FULL TIME FACULTY

JOEL BERKOWITZ is Chair of the Judaic Studies Department, and Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Studies. Dr. Berkowitz earned his Ph.D. at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He 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 editor and translator (with Jeremy Dauber) of Landmark Yiddish Plays (2006). He teaches courses on modern Jewish literature, theatre, history, and film. To view Professor Berkowitz's CV, click here.

OLGA LITVAK, a graduate of Columbia University, specializes in Eastern European and modern Jewish history. Her first book, Conscription and the Search for Modern Russian Jewry (Indiana UP, 2006), analyzes how Russian-Jewish writers and intellectuals in the late 19th century represented and responded to a landmark event in Russian-Jewish culture: the conscription of Jewish boys and men into the Russian military, which began in 1827. Professor Litvak has written and lectured on a wide range of subjects related to the study of Russian Jewry, including urban violence, literary and artistic life, war and revolution. The editor of the "Painting and Sculpture" section of the forthcoming YIVO Encyclopedia of Eastern European Jewish History, Prof. Litvak has also been pursuing the study of Jewish participation in the making of modern Russian visual culture. Her current project is a biography of the Jewish writer and cultural entrepreneur, Sholem-aleichem. Professor Litvak has taught at Columbia College, the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow and most recently at Princeton; she offers courses in modern Jewish cultural history, with a special emphasis on art and literature. She is currently serving as the director of the Center for Judaic Studies. To view Professor Litvak’s CV, click here.

BARRY TRACHTENBERG is Assistant Professor of European 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, examines the impact of the 1905 Russian Revolution on the formation of Yiddish scholarship and will be published by Syracuse University Press in 2008. 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. 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.

PART TIME FACULTY

ARTHUR BRENNER is Adjunct Lecturer of 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 is also an instructor in the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, a Jewish adult education program.

Sarit Moskowitz is a Lecturer of Hebrew langauge. A teacher of Hebrew for more than two decades, Ms. Moskowitz holds degrees from the University at Albany and Hudson Valley Community College. She is currently enrolled in Master of Arts program in Judaic Studies at the Hebrew College in Boston, Massachusetts.

RABBI DON CASHMAN is a Visiting Lecturer in Judaic Studies, teaching a course on "Jewish Traditions and Practices." He is the Rabbi at the B'nai Shalom Reform Congregation in Albany.

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 is an Adjunct Research Associate in Judaic Studies, teaching a course on "The Bible as Literature."  He translates scholarly and legal materials from Hebrew to English; his translation of Hastening Redemption by Arie Morgenstern, an Israeli historian, was recently published by Oxford University Press.

AFFILIATED FACULTY

DONALD BIRN, History Department
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 Emeriti 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.