Henry Alan Green

Last updated

Henry Alan Green is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami, and has taught there since 1984. After completing postgraduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Oxford, and the Sorbonne, he received his Ph.D. in Religion from St. Andrew's University in 1982. He is the published author or co-author of four books and numerous articles, and has received recognition for his work on documenting the exodus of Jews from Arab countries after the Second World War.

Contents

Education

Green received his B.A. in Sociology from Carleton University in 1970. He then completed post-baccalaureate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1970-1971, before returning to Carleton University for his M.A. in Sociology in 1973. Following that, he completed postgraduate work at the University of Oxford (1974) and the École pratique des hautes études (1975-1976) in Religion and Sociology, [1] before completing his Ph.D. in Divinity at St. Andrew's University in 1982, with a dissertation focused on gnosticism in early Christianity, and its Jewish roots. [2]

Teaching, visiting fellowships, and visiting professorships

Green has been a professor at the University of Miami since 1984. He was Director of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of Miami from its inception in 1984 until 2000, [1] and introduced a Sephardic Studies concentration during his tenure.

In Canada, Green served as a research associate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1977-1979, Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta from 1979-1980, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Post-Doctoral Fellow at Carleton University from 1981-1983. He also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics and Religion at Dickinson College from 1983-1984.

Green was also a Skirball Fellow at the University of Oxford in 1991, [3] served as a University College Fellow at the University of Toronto from 2001-2002, [3] and also served as a Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Jewry, located in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 2009. [3]

Academic projects

HIPPY USA

During his tenure as a research associate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's School of Education from 1977-1979, Green was heavily involved in research examining how to strengthen children's early cognitive skills and parental bonds. This research evolved into an early childhood education program, HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters), an evidence-based program that strengthens families and communities by helping parents prepare their children for school success. HIPPY was mentioned in Hillary Clinton's book It Takes a Village as one of the successful organizations helping to empower parents and increase children's cognitive skills and school readiness across the United States, [4] and former President Clinton spoke very highly of HIPPY and Secretary of State Clinton's role in its growth during the 2016 Democratic National Convention. [5] Green was instrumental in exporting the HIPPY model from Israel to the United States and Canada, and served as the national chair of HIPPY USA's Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2003, [6] receiving acknowledgment for his work from Secretary of State Clinton during an awards dinner in 2014. [7] He currently sits on the HIPPY Florida Advisory Committee, [8] and is a former Vice Chair of the Board of Directors in HIPPY Canada. [6]

Jews from Arab Countries and Sephardi Voices

Green is very active as a voice for Sephardi Jews, both in the United States and abroad. He testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington D.C. in 2007, [9] on the topic of truth, justice, and reconciliation for Jewish refugees from Arab countries, and serves on a number of boards for Sephardi-related organizations. The Sephardi Voices Project is the first comprehensive digital archive that documents and preserves the life stories of Jews who lived in Islamic lands with videos, audio, and photographs. Green's most recent book, SEPHARDI VOICES: The Untold Expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands is the culmination of this project and Green's work on Sephardi Jews. Additionally, he has been a member of the Executive Committee for Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) since 2012, [10] and has been a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the American Sephardi Federation since 2008 [11]

Green is also the founder and Executive Director of Sephardi Voices, an international NGO formed in 2009 and dedicated to collecting the testimonies of the "forgotten exodus" of Jews from Arab countries. Sephardi Voices has collected hundreds of audio-visual interviews with Jewish migrants, refugees, and displaced persons from North Africa, Iran, and the Middle East, and its short film What We Left Behind premiered at numerous Jewish film festivals to significant acclaim. [12] His work with Sephardi Voices has garnered recognition from a variety of Jewish publications and various organizations, [13] [14] [15] [16] and he has presented at dozens of conferences on the subjects of oral life-stories, migration and identity, and the importance of including Sephardi history post-colonialism into the narrative of Jewish peoplehood.

South Florida Jewry and the Jewish Museum of Florida

Green is a noted scholar on the subject of American Sephardi and Mizrahi, the sociology of Judaism, and South Florida Jewry. He has published several articles on the subject of Jewish demographics in South Florida, [17] [18] and wrote the biography of Rabbi Leon Kronish, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Sholom from 1944-1984, and a notable figure both among South Florida Jewry and in American Reform Judaism in general.

He is also the Founding Director of "MOSAIC: Jewish life in Florida", [19] [1] [20] [21] a project conceived in 1985. The project morphed into a traveling exhibit, with documents and artifacts of Floridian Jewish life sourced by volunteers and coordinators from all across the state, with an accompanying exhibit guidebook. [22] After a national tour that ended in 1995, MOSAIC became the core exhibit of the newly minted Jewish Museum of Florida, today a project of Florida International University, and the Museum is housed out of the first synagogue ever built on Miami Beach (1929). Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen recently toured the Museum with Green, and later applauded the Museum's work in a session of the House of Representatives. [23]

Judaism and Early Christianity

Green is a noted scholar on the sociological origins of Gnosticism, and its reliance on Judaism as a foundational element. He has written extensively on the subject, and the book based on his dissertation is viewed as the most significant contribution to the sociological origins of gnosticism, three decades after its publication. [24]

Publications

Books

Articles and Book Reviews of SEPHARDI VOICES: The Untold Expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands

Video/Film

Referred Articles/Book Chapters

1982, 109-124.

in Roman Egypt," in Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division B, Volume 1, World Union of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 1986, 15-22.

20/2, 1991, 217-231. One of three finalists for "best year’s article", Studies in Religion, 1991.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judaism</span> Ethnic religion of the Jewish people

Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people, having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Contemporary Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the cultic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah, around the 6th/5th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which was established between God and the Israelites, their ancestors. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haredi Judaism</span> Ultra-orthodox branch of Judaism

Haredi Judaism consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to halakha and traditions, in opposition to modern values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English; however, the term "ultra-Orthodox" is considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer terms like strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredi Jews regard themselves as the most religiously authentic group of Jews, although other movements of Judaism disagree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashkenazi Jews</span> Jewish diaspora of Central Europe

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim, are a Jewish diaspora population that formed in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, since their migration to northern and eastern Europe in late Middle Ages due to persecution. They used Hebrew only as a literary and sacred language until its 20th-century revival as a common language in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sephardic Jews</span> Jewish diaspora of Spain and Portugal

SephardicJews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad, can also refer to the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, who were also heavily influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiled families also later sought refuge in those Jewish communities, resulting in ethnic and cultural integration with those communities over the span of many centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish history</span> History of the Jews, and their nation, religion and culture

Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures.

Mizrahi Jews, also known as Mizrahim (מִזְרָחִים) or Mizrachi (מִזְרָחִי) and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or Edot HaMizrach, are a grouping of Jewish communities comprising those who remained in the Land of Israel and those who existed in diaspora throughout and around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) from biblical times into the modern era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Jews</span> American nationals and citizens who are Jewish

American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Jewish populations of Central and Eastern Europe and compose about 90–95% of the American Jewish population.

Jewish ethnic divisions refer to many distinctive communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local communities, and subsequent independent evolutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Lavender</span> American sociologist

Abraham Donald Lavender was a professor of sociology at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, where his special areas of interest include ethnic relations, Judaica, political sociology, urban sociology, the sociology of sexuality, and social deviance. He was editor-in-chief of Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto Jews, and had served as president of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies.

Religion in Israel is manifested primarily in Judaism, the ethnic religion of the Jewish people. The State of Israel declares itself as a "Jewish and democratic state" and is the only country in the world with a Jewish-majority population. Other faiths in the country include Islam, Christianity and the religion of the Druze people. Religion plays a central role in national and civil life, and almost all Israeli citizens are automatically registered as members of the state's 14 official religious communities, which exercise control over several matters of personal status, especially marriage. These recognized communities are Orthodox Judaism, Islam, the Druze faith, the Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Anglicanism, and the Baháʼí Faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leon Charney</span> American lawyer

Leon Charney was an American real estate tycoon, attorney, author, philanthropist, political pundit, media personality and Jewish cantor. He lived in Manhattan in New York City, dividing his time between his residences in Tel Aviv and Boca Raton, Florida. In March 2012, Forbes listed Charney as No. 353 among the wealthiest Americans. He was a graduate of Yeshiva University where he participated in demonstrations to free Soviet Jewry, and Brooklyn Law School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Stillman</span> American historian

Norman Arthur Stillman, also Noam, b. 1945, is an American academic, historian, and Orientalist, serving as the emeritus Schusterman-Josey Professor and emeritus Chair of Judaic History at the University of Oklahoma. He specializes in the intersection of Jewish and Islamic culture and history, and in Oriental and Sephardi Jewry, with special interest in the Jewish communities in North Africa. His major publications are The Jews of Arab Lands: a History And Source Book and Sephardi Religious Responses to Modernity. In the last few years, Stillman has been the executive editor of the "Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World", a project that includes over 2000 entries in 5 volumes.

Jews in the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California that is dedicated to the preservation of Mizrahi and Sephardi culture and history, and seeks to educate the public and advocate for Jewish refugees from the Middle East.

Samuel C. Heilman is a professor of Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, who focuses on social ethnography of contemporary Jewish Orthodox movements.

Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis are Israeli citizens and nationals who are Jewish through either their Jewish ethnicity and/or their adherence to Judaism. The term also includes the descendants of Jewish Israelis who have emigrated and settled outside of the State of Israel, where they are predominantly found in the Western world. The overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews speak Hebrew, a Semitic language, as their native tongue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafael Medoff</span> American scholar and academic

Rafael Medoff (born c. 1959) is an American professor of Jewish history and the founding director of The David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which is based in Washington, D.C. and focuses on issues related to America's response to the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sephardi Federation</span>

The American Sephardi Federation, a founding member of the Center for Jewish History, is a non-profit Jewish organization that strengthens and organizes the religious and cultural activities of Sephardic Jews, preserves Sephardic heritage, tradition and culture in the United States, and assists in the publication of books and literature dealing with the Sephardic culture and tradition. The federation also works to further awareness of the former existence of large Jewish communities in the Muslim and Arab world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Yishuv</span> Ottoman-era Jewish community in the Land of Israel prior to the onset of Zionist immigration

The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. In the late 19th century, the Old Yishuv comprised 0.3% of the world's Jews, representing 2–5% of the population of the Palestine region.

Mervin Feldman Verbit is an American sociologist whose work focuses on sociology of religion, American Jews and the American Jewish community. He is currently the chair of the Sociology Department at Touro College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of Jewry</span>

The sociology of Jewry involves the application of sociological theory and method to the study of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion. Sociologists are concerned with the social patterns within Jewish groups and communities; American Jewry, Israeli Jews and Jewish life in the diaspora. Sociological studies of the Jewish religion include religious membership, ritual and denominational patterns. Notable journals include Jewish Social Studies, The Jewish Journal of Sociology and Contemporary Jewry.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "University of Miami: Henry Green", University of Miami , Miami, 16 August 2009. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  2. Segal, Alan F. "Reviewed Work: The Economic and Social Origins of Gnosticism by Henry A. Green. The Jewish Quarterly Review 77, No. 2/3 (Oct. 1986-Jan. 1987), pp. 244-246. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Profile (UM Office of Civil Engagement): Henry Green, University of Miami , Miami, 22 August 2013. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  4. It Takes A Village, Hillary Clinton. Simon and Schuster, 2006. p. 229-230
  5. "President Clinton Discusses HIPPY USA", C-SPAN , uploaded 27 July 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  6. 1 2 HIPPY Canada: Board of Directors, HIPPY Canada , Vancouver, 15 October 2014. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  7. "Hillary Clinton's Speech During Avima Awards Dinner", HIPPY USA , uploaded 2 June 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  8. "HIPPY Program Serving Miami-Dade for 27 Years!", Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade County , Miami, 12 April 2012. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  9. Pine, Dan. "Breaking the silence", JWeekly , San Francisco, 27 July 2007. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  10. "JJAC Leadership", Justice for Jews from Arab Countries , 10 April 2013. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  11. "ASF Leadership", American Sephardi Foundation , 14 March 2013. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  12. "What We Left Behind: 7thart Releasing", 7th Art Releasing , Los Angeles, 15 August 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  13. Schwartz, Adi. "Sephardi Stories, On The Record", Tablet Magazine , New York, 1 May 2013. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  14. Berkowitz, Evan. "Sephardi Voices: Recording a Forgotten Exodus", Hadassah Magazine , New York, 17 March 2014. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  15. Aderet, Ofer. "The Story of 'The Other' Jews", Haaretz , Jerusalem, 08 July 2014. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  16. Abramovitz, Machla. "Mishpacha: Before It's Too Late", Mishpacha Magazine , 08 July 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  17. "A Comparative Profile of Jewish Elderly in South Florida and Israel" with Ira Sheskin and Pnina Zadka, in Contemporary Jewry, 11/2, Fall 1990, 93-119. Reprinted in Jewish Population Studies 25, eds. U.O. Schmelz and S. Dellapergola, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 1993, 154-165.
  18. “The Israelization of Miami, Reform Judaism and American Jewry”, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Association of Jewish Libraries, AJL, New York, 2000, 294-295.
  19. Memory and Ethnicity: Ethnic Museums in Israel and the Diaspora, eds. Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Dario Miccoli, and Tudor Parfitt, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, p. 229
  20. Fischer, Sophia M. "Sephardic Jews Rediscovering Their Past", Sun Sentinel , Miami, 6 July 1990. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  21. Bell, Maya. "Museum Will Tell Story Of Jewish Life In State", Orlando Sentinel , Orlando, 24 January 1994. Retrieved on 22 May 2016.
  22. Green, Henry Alan, and Zerivitz, Marcia. MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida, MOSAIC Inc./University Presses of Florida, Miami, and Gainesville, 1991.
  23. "Ileana Ros-Lehtinen visits the Iraqi Jewish Archive at the Jewish Museum of Florida", Sephardi Voices , Miami, 20 May 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  24. Tite, Philip L. Valentinian Ethics and Paraenetic Discourse: Determining the Social Function of Moral Exhortation in Valentinian Christianity. Brill: Leiden, 2009. pp. 4.