Background

Karla Goldman was born on the 15th of September, 1960 in Newton, Massachusetts, United States, the daughter of a scholar of Russian economics, Marshall Goldman, and a scholar of Chinese history, Merle Rosenblatt Goldman.

Education

Karla Goldman attended Yale University in New Haven, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1982. In 1984, she enrolled at Harvard University in Cambridge, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in American History in 1986 and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in American History in 1993.

Career

Karla Goldman began her career as an English teacher at Sinai School in Ashkelon, Israel, where she served from 1983 to 1984. From 1986 to 1988 and from 1989 to 1991, she held the post of a teaching fellow in History, History and Literature, and Women's Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1991, Karla joined the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio as an instructor until 1994. In 1994 she became an assistant professor and in 1998 she was promoted to an associate professor of American Jewish History there. In 2000, she received the position of historian-in-residence at Jewish Women’s Archive in Brookline, where she worked until 2008. From 2008, she is Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work and director of Jewish Communal Leadership Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Karla Goldman's research focuses on the history of the American Jewish experience with special attention to the history of American Jewish communities and the evolving roles and contributions of American Jewish women.

As the author, Karla wrote Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism in 2000.

Achievements

• Karla Goldman is particularly known as an outstanding educator and author of a number of articles and publications on American Jewish history. In 1989 and 1990, she was awarded Charles Warren Center Summer Research Grant from Harvard University. In 1994-95, she received the Feinstein Center Prize for Best Dissertation in American Jewish History. In 1994, she got Excellence in Teaching Award from Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities for the best doctoral dissertation in American Jewish History. In 1994-95, she earned a Yale-Pew faculty fellowship in religion and American history.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism

    (Beyond the Synagogue Gallery recounts the emergence of ne...)

    2000

Connections

Father:

Marshall Goldman

Marshall Goldman was the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Wellesley College and former Associate Director of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. An author of over a dozen books on the Soviet Union, Dr. Goldman spent several decades studying the inherent weaknesses and deficiencies of the Soviet economy. He is also known for analyzing Mikheil Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost policies and their negative impact on Moscow’s ability to retain control over its empire.

Mother:

Merle Rosenblatt Goldman

Merle Goldman is Professor Emerita of History at Boston University and Research Associate of the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University. She is a leading expert on Chinese affairs and the author of a number of books and articles on China's cultural and political history. She is the author of a number of books on modern Chinese history and culture including, China’s Intellectuals: Advise and Dissent (1981) and Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China (1994).