Sharon Gillerman

Biography

We are saddened to announce that UCLA History PhD (Spring 1996) alumna Sharon Gillerman (1960-2020) passed away on November 23, 2020 following several months of hospitalization battling an illness. Dr.Gillerman served as the Kutz Chairin Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, and as adjunct Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern California. Dr. Gillerman’s scholarship focused on modern German and central European Jewishhistory with a particular interest in gender history, cultural studies, popular culture, and transnational history. Professor Gillerman’s first book, Germans into Jews: Remaking the Jewish Social Body in the Weimar Republic, was the recipient of the 2010 Book Award from the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. The book reconsiders the meaning and process of assimilation by focusing on communal efforts to reinvigorate the Jewish community through strengthening the family, welfare, and increasing reproduction. She also co-edited a volume of essays with Benjamin Baader and Paul Lerner, Jewish Masculinities: German Jews, Gender and History. In addition to teaching at HUC-JIR and USC, she was a visiting professor at Brandeis University, UCLA, the University of Hamburg, and Harvard University.