David N. Myers: A Leading Voice in Modern Jewish History at UCLA

David N. Myers stands as a prominent figure in the field of modern Jewish history. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of History and holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History in the UCLA History Department. Beyond his professorship, Myers is deeply engaged in various initiatives at UCLA, reflecting his commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and societal engagement.

Academic Career and Leadership Roles

Myers is the founding director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He also serves as the director of the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative, and UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute. His leadership extends beyond the university as well. From 2018-2023, he served as President of the Board of the New Israel Fund.

Myers joined the faculty of the UCLA History Department in 1991, initially as a lecturer and then as an assistant professor in 1992. His dedication to UCLA is evident in his long-term commitment to the institution. He served for ten years as the director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies (1996-2000, 2004-2010). From 2010 to 2015, Myers served as Robert N. Burr Department Chair of the UCLA History Department. In 2017-18, he served as the President/CEO of the Center for Jewish History in New York. Myers stepped down from this position in August 2018, returning to UCLA full time. He became President of the New Israel Fund board in October 2018 after serving as a board member.

Early Life and Education

David N. Myers was born on November 2, 1960, in Scranton, PA, where he developed a strong sense of community in the rich ethnic patchwork of that Middle Atlantic city. He spent his senior year of high school at the University of Scranton before going on to receive his A.B. cum laude from Yale College in 1982.

Following graduation, Myers moved to Israel where he began his graduate studies in modern Jewish history at Tel Aviv University (studying with Anita Shapira, Ya’akov Shavit, and Saul Friedlander, among others). After two years there, he moved to Harvard University where he spent a year studying medieval Jewish thought under the guidance of Professor Isadore Twersky. In 1985, Myers arrived at Columbia University, where he completed his dissertation with distinction in 1991 under the supervision of his revered teacher Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (1932-2009).

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Scholarly Contributions

Myers' scholarly work has touched on a number of key themes in modern Jewish history, including the history of Jewish historiography, the history of Zionism, and modern Jewish intellectual history. His early work focused on the intersection of the history of Jewish historiography and the history of Zionism in his dissertation and first book on the founding generation of the Institute for Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His next book, Resisting History, continued his interest in intellectual history and modes of historical thought, but shifted focus to German Jewish thinkers in the late Wilhelmine and Weimar eras. Myers' next book, Between Jew and Arab, engaged the enigmatic Jewish thinker Simon Rawidowicz-and an intriguing essay on Palestinian refugees that he wrote for inclusion in his monumental book Bavel vi-Yerushalayim, but ultimately decided not to include. Myers then wrote a short synthesis on Jewish history as part of the Oxford University Press VSI series. His next book, The Stakes of History, was a reflection on the historian and historiographical practice that was initially delivered as the Franz Rosenzweig Lectures at Yale in 2014. Already in the early 2000s, Myers began to develop a scholarly interest in the history and politics of Haredi communities, especially Kiryas Joel, New York. For almost two decades, he worked together with his wife on a book on Kiryas Joel that was published as American Shtetl.

Authored Books

Re-Inventing the Jewish Past: European Jewish Intellectuals and the Zionist Return to History (Oxford: 1995). The dissertation was the basis of his first book Re-Inventing the Jewish Past: European Jewish Intellectuals and the Zionist Return to History.
Resisting History: Historicism and its Discontents in German-Jewish Thought (Princeton, 2003).
Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz (Brandeis University Press, 2008).
Jewish History in the Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series (2017).
The Stakes of History: The Use and Abuse of Jewish History for Life (Yale University Press, 2018).
With Nomi Stolzenberg, American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton, 2021), which won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies.

Edited Books

Myers has also edited or co-edited twelve books, showcasing his collaborative spirit and his commitment to fostering scholarly dialogue.

The Jewish Past Revisited
Enlightenment and Diaspora: The Armenian and Jewish Cases
The Faith of Fallen Jews: Yosef Hayim and the Writing of Jewish History
The Eternal Dissident: Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman and the Radical Imperative to Think and Act
Between Babylon and Jerusalem: Selected Writings of Simon Rawidowicz
From Ghetto to Emancipation: Historical and Contemporary Reconsiderations of the Jewish Community
The Jewish Past Revisited: Reflections on Modern Jewish Historians
Jewish History and Jewish Memory: Essays in Honor of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi
Enlightenment and Diaspora: The Armenian and Jewish Cases
Jüdische Geschichtsschreibung heute: Themen, Positionen, Kontroversen
Acculturation and its Discontents: The Italian Jewish Experience between Integration and Exclusion
The Faith of Fallen Jews: Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi and the Writing of Jewish History
Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity: Essays in Honor of David Ellenson
The Eternal Dissident: Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman and the Radical Imperative to Think and Act
Simon Rawidowicz: Between Babylon and Jerusalem: Select Writings

Selected Articles and Essays

Myers' contributions extend to numerous articles and essays, demonstrating his engagement with diverse topics within Jewish history and thought.

“R.B. Kitaj: Commentary on an Eccentric Jewish Life,” Jewish Museum Berlin.
“Reflecting on the Jewish Condition in the Kaffeehaus,” Obsessions: R. B.
“Simon Rawidowicz on the Arab Question: A Prescient Gaze into the ‘New History.’”
“Discourses of Civilization: The Shifting Course of a Modern Jewish Motif.”
“Glaube und Geschichte: A Vexed Relationship in German-Jewish Culture.”
“A Third Guide for the Perplexed?” Simon Rawidowicz ‘On Interpretation.’”
“Selbstreflexion im modernen Erinnerungsdiskurs.” Jüdische Geschichtsschreibung heute: Themen, Positionen, Kontroversen.
“Rebel in Frankfurt: The Scholarly Origins of Jacob Katz.”
The Problem of History in German-Jewish Thought: Observations on a Neglected Tradition (Cohen, Rosenzweig, and Breuer). The Samuel Braun Lecture in the History of the Jews of Prussia.
“Between Yiddish and Hebrew-and Greek?
“Mashber ha-historicism u-misud mada`e ha-Yahadut” (The Crisis of Historicism and the Institutionalization of Jewish Studies).
“In Search of the “Harmonious Jew”: Judah L. Magnes between East and West. John L. Memorial Lecture.
“Between Past and Present, Jew and Arab: An Exchange between Gil Anidjar and David N.
“Victory and Sorrow,” review of Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar.
Review of Mémoire juive et nationalité allemande: Les juifs berlinois à la Belle Époque by Jacques Ehrenfreund.
“Ha-Yahadut ha-reformit: teguvah yehudit le-modernah.”
Review essay of Michael A.
Review of Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution by Christopher Browning.
Review of Political Principles in Maimonidean Halakha (Hebrew) by Gerald J. Blidstein.
Review of Hitler and the Armenian Genocide by Kevork Bardakjian.
“Geschichte” (entry) in Enzyklopädie jüdische Geschichte und Kultur, vol.
“Rethinking Secularization Theory: The Case of the Hasidic Public Square,” with Nomi M.
“What does Kiryas Joel Tell Us about Liberalism in America?” With Nomi M. Stolzenberg.
“R. B.
“R. B. Kitaj and the Idea of ‘Jewish Art.’”
“Dual Loyalty in a Post-Zionist Era”. Historical Appendix in Reuven Porat, The History of the Kibbutz: Collective Education, 1904-1929.

Teaching and Mentorship

David N. Myers has taught at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and the Russian State University for the Humanities, and visited at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Jerusalem) and been a fellow twice at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (Philadelphia). Since 2003, he has served as co-editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review. Myers has taught at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and the Russian State University for the Humanities, visited at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Jerusalem), and been a fellow on three occasions at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (Philadelphia). Since 2003, he has served as co-editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review.

Myers has consistently demonstrated a commitment to teaching and mentorship. He has taught Jewish history to undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA since 1991. Student reviews highlight his engaging teaching style and the challenging yet rewarding nature of his courses. Students appreciate his ability to open doors to prescient historical topics, particularly in European Intellectual History and the study of anti-Judaism.

Awards and Recognition

National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies for American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (2022).
Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA.

Controversy

Following Myers' appointment as President/CEO of the Center for Jewish History, some in the Jewish community objected to his activism in organizations supportive of Israeli-Palestinian peace and co-existence, while simultaneously hundreds of Jewish historians responded by expressing their support for Myers. According to the Forward, "the campaign against Myers appears to have shaken the CJH," though Myers has stated that the protests were only a nuisance early in his tenure and were not the reason for his decision to leave the center. Despite the attacks by groups associated with the Israeli right, Jewish studies scholars in the United States largely rallied behind Myers.

Current Roles and Initiatives

David N. Myers continues to be a vital force at UCLA, shaping the intellectual landscape and fostering critical dialogue. As the director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy, the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative, and UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute, he is actively involved in addressing pressing social issues through historical analysis and interdisciplinary collaboration.

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