FACULTY ASSOCIATED WITH THE JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM


Core faculty

Alexander Orbach is associate professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Religious Studies and the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches a variety of courses focused on the Jewish experience in the modern age including courses on Russian Jewry, Zionism, the State of Israel, and the Holocaust. Mr. Orbach has written on each of these themes and is currently working on a study of Jewish politics in Tsarist Russia in the period 1900-1914. Alexander Orbach is the Director of the Jewish Studies Program and may be reached at (412) 624-2279 or by e-mail orbach@pitt.edu.

Adam Shear is assistant professor of Medieval and Early Modern Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies. Mr. Shear offers courses examining medieval and early modern Jewish life in Europe including an introduction to Jewish-Christian relations. In his written work, Mr. Shear has studied the reception by Jews in the Renaissance and early modern periods of Judah HaLevi's twelfth century work Book of the Kuzari. Mr. Shear may be reached at (412) 624-2280 or by e-mail ashear@pitt.edu.

Eli Reich is lecturer in Classical Judaism for the 2008-09 academic year. Mr. Reich is completing a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Chicago. He has taught previously at the University of North Florida (Jacksonville) and University of Calgary.  He may be reached at (412) 624-5986.

Haya Feig is lecturer for Hebrew-language studies. Ms. Feig completed her BA in Israel Studies at Bar Ilan University and her MA in Jewish History at the University of London. She has taught Hebrew language and literature at the Jews' Free School (JFS) in London and at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies in the United States as a representative of the Educational Division of the Jewish Agency. She may be reached via email: Feig@pitt.edu and by telephone at (412) 624 5748.


Affiliated faculty

Barbara Burstin offers general courses on the American Jewish experience as well as courses on American-Jewry and the general community in the 1930s and 1940s. Ms. Burstin is the author of After the Holocaust. The Migration of Polish Jews and Christians to Pittsburgh (1989) and the producer of a video, A Jewish Legacy: Pittsburgh. She may be reached at (412) 648-7465 or via e-mail burstin@pitt.edu.


The Jewish Studies Advisory Committee

The following faculty members, drawn from departments in the Arts and Sciences, serve as a Jewish Studies Advisory Committee. All Advisory Committee faculty are available to sponsor independent study projects in their respective areas of expertise for students working on Jewish Studies Certificates.

University Professor (Emeritus)Bernard R. Goldstein of the Department of Religious Studies was the first director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University. Professor Goldstein has written extensively on medieval Jewish science with special attention to the work of Levi ben Gerson [Gersonides], and he has also published essays and articles on aspects of the Hebrew Bible and its construction. He may be reached via e-mail brg@pitt.edu.
Professor (Emeritus) Jerome L. Rosenberg directed the Program from 1991 through 1999 and continues as development officer for the Jewish Studies Program. Professor Rosenberg is the Research Integrity Officer for the University of Pittsburgh in the Office of General Counsel. He may be reached via e-mail jrosenb@pitt.edu.

University Professor Seymour Drescher of the History Department focuses his research on modern Europe and especially on the themes of slavery and its abolition. He teaches an undergraduate course on methodological approaches to antisemitism. He may be reached via e-mail syd@pitt.edu.

Professor Lucy Fischer of the English Department is director of the University's Film Studies Program. She teaches a course that examines Jews and the American Cinema . She may be reached via e-mail lfisher@pitt.edu.

Professor Leonard Plotnicov of the Anthropology Department is an ethnographer who has directed a number of Ph.D. dissertations focused on the Jewish community of Pittsburgh. He may be reached via e-mail lenplot@pitt.edu.

Associate Professor Amy Colin of the Germanic Languages and Literatures Department has studied Holocaust literature and has published on the poet Paul Celan. She may be reached via e-mail adc@pitt.edu.

Associate Professor Jonathan Harris of the Political Science Department focuses on the republics of the former Soviet Union with special attention to the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian Republic. He may be reached via e-mail jonharri@pitt.edu.

Associate Professor Irina Livezeanu of the History Department studies the history of Central Europe in the modern period. She is especially interested in Jewish life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Romania, Hungary and Poland. She may be reached via e-mail irinal@pitt.edu.

Associate Professor Clark Muenzer of the Germanic Languages and Literatures Department has written on post-Enlightenment German cultural history with special attention to the work of Goethe and Kafka. He may be reached via e-mail muenzer@pitt.edu.
egz@pitt.edu.

Assistant Professor Lina Insana of the French and Italian Languages and Literatures Department focuses on modern Italian Literature with special attention to the work of Primo Levi. She may be reached via e-mail insana@pitt.edu.