David Shyovitz

David Shyovitz is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Northwestern University and the Director of Northwestern's Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. 

David received his BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and studied for two years at Yeshivat Har Etzion under Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt"l. He has been a visiting fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the National Library of Israel, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He lectures extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Israel, and has led Jewish heritage tours and interfaith missions to historical sites in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands.

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David's academic research focuses on the Jewish cultural and intellectual history of the Middle Ages. He has published widely on the history of halakhah and minhag; the development of Jewish philosophy, science, and mysticism; and the dynamics of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim relations. He is the author of A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz, which was awarded the John Nicholas Brown Prize by the Medieval Academy of America, and of the forthcoming "O Beastly Jew!" Jews, Animals, and Jewish Animals in the Middle Ages.

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At Northwestern, David's course offerings include surveys of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim relations from antiquity to the present; a course on the Crusades and their modern legacy; a seminar on the history of the Blood Libel; an intensive class on Jewish law and legal theory; and a popular class on "Monsters, the Supernatural, and the Occult in the Jewish Tradition." In the aftermath of October 7, 2023, David developed a course called "What is Antisemitism?" that has attracted students from across the university in search of historical perspectives about contemporary political debates, including the contested relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. His teaching has been recognized with several awards, including a spot on Northwestern's student-selected "Faculty Honor Roll." 

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David's teaching extends beyond the university campus. He is a frequent Scholar in Residence in synagogues, churches, and communal institutions, and served for several years as Director of Education (Rosh Chinuch) at Camp Moshava in Wild Rose, WI. In 2022, he developed and implemented an immersive six-week medieval Jewish history educational curriculum at Camp Moshava that was awarded a "Special Recognition for Curricular Innovation" at the Medieval Academy of America's 2023 annual meeting at Harvard University.

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David lives with his wife Adina and their four children in Skokie, IL. In his spare time, he is passionate about cooking, cantorial music, marathon running, and coaching the Ida Crown Jewish Academy's championship high school Cross Country team.