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Credit: Photo courtesy of Gary Rendsburg
Dr. Gary A. Rendsburg
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Gary Rendsburg’s love of the ancient Middle East has brought him to an unlikely place -New Jersey, where he leads the department of Jewish studies in New Brunswick and holds the department’s first endowed chair.
The recipient of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History, the Highland Park resident is one of the world’s leading scholars of the Hebrew Bible. He oversees a department that is attracting more students and top scholars.
Since the university launched the department in 2000, the •••••• of Rutgers students majoring or minoring in Jewish studies has increased 73 percent, while the •••••• enrolled in Hebrew-language classes has risen more than 17 percent. Rutgers also has greatly expanded the Jewish studies curriculum, adding courses on the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls and rabbinic literature. Each academic year, approximately 1,400 Rutgers students enroll in Jewish studies classes. Rutgers is the only university in New Jersey to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Jewish studies.
“I’d love to see this department continue to grow,” said Rendsburg, who joined Rutgers in July. “Jewish studies are exciting because it is so multidisciplinary and has such relevance to contemporary life.”
The department works in partnership with the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life to provide a range of academic and community programs. Courses draw students interested in language, literature, history, religion, sociology, politics and cultural studies. Graduates have gone on to careers in diplomacy, politics, Israeli advocacy, Jewish social services or rabbinical schools.
Rendsburg credits several factors for the growth in Jewish studies, ranging from the news coverage of Israel and the Middle East to increasing focus on the role of religion in human life. Also, as Jewish K-12 schools have proliferated over the past 20 years, more students arrive at college with an interest in Jewish studies. “The schools gave students greater proficiency in Hebrew and encouraged their interest,” he said.
As he chatted in his College Avenue office a few miles from the Iselin neighborhood where he grew up, Rendsburg said he once set his sights on a different life. “When I was an undergraduate majoring in English and journalism, I wanted to be a theater critic for The New York Times," he said with a laugh.
As an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was fascinated by ancient history and languages; he took courses in Jewish studies and ancient Hebrew. Then he met Eric Meyers, a professor of Jewish studies at Duke who helped set up the Jewish studies department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “He was an inspiration,” Rendsburg said. “I hadn’t really thought of Jewish studies as an academic pursuit before that.”
Rendsburg has since become proficient in several ancient languages, including ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, Ugaritic and hieroglyphic Egyptian. He has done groundbreaking work on the interplay between language and literature in the Bible and has explored a •••••• of persistent historical issues, such as the date of the Exodus and the nature of the arrival of the Israelites in the land of Canaan.
Prior to joining Rutgers in July, Rendsburg was the Paul and Berthe Hendrix Memorial Professor of Jewish Studies at Cornell, where he worked since 1986. He is the author of five books and has written more than 100 articles.
Rendsburg’s Oct. 14 installation ceremony, called an investiture, is the first at Rutgers under the leadership of President Richard L. McCormick. “Gary’s decision to come to Rutgers is a major achievement for the department of Jewish studies, and his appointment continues this university’s commitment to attract and retain the finest faculty,” McCormick said.
In his first public lecture since coming to Rutgers, Rendsburg will discuss “The Genesis of the Bible,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in Trayes Hall, Douglass College Center.
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