Reuven Firestone, Rabbi, PhD has served as associate and then full professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Professor Firestone was educated at Antioch College, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Hebrew Union College where he received his M.A. in Hebrew literature (1980) and Rabbinic Ordination (1982), and New York University where he received his Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies (1988). His research interests include Bible and its exegesis; Qur’an and its exegesis; Religious Phenomenology; comparative religion and religious dialogue.

Firestone was awarded the Yad Hanadiv Research Fellowship at the Hebrew University to conduct research on holy war in Islamic tradition. In 2000, he was awarded the fellowship for independent research from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his research on holy war in Judaism.

Firestone founded the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CMJE), a joint program of Hebrew Union College, the Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Foundation and the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. He serves on numerous committees and commissions on interfaith relations, serves on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly publications and is vice-president of the Association of Jewish Studies. Professor Firestone has lived in Israel, Egypt and Germany and regularly lectures in universities throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. His publications have been translated into German, French, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, Albanian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Indonesian and Urdu.

Publications include: Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis (SUNY Press), Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Oxford University Press), Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims (Ktav), Jews, Christians, Muslims in Dialogue: A Practical Handbook, with Leonard Swidler and Khalid Duran (Twenty-Third Publications) and An Introduction to Islam for Jews (JPS).