Faculty

Amy W. Kratka
Director, The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/202
akratka @ccny.cuny.edu

Amy W. Kratka, Ph.D., Boston University. Dr. Kratka is the Director of the Michael & Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies at CCNY. Her area of interest is post-WWII American fiction about the Jewish experience. She has published in MELUS and The Forward. Through the many courses she's developed and taught over her two decades at CCNY, she's had such rewarding experiences introducing students to the likes of Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Gary Shteyngart, and Dara Horn. She divides her time during semesters by preparing for her classes, devising useful strategies for student learning, and planning meaningful events for the Jewish Studies Program and the City College community.

Elazar Elhanan
Associate Professor
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures,
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Comparative Literature,
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/223 J
Phone: 212-650-6382
eelhanan @ccny.cuny.edu 

Elazar (Elik) Elhanan, Ph.D., Columbia University, is a professor of Yiddish and Hebrew literatures. His research focuses on prose and poetry, exploring the relationships between language and politics, identity, and nation-building. His forthcoming book, The Path Leading to the Abyss: Hebrew and Yiddish in Yaakov Steinberg’s Poetry, will soon be published by Mossad Bialik. His articles and essays cover topics ranging from cultural activism to progressive education, veterans’ reintegration, and speech pathology. His current research examines the poetics and aesthetics of mourning and activism in Hebrew and Yiddish modernism and beyond. Elik’s courses include Fantasy, Dreams & Madness in Yid Lit, Haunting Books: Mourning and Afterlife in Literature, Culture of Resistance in New York, Jews of Eastern Europe, and Protest and Dissent in Israel.

Abby Kornfeld
Associate Professor
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Art
Office: CG-109B
Phone: 212-650-7413
akornfeld @ccny.cuny.edu 

Abby Kornfeld, Ph.D., New York University, specializes in medieval art and architecture. She holds a joint appointment with the program of Jewish Studies in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University in 2013. Her work focuses on the intersections between Jewish, Christian, and Islamic art across the medieval Mediterranean. Her forthcoming book resituates three Hebrew illuminated manuscripts within the broader context of medieval art in late fourteenth century Spain. Her research has won the support of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Wexner Foundation. In addition, she curated an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles on the eventful and often tumultuous lives of medieval manuscripts after the rise of the printing presses.

Roy Mittelman
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/202
rmittelman @ccny.cuny.edu

Roy Mittelman, Ph.D., Temple University, is the longtime outgoing Director of the Jewish Studies Program at CCNY. Dr. Mittelman received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a Masters in Religion from Temple University, and is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. His photo-ethnographic work on Jewish communities has been widely shown and published.

Matthew Goodman
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
mgoodman @ccny.cuny.edu  

Matthew Goodman is a New York Times-bestselling author of five books of nonfiction. His books have received the New York City Book Prize and have been finalists for a National Jewish Book Award and the American Library of Paris Book Prize. Matthew’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The American Scholar, The Forward, Tablet, and many other publications. MFA in Creative Writing, Vermont College. Academic interests: Creative writing, nonfiction writing, New York City history

Shani Greenstein
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/202
sgreenstein @ccny.cuny.edu

Shani Greenstein, M.A., CUNY Graduate Center, teaches Modern Hebrew via total immersion in the target language.  She has developed a curriculum for the Jewish Studies Major in contemporary Israeli and Palestinian culture, which includes cinema, fiction, and gastronomy. When she’s not teaching, Prof. Greenstein serves as an advisor to Jewish Studies Majors and Minors. She also plans and oversees events for the Jewish Studies Program and for the larger CCNY community.

Joshua Halberstam
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
jhalberstam @ccny.cuny.edu  

Joshua Halberstam received his Ph.D. in philosophy from New York University and did advanced studies in Talmud at Kollel Chaim Berlin academy. He currently teaches classes in Jewish philosophy and Jewish law and ethics in the Jewish Studies program. Along with his books on philosophy and Jewish culture, he’s published widely in leading international and national professional journals in the areas of epistemology, legal theory, ethics, social and political philosophy, and the philosophy of religion. While wearing his other hat, he’s also published short stories and a book of translations from Yiddish of Chassidic tales. He’s also the author of the novel A Seat at the Table and is currently at work on a new novel. He firmly believes, sometimes you need to write fiction if you want to tell the truth.

Lauren Gottlieb Lockshin
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
lgottlieb @ccny.cuny.edu

Lauren Gottlieb Lockshin received her PhD in European and Jewish History from Yale University. Her research areas include the Dreyfus Affair, the history of antisemitism, and the history of Zionism. Dr. Lockshin’s numerous articles have shed light on some of the lesser-known aspects of the Dreyfus Affair and Jewish responses to it. She has served as assistant professor of history at Touro College and as a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center. Dr. Lockshin is currently finishing her book tentatively titled, Defending the Jew: Bernard Lazare, The Dreyfus Affair, and the First Modern Fight Against Antisemitism.

Terry Wasserman
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
twasserman @ccny.cuny.edu

Terry Wasserman, M.A., MLS, has developed the Jewish Studies Program’s curriculum on the history and religion of ancient Israel. Her repertoire of elective courses includes “Jesus the Jew” and “Female Sexuality in Judaism,” and she has a dedicated following of serious students whom she advises and follows from their first year here all the way to graduation from City College.