Judah, Jay Stillson

J. Stillson Judah was the librarian at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, Calif. from 1966-1976. He also served as Professor, History of Religions at GTU from 1969 until his retirement in 1976. Dr. Judah was a pioneer in the scholarly study of New Religious Movements in the 1960s-1970s. He collected materials about many cults and religious movements including Hare Krishna, ISKCON, Jews for Jesus and the Unification Church.

Biography

J. Stillson Judah was born on July 7, 1911 in Leavenworth, WA. He received an A.B. in Philosophy and Oriental Studies from the University of Washington in 1934 and did his graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in both 1940-1941 and in 1966-1969. He received his Library Certificate from the University of California in 1941. He served in Japan from 1945-46 as Japanese language interpreter for the 5th Fleet. In 1941-1969, he served at the librarian at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. He was the editor and compiler of Index to Religious Periodical Literature from 1949-1952. Under his leadership, seven separate seminary library collections were integrated into the Graduate Theological Union Common Library. He became GTU's first librarian in 1966. He also served as Professor, History of Religions at GTU from 1969 until his retirement in 1976.

Dr. Judah received many honors for his work. He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1956, the Faculty Fellowship of the American Association of Theological Schools (Sealantic Fund) in 1957-1958 and received his Litt. D. Degree from Chapman College in 1956. As an active participant in the religious freedom movement of the 1960's and 1970's he was also active in the Alliance for the Preservation of Religious Liberty serving as the Vice-Chairman for a number of years.

Dr. Judah was a pioneer in the early scholarly study of New Religious Movements in Berkeley in the 1970's, writing many articles and papers about the various groups. He published Jehovah's Witnesses and History and Philosophy of the Metaphysical Movement in 1964. In 1974, Hare Krishna and the Counterculture was published. Among the book chapters and articles that he wrote were several that were seminal in the field of New Religious Movements.

Dr. Judah died on October 9, 2000.