ACADEMIA

David Biale

Professor, University of California, Davis

David Biale is the Emanuel Ringelblum distinguished professor of Jewish history and the director of the Jewish Studies program at the University of California, Davis. He has written on the historian Gershom Scholem, as well as on themes of power, sexuality, blood and secularization in Jewish history. In December 2017, Biale published an 800-page volume on the history of Hasidism, written with a team of academic colleagues, with Princeton University Press. “Our underlying argument is that Hasidism is part of modern Jewish history, not just an anti-modern phenomenon," Biale reflected on the book's publication. "It’s an important component of that history, and a shaper of it.” Biale's many books include Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought (2010) and Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History (1986). Biale is also the co-author of the volume on Judaism published by the Norton Anthology of World Religions. (Photo: Screenshot.)