Jack Wertheimer

Biography

BA and MA, Queens College, CUNY; PhD, Columbia University

Dr. Jack Wertheimer is the Joseph and Martha Mendelson Professor of American Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary. His area of specialization is modern Jewish history, with a focus on trends in the religious, educational, and organizational sectors of American Jewish life since World War II.

Dr. Wertheimer is the author or editor of more than a dozen volumes, including Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany (Oxford University Press, 1987); The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed (Cambridge University Press, 1987); The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era (JTS/Harvard, 1992); and The Modern Jewish Experience: A Reader‘s Guide (NYU Press). He also wrote A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America (Basic Books, 1993), which won a National Jewish Book Award for best study on contemporary Jewish life. A People Divided was reissued by the University Press of New England in September 1997.

Dr. Wertheimer edited a two-volume history of JTS titled Tradition Renewed (JTS Press, 1997). This richly illustrated history contains freshly commissioned essays by 40 scholars from the United States, Canada, and Israel. Dr. Wertheimer also coordinated a major sociological study of Conservative synagogues, under a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. A volume of essays on the project, titled Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members, was published in the summer of 2000 (Rutgers University Press). A two-volume edited collection of essays, titled Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and Reality (JTS Press), appeared in late 2004 and was based on two conferences Dr. Wertheimer organized at JTS. With Eli Lederhendler, he co-edited a Festschrift in honor of Ismar Schorsch titled, Text and Context: Essays in Modern Jewish History and Historiography (JTS Press, 2005).

In 2007, two additional volumes edited by Dr. Wertheimer were released by Brandeis University Press. Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice is about the interplay between families and Jewish education, and Imagining the American Jewish Community consists of essays on the ways in which Jews have conceived of Jewish communal life in the United States.

Dr. Wertheimer also has written a number of studies about the rapidly evolving field of Jewish education: Learning and Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-first Century (Brandeis University Press), an edited volume published in June 2009, contains portraits of 10 Jewish supplementary schools that work. The New Jewish Leaders: Reshaping the American Jewish Landscape (Brandeis University Press, 2011) examines the backgrounds, educational experiences, and outlook of younger Jewish leaders. A case study project he directed  on how 20 Jewish day schools address various educational challenges is available in How Schools Enact Their Jewish Missions: 20 Case Studies of Jewish Day Schools March 2015. And with Alex Pomson, he co-authored two studies of how Israel and Hebrew are taught in Jewish day schools. (Hearts and Minds: Israel in North American Jewish Day Schools. AVI CHAI Foundation, 2014 and Hebrew for What? Hebrew at the Heart of Jewish Day Schools. AVI CHAI Foundation, 2017.) In 2022, he co-authored a book with Alex Pomson titled, Inside Jewish Day Schools: Leadership, Learning and Community.

His report Giving Jewish: How Big Givers Have Transformed American Jewish Philanthropy appeared in March 2018. And in August of that year, his book The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today was published by Princeton University Press. It was awarded a National Jewish Book Award for the best book in American Jewish Studies.

From 1997 to 2007, Dr. Wertheimer served as provost—the chief academic officer—of JTS. He also served as the founding director of JTS’s Joseph and Miriam Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism from 1987 to 2008.

Books

• Inside Jewish Day Schools: Leadership, Learning and Community, co-authored with Alex Pomson, Brandeis University Press, 2022.
• The New American Judaism, Princeton University Press, 2018.
• The New Jewish Leaders: Reshaping the American Jewish Landscape. Editor. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2011.  
• Learning and Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-first Century. Editor. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2009.
• Imagining the American Jewish Community. Editor. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2007.
• Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice. Editor. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2007.  
• Text and Context: Essays in Modern Jewish History and Historiography in Honor of Ismar Schorsch. Coeditor with Eli Lederhendler. New York: JTS Press, 2005.
• Jewish Religious Leadership: Image and Reality (two-volume work). Editor. New York: JTS Press, 2004.
• Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members. Editor. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
• Tradition Renewed: A History of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (two-volume work). Editor. New York: JTS Press, 1997.
• A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
• The Modern Jewish Experience: A Reader’s Guide. Editor. New York: New York University Press, 1993.
• The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern Era. New York: JTS, 1992. Distributed by Harvard University Press.
• The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed. Editor. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
• Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Research Reports

• Grantees and Their Funders: How Professionals at Jewish Not-for-Profits Experience Working with Grantmakers. Jewish Funders Network, May 2020.
• Giving Jewish: How Big Funders Have Transformed American Jewish Philanthropy. The Avi Chai Foundation, March 2018.
• Hebrew for What? Hebrew at the Heart of Jewish Day Schools. With Alex Pomson. New York: AVI CHAI Foundation, March 2017.
• How Schools Enact Their Jewish Missions: 20 Case Studies of Jewish Day Schools. New York: AVI CHAI Foundation, 2015.
• Hearts and Minds: Israel in North American Jewish Day Schools. With Alex Pomson and Hagit Hacohen-Wolf. New York: AVI CHAI Foundation, 2014.
• How Schools Enact Their Jewish Missions: 20 Case Studies of Jewish Day Schools. Project Director.
• Generation of Change: How Leaders in Their Twenties and Thirties Are Reshaping American Jewish Life. New York: AVI CHAI Founation, September 2010.
• Schools That Work: What We Can Learn from Good Jewish Supplementary Schools. New York: AVI CHAI Foundation, March 2009.
• A Census of Jewish Supplementary Schools 2006–2007. AVI CHAI Foundation, August 2008.
• Recent Trends in Supplementary Jewish Education. AVI CHAI Foundation, March 2007.
• Linking the Silos: How to Accelerate the Momentum in Jewish Education Today. AVI CHAI Foundation, December 2005.

Articles

• “Whatever Happened to the ‘Pro-Jewish Left?” With Samuel J. Abrams, Tablet, June 24, 2022.
• “The Challenges Facing Us.” Tablet, January 11, 2022.
• “Jewish Education and the Pandemic.” With Alex Pomson, Commentary, January 2021.
• “How Will Synagogues Survive?” Mosaic, March 1, 2021.
• “American Judaism’s Old Dinosaurs Roar Again,” Mosaic, October, 2021.
• “Why Go to Synagogue Once a Year?” Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2018.
• “The Pew Survey Reanalyzed.” With Steven M. Cohen. Mosaic symposium. November 2014.
• “As School Resumes, How to Talk to Children About the Gaza War.” JTA / Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 18, 2014.
• “Can Modern Orthodoxy Survive?” Lead essay of a symposium in Mosaic, August 3, 2014.
• “What You Don’t Know About the Ultra-Orthodox.” Commentary, July 1, 2014.
• “Why the Lubavitch Movement Thrives in the Absence of a Living Rebbe.” Jewish Action, June 16, 2014.
• “Intermarriage: Can Anything Be Done?” Lead essay of a symposium in Mosaic, September 3, 2013.
• “The Outreach Revolution.” Commentary, April 1, 2013.
• “First New York’s Jews, Then America’s?” Commentary, September 1, 2012.
• “The Ten Commandments of America’s Jews.” Commentary, June 1, 2012.
• “The High Cost of Jewish Living.” Commentary, March 1, 2010.
• “The End of the Jewish People.” A three-part exchange of letters with Joey Kurtzman. Jewcy, June 2007.
• “Whatever Happened to the Jewish People.” With Steven M. Cohen. Commentary 121, no. 6 (June 2006), 33–37.
• “Jews and the Jewish Birth Rate.” Commentary 120, no. 3 (October 2005), 39–44.

Electronic Media

• Radio: Dr. Wertheimer was interviewed for “No Dogs or Jews Allowed: The Story of Antisemitism in America,” an installment of the public radio series Only in America: 150 Years of the American Jewish Experience. Host: Larry Josephson. 2006.
• Video: Dr. Wertheimer spoke about “Continuity and Discontinuity” at the opening plenary session of the annual conference of the Jewish Funders Network; he also spoke at the closing plenary session.

Research

Dr. Wertheimer is currently completing a book on the history and current state of American Jewish philanthropy.