Rate My Professor William Kramer

William Kramer served as professor of religion and art in the Religious Studies department at California State University, Northridge, beginning in 1969 and continuing for two decades. A distinguished scholar and rabbi, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science and history and a master's degree in school administration and social work from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. He received a Master of Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City and a doctorate in art and archaeology with an emphasis on Bible lands from Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Kramer also held a law degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, practiced as an attorney, and served as scholar of residence at law firms including Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp and Fisher and Moest in Century City, contributing to successful briefs before the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court on church-state relations cases. Ordained as a rabbi in 1944, he led Temple Beth Emet in Burbank for over 30 years and served other congregations across the United States.

At CSUN, Kramer taught courses including Judaism, Hebrew scriptures, religion in America, and religion and art, and he established the Jewish Studies program. His research interests encompassed Jewish history, theology, art, philosophy, and the religious experience in the American West. A prolific author and editor, he co-edited the Western States Jewish History Quarterly with Norton B. Stern for three decades and authored books such as The American Religious Experience, The Western Diary of Isaac Mayer Wise, and San Francisco’s Artist Toby Rosenthal (1978). He contributed articles to scholarly journals, Jewish magazines, and legal publications, wrote a weekly column for the Jewish Heritage newspaper, and completed a manuscript on Albert Einstein’s sojourn in Southern California during the 1930s. Kramer also taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, University of Judaism, USC, UCLA, and Los Angeles City College, enriching academic discourse in Theology and related fields through his interdisciplinary expertise.