The following is an essay I wrote for our Wittenberg University community. These are compiled on Wittenberg’s site and will be periodically shared here as well: “Presidential Communications” Wittenberg Community, I remember our nation’s Bicentennial. We lived in a new, planned community full of young families, where the centerpiece of […]
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The following is an essay I wrote for our Wittenberg University community. These are compiled on Wittenberg’s site and will be periodically shared here as well: “Presidential Communications” Wittenberg Community, June 19, 1865, twenty years after Wittenberg College was founded, news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached all the states […]
Below is my inauguration address. All of these speeches and things are being archived at the President’s website, but I thought there are likely some of my friends who only see Targuman.org. I am deeply grateful that my friend and colleague the Rev. Canon Dr. Hugh Page provided the Keynote […]
August 27, 2025 was my first Convocation as President of Wittenberg University. The tradition is for the new President to give the address and I was happy and honored to do so. Below is the text and you can view the video at YouTube. בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת […]
This year’s Society of Biblical Literature meeting was special for me as I completed my second (and final) three-year term as a member of Council. The last six years have been eventful, to say the least. In that time there have been debates (and complaints) about having to print our […]
I have a deep desire, often uncontrollable, to be understood. More specifically, that my ideas and arguments should be understood. It is a horrible habit and I have been aware of it for decades and I fight against these inclinations, and often lose. It can ruin relationships and it has […]
“Some years ago, during a service at our church, my eyes wandered (I am sorry to say) to a banner that was propped up in the corner. It was to be part of a float that the children were preparing to enter in a local carnival, and on it was […]
In the last two months I have had the joy of being a guest on several podcasts, two scholarly and academic that I will post when they are published, and two about Honors education and our Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. The two podcasts below are from […]
Thirty years ago in August, Elizabeth and I were married. Over our honeymoon, I was encouraged to send in an application to the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew & Jewish Studies for their one-year “Graduate Diploma.” I was admitted and received a full scholarship, so we deferred the offer from […]
I posted this on Facebook earlier in the week. The account will remain open, but moribund. As I conclude, how nice it would be to go back to the days when we had robust discussion through our “Biblioblogs.” I opened my account on Facebook in September of 2004, shortly after […]