CJC Faculty

Bruce Hoffman
Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service; Director, Center for Jewish Civilization
Bruce Hoffman has been studying terrorism and insurgency for over four decades. He is a tenured professor in Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and until recently was director of its Center for Security Studies and Security Studies Program. Hoffman is also visiting Professor of Terrorism Studies at St Andrews University, Scotland. He previously held the Corporate Chair in Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency at the RAND Corporation, where he was also director of RAND’s Washington Office and vice president for external affairs. Hoffman was appointed by the U.S. Congress as a commissioner on the 9/11 Review Commission and has been Scholar-in-Residence for Counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency; adviser on counterterrorism to the Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad, Iraq; and, an adviser on counterinsurgency to Multi-National Forces-Iraq Headquarters, Baghdad, Iraq. Hoffman’s most recent books include The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat (2014); Anonymous Soldiers (2015); and, Inside Terrorism (3rd edition, 2017). Hoffman is currently a Wilson Center Global Fellow, a visiting senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior fellow at the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center.
Areas of expertise: diplomacy, Middle East policy, foreign policy, Middle East Studies, US-Middle East Strategy and Policy, Security Studies, Counterterrorism, Terrorism
Follow Bruce Hoffman on Twitter at @hoffman_bruce.

Jacques Berlinerblau
Rabbi Harold White Professor of Jewish Civilization; Senior Advisor, Center for Jewish Civilization
Jacques Berlinerblau is the Rabbi Harold White Professor and Director of Jewish Civilization in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Holding separate doctorates in Sociology and ancient Near Eastern languages he has published 8 books and written dozens of scholarly articles on subjects ranging from Secularism, to Jewish-American literature, to African-American and Jewish-American relations. His forthcoming book is entitled The Philip Roth We Don’t Know: From #MeToo to Metempsychosis.
Areas of expertise: Secularism, Politics and Religion, Jewish-American Literature, Philip Roth Studies
Follow Jacques Berlinerblau on Twitter at @berlinerblau.

Anna Sommer Schneider
Associate Professor of the Practice of Jewish Civilization; Associate Director for the Center for Jewish Civilization
Anna Sommer Schneider received her Ph.D. from the Department of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, where she taught from 2007-2010. She is the author of She’erit Hapletah: Surviving Remnant. The Activities of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Poland, 1945-1989, 2014(published in Polish) and co-author of Rescue, Relief and Renewal: 100 Years of the Joint in Poland, 2014. She is also the author of numerous articles on Holocaust memory, the history of the Jews in post-World War II Poland, and history of anti-Semitism, published both in Polish and English. Her most recent writings include The Survival of ‘Yiddishkeit’: Impact of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee on Jewish Education in Poland, 1945-1989 in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Vol. 30. She also served as an educator and guide at the State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim from 1998-2018.
Areas of expertise: Modern East and Central-European Jewish History, Holocaust and Gender Studies, Post-Holocaust Politics of Memory, History of Anti-Semitism

Jessica Roda
Assistant Professor of Jewish Civilization; Assistant Director, Center for Jewish Civilization
Jessica Roda joined the CJC in the fall of 2018 as an Assistant Professor of Jewish Civilization. She is an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist trained in European and North American schools and has published several peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and a monograph (Se réinventer au present. Les Judéo-espagnols de France, 2018, Presses Universitaires de Rennes) on the political implications of Sephardic and Arab-Jewish music in France, Spain, and Morocco. Dr. Roda is currently working on a second manuscript based on her ethnography of Hasidic life in Montreal and New York City (Beyond the Sheitl: Jewish Women and Performances in the Digital Age). She teaches the courses, “Music, Politics, and International Affairs,” “Muslims and Jews. New Perspectives,” and “Mapping Jewish life in North America.”
Areas of expertise: Performance, Music, International Cultural Politics, Hasidic Judaism, Jews of the Arab land

Terrence Johnson
Associate Professor of Religion and Politics in the Department of Government; Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs
Terrence L. Johnson is an associate professor of religion and politics in the Department of Government and an affiliate member of the Department of African American Studies at Georgetown University. Johnson is also a senior research fellow at the Berkley Center and serves on the executive committee of the Center for Jewish Civilization. His research interests include ethics, political theory, African American religions, and religion and public life. He is the author of Tragic Soul-Life: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Moral Crisis Facing American Democracy (2012) and serves as co-editor of the Duke University Press Series Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People. Johnson is completing a manuscript tentatively titled We Testify with Our Lives: Black Power and the Ethical Turn in Politics, which explores the decline of Afro-Christianity in the post-Civil Rights Era and the increasing efforts among African American leftists to imagine ethics and human rights activism within Black politics. Johnson holds a B.A. from Morehouse College, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Brown University.
Areas of expertise: Political Science, Ethics, Theology, Politics and Religion, African American Studies, Religion in Public Life

Jonathan Ray
Samuel Eig Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department
Areas of expertise: Theology, Modern Jewish History, Jewish Studies, Sephardic Judaism

Sarah Fainberg
Adjunct Instructor of Israeli Affairs
Sarah-Masha Fainberg is a foreign policy and security advisor, researcher, lecturer, and author focusing on Russian, Eurasian, and Middle Eastern politics. In addition to her role at the Center for Jewish Civilization, Dr. Fainberg lectures at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Previously, she served as Policy Adviser at Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Additionally, she was a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, and a lecturer of European Affairs at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya.
Sarah has authored and edited three books, including Les Discriminés, L’antisémitisme soviétique après Staline (Anti-Jewish Soviet Discrimination after Stalin, 2014, recipient of Henri Hertz Prize), and Secularism on the Edge: Rethinking Church-State Relations in the United States, France and Israel (2014, with Jacques Berlinerblau and Aurora Nou). Professor Fainberg is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm) in Paris. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics (Sciences Po, Paris), an M.A. in Russian and Eurasian Studies (Sciences Po, Paris), and two B.A.s in Philosophy and Slavic Studies (Sorbonne).
Areas of expertise: Middle East policy, foreign policy, Israeli Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Israeli National Security, Russian Middle East Policy, Europe-Israel Relations , Israel-Diaspora Relations

Ira Forman
Adjunct Instructor
Ira N. Forman is a Senior Fellow on Anti-Semitism at the Center for Jewish Civilization and a Senior Fellow at the Moment Institute. In the fall of 2018, he was appointed Senior Advisor on Anti-Semitism at Human Rights First.
Mr. Forman served as the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism from 2013-2017. From 2011-2012 he served as the Jewish Outreach Director for the Obama for America campaign. He also served for nearly 15 years as the Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC).
Mr. Forman received his B.A. from Harvard University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in Government. He received his M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He co-edited and wrote for the reference book Jews In American Politics.
Areas of expertise: Contemporary Antisemitism, Jewish-American Engagement in Politics and Public Policy
Follow Ira Forman on Twitter at @IraForman.

Tamara Cofman Wittes
Adjunct Instructor of Middle East Policy
Tamara Cofman Wittes is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, where she writes on US Middle East policy, regional geopolitics, and US-Israel relations. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Obama Administration. Wittes serves on the board of directors of the National Democratic Institute and the advisory boards of the Israel Institute and Divergent Options.
Wittes co-hosts the weekly podcast, Rational Security. She wrote Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy and edited How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate. She is now researching a book on US relations with autocratic allies, tentatively titled Our SOBs.
Areas of expertise: US-Israeli Relations, Middle East Peace Process, US-Middle East Strategy and Policy, Middle East Political Development, Democracy, and Human Rights Policy
Follow Tamara Cofman Wittes on Twitter at @tcwittes.

Father Patrick Desbois
Braman Endowed Professor of the Practice of the Forensic Study of the Holocaust
Father Patrick Desbois, president of Yahad-In Unum, has devoted his life to confronting anti-Semitism and furthering Catholic-Jewish understanding. His research has greatly expanded the scope of understanding concerning the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. His book, The Holocaust by Bullets, documents those findings.
Father Desbois is the director of the Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism, serves as a consultant to the Vatican, and was a personal aide to the late Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger. He was awarded the Medal of Valor by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Humanitarian Award of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and honorary doctorates from Hebrew University, and Bar Ilan University in Israel, amongst other honors.
Follow Patrick Desbois on Twitter at @yahadinunum.

David Ebenbach
Associate Professor of the Practice of Jewish Civilization
Areas of expertise: Creative Writing (Fiction, Poetry), Jewish Literature, Contemporary Literature
Follow David Ebenbach on Twitter at @DavidEbenbach.

Ambassador Zion Evrony
Visiting Lecturer
Most recently serving as the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See (2012-2016), Zion Evrony has held several distinguished diplomatic positions, including serving as Israel’s ambassador to Ireland and as consul general in Houston, Texas. Ambassador Evrony frequently publishes and gives lectures on topics including the Middle East, Jewish-Catholic dialogue, and Israel-Vatican relations.
His publications include “What’s Next for Jewish Catholic Ties” (The Times of Israel, 2015) and “The Menorah and the Cross” (Ibid., 2013).

Rabbi Rachel Gartner
Director for Jewish Life, Main Campus Ministry
Rabbi Rachel Gartner has served as the Director for Jewish Life at Georgetown University since 2011. She is the author of numerous pieces appearing in The Huffington Post, The Hill, The Washington Post, and in national Jewish justice media. Rabbi Gartner is a co-chair of the national board of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and a co-author of Moving Tradition’s nationally acclaimed Rosh Hodesh: It’s A Girl Thing Sourcebook.
Follow Rachel Gartner on Twitter at @RabbiRachelG.

Sara Grayson
Assistant Teaching Professor in Modern Hebrew Language
Sara Grayson received her M.A. and B.A. in Jewish Education and Jewish Studies, respectively, from Baltimore Hebrew University.
She has previously taught Hebrew language at American University in Washington, D.C., Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, MD and Baltimore Hebrew University. She has also been an on-line Hebrew Instructor for the U.S. Air Force. She is a certified Oral Proficiency Interview Tester of Hebrew by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
Areas of expertise: Hebrew, Jewish Studies

Father Dennis McManus
Adjunct Professor of Jewish Civilization; Director of the Jan Karski Institute for Holocaust Education
Father Dennis McManus, Adjunct Lecturer, teaches courses on the history of interreligious conflict, as well as Holocaust studies with Fr. Patrick Desbois. He holds a doctorate in historical theology from Drew University and serves as Delegate for Jewish Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Fr. McManus held the Smilow Chair in Jewish-Christian Relations at the John Paul II Center in Washington, DC from 2003-2006. His research focuses on the intersection of anti-Semitism and post-Holocaust Christian liturgies. Fr. McManus will deliver a paper in Sibiu, Romania in the spring of 2019 on the elimination of anti-Jewish language in the liturgical texts of Catholic and Orthodox Churches. He has taught at Georgetown since 1997.
Areas of expertise: Ethics, Theology, Interreligious Dialogue

Meital Orr
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Jewish Civilization, Hebrew Program Coordinator
Meital Orr is a literary critic with a doctorate in Modern Jewish Literature from Harvard University and an M.Phil. in Hebrew Literature from Columbia University. She has published peer-reviewed articles on modern Jewish literature and film in comparative context. She teaches courses of comparative Jewish literature and culture, and Hebrew language at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization.
Dr. Orr is currently working on a speaking engagement on modern Jewish literature at the 2020 ASEES conference, and an article for a special edition of SHOFAR, ‘The Modern Jewess: Images and Text,’ on the convergence of women’s voices in 21st century Israeli and Palestinian Literature and Film. She teaches the courses, “Re-examining the Middle East Conflict: Israeli and Palestinian Literature and Film,” “Introduction to Jewish Civilization: Great Jewish Texts through Space and Time” and Intermediate Hebrew. Previously, she has taught at Harvard University’s Near East Languages and Cultures Department and at Columbia University’s Department of Middle Eastern Studies.
Areas of expertise: Modern Jewish Literature and Culture, Modern Jewish History, Comparative Literature, Palestinian Literature and Culture

Danielle Pletka
Visiting Lecturer
Danielle Pletka is a visiting lecturer at the Center for Jewish Civilization and an adjunct professor at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is also the Senior Vice President for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Before joining AEI, Ms. Pletka was a longtime senior professional staff member for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, where she specialized in the Near East and South Asia.
Ms. Pletka has authored, coauthored, and coedited a variety of studies and book chapters, including the report “Tehran Stands Atop the Syria-Iran Alliance” (Atlantic Council, 2017), and the chapter “America in Decline” in Debating the Obama Presidency (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).
Follow Danielle Pletka on Twitter at @dpletka.

Ambassador Dennis Ross
Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, 2020-2021 Andrew H. Siegel Professorship in American Middle Eastern Foreign Policy
Ambassador Dennis Ross is Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process within the H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. He was instrumental in assisting Israelis and Palestinians to reach the 1995 Interim Agreement, successfully brokering the 1997 Hebron Accord, and facilitating the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
Ambassador Ross has worked closely with Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright. He was awarded the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President Clinton.
Areas of expertise: diplomacy, Middle East policy
Follow Dennis Ross on Twitter at @AmbDennisRoss.

Ambassador David Saperstein
Senior Fellow
Rabbi David Saperstein most recently worked at the State Department as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from 2014-2017. He has also served as Director and Counsel at the Religious Action Center and serves on the board of numerous national organizations. In 1999, he was elected as the first Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama as a member of the first White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. His co-authored the book Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice: Tough Moral Choices of Our Time (1998).
Follow David Saperstein on Twitter at @rabbisaperstein.

Ori Z. Soltes
Professor of the Teaching of Jewish Civilization
Ori Z. Soltes teaches across a range of disciplines. He is the former Director the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. As co-founding Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project he has spent twenty years focused on the issue of Nazi-plundered art. Soltes has authored and edited 19 books and scores of articles and exhibition catalogue essays. Recent volumes include Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust; Mysticism in Judaism. Christianity and Islam: Searching for Oneness; Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish art and Architecture; Magic and Religion in the Greco-Roman World: The Beginnings of Judaism and Christianity; and God and the Goalposts: A Brief History of Sports, Religion, Politics, War, and Art.
Areas of expertise: Middle East Studies, Comparative Theology, Comparative Art History, Modern Jewish Thought, Holocaust Studies

Moran Stern
Adjunct Lecturer
Moran Stern is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Maryland, College Park and a Graduate Fellow in Advanced Israel Studies. Since 2012, Stern has been teaching courses at the Center for Jewish Civilization on Israel and the contemporary Middle East. Moran holds an M.A. in International Relations, Economics, and Middle East Studies from the Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and a B.A. in Philosophy and Communications from Saint Francis College, New York. He speaks Hebrew and Arabic.
Areas of expertise: Israel Studies, Political Science, Middle East Studies
Follow Moran Stern on Twitter at @MoranStern.

Andrej Umansky
Braman Post-Doctoral Fellow
Andrej Umansky, the Center for Jewish Civilization’s Braman Post-Doctoral Fellow, also serves on the Board of Directors of Yahad in Unum. As a member of the leadership team at Yahad, Mr. Umansky works to advance the mission of the organization through forensic investigation, academia, and community engagement.
CJC Staff

Brittany Fried
Center Manager

Bethania Michael
Research Specialist and Signature Events Coordinator

Jocelyn Flores
Program Coordinator
Executive Committee

Elizabeth A Stanley
Center for Jewish Civilization Executive Committee Chair
Professor Elizabeth Stanley became Chair of the Center for Jewish Civilization’s Executive Committee in July of 2020. She is an Associate Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University. Previously, she served as Associate Director of Georgetown’s Security Studies Program.
Professor Stanley served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in South Korea, Germany and on Balkans deployments, leaving service as a captain. She created Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT)®, and has taught MMFT to thousands in civilian and military high-stress environments. Additionally, she is a certified practitioner of the body-based trauma therapy, Somatic Experiencing. Her book, Paths to Peace, won the 2009 Edgar S. Furniss Award for its “exceptional contribution to the field of national security.”
Professor Stanley received her B.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Yale University. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and an M.B.A. in technology strategy and organizational behavior from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Her latest book is titled Widen the Window: Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma.
Areas of expertise: foreign policy, Security Studies, Political Psychology, Resilience
Elliott Abrams
Senior Fellow
Roger D. Bensky
Professor Emeritus, Department of French
Jacques Berlinerblau
Rabbi Harold White Professor of Jewish Civilization; Senior Advisor, Center for Jewish Civilization
David Bronstein
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
Robert Burkett
Senior Advisor to the President
Daniel L. Byman
Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs; Professor, Security Studies Program and Department of Government
Rev. Matthew E. Carnes
Associate Professor, Department of Government; Director, Center for Latin American Studies
Joshua L. Cherniss
Associate Professor, Department of Government
Andrew Cornblatt
Dean of Admissions, Georgetown Law; Associate VP of Graduate Admissions and Enrollment
David Ebenbach
Associate Professor of the Practice of Jewish Civilization
Ricardo Ernst
Professor of Operations, McDonough School of Business; Co-Director, Global Logistics Research Program; Baratta Chair in Global Business
Ira Forman
Adjunct Instructor
Rhonda B. Friedman
Professor, Department of Neurology; Director, Center for Aphasia Research and Rehabilitation (CARR) and the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory at GUMC
Michael Goldman
Jewish Chaplain, Law Campus Ministry
Aviad Haramati
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology; Director, CENTILE
Brian Hochman
Associate Professor, Department of English, American Studies Program
Bruce Hoffman
Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service; Director, Center for Jewish Civilization
Terrence Johnson
Associate Professor, Department of Theology
Shareen Joshi
Assistant Professor of International Development
M Lindsay Kaplan
Associate Professor, Department of English
Charles King
Professor and Chairperson, Department of Government
Adriana Kugler
Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy
John P. Langan
Professor, Department of Philosophy; Cardinal Bernardin Chair/Catholic Social Thought
Robert J. Lieber
Professor, Department of Government
David J. Luban
University Professor, Georgetown Law
Michael S. Macovski
Associate Professor, CCT
Father Dennis McManus
Adjunct Professor of Jewish Civilization; Director of the Jan Karski Institute for Holocaust Education
Meital Orr
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Jewish Civilization, Hebrew Program Coordinator
Jonathan S. Ray
Samuel Eig Associate Professor in Jewish Studies, Department of Theology
Jessica Roda
Assistant Professor of Jewish Civilization; Assistant Director, Center for Jewish Civilization
Jason P. Rosenblatt
Emeritus Professor, Department of English
Aviel Roshwald
Professor, Department of History
Ambassador Dennis Ross
Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, 2020-2021 Andrew H. Siegel Professorship in American Middle Eastern Foreign Policy
Steven R. Sabat
Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology
S. Gerald Sandler
Director of Blood Bank and Co-Director of Residency Training Program, Department of Pathology
Ambassador David Saperstein
Senior Fellow
Marius Schwartz
Professor, Department of Economics
Nancy Sherman
Professor, Department of Philosophy
Andrew J. Sobanet
Associate Professor, Department of French
Ori Z. Soltes
Professor of the Teaching of Jewish Civilization
Anna Sommer Schneider
Associate Professor of the Practice of Jewish Civilization; Associate Director for the Center for Jewish Civilization
Tamara Sonn
Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of the History of Islam
Elizabeth A Stanley
Center for Jewish Civilization Executive Committee Chair
Elizabeth Stanley
Associate Professor Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
Angela E. Stent
Professor, Department of Government; Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian & East European Studies
Michele L. Swers
Professor, Department of Government
Deborah Tannen
University Professor, Department of Linguistics
John O. Voll
Professor Emeritus, School of Foreign Service
Julia Watts Belser
Associate Professor, Department of Theology
Louis M. Weiner
Director and Professor, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center; Charlotte G. Gragnani Chair, Department of Oncology
Kenneth Yalowitz
Director of the Master's Program in Conflict Resolution, Department of Government
Emily Zenick
Chief of Staff, School of Foreign Service
Sheila Cohen Zimmet
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology; Senior Associate VP, Georgetown University Medical Center