Dear College Friends:

It is a time of remarkable accomplishment and new developments throughout the College. One or two times each quarter I will be sending a brief update of College activities and achievements to Spertus staff, students, and constituents. The focus of this inaugural issue of Spertus College News is new and forthcoming faculty publications. These publications cover a wide range of topics and scholarly disciplines, illustrating our faculty's contributions to the wider community.

Long-time Nonprofit Management faculty member Peter Ascoli recently published a marvelous biography, Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South. The book was recently profiled in the Chicago Tribune and Dr. Ascoli spoke about it at the prestigious Printers Row Book Fair. One distinguished reviewer noted, "This is the first serious biography of the exuberant man who transformed the Sears, Roebuck company into the country's most important retailer … The richness of primary evidence continually delights."

My own latest publication, edited along with Professor Stephen Burnett of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is an expansive volume of 18 essays and more than 600 pages on the theme of Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany. It includes five essays translated from German and has already been praised by Thomas A. Brady Jr., one of the leading Reformation scholars in the world, for "placing the entire theme on new footing."

Isaac Kalimi's (Research Professor of Bible) book The Reshaping of Ancient Israelite History in Chronicles won the 2006 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies R.B.Y. Scott Book Award. His most recent monograph An Ancient Israelite Historian: Studies in the Chronicler, His Time, Place and Writing, received extensive kudos from biblical scholars around the globe in a special review published in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures.

Hal Lewis (Dean of Public Programming and Continuing Education) completed an important book entitled From Sanctuary to Boardroom: A Jewish Approach to Leadership. Scheduled for release in October, it has already garnered critical acclaim. One of the leading professionals in the field of Jewish communal service, Gerald Bubis, wrote that, "This book is a truly remarkable accomplishment. Hal Lewis has brilliantly synthesized Jewish wisdom through the ages with modern literature on leadership styles, values and efficacy… This book demands a presence in the libraries of Jewish volunteers and professionals to be visited and re-visited through time..."

Byron Sherwin's (Director of Doctoral Programs and Distinguished Service Professor) latest book, Kabbalah: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism, was just published. It has received exceptional reviews from leading scholars, including the preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, Professor Moshe Idel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who writes that, "Sherwin's introduction to Jewish mysticism is the most lucid, insightful, and comprehensive treatment in its genre in any language. He offers a balanced vision of the variety of mystical phenomena in Judaism in an accessible and precise language."

Spertus is proud of the significant scholarly accomplishments of its remarkable faculty members. Please join us in congratulating them for these and other recent achievements. I look forward to sharing with you details of other College developments in the coming months.

Sincerely,

Dean Phillip Bell, Ph.D.
Dean and Chief Academic Officer