Hillel Levine
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Hillel Levine is an American social scientist, rabbi, and author. He was Professor of Religion at
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
, where he served as the first director of the Center for Judaic Studies. In addition to books on Jewish history, he authored studies on social theory, comparative historical sociology, and the social epistemology of Judaism. He also served as deputy director for Museum Planning of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in which capacity he contributed to the preliminary planning of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...
.


Early life and education

Levine was born on May 28, 1946, in
Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...
. He studied with the rabbi and theologian
Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish-American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century. Heschel, a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theolo ...
, whom he called "my beloved teacher", at the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...
, where he received rabbinic ordination. He also studied with
Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...
at
the New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
, where he took a master's degree. In 1974, he earned a PhD in sociology and Jewish history at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, where he wrote a dissertation on
Menachem Mendel Lefin Menachem Mendel Lefin (also Menahem Mendel Levin) (1749–1826) was an early leader of the Haskalah movement. Biography He was born in Sataniv, Podolia, where he had a traditional Jewish education supplemented by studies in science, mathematics, ...
, described in its title as "a case study of Judaism and modernization".


Career

After receiving his PhD, Levine taught sociology and Jewish history at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, where he founded a program in Judaic Studies. He taught at Yale until 1980, when he became deputy director for Museum Planning of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in Washington, serving as preliminary planner of what would become the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...
. Levine helped to shape the museum's approach to presenting the Holocaust to children by inviting the television host
Fred Rogers Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television s ...
to discuss recommendations with psychologists and teachers at a conference in 1982 that Levine organized in collaboration with the
National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primar ...
. In 1982, he became Professor of Religion at
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
. While conducting research in Poland in 1979, Levine discovered the ''Kronika'' of the movement of
Jacob Frank Jacob Joseph Frank (; Yiddish: יעקבֿ פֿראַנק; ; born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – 10 December 1791) was a Polish-Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676) ...
, a text which the scholar
Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...
thought had vanished, in an eighteenth-century manuscript that a local priest had recently sold to the Public Library in
Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
. The
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, based in Jerusalem, was established in 1961 by the State of Israel to foster contact between Israeli scholars in the sciences and humanities and create a think tank for advising the government on res ...
published Levine's translation of the text in 1984 as ''The Kronika: On Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement''. In 1991, Levine then published ''Economic Origins of Antisemitism: Poland and its Jews in the Early Modern Period'' with
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
. In 1992, he published ''The Death of an American Jewish Community: A Tragedy of Good Intentions'', co-authored with ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' columnist Lawrence Harmon. Levine then traveled all over the world to conduct research in archives and conduct interviews to write a biography of
Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through Japan ...
, a Japanese diplomat in
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
who helped thousands of Jews flee Europe during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The book, ''In Search of Sugihara: The Elusive Japanese Diplomat Who Risked His Life to Rescue 10,000 Jews from the Holocaust'', was published in 1996. ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'' praised Levine's "exhaustive research". Sugihara's family objected to some elements of the book, however, resulting in a lawsuit in Japan.


Selected bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Hillel 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American historians Boston University faculty 1946 births Living people Jewish Theological Seminary of America alumni The New School alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Yale University faculty American historians of religion Historians from New York (state) People from Flushing, Queens Writers from Queens, New York 21st-century American rabbis Historians of Jews and Judaism American sociologists Rabbis from New York City 20th-century American rabbis Social epistemologists