Jay Holstein, Department of Religious Studies

314 Gilmore Hall • Iowa City, IA 52242 • 319-335-2164

Curriculum Vitae
JAY A. HOLSTEIN

Business Address:

Department of Religious Studies
404 Gilmore Hall
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

Phone: 319-335-2171; Fax: 319-335-3716

Education:

1970   Ph.D., Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati

1966   M.A., Hebrew Union College, New York (with Honors); ordained as Rabbi

1962   B.H.L., Hebrew Union College, New York

1960   A.B., Temple University (cum lade with Distinction in Philosophy)

Academic Experience:

1999-present Professor of Jewish Studies

1970-1999 Professor , Department of Religious Studies, University of Iowa

1982-1999 Holder of J.J. Mallon Chair of Judaic Studies

1978, 79         Visiting Professor, Grinnell College

1976                Associate Professor, School of Religion, University of Iowa

1970                Assistant Professor, School of Religion, University of Iowa

1966-70           Teaching Fellow, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati

1966, 67          Assistant Rabbi, Rockdale Temple, Cincinnati

Awards and Honors:

University of Iowa Honors Program Teaching Award, 1996

University of Iowa Collegiate Teaching Award, 1991

Greater Seattle B’nai B’rith Scholar in Residence, March-April, 1990

Who’s Who in America

Who’s Who in Religion in America

Teaching:

Courses recently taught
Quest for Human Destiny 32:003
Old Testament Survey, 32:011
The Bible in Film: Hollywood and Moses, 32:112
*Quest II: Sex, Love and Death 32:147
The Bible and the Holocaust, 32:150
New courses developed marked with an asterisk

Student supervision
Undergraduate Honors theses, 4
Ph.D. dissertation, 1

Research:

Books
The Jewish Experience, Burgess Press (1988); third edition, Burgess Press (1990)

The Jewish Experience-The Biblical Period, Burgess Press (1985)

Selected journal articles and book chapters
“Rivkin's structural hypothesis and the Hebrew Bible.” In A. Podet (Ed.), Structural Analysis: The Historiographic Method of Ellis Rivkin. Diepenau, Germany: Verlag Arthur Gottert (2002)

“Making the Written Word ‘Speak’: Reflections on the Teaching of Correspondence Courses,” The Journal of Long Distance Education (Fall/Winter 1992-93)

“How Not to Read the Bible: Bloom’s The Book of J,” in The Iowa Review Vol 21, Number 3 (1991)

“The Inadequacies of a ‘Value-Free’ Approach,” Counseling and Values (Spring 1991)

“God-talk in Reform Judaism: Historicism, Progress, and the Hebrew Bible,” Journal of Rabbis in Academics (1991)

“Hyperbole, Ellipsis and Allusion in Esther,” Journal of the American Association of Rabbis (1990)

“Counseling and Value in the David Story,” Counseling and Values (March 1986)

“Melville’s Inversion of Jonah in Moby-Dick,” The Iliff Review (Fall 1985)

“The Role of the Bible in Public Education,” in Multicultural Non-Sexist Education: A Human Relations Approach (1985)

“Samuel Sandmel’s Philosophy of Religious Education: ‘To Speak the Truth in Love.’” Religious Education (1982)

“Melville’s Sterotypical Treatment of Jews,” The Journal of Reform Judaism (1981)

“The ‘Inside’ Role of Biblical Allusions in Melville’s Billy Budd (An Inside Narrative),” Rendezvous 15 (Fall 1980)

“Melville’s Inversion of Job in Moby-Dick,” The Iliff Review (Winter 1980)

“The Case of ‘isha’elohim’ Reconsidered: Philosophical Analysis versus Historical Reconstruction,” Hebrew Union College Annual XL VIII (1977)

With George Forell, Judaism and Christianity: Sources of the Western Religious Tradition (Campus Stores, University of Iowa 1976)

“Max Weber and Biblical Scholarship,” Hebrew Union College Annual XL VI (1975)

“Spinoza’s Treatise and the Higher Critics,” C.C.A.R. Journal (Spring 1975)

“Confronting the ‘Old’ in the Old Testament,” Religious Education (Jan-Feb 1975)

Selected invited papers and addresses
“The Book of Job and the Problem of Evil.” (Temple Judah, Cedar Rapids, IA) November 2004

“Prophetic Despair and Divine Consolation.” (Temple Judah, Cedar Rapids, IA) November 2002

“Judaism, The American Dream, and September 11.” (The University of Iowa Alumni Association Family Weekend) November 2002

“The Binding of Issac.” (Temple Judah, Cedar Rapids, IA) August 2002

“On Lasers, Tincture of Time, and the Idiopathic: How One Man's Retinopathy Was 'Treated'.” Keynote address, American Academy of Ophthalmologists Board of Directors Conference) June 2002

“Genealogical Tables as Thematic Indicators in Biblical Narratives.” (Temple Judah, Cedar Rapids, IA) April 2002

Keynote for world-wide leadership conference of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity on “Socrates, Moses, and 'Pop' and the Balanced Man” (Des Moines, IA) February 2002

“Genesis 38 and 'Destroying One's Seed on the Ground.” (Temple Judah, Cedar Rapids, IA) December 2001

“Women's Spiritual Search: From Eve to Thelma and Louise.” (Mercy Hospital, Iowa City, IA) October 2001.

“The Crucial Importance of the Role Assigned to the Father of the Father of the People Israel” (NE Iowa Synod of the ELCA, Mason City, IA) October 2001

“Can Suffering be 'Chicken Soup' for the Soul?” (Psychosocial Oncology Conference at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics) October 2001

“Reflections on the Books of Genesis and Judges” (First Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Sept-Dec, 2000

“God’s Speeches in the Book of Job” (NE Iowa Synod of the ELCA, Mason City, IA) Sept 2000

Keynote speaker for meeting of Directors of Recreational Services for the Big Ten Universities (UI, Iowa City) June 2000

Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (top 1% of graduating medical students) (The fifth year invited to speak at this event; Iowa City, IA) April 2000

“A Short Course on Judaism, Especially in Regard to its Relationship with Christianity” (First Congregational Church, Cedar Rapids, IA) April 2000

Keynote for world-wide leadership conference of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity on “Jerusalem and Athens: Knowledge is Virtue” (Des Moines, IA) February 2000

“The Documentary Hypothesis,” invited paper delivered to faculty of Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati, OH) March 1986

Back to the top