Prof. Mervin Verbit is professor and chair of sociology at the Touro College and University System and professor emeritus at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, where he was also founding director of CUNY’s Program for Study in Israel. He specializes in the sociology of religion and contemporary Jewry and is a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He has served as national chairman of American Professors for Peace in the Middle East, chairman of the Zionist Academic Council, and member of the Jewish Agency’s Commission for Jewish Zionist Education, among other positions.