The Wallerstein Assistant Professor and Director of Jewish Studies joins Drew in fall 2022
July 2022 – Drew University and Drew Theological School are pleased to welcome Dr. Eli Rosenblatt as the Wallerstein Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of Jewish Studies. Rosenblatt will join the Drew community in fall 2022.
The Wallerstein professorship in Jewish Studies was founded in 1990 by Madeleine and Julian Wallerstein to promote the University-wide study of Jewish wisdom, life, and history at Drew in ways that are broadly ecumenical, contribute to the training of Methodist and other Protestant seminarians, and to increase inter-religious understanding and appreciation of Jewish contributions to world cultures.
Rosenblatt will be teaching courses at both the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and the Theological School.
“I am thrilled that Dr. Eli Rosenblatt will join the Drew faculty as the Wallerstein Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies,” said Edwin David Aponte, dean of the Theological School. “In his scholarship and teaching, Dr. Rosenblatt brings together an exciting interdisciplinary and intercultural mix in his research of the Jewish diaspora, race, and Black-Jewish histories and cultures in the Caribbean. He will be an excellent partner as Drew continues to create collaborative opportunities for all undergraduate and graduate students.”
Most recently, Rosenblatt was a visiting assistant professor of religious studies at Northwestern University and a lecturer in Jewish studies at Dartmouth College. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan and has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley; George Washington University; and Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
“I’m thrilled to join the Drew University community,” said Rosenblatt. “Drew’s commitment to cutting-edge and deeply creative approaches to both theological and liberal arts education are what excite me about this distinguished community of scholars, teachers, and activists. I look forward to further developing an imaginative and rigorous research and teaching program that places Jewish wisdom, texts, and history in the heart of Drew’s campus—a place rooted in a long history of building multi-faith coalitions for social justice and change. I am eager to engage with Drew’s international and diverse community of students and scholars in a mutual journey involving the study of Jewish tradition on a global scale.”
Rosenblatt is working on two book projects; Creole Israel: Modern Yiddish Culture in the Atlantic World and an edited collection, W. E. B. Du Bois and Jewishness, and has published several peer-reviewed publications.
His research focuses on modern Judaism, with a particular emphasis on Ashkenazic and Atlantic Jewish cultures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
“We are delighted that Dr. Eli Rosenblatt will regularly offer courses on Jewish Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, which will fill a critical gap in our current offerings,” said Ryan Hinrichs, dean of the CLA and Caspersen School of Graduate Studies.
Rosenblatt gives frequent lectures on his work in both academic and community settings. He earned his bachelor of arts from Sarah Lawrence College and his PhD in Jewish Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
