Ellen Umansky

Dr. Ellen M. Umansky is an American scholar of modern Jewish history and religious thought, and a specialist in Jewish women’s spirituality.

Early life and education

Umansky was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in New Rochelle in a Reform Jewish family.
When she was a graduate student at Emory University in the 1970s, the use of feminist methodology in academic research was often discouraged. Her decision to focus her doctoral dissertation on Lily Montagu, a prominent English Reform Jewish leader of the early twentieth century, was met with resistance, and she was advised to pursue a more conventional subject, such as a biography of a male figure or a study of Jewish institutional history. Despite this lack of institutional encouragement and limited support from her academic advisor, Umansky completed her dissertation on Montagu.
Umansky received her B.A. from Wellesley College; M.A. from the Yale Divinity School; and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in religion from Columbia University in 1981.

Career

Umansky taught at various institutions, including Emory University Haverford College, Vassar College and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, NYC.
She served as the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies and Founding Director of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at Fairfield University located in Fairfield, Connecticut, from 1994 until 2022.
The author of five books and almost one hundred scholarly articles and encyclopedia articles on modern Jewish history and religious thought and/or Jewish women's spirituality, she is the 2009 recipient of Fairfield University's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Vision Award for her “effort to instill and inspire the teachings and ideals” of Dr. King and the 2012 recipient of the Fairfield University Alumni Association's Distinguished Faculty/Administrator Award for her “inspired teaching and service” to the university. Past President of the Southern Jewish Historical Society and chair of its nominations committee, she is a member of the board of directors of the Stimulus Foundation of Paulist Press, the Academic Advisory Board of the Jewish Women's Archive, and the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Sigma Nu, and Theta Alpha Kappa.