Dr. David Berger: New Head of Jewish Studies

Dr. David Berger will assume responsibility for the cluster head of the Jewish Studies Department in Yeshiva College this coming fall semester. The cluster head's power will be greatly diminished, as the position will be split into four sections, each run by its own head. Professor Carmy will serve as the head of the Bible and Philosophy sub-department, Professor Schneider for Hebrew, and Professor Fine for Jewish History. Dr. Berger will serve in a more managerial position. I talked with Dr. Berger about his new job and the possibilities it holds.

The Commentator: What did you do before beginning at YU?

David Berger: was the Broeklundian Professor of History at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I was also Visiting Professor of Jewish History at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, a Fellow and Executive Committee member of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Co-chair of the Academic Advisory Committee of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and a member of the Council of the World Union of Jewish Studies, the Academic Committee of the Rothschild Foundation Europe, and served on the editorial board of Tradition. From 1998 to 2000, I was President of the Association for Jewish Studies. I was a Fellow of the Annenberg Research Institute, a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, and a Visiting Professor at both Yale University and Harvard University.

Commie:What are your fields of interest as a scholar?

DB:I am the author of The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages, which was awarded the John Nicholas Brown Prize by the Medieval Academy of America, and co-author of Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?, a Finalist for the Jewish Book Award in Jewish Thought. One of my books, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, which has since been published in an updated Hebrew version translated by the author ("Ha-Rebbe Melekh ha-Mashiach," Sha'aruriyyat ha-Adishut, ve-ha-Iyyum al Emunat Yisrael), received the 2003-2004 Samuel Belkin Literary Award. I have also written numerous articles on medieval Jewish history, Jewish-Christian relations, anti Semitism, contemporary Judaism, and the intellectual history of the Jewish people.

Commie:Generally speaking, in what direction do you see the Jewish Studies dept. going under your leadership?

DB:I want to make it clear that I have agreed to coordinate aspects of the Jewish Studies cluster but not to serve as cluster head in the full sense. The cluster will be administered by Prof. Carmy for Bible and Jewish Philosophy, Prof. Schneider for Hebrew, and Prof. Fine for Jewish History. The four of us, in consultation with the JS faculty as a whole, will address the larger issues facing the program, while scheduling and other matters involving each subdivision will be handled by the relevant faculty member. The full details of this structure are still being worked out. We have begun preliminary discussions about curricular issues, arrangements for providing improved communication with students, and more.

Commie:Will there be any immediate changes, upon your appointment, to the make-up or nature of the dept.?

DB:The college has just hired two young historians specializing in the modern period, Drs. Jess Olson and Joshua Karlip, to new tenure-track appointments, and Dr. Chaviva Levin will continue to teach medieval Jewish history. There have also been new part-time or visiting appointments in Bible. I believe that all these faculty will make a stellar contribution to the Jewish Studies offerings at Yeshiva.