Faculty - Prof. Nathan Katz, Ph.D.

Nathan Katz is a professor of the Department of Religious Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Florida International University in Miami. He has won four Fulbright awards for research and teaching in South Asia. He has been named a “Master Teacher” by the Florida Humanities Council twelve times, and in 1994 his classroom excellence was recognized with a Florida State University System for Teaching Incentive Program award. He won the President’s Award for Achievement and Excellence, the most prestigious distinction awarded by FIU (1999). His most recent book, Who Are the Jews of India? was a Finalist for the 2000 National Jewish Book Award in Sephardic Studies. The book also earned the 2004 Vak Devi Saraswati Saman Award from India. He has developed and chaired a Program in Jewish Studies and South Asian studies programs. Formerly Dr. Katz was a professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he was Professor and Graduate Program Director of Religious Studies, Director of the South Asian and Judaic Studies. He was named USF’s Scholar-of –the-Year in 1990.

Dr. Katz’s research spans the religious traditions of South Asia and focuses on Indo-Judaic Studies. He has written more than a dozen books about Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. Books include The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India (co-author,1993), Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies: Śrī Lanka, Thailand and Burma (co-author, 1988), and Buddhist Images of Human Perfection (1982). Dr. Katz is the editor of an academic journal devoted to exploring the interactions and affinities between Indian and Jewish civilizations, Indo-Judaic Studies and interfaith dialogues. Dr. Katz has been interviewed on numerous television and radio programs. He was featured in a 5-part video series, “Reconnecting West and East: Judaism and Eastern Religions.”

He has lectured at universities and other academic institutions around the world which covers USA, UK, Europe and India. He has been a consultant to the U.S. District Court for South Florida and to the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. Dr. Katz serves on the Florida Commissioner of Education’s Holocaust Education Task Force, and was presented with the Keser Shem Tov Award by Congregation Ohr Chaim in 1997.