in Jewish demographics at the University of Miami,
where he is a fellow at the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic
Studies. Sheskin was a consultant on the NJPS study. Contact 305-284-6693, isheskin@miami.edu.
• Vanessa
L. Ochs is director of Jewish studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Ochs writes about Jewish sacred traditions and spiritual practices. Contact
434-924-6722, vlo4n@virginia.edu.
• Melvin
Konner is a professor of anthropology, human biology and Jewish studies
at Emory University, and author of Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews,
about the history of Jewish culture. Contact 404-727-4195, antmk@emory.edu.
• David R.
Blumenthal is a professor of Judaic studies at Emory University in Atlanta.
He is an expert on Jewish mysticism and spirituality. Contact 404-727-7545,
reldrb@emory.edu.
IN
THE SOUTH
• Jay
Geller is an assistant professor of modern Jewish culture at Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, Tenn. He argues that the next generation of American
Jews must expand its sense of identity. Contact 615-353-3968, jay.geller@vanderbilt.edu.
• Lee
Shai Weissbach is a history professor at the University of Louisville in
Kentucky. He is an expert on small-town Jewish life in America, especially in
the South, where surveys show traditional observance tends to be lower than
in other areas. Contact 502-852-6817, weissbach@louisville.edu.
• Steven
Leonard Jacobs holds the Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies at the University
of Alabama in Birmingham. Contact 205-348-0473, sjacobs@bama.ua.edu.
IN
THE MIDWEST
• Anthony
Michels is an associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
where he teaches a course called “The American Jewish Experience: From Shtetl
to Suburb.” Contact 608-265-2521, aemichels@wisc.edu.
• Byron
L. Sherwin is a professor of Jewish studies at the Spertus Institute of
Jewish Studies in Chicago. Contact 312-322-1769.
• Michael
Fishbane is a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Chicago.
His research specialties are Jewish mysticism and modern Jewish thought. Contact
773-702-8234, mfishban@midway.uchicago.edu.
IN
THE SOUTHWEST
• Gregory Kaplan is the Anna Smith Fine Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies
at Rice University in Houston. He is an expert on modern Judaism. Contact 713-348-2778,
gkaplan@rice.edu.
• Richard
Golden is director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of North
Texas in Denton. Contact 940-369-8933, rmg@unt.edu.
• Adam
Zachary Newton is interim director of Jewish studies at the University of Texas
at Austin. He is an expert on modern Jewish thought. Contact 512-471-8532, adam.zach@mail.utexas.edu.
IN
THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Eli
Berman is an associate professor of economics at the University of California,
San Diego in La Jolla. Berman wrote an essay in the Quarterly Journal of
Economics in 2000 titled “A
Sect, Subsidy and Sacrifice: An Economist’s View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews.”
Contact 858-534-2858, eberman@ucsd.edu.
• John
Efron is a professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of
California-Berkeley. His focus is on the cultural and intellectual history of
modern Judaism. Contact 510-643-8887, efron@berkeley.edu.
• Paul
Burstein is chairman of the Jewish studies program at the University of
Washington in Seattle. He is an expert on the American Jewish community. Contact
206-543-7088, burstein@u.washington.edu.
• Bruce Phillips is a professor of Jewish communal service at the Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, a leading seminary
of the Reform movement. He was on the team that completed the National Jewish
Population Survey 2000 and says the Jewish institutional landscape will be reshaped
by children of intermarriage who do not belong to synagogues or identify as
Jews. Contact bphillips@huc.edu.
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