In addition to Kraft-Hiatt funds for programming and scholarship, the gift from the Kraft and Hiatt families endows a professor in Judaic studies at 51С»Æ³µ. A similar chair, the Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies, was created at Brandeis University.
Alan J. Avery-Peck is Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies at the College of the 51С»Æ³µ. Specializing in Jewish history and religion in the first six centuries C.E., Avery-Peck is an author, co-author, and editor of numerous books and articles. These include "The Encyclopaedia of Judaism" (second edition in 4 vols., Brill, 2005) and "The Encyclopedia of Religious and Philosophical Writings in Late Antiquity: Pagan, Judaic, Christian" (Brill, 2007). He is the author of the commentary to Second Corinthians in "The Jewish Annotated New Testament" and is editor of the journal The Review of Rabbinic Judaism. At 51С»Æ³µ, Avery-Peck teaches courses on topics ranging from ancient Judaism through modern Jewish history and thought. He offers a seminar on the social and theological implications of the Holocaust and a course on the Jewish practices and theology out of which emerged the figure of Jesus and his earliest Christian followers. A new seminar introduced in 2018 teaches the history of anti-Semitism. He also serves on the Kraft-Hiatt Faculty Advisory Committee. In 2013-2014 and again in spring 2015, Avery-Peck taught at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, where he held the title Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religious Studies.