Dr. Menachem Kellner

Menachem Kellner, Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Haifa, was born in Albany, New York, in 1946. He was educated in Jewish day schools in Asbury Park, NJ, Washington, DC, New York, NY, and St. Louis, MO. He also studied at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, IL and at Yeshivat Merkaz Ha-Rav Kook in Jerusalem in the early 60's.

Kellner studied philosophy and Jewish philosophy at Washington University (St. Louis), New York University, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned all of his degrees at Washington University, graduating magna cum laude in 1966. He earned his MA in 1969 and his Ph.D. in 1973. Kellner's Ph.D. dissertation, written under the direction of the late Steven S. Schwarzschild, was on " Civil Disobedience in Democracy: A Philosophical Justification."

Kellner has taught philosophy at Washington University, religious studies at the College of William and Mary and at the University of Virginia and medieval and modern Jewish philosophy at the University of Haifa. He has also served as Visiting Professor at the Sorbonne and at Northwestern University.

A Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1966-67 and a National Defense Education Act Fellow in 1967-70, Menachem Kellner has also received fellowships and awards from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the American Academy for Jewish Research and the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation.

In 1980, fulfilling a life-long ambition, Kellner moved to Israel with his wife and two children where he teaches at the University of Haifa. In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities in Haifa University's Department of Jewish History and Thought, Menachem Kellner has served as Chair of the University's Department of Maritime Civilizations, a unique inter-disciplinary graduate program in maritime archeology and history (1988-91), and as Dean of Students (1994-97). He was also editor of English-language publications of the University of Haifa Press. From 1990-2005 Kellner held the Sir Isaac and Lady Edith Wolfson Chair of Jewish Religious Thought at the University of Haifa.

Since 1998 Menachem Kellner has been academic supervisor of "Be-Zavta," a program for Judaic enrichment at the University of Haifa, sponsored by an on-going grant from Mr. Elie Horn of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Students in the program attend classes in (not on) Jewish texts in an atmosphere of "teaching, not preaching.".