Professor Michael Berger Named New Dean of Azrieli Graduate School

Professor Michael Berger joined YU faculty as the new dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration at the start of the fall semester.

Berger is replacing former Dean Rona Novick, who served as the dean of the Azrieli Graduate School since 2014, and recently left the school to make aliyah.

A former associate professor at Emory, Berger was hired following a several month search process for a new dean. A search committee was established “whose charge was to interview candidates who applied for the widely advertised position,” Provost Selma Botman told The Commentator. Candidates were evaluated in a two-part interview process, in which they were first interviewed on Zoom. Following the first stage, a small number of finalists were selected to continue the interview process in-person at the university. During the evaluation candidates shared academic presentations with faculty and administrators. 

Botman remarked to The Commentator that Berger “is a very thoughtful academic and practitioner,” allowing him to stand out during the application process.

Berger served as the editor of both “The Emergence of Ethical Man,” a book based on the writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and “Return and Renewal,” a collection of shiurim of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. Berger is also the author of “Rabbinic Authority: The Authority of the Talmudic Sages,” a book in which he discusses the authority of the Talmudic Rabbis with a philosophical approach. 

Berger received his bachelor’s in philosophy of religion with honors from Princeton University, and has graduated with an M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. 

At Emory, Berger’s research and teaching specialized in the study of Jewish law and ethics, medieval and modern Jewish thought and contemporary Jewish identity, especially among the ultra-Orthodox. He has also served as the head of Yeshiva Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Georgia for two years, and as a board member for seven years. He also spent 19 years as a program officer at the AVI CHAI Foundation, which supports American Jewish day schools and overnight summer camps. Berger told The Commentator that his work “has given me ample exposure to and experience in the many facets of day school education, which I hope to incorporate in my work as dean.”

As dean of Azrieli, Berger’s responsibilities include ensuring that the degrees and courses offered are run well and that programs are organized. However, Berger explained that, in his view, there is more to the job. “[A]side from preparing teachers and leaders, deans mobilize people and resources to help assess recent changes and developments and figure out the best ways to fashion a student experience that preserves the best of what's been done and introduce that which will also serve the contemporary needs of an evolving field.”

“Scholars on leadership speak about being on ‘the dance floor’ — where the action takes place at eye level — and going ‘up to the balcony’ to get a bird's eye view of all that's going on,” Berger described to The Commentator. “That's how I think about this transition: at Emory, I was on the dance floor, teaching classes, mentoring students and working on scholarships. Deans, on the other hand, go up to the balcony and oversee all that's going on in an institution or field. They're able to notice things that you can't see from the ground. While I have held some department level positions, this is a much higher perch from which to observe and hopefully steer what goes on to make it more productive and successful.” 

Berger credits a sichah (talk) given annually by his rosh yeshiva Rabbi Lichtenstein, on Ta’anit Esther with pushing him to apply for the position. 

“He would focus on Esther's decision to shed her passivity and embrace an active role in helping the Jewish people in their time of need, because it boiled down to ‘ichpat, o lo ichpat?’ — ‘Does your people's fate matter to you, or does it not?’ … That talk, which I first heard in 1981 and several times subsequently, has echoed in my ears for 40-plus years. I believe there is no career that is more impactful and of greater urgency to our community right now than qualified, passionate and effective limudei kodesh teaching … Being Azrieli's dean was an opportunity to make a much bigger difference, and I heard Rav Aharon whispering in my ear — ‘ichpat, o lo ichpat? Do you care, does it matter to you, or does it not?’ I just had to answer yes. I hope I can live up to that charge.”

Photo Caption: Professor Michael Berger

Photo Credit: Becky Stein Photography