Faculty

Jewish Studies Program Faculty

Amy W. Kratka
Director, The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/202
akratka@ccny.cuny.edu

About Amy W. Kratka. Amy W. Kratka, Ph.D., Boston University. Dr. Kratka is the Director of the Michael & Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies at CCNY. Her area of interest is post-WWII American fiction about the Jewish experience. She has published in MELUS and The Forward. Through the many courses she's developed and taught over her two decades at CCNY, she's had such rewarding experiences introducing students to the likes of Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Gary Shteyngart, and Dara Horn. She divides her time during semesters by preparing for her classes, devising useful strategies for student learning, and planning meaningful events for the Jewish Studies Program and the City College community.

Elazar Elhanan 
Associate Professor
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures,
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Comparative Literature,
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/223 J
Phone: 212-650-6382
eelhanan@ccny.cuny.edu  

About Elazar Elhanan. Elazar (Elik) Elhanan, Ph.D., Columbia University, is a professor of Yiddish and Hebrew literatures. His research focuses on prose and poetry, exploring the relationships between language and politics, identity, and nation-building. His forthcoming book, The Path Leading to the Abyss: Hebrew and Yiddish in Yaakov Steinberg’s Poetry, will soon be published by Mossad Bialik. His articles and essays cover topics ranging from cultural activism to progressive education, veterans’ reintegration, and speech pathology. His current research examines the poetics and aesthetics of mourning and activism in Hebrew and Yiddish modernism and beyond. Elik’s courses include Fantasy, Dreams & Madness in Yid Lit, Haunting Books: Mourning and Afterlife in Literature, Culture of Resistance in New York, Jews of Eastern Europe, and Protest and Dissent in Israel.

Abby Kornfeld
Assistant Professor
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Art
Office: CG-109B
Phone: 212-650-7413
akornfeld@ccny.cuny.edu  

About Abby Kornfeld. Abby Kornfeld, Ph.D., New York University, specializes in medieval art and architecture. She holds a joint appointment with the program of Jewish Studies in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University in 2013. Her work focuses on the intersections between Jewish, Christian, and Islamic art across the medieval Mediterranean. Her forthcoming book resituates three Hebrew illuminated manuscripts within the broader context of medieval art in late fourteenth century Spain. Her research has won the support of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Wexner Foundation. In addition, she curated an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles on the eventful and often tumultuous lives of medieval manuscripts after the rise of the printing presses.

Roy Mittelman
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
Office: NAC 5/202
rmittelman@ccny.cuny.edu

About Roy Mittelman. Roy Mittelman, Ph.D., Temple University, is the longtime outgoing Director of the Jewish Studies Program at CCNY. Dr. Mittelman received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, a Masters in Religion from Temple University, and is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. His photo-ethnographic work on Jewish communities has been widely shown and published.

Dimitry Ekshtut
The Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies
Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Division of Humanities and Arts
Adjunct Assistant Professor
dekshtut@ccny.cuny.edu
About Dimitry Ekshtut. Rabbi Dimitry Ekshtut was born in Leningrad, USSR, and immigrated with his family at the age of five to Philadelphia, PA. He holds a Bachelor's of Music (Jazz Performance) and a Master's of Music Education, both from New York University.  For nearly a decade, Dimitry has been the spiritual leader of Base Harlem, a pluralistic, home-based, rabbi-led Jewish community. Dimitry received rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT).