Sharon Gillerman

Sharon Gillerman (1960-2020) was the Kutz Chair in Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Los Angeles) and adjunct associate professor of History at the University of Southern California. She held visiting professorships at Brandeis University, UCLA, the University of Hamburg, and Harvard University. A UCLA History PhD (1996), her work centered modern German and Central European Jewish history with emphases in gender, cultural studies, and transnational frameworks.

Her research examined themes like Jewish communal revitalization in Weimar Germany through family welfare and reproduction strategies, as detailed in her prizewinning book Germans into Jews (2010). Collaborative work includes co-editing Jewish Masculinities, exploring gendered historical narratives. Awards include the 2010 Pacific Coast Branch AHA Book Award.

Teaching roles combined HUC-JIR's theological context with secular university environments. Her transnational scholarship bridged European and Jewish diasporic studies, influencing both academic and communal dialogues.