Deutsch takes up new Baumgarten Chair at UC Santa Cruz

GOOD NEWS FOR ACADEMIC JEWISH STUDIES: UC Santa Cruz launches Murray Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. Over 150 donors commit nearly $1 million to support research, teaching, and public events (Scott Rappaport, UC Santa Cruz News).

UC Santa Cruz has established an endowed chair to honor the person most responsible for the thriving Jewish Studies program that exists on the campus today.

Over 150 donors have committed a combined total of $977,130 to establish the new Murray Baumgarten Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies in the Center for Jewish Studies, located in the UC Santa Cruz Institute for Humanities Research.

The purpose of the chair is to promote research, teaching, and public outreach activities in the area of Jewish Studies.

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Nathaniel Deutsch, director of the Center for Jewish Studies, was honored as the inaugural chair holder at an investiture ceremony held yesterday on campus at College Nine and Ten.

A professor of history, Deutsch is also director of the Institute for Humanities Research at UC Santa Cruz and the chair of the University of California Consortium of Humanities Centers.

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Professor Deutsch has published on, inter alia, Mandaeism (Mandeism), Gnosticism, and Merkavah Mysticism. He has been mentioned by PaleoJudaica a couple of times here and here. Congratulations to him, to Professor Baumgarten, and to UC Santa Cruz.