Steven J. Zipperstein

Steven J. Zipperstein is the Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford University. He has taught at universities in Russia, Poland, France, Israel, and Oxford University (for six years), and served sixteen years as Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford.

His educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Russian and Jewish History from the University of California, Los Angeles (1980)
• M.A. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (1975)
• B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles (1973)

Zipperstein's research focuses on Jewish history, particularly Russian Jewish history, Zionism, cultural history, biography, and pogrom studies. His work explores the cultural and historical dimensions of Jewish life in Eastern Europe and the development of Zionist thought through award-winning books examining Odessa's Jewish community, Ahad Ha'am's philosophy, and the Kishinev pogrom's historical impact.

His contributions have been recognized with numerous awards:

• Smilen Prize for The Jews of Odessa
• National Jewish Book Award for Elusive Prophet
• Shortlisted National Jewish Book Award for Rosenfeld’s Lives
• Mark Lytton Prize shortlist for Pogrom
• Book of the Year honors from The Economist, Ha-Aretz, and Mosaic Magazine
• Leviant Prize of the Modern Language Association
• Judah Magnes Gold Medal
• Koret Prize
• Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award (2022)
• Election to American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023)

Zipperstein has mentored PhD students who now teach at the University of Chicago, UCLA, Queens College (CUNY), Yeshiva College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University, and University of Florida. He edited Jewish Social Studies for twenty years and Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture for twenty-five years, currently co-editing Yale's Jewish Lives series. His scholarship has been supported by fellowships from Harvard's Radcliffe Institute, Hebrew University's Institute for Advanced Studies, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

He is currently writing a biography of Philip Roth for Yale's Jewish Lives series.