The Case Iranian Society will host a special session on “Persia, Iran and the Jews” on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 5 p.m. in the White Building, Room 411.
Peter Haas, chair and the Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies, will be the distinguished speaker at the event, discussing Jewish history in Iran.
Haas received his Bachelor of Arts in ancient Near East history from the University of Michigan in 1970, after which he attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, receiving ordination as a Reform rabbi in 1974. After ordination, he served as an active U.S. Army chaplain for three years and then remained in the Army National Guard for another 19 years.
Upon completion of active duty, Rabbi Haas enrolled in the graduate program in religion at Brown University, earning a PhD in Jewish studies in 1980. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1980, where he taught courses in Judaism, Jewish ethics, the Holocaust, Western religion, and the Middle East Conflict.
Haas moved to Case Western Reserve University in 2000 and was appointed chair of the Department of Religious Studies in 2003. During this time he also was a visiting professor at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago.
Haas has published several books and articles dealing with moral discourse and with Jewish and Christian thought after the Holocaust. He has continued to teach courses on Western religion (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and on the religious, historical and social context of the current Middle East crises. He has lectured in the United States, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Israel. His most recent book is on human rights in Judaism.