Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History

History of the Jews in the United States

The history of the Jews in the United States , has been part of the American national fabric since colonial times.Until the 1830s the Jewish community of Charleston, South Carolina was the most numerous in North America. With the large scale immigration of Jews from Germany in the 19th century,...

 in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University and the director of the Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership. He is regarded as one of the most prominent historians of American Judaism. Sarna is married to the noted Boston College

Boston College

Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...

 theology professor, Ruth Langer

Ruth Langer

Ruth Langer is a Professor of Theology at Boston College, and a noted expert on Jewish Liturgy and on Christian Jewish Relations.Langer was educated at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, where she received her Ph.D...

.

Sarna is a prolific author, including the seminal work on the 350th anniversary of the founding of the American Jewish community, American Judaism: A History. The book won a number of awards, including the National Jewish Book Award for 2004 and the Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

 Best Religion Book 2004 award.

Sarna received the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry

Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry

The Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry is a cross-disciplinary organization of individuals whose research concerns the Jewish people throughout the world.-Purpose:...

's Marshall Sklare Award

Marshall Sklare Award

The Marshall Sklare Award is an annual honor of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry . The ASSJ seeks to recognize "a senior scholar who has made a significant scholarly contribution to the social scientific study of Jewry." In most cases, the recipient has given a scholarly...

 in 2002.

Sarna is a regular contributor on religion to the Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

-Washingtonpost.com joint project On Faith.

He is the son of Biblical scholar Nahum Sarna.

Sarna's book, "American Judaism: A History" is read by the Integrated Jewish American Studies classes at Milken Community High School. In this course, students use "American Judaism: A History" to understand how American Jews were able to balance both their traditional Jewish morals with secular and individualistic-based American values.

External Links

• Articles by Jonathan Sarna on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner