Mervin Verbit is professor at the Touro College Graduate School of Jewish Studies, chair of the Department of Sociology and the director of Touro’s Israel Studies Institute. He received a doctorate from Columbia University and a Master of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Verbit was among the sociologists of religion to explore the theoretical analysis of the sociological dimensions of religiosity and served as the first president of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, a cross-disciplinary organization of individuals whose research concerns the Jewish people throughout the world. His work has been widely published, including a sociological study on the Jewish identity of Soviet Jews through the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.