September 28, 1845On this day, 181 years ago, Ezra Keller was preparing his notes for his first meeting with the Board of Directors of Wittenberg College. He recorded his progress from the prior year. During the year I traveled three thousand two hundred miles, not including short distances: I preached […]
Academics
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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, I remember our nation’s Bicentennial. We lived in a new, planned community full of young families, where the centerpiece of […]
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 […]