Samuel Shetzer Professor of American Jewish Studies
he/him/his
About
Julian Levinson has taught at the University of Michigan since 2000. He offers a range of classes, including American Jewish Culture, Jewish Storytelling, the Bible as literature, Literature of the Holocaust, Reading Poetry, and introductory courses on Judaism and Jewish civilization. His publications include the book Exiles on Main Street: Jewish American Writers and American Literature Culture (winner of a 2008 National Jewish Book Award), as well as articles, chapters, and encyclopedia entries.
Over the years, he has developed a deep and abiding interest in the Yiddish language, including its history and literature, and he is active in the movement to preserve Yiddish culture and to share its riches with wider audiences. In recent years, he has devoted himself to translating works of literature from Yiddish. He has just completed a translation of Flames from the Earth, a novel about the Lodz Ghetto written in Yiddish by survivor-novelist Isaiah Spiegel, which will be published by Northwestern University Press in December, 2021.