Jonathan D. Sarna

Professor American Jewish History, Brandeis University

"On Faith" panelist Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. Sarna served two terms as chair of Brandeis' Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He now chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and is chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia . Before returning to his alma mater to teach in 1990, Sarna was on the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati from 1979-1990. There, he was Professor of American Jewish history and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. He has also taught at Yale University , where he earned his doctorate in 1979, at the University of Cincinnati , and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem . The Forward newspaper named Sarna one of America 's 50 most influential American Jews. He has written, edited, or co-edited more than 20 books, including the acclaimed American Judaism: A History, which won the Jewish Book Council's “Jewish Book of the Year Award” in 2004. Close.