Alexander Marcus never intended to be a Religious Studies professor when he went to college. He thought his focus would be philosophy or history. However, a Jewish Studies professor changed his career course after he took her class, and she introduced him to the 20th century Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. 

“I have a Jewish background. But then I had that professor, and I was really into Levinas’ lectures on Talmud. At some point it dawned on me that I was more interested in the Talmud itself, focusing on the ideas and ways of thinking behind it,” says Alexander. 

Thanks to that professor, the Edmonton Jewish community is welcoming Alexander and his family as he begins the Belzberg Family and Jewish Federation of Edmonton Professorship in Jewish Studies at the University of Alberta. He will be based in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion.  

Alexander grew up in Scarsdale, New York and headed to southern California at 18 for college, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in Religious Studies. After graduating, he spent time working in Colorado with a Jewish LGBTQ advocacy and educational organization. Alexander started examining the Talmud through a gender studies and text-critical lens, which steered him to Berkeley in California for his master’s degree, where he also met his future wife, Rachel Colwell. He finished his graduate studies at Stanford University. 

Rachel’s specialty is Ethnomusicology, and her career took them to Iowa where she was a visiting assistant professor at Grinnell College. They relocated again when Alexander accepted a postdoctoral position at Yale in Ancient Judaism and History. During his time at Grinnell, he helped build the Jewish community and enliven the Jewish student organization. At Yale, he secured funding to host an international conference and expand the university’s holdings in ancient Jewish material culture. He was then hired at Western Kentucky University as visiting assistant professor of Jewish Studies for the 2022-2023 academic year. 

They moved to Pennsylvania when Rachel accepted an assistant professor position at West Chester University. While they have lived there for the past two years, Alexander taught at Franklin & Marshall College and volunteered to coordinate and lead the weekly Talmud study at their local synagogue. He says they are looking forward to their move to Edmonton with their daughter, Lilah. Rachel will be an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Music and will also be teaching courses in History, Classics, and Religion. Alexander will also be helping to reconfigure the curriculum for the Religious Studies program. 

“There’s a real opportunity to shape the curriculum for students. Right now, students take introductory courses that divide between Western and Eastern religions. One aspect we are discussing is whether that is the right way to categorize their studies. How do you say a religion is Western versus Eastern? It doesn’t make sense for Judaism. It doesn't make sense for Islam. It really doesn’t even make sense for Christianity,” says Alexander. 

While he has lived in a variety of communities, he has always taken the time to connect with the local Jewish Federation and Hillel on campus. Alexander has also been involved with organizing talks about the current conflict and around Muslim and Jewish dialogue. 

“You can imagine in the past couple of years that these conversations have become even more difficult. I connect it to my primary research on interreligious interactions in the past. One of my primary strategies is to emphasize how the past helps us to understand what is happening in the present. I would love to find opportunities to help people navigate these thorny issues,” says Alexander.