Biography

Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies

Alan L. Berger occupies the Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair for Holocaust Studies, the first Holocaust chair established in the state of Florida, and is Professor of Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University where he also directs the Center for the Study of Values and Violence after Auschwitz. Berger founded and directed the Holocaust and Judaic Studies B.A. Program at FAU (1998-2005). Prior to this, he was a professor in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University where he founded and directed the Jewish Studies Program. While at Syracuse, Berger served as Acting Chair of the Religion Department and Interim Chair of the Fine Arts Department. He also was the Visiting Gumenick Professor of Judaica at the College of William and Mary. Berger was guest chair of the Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust Conference in 1998. He was series editor of “Religion, Theology, and the Holocaust,” Syracuse University Press (1998-2004).

Among his books are Crisis and Covenant: The Holocaust in American Jewish Fiction, (SUNY
Press) Judaism in the Modern World (Editor) (New York University Press), and Children of Job: American Second-Generation Witnesses to the Holocaust, (Foreword by Elie Wiesel) (SUNY Press), the first systematic study of films and novels of children of Holocaust survivors analyzing the psycho-social and theological legacy of the Holocaust on the second generation. This book was discussed in a New York Times article on the second generation. Second-Generation Voices: Reflections by Children of Holocaust Survivors and Perpetrators, (Syracuse University Press) which he and his wife Naomi co-edited, won the 2001 B’nai Zion National Media Award. He is also co-editor of Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature (Spring, 2002) (Greenwood Press) which received a Booklist Best Reference Book of 2002 award and the Outstanding Reference Source 2003 – Reference and User Services Association of the ALA (RUSA). The Continuing Agony: From the Carmelite Convent to the Crosses at Auschwitz (Spring 2004) (University Press of America) was nominated for the American Catholic Historical Association’s John Gilmary Shea Prize, and Jewish American and Holocaust Literature: Representation in the Postmodern World (SUNY Press, Fall 2004). Jewish-Christian Dialogue: Drawing Honey from the Rock, (Paragon House) of which he is co-author, appeared in September 2008. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish American Literature, which Facts on File will publish in February 2009. His many articles, essays and book chapters appear in a variety of places including Modern Judaism, Modern Language Studies, Religion and American Culture, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Studies in American Jewish Literature, Saul Bellow Journal, Jewish Book Annual, Sociological Analysis, Australian Journal of Jewish Studies, Judaism, Literature and Belief, Encyclopedia of Jewish-American History and Culture, and Encyclopedia of Genocide. Additionally, he has written fifty encyclopedia entries. He was guest editor for two special issues of the journal Literature and Belief; “Holocaust Rescuers” and “Elie Wiesel.”

He has lectured on the Holocaust, Jewish American Literature, Theology, and Christian/Jewish Relations throughout America and in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Israel. Berger has also spoken at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Currently he is editor of the new series “Studies in Genocide: Religion, History and Human Rights” for Rowman and Littlefield. Further, he is an Associate Editor of Studies in American Jewish Literature, and serves on the editorial boards of Literature and Belief, and Shofar. He has also been a judge for the National Jewish Book Awards in the categories of Autobiography and Fiction, and is on the Readers Committee for The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest. Berger is Associate Director of the Association for the Study of Jewish American and Holocaust Literature, and is a member of the Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education for the state of Florida. Professor Berger was interviewed by Renee Montagne of National Public Radio’s morning edition in conjunction with the 60th Anniversary of the capture of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army. He spoke about the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

Berger was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa from Luther College in 1999.

TOPICS DR. BERGER SPEAKS ON:
1. Elie Wiesel’s Quarrel with God

2. Jewish-Christian Dialogue: The Next Forty Years

3. Second Generation Voices: Jews and Germans Reflect on their Holocaust Legacy

4. Shaping Holocaust Memory: The Second & Third Generation Response

5. Jewish/Christian/Muslim Trialogue: Promise and Peril

6. Teaching for the Future: Denying the Holocaust Deniers

7. Holocaust Rescuers: The Many Faces of Altruism

8. Harry S. Truman and Jewish Refuges