Faculty And Staff
Program Director
Jim Ross
School of Journalism
617.373.8701
Associate Director
Jenny Sartori
Jewish Studies Program
617.373.7045
Program Coordinator, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
Ann Grenell
1 Nightingale
617.373.2427
Faculty
Shawna Dolansky
Philosophy and Religion Department
617.373.7769
Professor Dolansky received her BA from Queen's University in Canada, with a dual major in history and philosophy. She received her MA in Judaic Studies and her PhD in History, studying the history of Israel in the biblical period, at the University of California, San Diego. Her forthcoming book is entitled Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Religion and Magic.
Robert Hall
African American Studies
617.373.2621
Josh Jacobson
Music Department
617.373.3635
Dr. Jacobson is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University, where he served nine years as Music Department Chairman and six years as the Bernard Stotsky Professor of Jewish Cultural Studies. He is Adjunct Professor of Jewish Music at Hebrew College and is also the founder and director of The Zamir Chorale of Boston, a world-renowned ensemble, specializing in Hebrew music.
He was awarded the Benjamin Shevach Award for Distinguished Achievement in Jewish Educational Leadership from Hebrew College in 1994. He was the conductor and host of the PBS film, "Zamir: Jewish Music Returns to Poland." His book, Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Complete Guide to the Art of Cantillation, was published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2002.
Debra Kaufman
Sociology and Anthropology Department
617.373.4270
Debra Kaufman is Professor of Sociology and Matthews Distinguished University Professor here at Northeastern University. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University. Her areas of research include gender, family, feminist studies, and religion. Among Kaufman’s publications are Post-Holocaust Identity and an Ever-Dying People: Contemporary Narratives (forthcoming); The Media,the Academy and the Law;, Assessing the Truth from the Protocols of Zion to Holocaust Denial, (2007); and Rachel's Daughters: Newly Orthodox Jewish Women (1991). Also, Measuring Jewishness in America: Some Feminist Concern, NASHIM: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues, 2005. She also served on the editorial board for the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Judaism from 1995-2005.
Jack Levin
Sociology and Anthropology Department
617.373.4983
Jack Levin is the Brudnick Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern University, where he co-directs its Center on Violence and Conflict and teaches courses in the sociology of violence and hate. Levin has authored or co-authored 28 books, including The Violence of Hate: Confronting Racism, Anti-Semitism, and Other Forms of Bigotry, and over 150 articles in professional journals and newspapers, such as The New York Times, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and USA Today. He appears frequently on national television programs, including 48 Hours, 20/20, Dateline NBC, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, The O’Reilly Factor, Larry King Live, and all network newscasts.
Dr. Levin was honored by the Massachusetts Council for Advancement and Support of Education as its “Professor of the Year.” He has spoken to a wide variety of community, academic, and professional groups, including the White House Conference on Hate Crimes, the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (a membership of 59 countries) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
Jacob Meskin
Ruderman Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies
617.373.8982
Dr. Jacob Meskin is the Ruderman Visiting Professor of Jewish Studies for the 2009-2010 Academic Year. He joins us from Hebrew College, where he has served as Academic Director of the Me'ah Program and Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought and Education. He has taught at Princeton University, Rutgers University, Williams College, Yeshiva University's Revel Graduate School, Lehigh University, and Rollins College .
Dr. Meskin received his MA and Ph.D. from the Department of Religion at Princeton University and his articles have appeared in Modern Judaism, The Journal of Religion, Cross Currents, Judaism, Soundings, and Levinas Studies. He is currently working on a manuscript on the role of Jewish tradition in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas.
William Miles
Political Science Department
617.373.3950
Professor Miles received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His areas of expertise are Comparative Politics, Political Development, and Political Culture. Among his publications are "Third World Views of the Holocaust," Journal of Genocide Research (2004); "Negritude and Judaism," Western Journal of Black Studies (1997); “Political Para-theology: Rethinking Religion and Politics and Democracy," Third World Quarterly (1996). Also, Professor Miles' book Zion in the Desert. American Jews in Israel’s Reform Kibbutzim (2007) was recently published by the State
University of New York Press.
He served as Visiting Research Scholar at the Harry S Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1994, and was Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies at Northeastern University from 1998-2002.
Jim Ross
School of Journalism
617.373.8701
Jim Ross is Associate Professor of Journalism and Director of the Jewish Studies Program. He received his MA in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University. He is the author of three books:Fragile Branches: Travels Through the Jewish Diaspora (Riverhead Books, 2000), Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China (Free Press, 1994), and Caught in a Tornado: A Chinese-American Woman Survives the Cultural Revolution (Northeastern University Press, 1994). Most recently, he co-edited From the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to Holocaust Denial Trials: Challenging the Media, Law and the Academy (Vallentine Mitchell, 2007). Professor Ross has served as the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies at Northeastern. He also has received a grant from the U.S. Institute for Peace to run a three-week seminar for Israeli and Palestinian journalists on ways to improve coverage of the Middle East conflict.
Jenny Sartori
Jewish Studies Program
617.373.7045
Jenny Sartori is Associate Director of the Jewish Studies Program. She received her Ph.D. in History from Emory University. Her areas of expertise include European and American Jewish history and gender and Jewish culture. She has done research on Jewish women in 19th- and 20th-century France and is currently working on a new project on adoption and Jewish identity in the United States today.
Steve Sadow
Modern Languages Department
617.373.2908
Professor Sadow received his Ph.D. from Havard University and is Professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at Northeastern University. Sadow specializes in Jewish Latin American literature and language teaching methodology. He has authored, edited, or translated fifteen books and more than seventy book chapters, articles, and literary translations. He received the 1999 National Jewish Book Award for his translation work. With Ricardo Feierstein, he co-directed the four-day cultural festival "The Conference in the AMIA: Reconstructing Jewish Argentine Culture" in 2001 and 2003.
Susan Setta
Philosophy and Religion Department
617.373.7699
Professor Setta is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. She received her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses mainly on marginal religions, with particular interest in groups founded by women. She is currently studying charismatic authority in a variety of new religious movements, including followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Mary Baker Eddy.
Harvey Shapiro
Education and Jewish Studies
617.373.4746
Dr. Harvey Shapiro is Associate Professor of Education and Jewish Studies at Northeastern University. His areas of academic interest also include curriculum theory and design, educational theory, modern Hebrew literature, modern Jewish history and modern Jewish thought. His most recent articles include "Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin�s Non-Messianic Vision of the Present and Future," in The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (2007) and "Toward a Holistic Theory of Informal Jewish Education," Journal of Jewish Education,(2007). His Ph.D. is from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he wrote his dissertation on "Cultivating a Viable Relationship Between North American Jews and Israel" (1996). Prior to entering academia and receiving his doctorate, Harvey served as a Jewish day school headmaster and Jewish camp director. Having served as Dean of the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education at Hebrew College from 1994-2007, Harvey now devotes himself full-time to teaching and research in education and Jewish studies at Northeastern. Presently, he is writing on Hayyim of Volozhin, John Dewey, and S. Y. Agnon. He also teaches at Hebrew College in its professional and adult education programs.
Claire Sufrin
Jewish Studies Program
Schusterman Fellow in Jewish Studies
617.373.8437
Dr. Sufrin is the Schusterman Post-Doctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at Northeastern. She earned a BA in Religious Studies at Yale University and a PhD in Religious Studies at Stanford University, with a focus on modern Jewish thought. Her dissertation research examined philosopher Martin Buber's writings on the Bible, and she is currently working on revising that work into a book manuscript. She teaches Introduction to Jewish Religion and Culture, Responses to the Holocaust, and Modern Judaism.
Denis Sullivan
Political Science and International Affairs
617.373.4409
Professor Sullivan is a Professor of Political Science and serves as Director of Northeastern’s Middle East Center for Peace, Culture, and Development and of the International Affairs Program. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His areas of study are Comparative Politics, International Relations, Egypt, and the Middle East. He has served as an Affiliate in Research at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, as well as consultant to the World Bank and U.S. State Department and advisor to the Palestinian Authority in 1998-1999.
Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor of Jewish Studies
Dr. Daphne Tsimhoni is visiting us from the Department of Humanities and Arts-the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology where she is a professor of Modern Middle East History. She has also been a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Tsimhoni received her M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and earned her PhD. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, at the University of London. Her areas of research include ethnicity in the contemporary Middle East with special reference to Christians and Jews and nationalism, religion and ethnic relations in the State of Israel among Palestinian Arabs. Her publications include numerous articles on the aforementioned topics. Her book, Christian Communities in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1948, has become the standard work on Palestinian Christians.