Curriculum Vitae

Current Position: Associate Director at the American Jewish Committee- Los Angeles.

Visiting Professor at the Academy of Jewish Religion, Ca.

Fellowships:

2021: 2021 Fellows Program at King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), an inter-governmental organization that promotes inter-religious dialogue to prevent and resolve conflict.

2019: Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford University with the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy

 

Education:        

 University of California, Berkeley           B.A.    1994-1998       Religious Studies

Berkeley, California

Harvard University                                   M.T.S 1999-2001       Theological Studies

Cambridge, Massachusetts

University of California, Santa Barbara   Ph.D.  2008                Religious Studies

Santa Barbara, California

 

Dissertation Topic: “From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women Between Religion and Culture”

Comprehensive Areas: History of Religions, Jewish Studies, Middle-Eastern Studies, Women’s Studies, Hebrew Language, Persian Language

Scholarships:

Doctoral Scholars Fellowship, University California, Santa Barbara, 2001-2005.

Wolfson Fellowship, Harvard University, 1999-2001.

 

Language Competencies:

 Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Classical Persian or Farsi, Native Speaker of Persian.

2001-2004             Modern Hebrew                     University of California, Santa Barbara

1999-2001             Biblical Hebrew                       Harvard University

1999-2001             Persian                                       Harvard University

 

Publications:

 “The American Jewish Community: A Divergence of Political Perspectives” in The Impact of Donald Trump’s Presidency on American Jews, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana, USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life Annual Review, Volume 19, 2021.

 

Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in America; Editor. Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana, USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life Annual Review, Volume 13, 2015.

 

From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women between Religion and Culture, SUNY Press, Albany, New York, 2012.

Awarded the Gold Medal in the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Religion category

 Book Review of Christian Encounters with Iran: Engaging Muslim Thinkers After the Revolution in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR), September 2013; Volume 81; Issue 3

“Integration or Separation? Iranian Jewish and Muslim Relations in Los Angeles,” in Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions and Complexities, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, Aaron Hahn Tapper and Reza Aslan (ed), 2011

 

“Iranian Jewish Women:  Domesticating Religion and Appropriating Zoroastrian Religion in Ritual Life” in Nashim: A Journal for Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Issues, (Fall, Issue #18 2010).

“JAPS: Jewish American Persian Women and their Hybrid Identity in America” in Association of Jewish Studies Perspectives, (Fall, 2010).

Book Review of “Life as a Visitor,” in Jewish Book Council (Summer, 2010)

Administrative Work:

 Fall 2015- 2017: Associate Director of Research at UCLA’s Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies.

  • Liaison between Director, Development office, professors, donors, students, and Leve Center staff of six
  • Cultivate new and enduring relationships with members of the Jewish community, donors, and potential donors
  • Professor of Jewish Studies, Service Learning, and honors thesis courses
  • Participate in and plan panels with authors, scholars, politicians, and IDF Generals
  • Lead student leadership council
  • Works with Hillel dealing with anti-Semitism and Iranian Jewish racism on campus
  • Participated in Hillel’s “Fact Finders” trip to Israel and the West Bank
  • Collaborate with campus organizations focused on the Israel/Palestine conflict through teaching and sending students to the region
  • Engage UCLA alumni by planning and leading trips to Israel and India
  • Collection and exhibition researcher for From Brooklyn Avenue to Cesar Chavez: Jewish Histories in Multiethnic Boyle Heights
  • Program planning
  • Exhibition organizing
  • Building partnerships
  • Writing and editorial work for exhibit
  • Lead private tours

Spring/ Fall 2015: Capstone Project and Masters Thesis Advisor for HUC-JIR Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management 

Fall 2012 Assistant Director, Jewish Studies Program, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California

 

Public Presentations and Curatorial Work:

March 12, 2012- March 10, 2013: The Fowler Museum at UCLA

Exhibition Consultant and Community Liaison of Light and Shadows: The Story of Iranian Jews

  • Collection and Exhibition Research
  • Writing and Editorial Work
  • Program Planning
  • Community Outreach
  • Gallery Teaching
  • Lead all private tours
  • Participated in and planned the Academic Conference on Jan. 26, 2013: “From Ancient Persia to Contemporary LA: 2,700 of Iranian Jewish History
  • Participated in and planned “Next Gen of Persian Jews in Los Angeles” conference on March 7, 2013
  • Curator of the exhibition on Iranian Jews in Los Angeles

March 26th, 2012- August 26, 2012: William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University

Exhibition Consultant of the Saraval Exhibition

  • As Interim-Director of the Jewish Studies Program at LMU, I was responsible for the Saraval Exhibition: Hebrew manuscripts from Poland that were confiscated by the Nazis and found in the Czech Republic.
    • Responsible for producing the facsimiles of the medieval manuscripts
    • Raised money from institutions to fund the exhibition
    • Program Planning
    • Community Outreach
    • Planned the Academic Conference on March 28, 2012 “Myth of Silence: Holocaust Memory in the United States and Poland” featuring scholars Dr. Hasia Diner and Ron Schmidt, S. J

Areas of Teaching and Research:

 

Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern Studies

Iranian Jewish History: Past and Present (UC Los Angeles: Fall 2013, Spring 2009, Spring 2010)

Introduction to Judaism (CSU Northridge: Fall 2013, CSU Fullerton: Spring 2013; Loyola Marymount University: Fall/ Spring 2008, 2009, 2010)

American Jewish Experience (CSUN: Spring 2013)

History of the Middle East (Academy of Jewish Religion, 2015; Santa Monica College: Spring 2013)

History and Development of Jewish Thought: Medieval to Modern Eras (CSU Fullerton: Spring 2013)

Modern Israel (Loyola Marymount University: Fall 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)

The Religions of the Near East: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (LMU: Spring 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; American Jewish University: Spring 2009)

Iranian and Russian Jews in Los Angeles (American Jewish University, Fall 2005)

 

American Religion

American Jewish Experience (CSUN: Spring 2013)

Religions in America (Academy of Jewish Religion, 2021; LMU: Fall and Spring of 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009; CSUN: Fall 2009, 2010, 2013; Skirball Museum: 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013)

Religions in the Diaspora: Religious Communities in America (American Jewish University, Spring 2005)

 

Religious Theory and Studies

Introduction to Religious Studies (CSUN: Fall 2013, Spring 2010, 2009, 2008; SMC: Fall 2013)

 

Women’s Studies

Contemporary Religious Thought: Middle Eastern Women’s History and Literature (CSUN: Fall 2013, Spring 2010)

Women and Global Communities (LMU: Fall 2012)

Women and Religion (LMU: Spring 2010, Summer 2011; CSUN: Fall 2010, Summer 2009, Summer 2008)

Capstone Projects and Masters’ Thesis Advisor

 Summer 2015- Spring 2016; Hebrew Union College SJNM School of Jewish Nonprofit Management

-CS 591 (Summer 2015) : A Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Course

– Advise on Thesis proposal

– Advise on literature review

– Advise on data analysis, surveys, interviews and observations

– Advise on final draft

Travel Grants:

 Travel Grant for Loyola Marymount University Italy Mission, 2012

Travel Grant for the Board of Rabbis Leadership Mission to Israel and Palestine, 2010

Travel Grant for India, UC Santa Barbara, 2003.

Travel Grant for Pardes Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Harvard University, 2000.

 

Research Assistantship:

 Graduate Research Assistant, Ford Pluralism Project, UC Santa Barbara, 2001-2003.

Responsible for researching the relationship of the Iranian Jewish community to the civic community in Los Angeles, through research and numerous interviews. I presented my research at the UCSB Pluralism Conference in Spring 2003; the research will be published.

Awards:

“Independent Publisher Book Awards 2013”; Gold Medal Winner in Religion for From the Shahs to Los Angeles: Three Generations of Iranian Jewish Women Between Religion and Culture

AAR/WR First Place Student Paper 2008

References:

Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Professor, Director

UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies

Telephone: (310) 825-4153; [email protected]


Roger Friedland, Professor

Department of Religious Studies, University of California,

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Telephone: (805) 893-4552; friedland@soc.ucsb.edu


Rick Talbott; Professor; Department Chair

Department of Religious Studies, California State University, Northridge

18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8316

Telephone: (818) 677-3392; rick.talbott@csun.edu


Jeffrey S. Siker; Professor; Department Chair

Department of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University, One LMU Drive,

University Hall 3700, Los Angeles, CA 90045

Telephone: (310) 338-7670; jsiker@lmu.edu


Holli Levitsky, Professor, Director

Jewish Studies Program, Loyola Marymount University, One LMU Drive,

University Hall 3700, Los Angeles, CA 90045

Telephone: (310) 338-7664; Holly.Levitsky@lmu.edu


Jody Myers, Professor, Coordinator of Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program

Department of Religious Studies, California State University, Northridge

18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330-8316

Office phone: 818-677-3007; [email protected]


Marla Berns, Director

UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History

308 Charles E. Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1549

Tel: (310) 825-4361; berns@arts.ucla.edu