Louis Newman

Bio

LOUIS E. NEWMAN is Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean of Academic Advising. Before coming to Stanford, Newman was a faculty member for more than three decades at Carleton College, a private liberal arts college in Minnesota. In his most recent post at Carleton, Newman served as Associate Dean of the College and Director of Advising. In that position, Newman helped redesign Carleton’s academic advising program, oversaw its Center for Community and Civic Engagement, promoted faculty-student research opportunities and worked on the coordination of curricular and research support. Additionally, he oversaw Carleton’s Institutional Review Board, supervised the director of the Writing Program and co-chaired a committee on Creating Inclusive Community at Carleton.

Newman is the John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus at Carleton College, and is one of the country’s leading scholars of Jewish ethics. He is the author of Past Imperatives: Studies in the History and Theory of Jewish Ethics (SUNY Press, 1998) and of An Introduction to Jewish Ethics (Prentice Hall, 2005). He has also co-edited, with Elliot Dorff, two anthologies, Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality (Oxford University Press, 1995) and Contemporary Jewish Theology (Oxford University Press, 1999). He is co-editor (with Elliot Dorff) of three volumes in the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices series (Jewish Publication Society, 2008/09) that address contemporary moral issues from a range of Jewish perspectives. His most recent book is Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah (Jewish Lights, 2010).

From 2010-2013 he served as the Humphrey Doermann Professor of Liberal Learning and the Director of the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching. Born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, he received his B.A. in philosophy and Hebrew and his M.A. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. in Judaic Studies from Brown University and has been teaching at Carleton ever since to great student reviews.

He was the first president of the Society of Jewish Ethics, an organization he helped found. He has also been actively involved in the educational programs of several community organizations. He serves on the International Council of the New Israel Fund. He served as president of the board of directors of the St. Paul Talmud Torah from 1994-96, and as president of the board of Beth Jacob Congregation (Conservative) from 2009-11.

Louis Newman is married to Rabbi Amy Eilberg. Together they have three children with whom he loves to travel. He still gets his fingers dirty reading the New York Times print edition every morning.

Current Role at Stanford

Dean of Academic Advising;
Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

Academic Appointments

• Casual - Other Teaching Staff, Continuing Studies and Summer Session

Professional Education

• Ph.D., Brown University, Judaic Studies (1983)
• M.A., University of Minnesota, Philosophy (1979)
• B.A., University of Minnesota, Philosophy, Hebrew Language, and Literature (1976)