David Myers, the Sady and Ludwig Kahn professor of Jewish history at UCLA and the director of the UCLA Luskin Center for history and policy, has been named CEO and president of the Center for Jewish History in New York City, effective July 1.
“I burn with passion to study Jewish history,” Myers said. “It’s what I love doing. I am blessed beyond imagination to be able to do this, to be able to study Jewish history, which is ceaselessly fascinating.”
Myers, 56, a Journal contributor, will remain on the faculty of UCLA, his academic home for 25 years. He will live in Los Angeles during the 2017-2018 academic year and will then move to New York.
He has written extensively on modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history and earned a PhD in Jewish history from Columbia University in 1991. He began as a lecturer at UCLA that same year.
Myers and his wife, Nomi Stoizenberg, a USC law professor, live in Pico-Robertson. They are the parents of three daughters, two of whom live in New York.
At the Center for Jewish History, Myers will oversee what is the largest archive of the modern Jewish experience outside of Israel. Dedicated to history, culture and art, the museum is a collaborative home for five partner organizations: American Jewish Historical Society; American Sephardi Federation; Leo Baeck Institute; Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Myers expressed remorse about leaving UCLA but said it was time for him to move onto the next chapter in his career.
“I love UCLA, it’s been an extraordinary place to be and work and grow, and I could easily have decided not to make this move,” he said. “But I find the opportunity and challenge to be so exciting, it seemed like this was the time to try something new.”
