Allen Howard Podet

20 Aug 2012

VITA Dr. Allen Howard Podet, Professor Philosophy and Religious Studies Department State University College at Buffalo 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, 14222-1059

SPECIALIZATIONS: 1) World Religions; 2) Jewish Philosophy (including contemporary movements); 3) Islam.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: B.A. University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, 1956. Undergraduate fields: Psychology, Philosophy, English B.H.L. (Honors), Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1958. Non degree: The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, 1960 to 1961. Graduate Study, Hebrew Language and Literature. M.A.H.L. (Honors), Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, ohio, 1962. Research areas: Rabbinics, Codes. : "Elements in the Development of the Concept of False Witness from the Code of Hammurabi through the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds." Principal work with Professors Alexander Guttmann, Jakob Josef Petuchowski, and Ellis Rivkin. D.H.L. Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1964. Doctoral research areas: History, Rabbinics. Dissertation: "Morenu Harabh: Elements in the Development of Ordination in the Codes." Principal work with Professors Alexander Guttmann and Ellis Rivkin. Ph.D. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1979. Doctoral research areas: Modern Jewish History, Zionism. Dissertation: ”The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry.” Principal work with Professors Jere Bacharach and Giovanni Costigan. D.D. Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, 1988. Honoris causa.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE: Lecturer, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literature, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1970-1973. Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies Department, State University College at Buffalo, 1973-present. PRINCIPAL COURSES TAUGHT: World Religions, Mysticism, Jewish History and Philosophy, Islam. Current research area: The of Renaissance Venice, The Pius Wars [Pius XII].

PUBLICATIONS: (Excerpts)

Books: Success and Failure of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1945-1946: Last Chance in Palestine. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987. A Translation of the Magen Wa-Hereb of Leon Modena: Christianity through the Eyes of a . Critical text; monograph on the Life and Times of Leon Modena, Chief Rabbi of Renaissance Venice; and analysis and discussion of the text. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2001. Structural Analysis: The Historiographic Method of Ellis Rivkin. Edited by Allen Podet and with an Introduction by David Ellenson. Potsdam, : The Abraham Geiger College Press, 2002.

Articles: "Hitpathutah shel temunat 'eliyahu besifrut midreshe tehillim." Proceedings and Papers of the Second World Congress for Jewish Folklore Research. Haifa, Yeda Am (March, 1961). "Ein historischer Zugang zu einem Philosophen: Moses Maimonides in seiner Zeit." Emuna, Vol. 4, No. 77 (Winter, 1977). "The Unwilling Midwife: Ernest Bevin and the Birth of Israel" (The Eighth Annual Van Der Zyl Lecture, London). European , Vol. 11, No. 2 (Winter, 1977). "Anti-Zionism in a Key Diplomat: Loy Henderson at the End of World War II. "American Jewish Archives, Vol. 30, No. 2 (November, 1978). "Husni al-Barazi on Arab Nationalism in Palestine." Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israel, pp. 171-182. Edited by Elie Kedourie and Sylvia G. Haim. London, Frank Cass, 1982. "Four Problems in Near East Analyses: Afterthoughts on the Heradstveit Symposium." Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Fall, 1982). "La Croix''s Paradox: An Analysis." International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 18, No. 69-72 (1985). "American Holocaust Textbooks: Review." European Judaism, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Winter 1986). "Zionism." Article in The Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia. Published: August, 1989. "Honesty and Reality." An invited response to the Manna "Collective Theological Essay." Manna Theology Supplement p. 4. Manna, Vol. 1, No. 31 (Spring, 1991). ”The Gulf War: Religious and Cultural Considerations.” Address before the Arizona Honors Academy. Published as Chapter 10 (pp. 210-232) in: Carol Rae Hanson, ed., The New World Order: Rethinking America’s Global Role. Flagstaff: Arizona Honors Academy Press, 1992. “Patterns of Classical Islam and Some American ‘Black Muslims’.” Religious Education, Vol. 89, No. 3 (Summer, 1994).

”Introduction to American Islam for Social Service Workers“ and “Resources on Islam for American Social Service Workers.” Buffalo: Center for Development of Human Services, 1997. “ from the Margins. “ A solicited evaluation of the College. Manna, 55:1 (Spring, 1997).

Reviews: "Four Hasidic Masters and their Struggle Against Melancholy" by Elie Wiesel. European Judaism, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Autumn, 1979). "Forms of Prayer: Daily, Sabbath and Occasional Prayers" edited by The Assembly of Rabbis of the Reform of Great Britain. Review article: "Reform Prayers." Midstream, Vol. 27, No. 8 (October, 1981). "The Jews of Europe and the Inquisition of Venice, 1670" by Brian Pullan. Italian Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 107 (Winter, 1987). "Cross-Culture Theology: Western Reflections in Asia" by Daniel J. Adams. The Navy Chaplain, Vol. 2, No. 5 (Winter, 1988). "Zionism and Arab Nationalism: Origin and Evolution of the Conflict" by Michael J. Cohen. European Judaism, Vol. XX, No. XX (Winter, 1990). "The Autobiography of a Seventeenth Century Venetian Rabbi: Leon Modena''s Life of Judah" ed. and trans. by Mark R. Cohen. European Judaism, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1990). Issue No. 44. "Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: The Classical Texts and their Interpretation" 3 Vols., Vol. 1: "From Covenant to Community" by Francis E. Peters. The Navy Chaplain, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Spring/Summer, 1991). “Portrait of American Jews: The Last Half of the Twentieth Century“ by Samuel Heileman. European Judaism 29:2, Vol. 57 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 148-150. “All the Nations Under Heaven: an Ethnic and Racial History of New York” by Frederick M. Binder an David M. Reimers. Italian Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 163-164 (Winter-Spring, 2005).

Papers read: "Midrashic and Biblical Literatures: Aspects of the Interface." Paper read before the Joint Meeting of the Pacific Northwest Chapters of the American Academy of Religion and the Society for Biblical Literature. Seattle, Washington. May, 1973. "Maimonides in seiner Zeit." Paper read before the International Conference of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Bendorf, Germany. February, 1977. "The Unwilling Midwife: Ernest Bevin and the Birth of Israel." The Eighth Annual Van Der Zyl Lecture, London. Later published. 1977. "Die judeo-christliche Theologie als Vorurteilsquelle." Paper read before the International Conference of Jews, Christians and Muslims, Bendorf, Germany, February, 1979, and before a joint meeting of the Evangelische Akademie Nordelbien and the Katholische Akademie, Hamburg, Germany. March, 1979. "The One Way and the Many Ways: Risks and Limits of Pluralism." Address read at the International Conference of Christians and Jews Symposium, Concordia University, Montreal. August, 1988.

In 1987, I was invited by the Royal Shakespeare Company to become Advisor to the Company for a new production of Merchant of Venice which they were then mounting. They wanted it set in Shakespeare’s time in Jewish Venice in the High Renaissance. I consulted with regard to Jewish life, thought, dress, and legal and religious positions, and I prepared at RSC’s request a paid article to appear in the program dealing with Jewish Venice and Jews in England at that time. The article appeared in Manna in September 1987. The new Bill Alexander production of Merchant, in whose program I am acknowledged, opened in Stratford- Upon-Avon and moved to London in March, 1988. "Islamic and Jewish Perspectives on Peace and War." Address and seminar conducted for and at the U.S. Naval War College. March, 1989. “Nostradamophiles and the Abuse of theBible.” Address, lecture, and discussion before the Biblical Archaeology Societyof Buffalo. January, 2006. “Renaissance Jewish Polemics and Apologetics.” Address and discussion before the organization of reform rabbis (NAORR) convention, Fort Myers, FL, 2011.

CITATIONS: (My work is cited in significant literature in my field as follows.) Peter Grose, Israel in the Mind of America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. Freiburger Rundbrief, Vol. 34 (1982), p. 105 (Editorial). Oliver H. Hauptmann and Mark J. Littlefield, Escorial Bible I.i.4, Vol. 2, Introduction.Madison: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies,1987. Freiburger Rundbrief, Vol. 37-38 (1985-1986), p. 105 (Editorial). Eli Rosen, "Apartheid be-Venezia" (Hebrew), in Bamah Journal, 1988. "Die jüdische Tradition im Wandel der Zeiten: Eine Betrachtung aus der Sicht des heutigen Reformjudentums," in Die Menorah journal (Aachen), Vol. 6, No. 3 (December, 1989). A three-column article by the editorial staff reviewing my lecture series in the Essen (Ruhr) and Aachen region.

REVIEWS: My , Success and Failure of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1945 - 1948: Last Chance in Palestine, is also reviewed in: Middle East Journal, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Spring, 1988). The United States Naval War College Review, Vol. 41, No. 4, Sequence 324 (Autumn, 1988). Choice, Vol. xx, No. xx (Fall, 1989). Religious Education Journal, Vol. 84, No. 1 (Winter, 1989). American Jewish Archives, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Fall/Winter, 1989).

HONORS, AWARDS: (Excerpts) 1959 The Kaufman Kohler Memorial Prize Award, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. 1960 The Max Maccoby Foundation Fellowship, London. 1960 The Hayim Greenberg\Institute Scholarship, Jerusalem. 1962 Honors, M.A., Hebrew Union College. 1976 Invited Lecturer in Rabbinics and Classical Hebrew Literature, the , London, England. 1977 Elected Contributing Editor for American by European Judaism journal. Re-elected annually to the present. 1977 Invited to deliver the Eighth Annual Van Der Zyl Lecture, London.

1977 Elected to the Board of Governors of the Leo Baeck College, London. Re- elected annually to the present. 1980 In March, by invitation from the University of , I was one of a panel of four major presenters delivering papers at a special conference on theology held at Tutzing Castle, near Munich, Germany. Two of the other presenters were Prof. Dr. Karl Rahner, s.j., and Professor , Director of the Leo Baeck College, London. My paper: Suche nach einer neuen Lebensgestalt. 1983 In July I was invited by the Jabotinsky Foundation to become an academic sponsor for the Jabotinsky Prize, a prize of $100,000 patterned on the Nobel Prizes, awarded on 14 November 1983 at Avery Fisher Hall. My function was to propose and to judge candidates. 1987 In February, I was invited to give the 9th annual Dorfler Memorial Lecture, held in London at the under the patronage of Sir Sigmund Sternberg. My lecture, which was later printed in European Judaism, was on Jewish philosophy in Renaissance Venice. My title: "Christianity Through a Rabbi''s Eyes," a study of the mediaeval/renaissance philosopher Rabbi Leon Modena and his views of Christian philosophy. 1988 I was invited to write the paid article on "Zionism" for the Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia by G. K. Hall and Company, Publisher. Subsequently I also wrote an article on "The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry" for the Harry S. Truman Encyclopedia. 1988 In May the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York conferred on me the D.D. degree of that institution, Honoris Causa. The award was made in New York by the President of the College - Institute. 1989 In October and November I was brought to Germany by the University of Essen to conduct a lecture series on Religious Studies at various universities, colleges, and other institutions under the auspices of the University of Essen. Members of the international scholarly community were invited to respond to my presentations at the various universities, colleges, and other institutions where the series took place, and I was called upon to defend my presentations and papers in the public discussions which followed. A lengthy review of my lecture series was published in Die Menorah journal (Aachen). 1991 In June I was one of three major presenters at the Arizona Honors Academy, a national institute to which advanced undergraduates from all over the U.S. are nominated. 1994 I was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship for the year 1994-1995 for research on Jewish philosophy with no other obligations in Jerusalem. My proposal was entitled “ Christianity through a Rabbi’s Eyes, “ and dealt with the work of Leone da Modena (Leon Modena), Chief Rabbi of Renaissance Venice. 1995 From 1995 to 1997 I was awarded 3 mini-grants by the Center for the Development of Human Services to do research on African-American Islam, Adoption in Islamic Law, and Preparing American Social Workers to Work with Islamic Families. Some of the resulting work has been published. 1997 I was brought to Pittsburgh, PA and to Munich, Germany, at the request of and representing the Leo Baeck College of London, to take part with two colleagues in the examination, ordination, and installation of Rabbi Dr. Walter Homolka, the first liberal Rabbi of Munich.

2000 I created an innovative and creative program as part of my Holocaust Course (PHI 350) which was awarded a mini-grant by the Department of Equity and Diversity, and which was featured prominently in the Buffalo Sunday News. The students created tiles at the end of their term of study expressing their reflections and reactions to the material, and these were then combined into an artwork. This was prominently displayed in the Butler Library. 2001/2 I was brought to , Germany, to become the Founding Rector of the first liberal Jewish seminary on the European continent since the Holocaust. The Abraham Geiger College, an independent institution affiliated with the University of Potsdam, Berlin, and affiliated with the Humboldt University and the University of Berlin, is now firmly established and has admitted its second class to its full, 5-year program. I was honored to become the founding Rector of this institution, and I fulfilled my commitment in the academic year 9/2001-9/2002. This was featured rominently in the Buffalo Sunday News, 24/vi/2001, City, Front page. 2004 I was appointed to a panel to judge applications for Fulbright Fellowships by the Fulbright Commission, US Department of Education. 2005 I was brought to Berlin by the Federal Republic to take part in the VE Day observances of Germany, in view of my standing as a scholar; a person who has devoted a good deal of time and effort to Jewish Studies, Jewish-German Studies, and Holocaust Studies; and the Founding Rector of the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam. 2006 I was brought to , Germany, to help conduct the graduation of the first class of the Geiger College and to take part in the ordination of the first rabbis ordained on German soil since World War II. I spoke at the Graduation Ceremony and gave the “laudatio” for Professor Wolfgang Loschelder, Rector of Uni Potsdam, upon his election as Senator of the College. The events were featured on the front page of the New York Times, 15/ix/2006, World, Europe, Front page. 2010 I delivered the Commencement Address for the Commencement of the Geiger College, Potsdam, Berlin. 2011 – 2012 I am the paid reviewer for proposed textbooks and other books for The Edwin Mellen Press and the Fortress Press and the academic textbooks division of Wiley Press.

MEMBERSHIPS: 1973-present Association for Jewish Studies. 1977-present Buffalo Biblical Scholars Symposium. Founding member. 1986-present The Company (Board of Governors) of the Leo Baeck College, London. 1987-present The Royal Institute of Philosophy (London). 2003-present Board of Governors, the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam, Germany. 2005-present Family of Religions Org.

OTHER EXPERIENCE: Instructor and Professor (Adjunct), Department of Theology, Saint Bonaventure University, Saint Bonaventure, New York, 1987-1990.

Chaplain, United States Naval Reserve, 1965-1994. I served in Seattle, various places in California, Naples, London, Newport, Rhode Island, Jacksonville, and elsewhere, on ships and a submarine, air bases and naval stations, I have taught at Chaplains School, been a brig chaplain and a hospital chaplain, and from 1980 to 1987 the only chaplain serving the United States Coast Guard establishment on the Niagara Frontier. Presidential Intern, Office of the President, State University College at Buffalo, 1985-1986. I was responsible for various projects of special interest to the President, and for advising when asked. Chaplain (adjunct), Veterans Administration Hospital, Buffalo, 2003-present Certified Instructor, riding for the handicapped, at Lothlorien Therapeutic Riding Center, East Aurora, NY. Member, professional, North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), 2004-present. Founding Principal, The Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, 2001-2002

REFERENCES: Rabbi Dr. Walter Homolka, Director, the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Rabbi Professor , Principal, The Leo Baeck College. Sternberg Centre, The Manor House, 80 East End Road, , London N3 2SY England. Professor Jere Bacharach, Director, The Henry Jackson School of International Studies. Former Chair, Department of History, Smith Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98119. Professor George Hole, former Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies Dep’t., State University College at Buffalo, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY 14222.

PERSONAL: Born in Cleveland, Ohio. U.S. Citizen. Married to Valerie Jill (Postman) Podet. No children. Home address: 106 Segsbury Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221. Telephones: (716) 634-4287 (home), (716) 878-5819 (office), (716) 878-6730 (Fax at Department office). e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]