In the summer of 1997, Marc Saperstein moved to the Washington D.C. area, where he holds the position of Charles E. Smith Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at the George Washington University. Previously, beginning in 1986, he held the newly established Gloria M. Goldstein Chair in Jewish History and Thought at Washington University. He served as Chairman of its Program in Jewish and Near Eastern Studies from 1989-1997.

Professor Saperstein received a BA summa cum laude at Harvard, an MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, rabbinical ordination at the New York School of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and a Ph.D. at Harvard. He taught on the Harvard faculty for nine years, holding the first regular faculty position in Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School; he has been visiting professor at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, the Iliff School of Theology, and University of Missouri at St. Louis.

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