Featured Teacher

Though the words “Jewish History” evoke in most students’ minds visions of Medieval and Modern Eastern European sages and shtetlach, there is a whole other world of historic Jewish life, new Sephardic Studies professor Ronnie Perelis urges.  Joining the faculty of Yeshiva this fall from Brandeis’s Latin American and Latino Studies Program, where he was a professor of Hispanic Studies, Perelis is teaching Yeshiva College courses in Modern Jewish History and Jewish History of Spain until the Expulsion, and a course in the history of the Inquisition at the Bernard Revel Graduate School.

Dr. Perelis’ earlier academic interests were broader than his focus now, as he studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy for his BA at Israel’s Bar-Illan University, following a stint at Yeshivat HaMivtar.  After that, Perelis had considered pursuing a degree in Medieval Studies, but ultimately settled on studying Spanish and Portuguese Literature at New York University.  While there, he chose a fascinating topic for his dissertation: he researched the travel accounts of three crypto-Jews who left Spain during the Inquisition, texts preserved because of the Inquisition itself.  Perelis also occupied a “Lecturer in Spanish Language and Literature” position at the University of Pennsylvania from 2000 to 2004, where he also taught Sephardic history in the Jewish Studies Program, and he taught world history, Spanish, and creative writing at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School while he was finishing his dissertation – a challenging position that he says was a “wonderful teaching experience – I learned so much.”  At Yeshiva, he holds the Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Abraham and Jelena (Rachel) Alcalay Assistant Professor of Sephardic Studies Chair.

Broadening the horizons of Jewish History and looking to another center of Jewish life, such as the Ottoman Empire, has many benefits, Perelis says.  In addition to giving a historical background for students with Sephardic heritage, Sephardic history gives “another model of what it means to be Jewish and engaged with the world,” an ideal Yeshiva students should consider.  The community in Medieval Spain, where inter-religious relations between Christians, Jews, and Muslims, were much more open, differed from its Eastern European counterparts.  Even after the Expulsion, when those Jews dispersed, Sephardic Jews maintained those differences while establishing themselves in Amsterdam, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and the New World.

Though he has only been at Yeshiva for several months, Dr. Perelis has enjoyed it tremendously.  The great interest students show in his subject, and the direct and relevant “engagement with a model of Jewishness” they represent is exciting, as is the opportunity to be involved in a school and a community based on that ideal.  Additionally, the “broad coverage” of the Jewish History Department allows Perelis “to really focus on [his] specialty, in a way [he] couldn’t anywhere else.”  The cultural opportunities of New York were also a remarkable draw for him, and he says being here is “a matter of choice – the perfect chance.”

For the Spring semester, Perelis will teach Modern Jewish History and a Topics course in Sephardic Jewry for Yeshiva College and a Sephardic Cultural history course in Revel.  Looking toward the future, he hopes to develop courses about the Sephardic Diaspora, specifically examining how the Jewish presence affected certain key cities ; great works of Ladino literature; Jewish travel writing; and the religious poetry of Medieval Spain.  With a background in both Jewish History and Literature, varied teaching experiences, and a “direct appreciation for the Beit Midrash,” Perelis says the biggest challenge for him about Yeshiva is “how to balance the workload and clarify to students what they should be doing.”  To students, though, he advises that they should keep the enthusiasm he has seen, and “keep loving what you’re doing.”  He also recommends investing in language and composition skills: “Writing is the best thing you can take out of college, and learning another language opens so many worlds to you.”