Steven Zipperstein

Bio

Steven J. Zipperstein is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. He has also taught at universities in Russia, Poland, France, and Israel; for six years, he taught at Oxford University. For sixteen years he was Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford.

He is the author and editor of nine books including The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History (1986, winner of the Smilen Prize for the Outstanding book in Jewish history); Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha’am and the Origins of Zionism (1993, winner of the National Jewish Book Award); Imagining Russian Jewry (1999); and Rosenfeld’s Lives: Fame, Oblivion, and the Furies of Writing (2008, shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award in Biography, Autobiography and Memoir). His work has been translated into Russian, Hebrew, and French. His most recent book, Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History, published by Liveright/WW Norton, (2018 ) was shortlisted as the best non-fiction book of the year by the Mark Lytton Prize, named as a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and a Book of the Year by "The Economist, "Ha-Aretz" and "Mosaic Magazine. Widely reviewed, Pogrom inspired the 2019 novel The Adventures of the Peculiar Protocols by Nicolas Meyer, and several plays now in production. He is currently at work on a biography of Philip Roth for Yale's Jewish Lives. Zipperstein’s articles have appeared in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, the Washington Post, The New Republic, the Jewish Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education and elsewhere.

Zipperstein has served as editor of the journal Jewish Social Studies for twenty years, and the book series Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture for a quarter of a century. Currently, together with Anita Shapira, he is series editor of the award-winning Yale University Press/Leon Black Foundation Jewish Lives series which has, to date, published nearly sixty books. Zipperstein is the immediate past Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History. His PhD students now teach at dozens of universities here, and abroad, including the University of Chicago, UCLA, Queens College, CUNY, Yeshiva College, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Northwestern, University of Florida, Gainsville, and elsewhere.

Zipperstein's contributions to the field have been recognized by the Leviant Prize of the Modern Language Association, the Judah Magnes Gold Medal of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and the Koret Prize for Outstanding Contributions to the American Jewish community. He has held fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Yitzhak Rabin Institute in Tel Aviv, and has twice been a Visiting Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences Sociales. In spring 2014, he was the first Jacob Kronhill Scholar at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, in New York.

In 2022, he won the Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Education. In 2023, Zipperstein was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Academic Appointments

• Professor, History

Administrative Appointments

• Chancellor's Intern Fellowship, University of California, Los Angeles (1973 - 1978)
• Fellowship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (1978 - 1980)
• Fellowship, National Foundation for Jewish Culture (1978 - 1980)
• Marta Sutton Weeks Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center (1990 - 1991)
• Short-term Fellowship, International Research Exchange (IREX) (1993 - 1993)
• Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University (1993 - 1994)
• Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (1997 - 1998)
• Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Yitzhak Rabin Center (2000 - 2000)
• Fellow, American Academy for Jewish Research (2002 - Present)
• Shapiro Senior Scholar in Residence, US Holocaust Memorial Museum (2002 - 2003)
• Research Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard (2003 - 2008)
• Weinstein Visiting Professor in Jewish Studies, Harvard University (2008 - 2008)
• Vera M. Schuyler Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2008 - 2009)
• Visiting Professor, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (2013 - 2013)
• Visiting Senior Scholar in Jewish Civilization, Moansh University (2014 - 2014)
• Teaching Associate, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles (1976 - 1977)
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University (1980 - 1981)
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles (1983 - 1983)
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles (1985 - 1985)
• Fellow, Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies (1981 - 1987)
• Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London (1983 - 1987)
• Research Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford University (1983 - 1987)
• Faculty Member, Oriental Institute, Oxford University (1983 - 1987)
• Associate Professor, History Department, University of California, Los Angeles (1987 - 1991)
• Professor, History Department, Stanford University (1991 - Present)
• Visiting Professor, Russian State Humanities University (1993 - 1993)
• Visiting Professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1993 - 1994)
• Visiting Professor, Jagiellonian University (1995 - 1996)
• Visiting Professor, New York University (1995 - 1996)
• Visiting Professor, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (1995 - 1995)
• Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University (1994 - Present)
• Gerald Weinstock Visiting Professor in Jewish History, Harvard University (2007 - 2008)
• Research Fellow, Max Weinreich Center, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (1977 - 1980)

Honors & Awards

• Kenneth B. Smilen/Present Tense Literary Award, American Jewish Committee and Present Tense magazine (1985)
• National Jewish Book Award, Jewish Book Council (1994)
• Judah L. Magnes Gold Medal, American Friends of the Hebrew University (1997)
• Koret Prize, Koret Foundation (1998)
• Leviant Prize in Yiddish Studies, Modern Language Association (2008)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

• Series editor (with Anita Shapira), "Jewish Lives" published by Yale University Press (2006 - Present)
• Editorial Consultant, Schocken Books (1979 - 1980)
• Assistant Archivist, Bund Archives of the Jewish Labour Movement (1977 - 1978)
• Editor, Jewish Student Press Service (1975 - 1976)
• Chair, Academic Council, Center for Jewish History (2011 - Present)
• Chair, Graduate Admissions Committee, History Department, Stanford University (2009 - 2011)
• Member, Humanities Curriculum Committee, H&S, Stanford University (2010 - Present)
• Chair, Schnitzler Book Prize, Association for Jewish Studies (2010 - 2011)
• Publications Committee Member, Forward Newspaper (2010 - Present)
• Editorial board member, Jewish Review of Books (2010 - Present)
• Academic Advisory Board Member, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies University of Michigan (2007 - Present)
• Director, Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University (2005 - 2007)
• Faculty Director, Undergraduate Advising Program, Stanford University (2003 - 2005)
• International Editorial Board member, Posen Library of Jewish Civilization (2003 - Present)
• Advisory Board member, Yearbook Simon-Dubnow Institute (2003 - Present)
• Co-Director, Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University (2001 - 2005)
• Vice-President, Association for Jewish Studies (2000 - 2007)
• Chair, Graduate Studies Committee, Stanford Faculty Senate (2000 - 2002)
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Israel Studies (2000 - Present)
• Member, Four-member commission on Jewish culture in Russia, Israeli Ministry of Education (1999 - Present)
• Member, Academic Advisory Board, Center for Jewish History (1999 - Present)
• Member, Academic Advisory Board, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (1999 - Present)
• Editorial Board Member, East European Jewish Affairs (1999 - Present)
• Editorial Board Member, Vestnik Evreiskogo Universiteta (1999 - Present)
• Board member, Jewish Film Festival (1998 - Present)
• Academic Board Member, Jewish University of Moscow (1998 - Present)
• Chair, Advisory Board, Koret Book Awards (1998 - 2005)
• Director, Koret Institute (1996 - 2005)
• Editorial Board Member, Shvut (1995 - Present)
• Member, Board of Directors, Association for Jewish Studies (1994 - 2008)
• Chair, Conference on Jewish Social Studies (1993 - Present)
• Editor (with Aron Rodrigue), Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture and Society (1993 - Present)
• Editor (with Aron Rodrigue), “Studies in Jewish History and Culture”, a series of books published by Stanford University Press (1993 - Present)
• Director, Program in Jewish Studies, Stanford University (1991 - 2001)
• Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (1990 - 1997)
• Editorial Board Member, POLIN: A Journal of Polish-Jewish Studies (1987 - Present)
• Judge of History Category, Los Angeles Times Book Prize (1987 - 1989)
• Chair of History Category, Los Angeles Book Prize (1988 - 1989)
• Senior member, Brasenose College (2008 - 2008)
• Executive board member, American Academy for Jewish Research (2006 - Present)
• Manuscript Assessor, Princeton University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, Indiana University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, John Hopkins University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, Harvard University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, Basil Blackwell
• Manuscript Assessor, Oxford University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, Stanford University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, Jewish Publication Society
• Manuscript Assessor, W.W. Norton
• Manuscript Assessor, Houghton Mifflin
• Manuscript Assessor, Yale University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, Rutgers University Press
• Manuscript Assessor, University of Pennsylvania Press
• Manuscript Assessor, University of California Press

Professional Education

• Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Russian and Jewish History (1980)
• M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, History (1975)
• B.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Sociology (1973)