Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions

Education and Jewish Studies

Faculty & Staff

 

 

Professor Harold Wechsler

Harold WechslerCo-Director 
Phone: 212 992 9423 
E-mail: hw29@nyu.edu

 

A professor of Jewish Education and Educational History, Harold Wechsler co-directs NYU's Graduate Programs in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU Steinhardt. He has published widely on access, governance, business education, and the formation of curriculum and disciplines in American higher education. His books include: Jewish Learning in American Universities: The First Century (with Paul Ritterband), Access to Success in the Urban High School: The Middle College Movement, The Transfer Challenge, and The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admission in America, 1870-1970. He also edits the annual Almanac of Higher Education for the National Education Association and coedits the ASHE Reader on the History of Higher Education (with Linda Eisenmann and Lester Goodchild).

Professor Wechsler formerly chaired the higher education programs at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. He was also editor of higher education publications for the National Education Association. Sponsored by a major Spencer Foundation grant, Wechsler currently studies the history of minority access to American higher education. The Ford Foundation and Littauer Foundation sponsored previous projects.

He is the president of the History of Education Society, a member of the executive committee of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society, and the winner of the Greatest Mets Fan competition (1969).

Areas of Research, Interest

Degrees

Publications

Courses

HSED-GE 2067 - History of Higher Education

 

 

 





Professor Robert Chazan
Bob

Co-Director
Phone: 212 998 8976
E-mail: rc2@nyu.edu

 

Dr. Robert Chazan is currently S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Co-Director of the Programs in Education and Jewish Studies.  Professor Chazan's research focus is Jewish life in medieval Europe.  His three most recent books are: God, Humanity, and History: The Hebrew First-Crusade Narratives (Berkeley, 2000), Fashioning Jewish Identity in Medieval Western Christendom (Cambridge,2004), and The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom (Cambridge, 2006). 

Professor Chazan has served as Founding Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, as President of the Association for Jewish Studies, and as President of the American Academy for Jewish Research.  He also currently serves as Co-Director of the Wagner-Skirball Double Masters Program in Jewish Professional Leadership and as Co-Director of Re/Presenting the Jewish Past, a program designed for improving the teaching of Jewish history in Jewish day schools.       

Area of Research, Interest

  •  Medieval Jewish History 

Degrees

  • B.H.L. Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City, 1958 
  • B.A. Columbia College, New York City, 1958
  • M.H.L. Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City, 1962
  • M.A. Columbia University, New York City, 1963
  • Ph.D. Columbia University, New York City, 1967

Select Publications

  • Medieval Jewry in Northern France (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974)
  • Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages (New York: Behrman House, 1980)
  • European Jewry and the First Crusade (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987)
  • Daggers of Faith: Thirteenth-Century Christian Missionizing and Jewish Response (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989)
  • Barcelona and Beyond: The Disputation of 1263 and Its Aftermath (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,1992)
  • In the Year 1096: The Jews and the First Crusade (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1996)
  • Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997)
  • God, Humanity, and History: The Hebrew First-Crusade Narratives (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress, 2000)
  • Fashioning Jewish Identity in Medieval Western Christendom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
  • The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006; Cambridge Medieval Textbooks)

Courses

HBRJD-GA 1005 - Recent Developments in Judaic Studies

HBRJD-GA 2455 - The Medieval Church and the Jews

HBRJD-GA 3224 - The Jewish Community: Classical Institutions and Perspectives

 

 

 





Professor Benjamin Jacobs
Bob

Associate Director
Phone: 
E-mail: bjacobs@nyu.edu

 

Dr. Benjamin M. Jacobs holds a joint position as associate director of the Education and Jewish Studies programs in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions and assistant professor of social studies education in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Among other areas, Jacobs' research interests include social education, Jewish education, history of education, curriculum studies, teacher education, and education of ethnic groups. His publications, which have appeared in journals such as Theory and Research in Social Education, Journal of Jewish Education, and Religious Education, include several studies of the history and theory of Jewish education and social education on the American scene. He is presently working on a document-based historical study of teacher education in the social studies in the early years of the field; he is planning a similar study of Jewish teacher education in the U.S. Jacobs earned his Ph.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he served as an instructor and supervisor in the social studies program from 2002-2005. He also served as adjunct instructor and program coordinator of the Education and Jewish Studies program at Steinhardt from 2000-2005. From 2005-2010, Jacobs was assistant professor of social studies education at the University of Minnesota. Prior to pursuing his doctorate, he taught history at a Jewish day high school outside Washington, D.C.

Areas of Research, Interest 

Degrees

  • B.A., Columbia College, Columbia University, New York City, 1993
    History (American and Jewish)
  • Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, 2005
    Teaching of Social Studies

Select Publications

  • Jacobs, B. M. (2009). Affordances and constraints in social studies curriculum-making: The case of "Jewish social studies" in the early 20th century. Theory and Research in Social Education, 37(4), 515-542.
  • Jacobs, B. M. (2009). Socialization into a civilization: The Dewey-Kaplan synthesis in American Jewish schooling in the early twentieth century. Religious Education, 104(2), 149-165.
  • Jacobs, B. M. (2008). Social studies. In G. McCulloch and D. Crook (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (pp. 553-554). London: Routledge.
  • Jacobs, B. M. (2005). What's wrong with the history of American Jewish education? Journal of Jewish Education, 71(1), 33-51.
  • Chazan, R., & Jacobs, B. M. (2005). Jewish history from the academy to the schools: Bridging the gap. In M. Nisan & O. Schremer (Eds.), Educational deliberations: Studies in education dedicated to Shlomo (Seymour) Fox (pp. 157-180). Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.
  • Jacobs, B. M. (2002). Where the personal and the pedagogical meet: A portrait of a master teacher of Jewish history. Journal of Jewish Education, 68(1), 73-86.

Courses

 EJST-GE 2008 Masters Seminar in Education and Jewish Studies

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
Professor Bethamie Horowitz

Research Assistant Professor
Phone: 212 864 3529
E-mail: bh64@nyu.edu

 

Socio-psychologist Bethamie Horowitz has conducted research about major issues and problems facing the Jewish people for more than two decades. She has an active research and consulting practice, working with a wide range of audiences: decision-makers, organizational and communal leaders, strategic planners, and the scholarly community.

She began her professional career studying "images in conflict" in the Middle East. As research director at New York UJA-Federation in the 1990s she designed and conducted the 1991 NY Jewish Population Study, and subsequently developed the groundbreaking Connections and Journeys Study documenting patterns of Jewish engagement among baby boomer and younger American Jews. She served as Research Director of the Mandel Foundation Israel from 2000 to 2006. Her "Trend Spotting" columns about noteworthy developments affecting American Jewry appeared monthly in The Forward from 2003-2007.

She teaches the core doctoral seminar in the Education and Jewish Studies at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

She received her AB from Harvard University in anthropology and her Ph.D. from The Graduate Center, CUNY in socio-psychology.

 
 
 
 
Bethany Slater

Assitant Director, NYU Steinhardt Graduate Programs in Education and Jewish Studies
Phone: 212 992 9494
E-mail: bethany.slater@nyu.edu

 

Bethany received her M.A. from Oxford University in Jewish Studies and her B.A. in Philosophy and Religion from Hillsdale College. She is an alumna of the Conservative Yeshiva and Yeshivat Hadar.

For four years Bethany lived and worked in the Jerusalem area where she managed several non-profits working with marginalized and underprivileged members of society. During that time she also work in an educational capacity as a tour guide.

Since moving back to the USA she continues to teach regularly in local Hebrew Schools and is involved in organizing Scriptural Reasoning groups in NYC. Bethany loves the challenge to identity that travel creates. She has lived, worked, and traveled extensively in the USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She has a strong background in inter-cultural and inter-faith dialogue.