Role Will Provide Scholarly Expertise on Behalf of Jewish Communities of Rhineland Professor Ephraim Kanarfogel, the E. Billi Ivry University Professor of Jewish History, Literature and Law, has been appointed to an international academic advisory board that will provide scholarly expertise to the Rhineland region in Germany, which is seeking to have the Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz (“Shu”m” in Hebrew) designated as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Center. The advisory board is tasked with articulating and highlighting the creativity and cultural heritage of medieval Ashkenaz, alongside the monuments and documents from this period and culture that are still extant. In naming Kanarfogel to this panel, which consists of important academics from Europe and Israel, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Education of Rheinland-Pfalz described him as “the leading authority in the world today on Jewish intellectual history during the High Middle Ages, including the many rabbinic scholars of Shu”m and the Rhineland and their place within the history of Jewish learning and thought throughout the world.” Kanarfogel recently traveled to Mainz for the initial meeting of the academic advisory board and its support staff, and he has been invited to participate in a series of related academic conferences and events in both Europe and Israel. “This is a striking and well-deserved tribute to Professor Kanarfogel’s stellar contribution to the study of medieval Ashkenazic rabbinic culture,” said Dr. David Berger, the Ruth and I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History and dean of YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. “In addition to the extraordinary recognition granted to Professor Kanarfogel himself, this appointment underscores the exceptional quality of Yeshiva University’s faculty and offerings in Jewish studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.” For his part, Kanarfogel had a simple take on this prestigious appointment. “The main beneficiaries of this extraordinary designation will be the Jewish communities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer and their members, which makes my participation a mitzvah and enhances YU’s already outstanding reputation in Jewish studies in the process.”