YEAR IN REVIEW | BERNARD REVEL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JEWISH STUDIES | SCHOLARSHIP • TORAH • WISDOM • THOUGHT
The handoff took place on a bright summer day, as if to mark an auspicious beginning. Jonathan Dauber, my predecessor, joined me on my deck in Teaneck, NJ to review all the files and to share everything I needed to know as I assumed the position of director of the PhD program. As I did then, I thank him again here for setting our students up for success. It is my hope that, under my leadership, the program continues to produce first-rate scholars who will impact all fields of Jewish Studies. Just as my term of service began and Jonathan’s ended, we congrat- ulated our newest graduate, Dr. Ephraim Soloveichik, who defended his doctoral dissertation, “Autonomy of the Authors of Scripture in the Thought of Don Isaac Abarbanel.” With the start of fall, we welcomed our five newest
doctoral students who began their coursework. They include Joshua Johnson, a former member of our first Philos cohort. These new students and I set out on our new journeys together, in the first session of the team-taught doctoral seminar on methods in Jewish Studies. Our PhD lunch series with visiting scholars continued to enhance our students’ regular classes. This year, we hosted presentations by Professor Miriam Goldstein (Hebrew University), Professor Yair Lorberbaum (Bar-Ilan University), and Dr. Aaron Adler (Herzog College). We are especially proud that Professor Yael Landman (JTS), who earned her doctorate from our program in 2017, returned to give a lecture and show our students what their future may bring. We proudly celebrate our students’ accomplishments and contributions as emergent scholars who are already making their mark. Joshua Dachman’s article, “The Non-Triliteral Theory of Verbal Morphology of the Karaite Joseph ibn Nuh” appeared in Journal of Semitic Studies , a top-tier, peer reviewed journal. Noam Kornsgold presented a lecture on “Friday Weddings in Jewish Medieval Europe” at the Ancient Judaism Regional Seminar, co-sponsored by Columbia and Princeton Universities. To demonstrate that our students are, indeed, of world-class caliber, we could do no better than to note that Mendel Breitstein visited Palacký University in Czechia to present his research on “Nail Clippings: A Cross-Cultural and Talmudic Consideration.” It is a privilege to direct the PhD program, where I watch the future of Jewish Studies emerge in real time. It is a bright future, indeed.
With best wishes,
Shalom E. Holtz Professor of Bible Director of the PhD Program
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