Faculty in the News

Prof. Dollinger Is “Reinventing the Narratives of Blacks and Jews”

Marc Dollinger, a professor of Jewish studies at San Francisco State University, did not assume that his 2018 book, “Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s,” would earn a fourth printing.

In the book, Los Angeles native Dr. Dollinger, 58, looks at the Jewish world he grew up in as a child in the 1970s — a world that focused more on Jewish identity than on Jewish fitting-in, as marked by the Soviet Jewry movement’s public rallies — and uncovers its debt to the Black Power movement of the ’60s.

Read the story on the Jewish Standard website.

Professor Dollinger Publishes Article in the Journal of Academic Freedom

"A decision by Brandeis University Press to censor an invited new preface to my book, Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s, brought to the surface a number of questions central to the protection of academic freedom. Anonymous peer reviewers should not enjoy the power to overturn decision-making by press officials. Discussion of race, racism, and racial privilege must be included and protected in scholarly debate. Sometimes, academic gatekeepers confuse what is scholarly from what is political in an abusive effort to block academic discourse. Concerns over monetizing the academic book market should not predetermine a book’s content. When otherwise-hidden violations of academic freedom become part of a broad public discourse, retaliatory measures intimidate untenured faculty, scholars of color, and women academics who fear damage to their own careers should they speak out."

View the entire article "Forbidden Words: Academic Freedom, Censorship, and University Presses."

Professor Gross to Teach Course for New Lehrhaus

J. (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Besides one-off talks, courses will be taught by a range of scholars, such as award-winning author and academic Robert Alter and UC Berkeley Jewish studies professor Ron Hendel. Rachel Gross of San Francisco State University will talk about American Jewish food. Classes on Biblical Hebrew, modern Hebrew and Yiddish will be offered, and the well-loved Talmud circles will keep going under the New Lehrhaus umbrella, co-sponsored by Jewish Community Centers in San Francisco, Palo Alto and San Rafael.

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Professor Dollinger Serves on Editorial Board of Western States Jewish History

SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD -- In addition to those board members who wrote reviews, Western States Jewish History’s editorial board includes Marc Dollinger of San Francisco State University; Victoria Fisch of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento; Aaron Fruchtman of California State University Long Beach; Joel Gereboff, Arizona State University & Academy for Jewish Religion California, and Wynne Waugaman, of the University of Southern California.

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