Alan Cooper (biblical scholar)

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Alan Cooper is an American religious scholar and former musician. He served as the provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), a leading institution for Jewish studies and Conservative Judaism, and he holds the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies at JTS.

Cooper earned a BA from Columbia College in 1971 and went on to Yale University, where he earned an MPhil and a PhD in religious studies. Before his academic career, he was a singer with the band Sha Na Na and performed as the lead singer on “At the Hop” at Woodstock. He also appeared on The Tonight Show and The Merv Griffin Show.

He has taught at McMaster University and Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1997, he joined the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1998, he was named Professor of Bible at Union Theological Seminary in New York, becoming the first person to hold a joint professorship at Union and JTS, a move that strengthened ties between the two schools.