Jerold Auerbach

Jerold Auerbach
jsauerbach@comcast.net
Faculty emeritus
B.A., Oberlin College; M.A., Ph.D., Columbia University

Jerold Auerbach

Professor Emeritus of History

Research interests have included modern American history, the history of freedom of speech since the framing of the Bill of Rights, the history of the American legal profession, American Jewish history, and the history of Israel from its biblical foundation to the present.


Jerold S. Auerbach is Professor Emeritus of History at Wellesley College. Mr. Auerbach taught courses on the United States in the twentieth century, the history of freedom of speech, and the history of Israel.

After receiving the B.A. in 1957 from Oberlin College, Jerold Auerbach attended Columbia Law School, subsequently receiving the M.A. (1959) and the Ph.D. (1965) from Columbia. He taught at Queens College and Brandeis University before joining the Wellesley College faculty in 1971. He served as director of the College's American Studies Program from 1975 to 1977, and was chair of the History Department from 1980 to 1985. Between 1978 and 1985 he was also a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School.

Mr. Auerbach has been a Guggenheim Fellow and in 1974 he was Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American History at Tel Aviv University. Mr. Auerbach has also been the recipient of research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, the American Philosophical Society, the National Science Foundation, and the Littauer Foundation. 

Jerold Auerbach is a widely published author. His books include Against the Grain: A Historian's Journey (Quid Pro Books, 2012), Brothers at War: Israel and the Tragedy of the Altalena (Quid Pro Books, 2011), Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), Explorers in Eden: Pueblo Indians and the Promised Land (New Mexico, 2006), Are We One? Jewish Identity in the United States and Israel (Rutgers, 2001),  Jacob's Voices (Southern Illinois, 1996), Rabbis and Lawyers (Indiana, 1990), Justice Without Law? (Oxford, 1983), Unequal Justice (Oxford, 1976), and Labor and Liberty (Bobbs-Merrill, 1969). His articles and reviews have appeared in  the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Commentary, Harper's, The New Republic, The Jerusalem Post, and the Harvard Law Review.