Gordon Dale, Ph.D.

Dr. Gordon Dale is Associate Professor of Jewish Musicology and Dr. Jack Gottlieb Scholar in Jewish Music Studies. He began teaching in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music in Fall 2014 and was promoted to a tenure-track position and named as the inaugural Dr. Jack Gottlieb Scholar in Jewish Music Studies starting July 1, 2022. Dr. Dale’s scholarship focuses primarily on the role of music in the American Orthodox Jewish community, with a special concentration on nigunim (traditional Jewish folk or religious melodies) in the Hasidic community. His published work encompasses the forthcoming two-volume publication, The Life and Collected Works of Rabbi Ben Zion Shenker, and articles published in peer-reviewed journals, including “Shifting Paradigms, Pandemic Realities: The Reception of Ishay Ribo’s Music in the American Hasidic Community” and “Kosher Music, Kosher Space, and the Ethnographic Study of Orthodox Jewish Life.” Dr. Dale received a B.S. in Music, summa cum laude, from Northeastern University, followed by an M.A. in Music with a concentration in Ethnomusicology from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in Music from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.