Berkley Center

David Novak has held the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies as professor of the study of religion and professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto since 1997. From 1997 to 2002 he also was director of the Jewish Studies Programme. Previously, Novak taught at the University of Virginia, Oklahoma City University, Old Dominion University, the New School for Social Research, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Baruch College of the City University of New York. Novak was an associate scholar with the Berkley Center's Religious Freedom Project from 2011 through 2013. He is the author of 16 books, including The Sanctity of Human Life (2007) and In Defense of Religious Liberty (2009). From 1966 to 1969 he was Jewish chaplain to St. Elizabeth's Hospital and the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C.