Michael Albert Meyer (born 1937) is a German-born American historian of modern Jewish history. He taught for over 50 years at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is currently the Adolph S. Ochs Emeritus Professor of Jewish History at that institution. He was one of the founders of the
Association for Jewish Studies
The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) is a scholarly organization in the United States that promotes academic Jewish Studies. The AJS was founded in 1969 and held its first annual conference that year at Brandeis University
Brandeis Univers ...
, and served as its president from 1978–80. He also served as International President of the
Leo Baeck Institute
The Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955, is an international research institute with centres in New York City, London, and Jerusalem that are devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Baeck was its first intern ...
from 1992–2013. He has published many books and articles, most notably on the history of German Jews, the origins and history of the Reform movement in Judaism, and Jewish people and faith confronting modernity. He is a three-time
National Jewish Book Award
The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.
Life and education
Meyer was born in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
and lived with his family there until their escape from Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941.
In Germany, his father was an attorney, who subsequently had his law license revoked by the Nazis and spent time in forced labor before managing to take his family to the United States via Spain.
Meyer grew up in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
, California, graduated with highest honors from
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
and received his PhD in Jewish history from the Hebrew Union College (HUC). Upon graduation, in 1964, the then-President of HUC,
Nelson Glueck
Nelson Glueck (June 4, 1900 – February 12, 1971) was an American rabbi, academic and archaeologist. He served as president of Hebrew Union College from 1947 until his death, and his pioneering work in biblical archaeology resulted in the di ...
, recruited Meyer to join the faculty. Meyer taught there for his entire career, starting in Los Angeles, before moving to the Cincinnati campus in 1967. He has also taught repeatedly over the years at HUC's campus in Jerusalem.
Meyer has also been affiliated with the Hebrew University Institute for Advanced Studies, the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
, the Be'er Sheva University (now the
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) ( he, אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has five campuses: the ...
),
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was i ...
and the
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming I ...
.
Meyer's son is United States government official
Jonathan Meyer
Jonathan Eugene Meyer (born April 11, 1965) is an American lawyer and government official who has served as the sixth general counsel of the United States Department of Homeland Security since 2021.
Early life and education
Originally from C ...
, 6th General Counsel of the
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...
.
Scholarship
After completing his doctoral dissertation, Meyer published it under the title ''The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749–1824'' (1967). The book won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish thought in 1968 and has been continuously in print for over 50 years.
Other notable books include ''Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism'' (1988); National Jewish Book Award winner in Jewish Thought, 1989 ''Jewish Identity in the Modern World'' (1990); and a collection of essays entitled ''Judaism Within Modernity'' (2001). In 2020, he published a biography of the prominent German Jewish rabbi, Leo Baeck, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Biography.
Meyer is also a renowned editor of Jewish history. Volumes he has edited include ''Ideas of Jewish History'' (1974); a four-volume ''German-Jewish History in Modern Times'' (1996–1998, with Assistant Editor Michael Brenner); and ''Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi: An Autobiography--the German and Early American Years'' (2007).
A prolific author, Meyer has authored over 100 academic articles and over 250 book reviews during his career.
From 2014–2015, Meyer worked on his project "Dispersion–Diversion: Consequences of the Migration of Jewish Studies from Germany to America" through a fellowship at the
Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania—commonly called the Katz Center—is a postdoctoral research center devoted to the study of Jewish history and civilization.
History
The Katz Center is t ...
.
In 2020, Meyer published a scholarly biography of Rabbi
Leo Baeck
Leo Baeck (23 May 1873 – 2 November 1956) was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi era ...
with
University of Pennsylvania Press
The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 M ...
.
Selected awards and honors
* National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish Thought category - 1968 (''The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824)''
* National Jewish Book Award in Jewish History – 1989 (''Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism)''
* National Foundation for Jewish Culture's Scholarship Award in Historical Studies – 1996
* National Jewish Book Award in Jewish History – 1997 (''German-Jewish history in modern times, volume 2 : Emancipation and acculturation, 1780–1871'')
* Member, Ne'eman Commission on Jewish Religious Pluralism in Israel – 1997
* Honorary Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree from 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 and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studi ...
– 2001
* Moses Mendelssohn Award of the
Leo Baeck Institute
The Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955, is an international research institute with centres in New York City, London, and Jerusalem that are devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Baeck was its first intern ...
*
*
* ''Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1988. .
*
*
* ''Judaism Within Modernity: Essays on Jewish History and Religion.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001. .
*
Articles
* Where Does the Modern Period of Jewish History Begin? Judaism Vol. 24 No. 3 (Summer 1975) pp. 329–338.
* "The Emergence of Jewish Historiography: Motives and Motifs" ''History and Theory'' Vol. 27 No. 4 (December 1988) pp. 160–175.