Contention, Controversy, and Change

Eric Levine, DSW, is Director, Social Work Alumni Engagement and Financial Resource Development and a professor at the Touro College Graduate School of Social Work in New York, USA. He has held leadership roles for major Jewish organizations with recognized expertise in fund raising, strategic planning, organizational change, as well as Jewish communal policy and education. Prior to coming to Touro, he also taught as an adjunct professor for over 20 years at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work of Yeshiva University, teaching courses in ethics, social policy, social philosophy, organizational theory, ethnicity, administrative practice and community relations. Eric has authored some seventy articles, book chapters and papers on a wide range of communal, academic and professional subjects and is co-editor of the professional journal, the Social Work Forum. He has served on the boards of foundations, professional associations and a number of not-for-profit organizations. His current research interests focus on contentious politics and social protest movements; conflict and social change; organizational practice; ethics and social responsibility. Simcha Fishbane (PhD, Social Anthropology of Religion, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada 1988) is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Touro College, USA. He has published extensively on Jewish subjects and texts. His publications include The Method and Meaning of the Mishnah Berurah (1991) and The Shtiebelization of Modern Jewry (2011).