Steven Weitzman

In his role as director of Penns, Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Steven Weitzman aims to support new research in Jewish studies through an international fellowship that supports more than twenty scholars per year, collaborations with other research centers throughout the world; and academic publications like the Jewish Quarterly Review, established in 1889 and the oldest continuously published English language academic journal of Jewish Studies. The center's mission also includes sharing research with the broader public through in-person and online events. Weitzman began this role in 2014 after directing the Jewish Studies programs at Indiana University and Stanford.

As a professor at Penn, Weitzman also pursues research of his own in both Jewish Studies and Religious Studies. Recent publications include The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age (a recipient of a National Jewish Book Award); The FBI and Religion (coedited with Sylvester Johnson); The Princeton Companion to Jewish Studies (coedited with Leora Batnitzky and Eve Krakowski): Disasters of Biblical Proportions: the Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World.; and the Jews: a History (with Matthias Lehmann and John Efron), now in its fourth edition.