Reuven Firestone, Ph.D.

Reuven Firestone is the Regenstein Professor in medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, professor of religion at the University of Southern California School of Religion, Senior Fellow of the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, and founder of the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement in Los Angeles.

Author of eight books and over one hundred scholarly articles translated into a dozen languages on Judaism, Islam, their relationship with one another and with Christianity, and phenomenology of religion, Professor Firestone has lived in Israel, Egypt and Germany and lectures at universities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East as well as throughout North America. He is active on the boards of numerous scholarly journals and boards and commissions treating inter-religious relations and dialogue.

His books include Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims; An Introduction to Islam for Jews; Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam; Who are the Real Chosen People: The Meaning of “Chosenness” in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea.  An ordained rabbi, he received his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from New York University, served as Vice President for Program of the Association for Jewish Studies and President of the International Qur’anic Studies Association.