Shuly Rubin Schwartz inaugurated as chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary
On May 17, Shuly Rubin Schwartz was officially inaugurated as the first female chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary, the flagship school of Conservative Judaism. Schwartz, a scholar of American Jewish history, technically began the role in July 2020. However, the inauguration ceremony was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before her appointment, Schwartz served as provost at Jewish Theological Seminary. She also formerly served as dean of the seminary’s undergraduate college of Jewish studies and is credited with expanding its dual-degree programs with Columbia University and Barnard College. In 2010, she was named dean of the institution’s graduate school, where she was foundational in creating a certificate program in ethics and social justice.
Schwartz serves on the academic council of the American Jewish Historical Society and on the academic advisory boards for the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Jewish Women’s Archive.
She is the author of The Rabbi’s Wife: The Rebbetzin in American Jewish Life, which won the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for modern Jewish thought, as well as The Emergence of Jewish Scholarship in America: The Publication of the Jewish Encyclopedia.
