FULL TIME FACULTY

JOEL BERKOWITZ is Associate Professor, Chair of the Judaic Studies Department, and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies. He earned his Ph.D. at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and taught in the CUNY system and at Oxford University before joining the Judaic Studies Department in 2001. He is the author of Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage (2002), editor of Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches (2003), and co-editor of  Landmark Yiddish Plays (2006) and a forthcoming volume, The Global Yiddish Stage.  He teaches courses on modern Jewish literature, theatre, history, and film. To view Professor Berkowitz's CV, click here.

BARRY TRACHTENBERG is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and affiliate faculty member in the Department of History. He was trained in Jewish history at the University of California, Los Angeles (Ph.D.), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Oxford University (Post-graduate Diploma) and also holds degrees from the University of Vermont (M.A. in U.S. history) and Rowan University of New Jersey (B.A. in English). His book, The Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish, 1903-1917 (Syracuse University Press, 2008) examines the impact of the 1905 Russian Revolution on the formation of Yiddish scholarship. His current project, on the only attempt to publish a comprehensive encyclopedia in the Yiddish language, considers a broad range of historiographical questions on the shifting agenda of Jewish research and the ways that the Holocaust has shaped Jewish historians’ understanding of their task. In support of this project, he has been awarded a Summer Research Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In the spring of 2009, he was a Fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. In the summer of 2009, he was a research fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum. He teaches classes on the Nazi Holocaust, antisemitism, modern and medieval Jewish history, and Jewish nationalism. Currently, Professor Trachtenberg serves as the Department's Undergraduate Advisor and coordinator of the Honors program. To view Professor Trachtenberg’s CV, click here.

SARIT MOSKOWITZis a Lecturer of Hebrew language.  A teacher of Hebrew for more than two decades, Ms. Moskowitz holds degrees from the University at Albany and Hudson Valley Community College.  She has been teaching Hebrew both at SUNY Albany and Skidmore College for the past two years.  She is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts program in Judaic Studies with a Hebrew concentration at the Hebrew College in Newton, MA.

PART TIME FACULTY

ARTHUR BRENNER teaches courses in European Jewish history. He studied history at the University of Pennsylvania before earning his doctorate in European history at Columbia University. He has taught at Columbia, New York University, City University of New York, Manhattan College, William Paterson University and Siena College. He wrote Emil J. Gumbel: Weimar German Pacifist and Professor and co-edited Death Squads in Global Perspective with Bruce B. Campbell, as well as several articles on German academic life and political violence in Weimar Germany. He has also been an instructor in the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, a Jewish adult education program.

RABBI DON CASHMAN teaches the course "Jewish Traditions and Practices."  He studied Religion at Boston University before attending the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and New York.  He has served as the Rabbi at the B'nai Sholom Reform Congregation in Albany since 1985.

ROB EDELMAN is a Lecturer at the University at Albany, where he teaches courses in film history in the Art Department. He is a film commentator on WAMC (Northeast) Public Radio and a Contributing Editor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide and several other Maltin publications. He is the author of Great Baseball Films and Baseball on the Web, and the editor of Issues on Trial: Freedom of the Press. His film/television-related biographies include Matthau: A Life; Angela Lansbury: A Life on Stage and Screen; and Meet the Mertzes, a double biography of I Love Lucy's William Frawley and Vivian Vance-- all co-authored with Audrey Kupferberg.

AUDREY KUPFERBERG is a Lecturer at the University at Albany, where she teaches courses in film history in the Art Department. She also is a film and video consultant, archivist, and appraiser, and has been Director of the Yale Film Study Center and Assistant Director of the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute. With her husband, Rob Edelman, she has co-authored several books, including Matthau: A Life; Angela Lansbury: A Life on Stage and Screen; and Meet the Mertzes, a dual biography of Vivian Vance and William Frawley.

JOEL LINSIDER teaches "The Bible as Literature."  He translates scholarly and legal materials from Hebrew to English. His translations include Hastening Redemption, by Arie Morgenstern (Oxford Univ. Press,1996); Dybbuks and Jewish Women, by Rachel Elior (Urim Publications, 2008); The Carpathian Diaspora: The Jews of Subcarpathian Rus’ and Mukachevo, 1848 – 1948, by Yeshayahu Jelinek (Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center and Columbia Univ. Press, 2007); and other books and numerous articles.

RABBI NOMI MANON teaches the department’s “Survey of Jewish Civilization.” She is the Executive Director of University at Albany Hillel, where she works closely with hundreds of students in exploring Judaism and their Jewish identities. She studied anthropology and religion at Alfred University before studying for the rabbinate at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. She previously taught at Ursinus College, where she was also the Hillel Director.

AFFILIATED FACULTY

ROBERT GLUCK, Music Department
MARTHA T. ROZETT, English Department
EDWARD SCHWARZSCHILD, English Department
SHARONA WACHS, Libraries
DAN WHITE, History Department

EMERITI FACULTY

JUDITH R. BASKIN
TOBY W. CLYMAN
SARAH BLACHER COHEN
JEROME ECKSTEIN
DANIEL GROSSBERG

STANLEY J. ISSER is an Emeritus Professor of Judaic Studies and an Affiliate Faculty Member of the Department of History, with a joint appointment in the Religious Studies Program. Dr. Isser was trained an historian at Columbia University, where he earned a doctorate in ancient history with a specialty in Judaism and early Christianity. He is the author of The Dositheans: A Samaritan Sect in Late Antiquity (1976) and The Sword of Goliath: David in Heroic Literature (2003). His research interests in both Jewish and Christian histories include religious sectarianism, messianic thought and movements, and the historical and literary traditions about King David. He teaches courses on ancient and post-biblical Jewish history, biblical texts, and archaeology.