Nelson Glueck: Biblical Archaeologist And President of the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion
by Jonathan M. Brown, Laurence Kutler
Category: Biography & Autobiography

This biography traces the life of Nelson Glueck, who played a central role in shaping the American Reform Jewry in the third quarter of the twentieth century and, with his mentor William Foxwell Albright, was a trailblazer in the field of biblical archaeology. By the age of fifty, Nelson Glueck had excavated remains of the civilization of the ancient Nabataeans in Transjordan, described in detail a biblical copper-mining industry at the shore of the Red Sea, and shown how the Negev could actually support a large population if proper irrigation techniques were used. In addition, Glueck was a personal friend of David Ben-Gurion, Abba Eban, Golda Meir, Henrietta Szold, and Judah Magnes, among other notables worldwide, and became a pioneer in the burgeoning field of biblical archaeology. But Nelson Glueck simultaneously played another academic role. He served a long tenure (1947-1971) as president of the Hebrew Union College and oversaw the merger of HUC with the Jewish Institute of Religion. He expanded the Cincinnati-based institution to include schools in New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. In California he encouraged the creation of the Schools of Jewish Communal Service and Jewish Education. And in Israel, he founded and nurtured the School of Biblical and Archaeological Studies in Jerusalem. As an extraordinary man whose life straddled two distinct Jewish worlds, Nelson Glueck's many achievements and adventures make for fascinating reading.