Joshua Teplitsky is the Joseph Meyerhoff Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History and the Ruth Meltzer Director of the Jewish Studies Program. Previously Associate Professor of History at Stony Brook University, Teplitsky is a leading expert on the culture and life of Jews in early modern Central Europe. He is the author of Prince of the Press: How One Collector Built History’s Most Enduring and Remarkable Jewish Library, which won several awards. Teplitsky has been a fellow at the University of Oxford, at the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, at Harvard University, at Tel Aviv University, and at the Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Programme in Jerusalem. In addition, he has twice been a fellow at Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. His research has been supported by numerous grants, and he serves as an Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures, as Co-Director of the digital humanities project Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place, and on the editorial board of the German Jewish Cultures monograph series. He is currently at work on a second book, titled Quarantine in the Prague Ghetto: Jews, Christians, and the Plague in Early Modern Europe.
About the Donor
Herbert D. Katz, W’51, and Eleanor M. Katz
The late Herbert D. Katz, W'51, and Eleanor M. Katz were longtime supporters of Penn Arts & Sciences and Jewish Studies.
Ruth Meltzer
The late Ruth Meltzer established this Directorship in Jewish Studies in 2001.