• Judaic studies
• Rabbinic law
• Mishnah and Talmud

Roger Brooks holds the Elie Wiesel Chair in Judaic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies. He was appointed Associate Dean of the Faculty effective July, 2003 and Dean of the Faculty in July, 2007.

His work has focused on Judaic tax law in antiquity, and on bringing matters of Judaic legal theology before the general community. He is an active lecturer and teacher, and a popular guest speaker.

Professor Brooks has taught widely, including the department of Religious Studies introductory course, The Study of Religion, plus courses on the Hebrew Bible; Judaism as a Religion; The Holocaust; Jerusalem; and Religion and the Martial Arts.

Brooks' book, The Spirit of the Ten Commandments: Shattering the Myth of Rabbinic Legalism, demonstrates that underlying the long legal tradition in Judaism is a deep spirituality found in submission to God's rules. The volume has been called "a lively interpretation," and has been described as "especially useful to those whose perspective on the Jewish legal tradition has been shaped by the centuries of distortions particularly within the Christian churches."

Brooks has also published several volumes of translation and commentary on foundational Jewish texts, including The Talmud of the Land of Israel: Tractate Peah (on Poor Relief) and Tractate Maaser Sheni (on Second Tithe) (volumes 2 and 8 in the University of Chicago Press series). He has also published a text commentary on the Mishnaic tractate Peah, and the early midrash compilation Sifre, and is a contributor to the Yale University Press translation, The Mishnah.

Brooks has been an active member of the academic community, having served on the advisory boards of the Humanity in Action Foundation and of the Dialogue on Democracy run by the Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation. The Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation's purpose is to commemorate the rescue of Danish Jews in World War II. He has been on the board of editors of the journal Shofar, and was chair of the Society of Biblical Literature section of Early Rabbinic Judaism.

Professor Brooks has a long-term relationship with The Holocaust Educational Foundation (www.holocaustef.org). He received travel grants for their eastern European study trip in 1990 and 1994. In 1995 he became a faculty member for the HEF Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization, where he holds the Mills Family Chair. The Institute helps prepare professors and advanced graduate students to teach college courses on the Holocaust.

Each summer, Brooks teaches a group of 30-45 professors and graduate students an overview of Judaism, to help assure that the Holocaust isn't seen simply as a study of the mechanisms of death, but also as a critical loss to world culture. In addition, in 1998, the Summer Institute was taught in Moscow, where Brooks spent a month working with a group of 35 professors from all across the former Soviet Union.

Brooks also oversees the Connecticut College Saul Reinfeld Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies and the Miriam Melrod Lecture in Jewish Identity.

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