ÌÇÐijöÆ·

Avraham Holtz (z”l)

Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature

Avraham Holtz was born in New York City in 1934. He attended New York City public schools, including Stuyvesant High School, and afternoon Hebrew school at the East Side Hebrew Institute and the Herzliah Hebrew High School. In 1952 he was chosen to participate in the State of Israel’s first Program for Hebrew Teachers from Abroad, which later became the Hayyim Greenberg Institute. The following year he graduated from the Herzliah Hebrew Teachers Institute and received its Hebrew Teachers Diploma.ÌýAfter receiving his B.A. in Ancient History from Brooklyn College in 1955, he was admitted to the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was the Cyrus Adler Scholar for 1958 1959. He was ordained and awarded the degree of M.H.L. in 1959 and while teaching in the Seminary College and its Prozdor High School program continued his studies for his D.H.L., which he received in 1962. At ÌÇÐijöÆ·, he taught Hebrew Literature and language, liturgy, midrash, and Bible, and attained the rank of full professor as Simon H. Fabian Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Literature. He served as chairman of his department for several terms and as Dean for Academic Development under Chancellor Gerson D. Cohen.

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 was associate professor emeritus of Jewish Education and former chair of the Department of Jewish Education at ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 included 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.

Alan Cooper

Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies Emeritus

Alan Cooper is the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies Emeritus. He 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.

Aryeh Davidson

Assistant Professor Emeritus of Jewish Education

Aryeh Davidson is assistant professor emeritus of Jewish Education at ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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).

Eliezer B. Diamond z”l

Rabbi Judah Nadich Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics

Dr. Eliezer Diamond was the Rabbi Judah Nadich Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at ÌÇÐijöÆ·. He taught courses in rabbinic literature and introductory, intermediate, and advanced Talmud studies.ÌýDr. Diamond was the author of a chapter on the rabbinic period in theÌýSchocken Guide to Jewish Books,Ìýand entries in theÌýReader’s Guide to JudaismÌýandÌýThe Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.ÌýHe was the author ofÌýHoly Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic CultureÌý(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 wrote on prayer, asceticism, and issues of environmental law and ethics.

Israel Francus (z”l)

Judge Abraham Lieberman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Talmudic Exegesis

Israel Francus was Judge Abraham Lieberman Distinguished Service Professor of Talmudic Exegesis of ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 was 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·, 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·; 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·, 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ· 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

Rabbi Morton M. Leifman was the former vice president of JTS and longtime dean of the former Cantors Institute (now the H. L. Miller Cantorial School). He was an esteemed scholar of Jewish liturgy whose immeasurable service to JTS spanned decades.

David Marcus

Professor Emeritus of Bible and Masorah

David Marcus is professor emeritus of Bible and Masorah at ÌÇÐijöÆ·, 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·, associate dean of The Graduate School, and dean of students at The Seminary College of Jewish Studies / Teachers Institute (now List College of ÌÇÐijöÆ·).

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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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  and served for seventeen years as editor in chief of the  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 ÌÇÐijöÆ· and Rosh Yeshiva Emeritus of the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.ÌýRabbi 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ· 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 ÌÇÐijöÆ·. 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 Emeritus of Midrash and Interreligious Studies

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.

Jack Wertheimer

Emeritus Professor of American Jewish History

Dr. Jack Wertheimer served as the Joseph and Martha Mendelson Professor of American Jewish History at ÌÇÐijöÆ· until January 2025. 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.Ìý