Ezra Spicehandler

Who is Ezra Spicehandler?

Ezra Spicehandler is an American Rabbi, writer, editor and educator specializing in modern Hebrew literature.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Abraham Spacehandler, an editor of the Hebrew periodical Hadoar. In 1946 he was ordained and awarded a masters of Hebrew letters. He earned a Ph.D. in 1952. He spent a year studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, then received the National Defense Education Fellowship in Oriental Languages, 1960–1961. In 1961 he was the recipient of a Fullbright grant for research in Iran.

He is a Rabbi from Temple Emanu-El in Westfield, New Jersey. He became associate professor and then professor of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. From 1966–1980 he was director then dean of the Jerusalem branch of the Hebrew Union College and later Professor Emeritus. He was a visiting professor of Modern Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1969–1971, then a visiting fellow at the Oxford Centre for Post-Graduate studies, 1973–1975 and visiting professor at the Oriental Institute of the Oxford University in England, 1983–1984. In 1982, he became president of the Labor Zionist Alliance of America. In 1989 he was visiting professor at São Paulo Judaice Department in Brazil, August 1989. From 1990–1991, he was Skirball Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Post-Graduate studies.