Prof. Noam Pianko
Noam Pianko is the Samuel N. Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies and directs the Samuel and Althea Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. Pianko’s research interests include modern Jewish history, Zionism, and American Judaism. His first book, Zionism and the Roads not Taken: Rawidowicz Kaplan, Kohn (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010) uncovers the thought of three key interwar Jewish intellectuals who defined Zionism’s central mission as challenging the model of a sovereign nation-state. His second book, Peoplehood: An American Innovation(New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2015 ) tells the surprising story of a key concept in modern Jewish identity. Pianko lectures widely on topics related to Judaism, Zionism, and Digital Humanities. He has been awarded a Mellon Foundation Fellowship, a UW Technology Teaching Fellowship, a Royalty Research Award, and a Wexner Graduate Fellowship.
David Fuks
Since 1998 David Fuks has been CEO of Cedar Sinai Park, an organization providing services to elders and adults with disabilities. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at the Portland State University School of Social Work where he taught graduate classes in leadership and fundraising. He has worked in the human services arena in Oregon, since 1974, in leadership roles both in the non-profit and governmental sectors including: Director of the Oregon Juvenile Services Commission, Executive Director of the Edgefield Children’s Center, and Metro-Region Child Welfare Administrator. He is a graduate of University of Michigan where he received both a BA and MSW. Fuks is a published author of both short stories and poetry. He lives in Portland.
