Michael A. Shmidman, Ph.D., has been dean of the Graduate School of Jewish Studies since 1986. He also holds the Victor J. Selmanowitz Chair in Jewish history and is editor-in-chief of the Touro College Press.

A Brooklyn native born into a rabbi's family, Dr. Shmidman is both an ordained rabbi and a scholar of Jewish studies. Prior to joining Touro in 1981 as director of the then-fledgling Graduate School of Jewish Studies, he taught at Yeshiva University and the University of Cincinnati.

Shmidman's academic areas of specialization are medieval Jewish history and Maimonidean studies. He co-authored a two-volume textbook entitled Law and Philosophy: Perspectives on Maimonides’ Teaching and edited Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought from 2001 to 2004.

Shmidman received a Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 1980.

Read a profile of Dean Shmidman from Touro Links, the publication of the Division of Graduate Studies. You can also listen to past lectures by Dean Shmidman via YUTorah Online.