It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Stanley Nash, z”l, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature at HUC-JIR/New York, on June 28 at the age of 82, after a long battle with Parkinson’s and a bout with Covid. Professor Nash taught at HUC-JIR from 1978 through 2012, imbuing his students with an understanding of Zionism through the prism of Hebrew literature. HUC-JIR awarded him the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, in recognition of his extraordinary achievements in the field of Hebrew and modern Israeli literature, at HUC-JIR’s Graduation Ceremonies on May 3, 2012.
A prolific author, his writings included In Search of Hebraism: Shai Hurwitz and His Polemics in the Hebrew Press, Migvan: Studies in Honor of Isaac Barzilay, and numerous articles on leading Hebrew literary figures, particularly Aharon Megged, and on themes and trends in Hebrew culture. He published a translation of Y.L. Gordon’s epic lament about the plight of Jewish women, “Qotso shel Yud.”
Dr. Nash served on the editorial boards of the journals Hebrew Studies, Modern Jewish Studies, Hadoar, The Jewish Book Annual, Mahut, Hebrew Annual Review, and Zehut, guest-edited two volumes of the CCAR Journal dealing with Modern Hebrew Literature, and contributed entries to the YIVO Encyclopedia of Eastern European Jewry and Brill Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. He received significant grants from foundations, Histadruth Ivrit of America, American Philosophical Institute, American Academy for Jewish Research, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew Studies.
Dr. Nash received his B.A. from Columbia College (1967), his Ph.D. from Columbia University’s Department of Mid-East Languages and Cultures (1972), and rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1967).
His legacy of teaching, scholarship, and mentorship endures. May his children Ethan and Danica Nash, and Rebecca and Judah Cohen, and his grandchildren Ari and Eli Nash and Rena and Gabriel Cohen find comfort among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.