For four generations, Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz’s family has studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), one of the foremost institutions in Jewish higher education as well as the academic heart of the Conservative Judaism movement. Her grandfather went to the school’s teachers’ institute and her parents graduated from the seminary, as did Schwartz and her son.
Now, starting July 1, Schwartz will become the first female chancellor in the seminary’s 134-year history.
“It’s very, very exciting to take on this new role and have the opportunity to shape an institution that I love,” she said. She praised – and plans to sharpen – the school’s “serious, critical, intellectual engagement with Jewish text and our history” and its “vibrant religious community where … everyone in the community cares about the Jewish future.”
Previously its first woman provost, Schwartz has spent almost her entire academic career at the seminary. For 25 years, she served as the dean of List College, the school’s undergraduate dual-degree program with Barnard College and Columbia University. Plus, Schwartz spent the last ten years as dean of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, where she spearheaded a master’s program in Jewish ethics, a new certificate in ethics and social justice and a joint Jewish ethics master’s program with Columbia University’s school of public health. While in those positions, she served as a professor of American Jewish history.
Schwartz also earned her own master’s degree and doctorate at the seminary, making her time there about 30 years in total.
“Dr. Schwartz has played a major role in creating the special academic community that is JTS,” Alan Levine, chair of the seminary’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “And we are confident that her vision and unique skills will ensure JTS’s continued stature as a leading academic institution of the American Jewish world.”
As a scholar of American Jewish life and gender, the significance of her new position isn’t lost on Schwartz.
