Professor Jonathan M. Hess

Professor Jonathan M. Hess (May 30, 1965 – April 9, 2018) was an American philologist and literary scholar who served as chair of the Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures Department and director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill[1]. He was the Moses M. and Hannah L. Malkin Distinguished Professor of Jewish History and Culture at UNC and authored works including Deborah and Her Sisters: How One Nineteenth-Century Melodrama and a Host of Celebrated Actresses Put Judaism on the World Stage[2][3]. Hess died suddenly on April 9, 2018, after leading the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies for its first 10 years[1][7].