Alan Mittleman

Alan Mittleman (born 1953) is a professor of Jewish Philosophy and the director of the Tikvah Institute for Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Education

Mittleman received his BA from Brandeis University, his rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and his MA and PhD from Temple University.

Career

From 1984 to 1988, Mittleman served on the staff of the American Jewish Committee. He then served as a professor of Religion at Muhlenberg College from 1988 to 2004. He was the head of the Muhlenberg College Religion Department from 1997-2003.

From 2000 until 2004, he was also the director of a major research project on "Jews and the American Public Square" initiated by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

In 2004, Mittleman became Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS). In 2007, he served as Visiting Professor of Religion at Princeton University, and in that same year he became Chair of the Department of Jewish Thought at JTS.

Upon joining the Jewish Theological Seminary faculty, he also became director of the JTS's Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies, a position he held until 2010.

In 2010, he became director of the Tikvah Institute for Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Personal Life

Alan is married to Patricia Mittleman, Hillel Director and Chaplain at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. Alan and Patti have two sons, Ari and Joel. The younger of which just became a British Marshall Scholar. They currently reside in both Allentown and New York City, where Alan works at JTS.

Publications

Mittleman's books include:

• Between Kant and Kabbalah (SUNY Press, 1990)
• The Politics of Torah (SUNY Press, 1996)
• The Scepter Shall Not Depart From Judah (Lexington Books, 2000)
• Hope in a Democratic Age (Oxford University Press, 2009)
• A Short History of Jewish Ethics (under contract with Wiley-Blackwell)

He is the editor of:

• Uneasy Allies: Evangelical and Jewish Relations (Lexington Books, 2007)
• Jewish Polity and American Civil Society (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)
• Jews and the American Public Square (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)
• Religion as a Public Good (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

His writings have appeared in journals including Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, the Jewish Political Studies Review, the Journal of Religion, and First Things.