Initiators of the project
The Center for Jewish Art,
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Director: Dr. Vladimir Levin
Born in St. Petersburg, he holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University (Summa Cum Laude). He authored From Revolution to War: Jewish Politics in Russia, 1907-1914 (in Hebrew, 2016) and co-editedSynagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue (2010-2012). In 2017 he co-authored with Dr. Sergey Kravtsov the book Synagogue in Ukraine: Volhynia, and currently works on a book about Jewish material culture in Siberia with Dr. Anna Berezin. He also co-edited, with Dr. Victoria Gerasimova, a special issue of Judaic-Slavic Journal devoted to the Jewish history in Siberia. Dr. Levin published c. 120 articles and essays about social and political aspects of modern Jewish history in Eastern Europe, synagogue architecture and ritual objects, Jewish religious Orthodoxy, Jewish-Muslim relations, Jews and Jewish politics in Lithuania, and Russian architecture in the Holy Land.
Dr. Levin headed numerous research expeditions to documents synagogues and other monuments of Jewish material culture in eastern and central Europe and led several research projects in the field of Jewish Art, the most important of which is the creation of the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art - the world's largest digital depository of Jewish heritage.
t: +972 2 5882281e: cja@mail.huji.ac.il
w: https://cja.huji.ac.il
The Sue and Leonard Miller
Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies,
University of Miami
The George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies
of the College of Arts and Sciences,
University of Miami
Director: Dr. Haim Shaked
Dr. Haim Shaked has been a tenured Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami (UM) since 1988. He has been the incumbent of the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Chair in Middle East Peace Studies (since 1993).
In September 1998, UM announced the creation of the university-wide Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and appointed Dr. Shaked as its Founding Director. In 2005 he was also appointed Director of the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies, at the UM’s College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Shaked has also served at UM, since 1986, as the Director of the Middle East Studies Institute. From 1995-2000, Dr. Shaked was one of the founders – under the leadership of Prof. Uriel Reichman - of the first private (not-for-profit) university in Israel: The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.
Haim Shaked was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he graduated with a B.A. Cum Laude (1962) and an M.A. Cum Laude (1966) in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. In 1969 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), on completion of his studies in its Department of History, chaired then by the eminent Professor Bernard Lewis. Dr. Shaked’s doctoral thesis dealt with a unique manuscript biography of the Sudanese Mahdi.
From 1969-1998, Dr. Shaked was on the faculty of Tel Aviv University (TAU) where he attained the rank of Full Professor (tenured). He was a co-founder (1966) and later (1973-80) Head of the Moshe Dayan Center/Shiloah Institute for Middle Eastern and African Studies. At Tel Aviv University he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and member of TAU’s Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee as well as of the University Senate and its Steering Committee (1975-80).
From 1981-1983, Dr. Shaked was Interim Director of the Center for Advanced International Studies at UM, with a mandate to develop it into a Graduate School of International Studies. In 1998 it became the School of International Studies. In 2001, the School became the Department of International Studies in UM’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Together with Prof. Shaul Friedlander, he was founding co-editor of Zemanim (Times) – a Hebrew quarterly magazine on history. Prof. Shaked was the academic co-founder of “The Broadcast University” and its series of publications.
Prof. Shaked is a member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Oklahoma’s International Programs Center/Center for Peace Studies and the Board of Editors of the Middle East Quarterly. He is a member of the Academic Councils of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research; of the Ben Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, Ben Gurion University; of the Steering Committee of the Kinneret Institute for the Study of Society, Security and Peace (named after the late Lt. Gen. Dan Shomoron); of the Steering Committee of the Institute for Galilean Archaeology, the Kinneret College; and of the Advisory Board of the (American) National Jewish Theater Foundation/National Jewish Theater. Dr. Shaked is a member of the board of the Association of Applied Jewish Social Values and the Editorial Committee of the International Journal of Applied Social Values.
t: +1 786 305 284 6882e: ccjs@miami.edu, jsp@miami.edu
w: https://millercenter.miami.edu, https://judaicstudies.as.miami.edu/index.html
The International Survey of Jewish Monuments
President: Dr. Samuel D. Gruber
Dr. Samuel D. Gruber, accomplished researcher, author, curator, and consultant, is founder and managing director of Gruber Heritage Global (GHG) – a cultural resources consulting firm. GHG includes the Jewish Heritage Research Center (JHRC), which Dr. Gruber has directed since 1995.
Gruber Heritage Global serves as consultant and adviser to numerous organizations, institutions, private foundations, government agencies and individuals.
Dr. Gruber is a recognized expert in many aspects of art and architectural history and the historic preservation of architectural and cultural heritage sites. He has taught courses in art history and Jewish Studies part-time at Syracuse University since 1994 and has also taught Cornell University, Colgate University, LeMoyne College, and elsewhere.
Starting in 2019, he is on the faculty of Art Workshop International in Assisi, Italy, where he taught a 2-week course on medieval art, architecture and urbanism, and will art history again in 2020.
Dr. Gruber is president (volunteer) of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM) and the Arts & Crafts Society of Central New York (ACSCNY), and past president of the Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY).
t: +11 315 474 2350e: jewishmons@gmail.com
w: https://isjm.org
w: https://samuelgruber.com