Steve Weitzman is a scholar of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies, specializing in the study of biblical literature, Jewish antiquity, and the interpretive afterlife of the Bible. Recent publications include The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age, (Princeton University Press), which was awarded a National Jewish Book Award, and a third edition of the co-authored The Jews: a History (Routledge, 2019). Interested in the study of religion more broadly, he has also published in the field of American religion, co-editing the FBI and Religion (University of California Press, 2017) and currently undertaking a study of Penn’s own Positive Psychology Center and its impact on contemporary spiritual life.
Weitzman received his Ph.D. from Harvard University after completing his B.A. at UC Berkeley, and spent several years teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University where he served as director of its Jewish Studies program for six years. He comes to Penn from Stanford University, where he was Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion and the director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies.