Steven Leonard Jacobs
Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Alabama
2023
Steven Leonard Jacobs returned to the Department of Religious Studies as Associate Professor and Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies on January 1, 2001 and received tenure as of August 2004. He was promoted to Full Professor as of August 2017. He received his BA from Penn State University; and his BHL, MAHL, DHL, DD, and rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
His primary research foci are in Biblical Studies, translation and interpretation, including the Dead Sea Scrolls; Jewish-Christian Relations; and Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
His books include Shirot Bialik: A New and Annotated Translation of Chaim Nachman Bialik’s Epic Poems (1987); Raphael Lemkin’s Thoughts on Nazi Genocide: Not Guilty? (1992); Contemporary Christian and Contemporary Jewish Religious Responses to the Shoah (2 volumes, 1993, editor); Rethinking Jewish Faith: The Child of a Survivor Responds (1994); The Meaning of Persons and Things Jewish: Contemporary Explorations and Interpretations (1996); The Holocaust Now: Contemporary Christian and Jewish Thought (1997, editor); The Encyclopedia of Genocide (2 volumes, 1999, Associate Editor); Pioneers of Genocide Studies (2002, Co-editor); The Biblical Masorah and the Temple Scroll: An Orthographical Inquiry (2002); Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (2003, Co-Author); Post-Shoah Dialogues: Re-Thinking Our Texts Together (2004, Co-author); The Jewish Experience: An Introduction to Jewish History and Jewish Life (2010); Fifty Key Thinkers on Holocaust and Genocide (2012, Co-author); Lemkin on Genocide (2013, co-author); The Scripture of Ancient Judaism: A Secular Introduction (2020; Co-author); Religion and Genocide: Changing the Conversation (2022). He has also authored more than fifty referred articles in a wide variety of professional publications as well as numerous book reviews.
Steven Jacobs is also co-editor of the online database “Modern Genocide: Causes and Consequences” (ABC-CLIO) and the (2014) four-volume encyclopedia Modern Genocides: The Definitive Resource and Documents (ABC-CLIO) which has received two national awards: 2015 Choice Outstanding Academic Title & 2015 Outstanding Reference Source, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association (ALA).
To me, Eradicate Hate was the most important gathering of 2021 for those of us who work on issues related to domestic extremism and organized hate. The Summit uniquely combined a variety of perspectives, including experts, civil society representatives, politicians and policymakers, and the families and loved ones of victims. Eradicate Hate has the important mission of standing against the rising tide of hate and extremism in our society, and it’s an honor to be able to support this mission.
