Allan Nadler has been named the Norman and Gerry Sue Arnold Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston. The Chair brings world-class professionals and scholars in Jewish Studies to the College each year.
Nadler is currently Professor and Director of Jewish Studies at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey and the world’s expert on Jewish heresies. Prior to joining Drew University, he was the Director of Research at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City, and Dean of YIVO’s Graduate Training Program, the Max Weinreich Center for Advanced Jewish Studies.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi, Nadler served the Charles River Park Synagogue in Boston and Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Westmount (Montreal), Canada’s largest traditional Jewish congregation, before returning to Harvard to pursue a PhD in Jewish thought.
Nadler is the author of Faith of the Mithnagdim: Rabbinic Responses to Hasidic Rapture; Rabbis, Rebbes and Rebels: The Polemics of Modern Jewish Thought in Eastern Europe and the forthcoming book: Heretics and Heresy in Rabbinic Law and Literature.
Nadler’s articles, reviews and essays appear regularly in numerous scholarly and popular journals and newspapers such as Commentary, The New Republic, The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Judaism, Tradition, Modern Judaism, The New York Times, Newsday, The Jewish Daily Forward, The Jewish Week, and The Baltimore Jewish Times.
“Allan Nadler’s expertise on Jewish intellectual history will bolster our offerings and his engaging teaching style will appeal to students thirsting for spirited debate in the classroom,” Martin Perlmutter, Director of the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program.
During his time at the College of Charleston, Nadler will teach a course entitled “Orthodoxy and Heresy in Jewish Thought.” He returns to campus as a popular public lecturer, having participated in the Sunday Morning Speaker series at Jewish Studies with such talks as “A Nation of Nudniks” and “Bad Jewish Boys.”
He will be the Visiting Chair for the fall semester.
