Professor Astren Steps Down as Department of Jewish Studies Chair

J. (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Fred Astren has retired as chair of the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University, but will continue to teach courses at SFSU for one semester a year for the next five years. Astren, 65, is writing a book on Mediterranean Jews in the early Middle Ages; as a scholar, he has focused on Jewish history under Islam, Jewish-Muslim relations and the Karaite Jewish sect.