Howard Eilberg-Schwartz
Howard Eilberg-Schwartz is an American scholar of Judaism known for his anthropological approach to religious texts, his provocative scholarship on sexuality and gender in Jewish tradition, and his controversial departure from academia after a brief, turbulent tenure at San Francisco State University.
Early life and education
Eilberg-Schwartz was born into a Jewish family in 1956 in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied at Duke University, where he had little initial interest in Judaism. A turning point came when a Christian roommate attempted to convert him, prompting a personal religious awakening. He subsequently enrolled at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, where he began to train as a rabbi. However, he increasingly felt alienated from traditional Jewish norms. His senior sermon at JTS, which scrutinized the taboo around menstruation, provoked institutional resistance and foreshadowed his unorthodox path as a scholar. Nevertheless, he was ultimately ordained as a Conservative rabbi.He later earned a Ph.D. at Brown University, where he studied with Jacob Neusner. During his doctoral studies, Eilberg-Schwartz developed a distinctive anthropological method for analyzing Jewish texts, removing them from their sacred contexts and placing them in broader cultural frameworks.
Academic career
Eilberg-Schwartz' first academic appointment was at Indiana University where he taught religious studies in the mid-1980s. He then taught for one year at Temple University.He became a faculty member at Stanford University in the early 1990s but was denied tenure, reportedly due to the provocative nature of his scholarship. In 1994, he was hired by San Francisco State University with full tenure to direct its newly created Jewish Studies program. His appointment came amid tensions on campus, including controversy over an anti-Semitic mural and longstanding concerns from the local Jewish community about anti-Jewish hostility at SFSU.
Academic contributions
Eilberg-Schwartz is known for challenging traditional boundaries in Jewish studies. His first major book, The Savage in Judaism, critiqued the opposition drawn between Judaism and so-called “primitive” religions, drawing inspiration from structural anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. He later wrote God’s Phallus and Other Problems for Men and Monotheism, which examined male representations of God and Jewish erotic theology, sparking controversy for its focus on divine sexuality and its implication that male-centered monotheism has shaped Jewish religious life in problematic ways.He wrote or edited other books and published articles and essays, including one in Tikkun magazine, where he controversially questioned the Jewish ritual of circumcision.
San Francisco State University controversy
In 1994, Eilberg-Schwartz was hired with tenure as the founding director of the new Jewish Studies program at San Francisco State University. The appointment came amid a volatile campus climate marked by tensions between Jewish students and pro-Palestinian activism. Local Jewish organizations had advocated for the creation of the program to serve as a counterbalance and source of pride for Jewish students.From the outset, Eilberg-Schwartz’s tenure was marked by conflict. He was seen as reluctant to defend Israel or Jewish communal interests in the face of anti-Semitism on campus. His anthropological and critical approach, including attempts to mediate with Palestinian and African-American student groups, alienated members of the local Jewish community and donors who had supported the creation of the program.
In one highly publicized incident, Eilberg-Schwartz invited Palestinian activist Hatem Bazian to speak in his classroom. Although Eilberg-Schwartz defended the decision as an opportunity for dialogue, critics considered it poor judgment, especially in light of Bazian's past criticisms of Israel and Jewish students.
The criticism intensified to the point that, in the fall of 1995, Eilberg-Schwartz abruptly resigned. He gave two weeks’ notice just as the semester was starting, abandoned his academic office—including his books, notes, and even his national award for The Savage in Judaism—and left academia altogether.
Legacy and perspective
Eilberg-Schwartz’s scholarship is now viewed as part of a broader shift in Jewish studies toward cultural and gender analysis. His work helped expand the field to include taboo topics and new methodologies. Scholars like Sander Gilman and David Biale have described him as part of a scholarly avant-garde.Reflecting on his departure from Jewish communal life, Eilberg-Schwartz later stated that he found institutional Judaism too ethnocentric and victim-focused. He no longer belongs to a synagogue or contributes to Jewish charities, and his disillusionment with both religious tradition and academic politics led him to permanently step away from Jewish studies.
Despite the controversy, his academic writings remain influential in areas of Jewish thought, anthropology, and gender studies.