Nathan Katz
Encyclopedia
Nathan Katz, Ph.D., is Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, as well as Founder-Director of the Program in the Study of Spirituality, at Florida International University
(FIU) in Miami.
, Katz attended Temple University
. After earning his B.A. in 1970, he worked for two years with the U. S. Information Agency in Afghanistan and spent a year in India studying classical languages before returning to Temple for graduate studies in Religion. He was a Fulbright dissertation fellow in Sri Lanka and India between 1976 and 1978, and was awarded his Ph.D. “with distinction” in 1979. He then joined the faculty in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University
in Colorado, and after a year became Assistant Professor of Religion at Williams College
in Massachusetts. In 1984 he joined the faculty of the University of South Florida
in Tampa, and a decade later was brought to FIU to start up a new Department of Religious Studies. He was also instrumental is starting up FIU’s programs in Jewish Studies and in Asian Studies.
He is best known for his work about Indo-Judaic Studies. He has written award-winning books on Indian Jewish communities, and in 2002 convened an international seminar on this topic at Oxford University, bringing together scholars from North America, India, Europe and Israel. The conference resulted in Indo-Judaic Studies in the 21st Century, a book that was the focus of an academic panel at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
Katz was selected as a delegate to the 1990 Tibetan-Jewish dialogue hosted by H. H. the Dalai Lama
and reported in the best-selling The Jew in the Lotus
. He reciprocated the hospitality in 1999 when the Dalai Lama first visited FIU for an honorary doctorate, as well as his 2004 and 2010 visits. Inspired by the Dalai Lama’s vision of educating both the “warm heart” and the “good brain,” Katz founded FIU’s innovative Program in the Study of Spirituality with foci on research, public programs and seminars, and the curriculum, including the world’s only undergraduate certificate program in the study of spirituality. In 2010 he was appointed Bhagwan Mahavir Professor of Jain Studies as well as Professor of Religious Studies.
Katz also serves as an adjunct professor of Hinduism at Hindu University of America
in Orlando, and as a consulting dean of Chaim Yakov Shlomo College of Jewish Studies, an Orthodox rabbinical school in Surfside.
His book, Who Are the Jews of India?, was a Finalist for the 2000 National Jewish Book Award and won the 2004 Vak Devi Saraswati Saman Award from India. His co-authored book, The Last Jews of Cochin (1993), was a Nota Bene selection of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
He won the President’s Award for Achievement and Excellence, FIU’s highest internal honor, in 2001, as well as FIU Faculty Senate Awards for Research (2005) and Service (2001). He was also named “Scholar of the Year” by the University of South Florida in 1990.
He won a statewide award for teaching excellence in 1994, and has been named a “Master Teacher” an unprecedented thirteen times by the Florida Center for Teachers of the Florida Humanities Council. He has been appointed Kauffman Professor in Global Entrepreneurship at FIU for the 2009-10 academic year.
He has also won community service awards from the Art of Living Foundation, the Sri Chinmoy Center in New York, and Congregation Ohr Chaim of Miami Beach, as well as the Veda Vidya Mitra Award from the World Association for Vedic Studies in 2008.
Katz has lectured at major universities around the world, including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Penn State, Oxford, Vienna, Salzburg, Hebrew University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Royal Nepal Academy, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Wonkwang University in Korea, SUNY Stony Brook, Saskatchewan, Trinity, Amherst, Pittsburgh, University of Kansas, Alabama, Yeshiva, The National Humanities Center in North Carolina, University of Florida, Santa Barbara, Chulalongkorn in Bangkok, William & Mary, Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, Yeshiva, Alabama, Duke, Devi Ahilya University in Indore, and Jain Vishwa Bharati University in Rajasthan.
Florida International University
Florida International University is an American public research university in metropolitan Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park...
(FIU) in Miami.
Education and career
Born in Philadelphia in 1948 and raised in Camden, New JerseyCamden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
, Katz attended Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
. After earning his B.A. in 1970, he worked for two years with the U. S. Information Agency in Afghanistan and spent a year in India studying classical languages before returning to Temple for graduate studies in Religion. He was a Fulbright dissertation fellow in Sri Lanka and India between 1976 and 1978, and was awarded his Ph.D. “with distinction” in 1979. He then joined the faculty in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
in Colorado, and after a year became Assistant Professor of Religion at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
in Massachusetts. In 1984 he joined the faculty of the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
in Tampa, and a decade later was brought to FIU to start up a new Department of Religious Studies. He was also instrumental is starting up FIU’s programs in Jewish Studies and in Asian Studies.
He is best known for his work about Indo-Judaic Studies. He has written award-winning books on Indian Jewish communities, and in 2002 convened an international seminar on this topic at Oxford University, bringing together scholars from North America, India, Europe and Israel. The conference resulted in Indo-Judaic Studies in the 21st Century, a book that was the focus of an academic panel at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
Katz was selected as a delegate to the 1990 Tibetan-Jewish dialogue hosted by H. H. the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
and reported in the best-selling The Jew in the Lotus
The Jew in the Lotus
The Jew in the Lotus is a best-selling book by Rodger Kamenetz. It is an account of an historic dialogue between rabbis and the Dalai Lama, the first recorded major dialogue between experts in Judaism and Buddhism. The book was the first to introduce the expression "JUBU" for Jewish-Buddhist to a...
. He reciprocated the hospitality in 1999 when the Dalai Lama first visited FIU for an honorary doctorate, as well as his 2004 and 2010 visits. Inspired by the Dalai Lama’s vision of educating both the “warm heart” and the “good brain,” Katz founded FIU’s innovative Program in the Study of Spirituality with foci on research, public programs and seminars, and the curriculum, including the world’s only undergraduate certificate program in the study of spirituality. In 2010 he was appointed Bhagwan Mahavir Professor of Jain Studies as well as Professor of Religious Studies.
Katz also serves as an adjunct professor of Hinduism at Hindu University of America
Hindu University of America
The Hindu University of America, also known as the International Vedic Hindu University, is a U.S. non-profit educational institution based in Orlando, Florida...
in Orlando, and as a consulting dean of Chaim Yakov Shlomo College of Jewish Studies, an Orthodox rabbinical school in Surfside.
Awards, Grants and Honors
Katz has been awarded four Fulbright grants for research and teaching in India and Sri Lanka.His book, Who Are the Jews of India?, was a Finalist for the 2000 National Jewish Book Award and won the 2004 Vak Devi Saraswati Saman Award from India. His co-authored book, The Last Jews of Cochin (1993), was a Nota Bene selection of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
He won the President’s Award for Achievement and Excellence, FIU’s highest internal honor, in 2001, as well as FIU Faculty Senate Awards for Research (2005) and Service (2001). He was also named “Scholar of the Year” by the University of South Florida in 1990.
He won a statewide award for teaching excellence in 1994, and has been named a “Master Teacher” an unprecedented thirteen times by the Florida Center for Teachers of the Florida Humanities Council. He has been appointed Kauffman Professor in Global Entrepreneurship at FIU for the 2009-10 academic year.
He has also won community service awards from the Art of Living Foundation, the Sri Chinmoy Center in New York, and Congregation Ohr Chaim of Miami Beach, as well as the Veda Vidya Mitra Award from the World Association for Vedic Studies in 2008.
Katz has lectured at major universities around the world, including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Penn State, Oxford, Vienna, Salzburg, Hebrew University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Royal Nepal Academy, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Wonkwang University in Korea, SUNY Stony Brook, Saskatchewan, Trinity, Amherst, Pittsburgh, University of Kansas, Alabama, Yeshiva, The National Humanities Center in North Carolina, University of Florida, Santa Barbara, Chulalongkorn in Bangkok, William & Mary, Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, Yeshiva, Alabama, Duke, Devi Ahilya University in Indore, and Jain Vishwa Bharati University in Rajasthan.
Selected books
- Spiritual Journey Home - Eastern Mysticism to the Western Wall (Jersey City, NJ, Ktav Publishing House, 2009).
- Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First century: A View from the Margin, editor-in-chief/co-author (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, April 2007).
- Kashrut, Caste and Kabbalah: The Religious Life of the Jews of Cochin, with Ellen S. Goldberg (New Delhi, Manohar, 2005).
- Who Are the Jews of India? (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 2000).
- Studies of Indian-Jewish Identity, editor and co-author (New Delhi, Manohar, 1995 [2nd ed., 1999]).
- The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India, with Ellen S. Goldberg. Foreword by Daniel J. Elazar (Columbia, SC, Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1993).
- Tampa Bay's Asian-Origin Religious Communities (Tampa, National Conference of Christians and Jews, "A Religious History of Tampa Bay" Research Reports no. 1, 1991).
- Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies: Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma, co-editor and co-author (London, Frances Pinter Publishers, 1988).
- Buddhist and Western Psychology, editor and co-author. Introduction by Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (Boulder, CO, Prajña Press/ Shambhala, 1983).
- Buddhist Images of Human Perfection: The Arahant of the Sutta Pitaka Compared with the Bodhisattva and the Mahasiddha (Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1982; 2nd ed. 1989; 3rd ed. 2004).
- Buddhist and Western Philosophy, editor and co-author. Foreword by H. H. the Dalai Lama (New Delhi, Sterling, 1981).
- Tibetan Buddhism (New Haven, CT, Yale Divinity School, Visual Education Series, 1974).
- Afghan Legends: A Textbook in Reading English as a Second Language (Kabul, U.S. Information Service, 1972).
External links
- Nathan Katz Website
- Center for the Study of Spirituality
- http://religion.fiu.edu/mahavir
- Christian Research Journal, volume 30, number 1 (2007)
- FIU Magazine Winter 2005 Volume 12
- Miami Herald Article
- NYT: In Jews, Indian-Americans See a Role Model in Activism
- Nathan Katz at FIU Religious Studies Department
- Nathan Katz at CYS College