Hunter
11/24/25
Beloved religious studies professor at the University of Iowa, Jay Holstein, has passed away.
He was 87 when he died in Ames after a brief illness on November 14th.
According to a post on the Iowa Now website, Holstein joined Iowa in 1970 as an assistant professor in the School of Religion and was appointed the first J. J. Mallon Chair in Judaic Studies in 1982, a position that was reaffirmed in 2007. His scholarship centered on the Hebrew Bible, and he published widely on literature and the Jewish experience. He was ordained as a rabbi after receiving an MA with honors from Hebrew Union College in New York City in 1966, and went on to earn his Ph.D from Hebrew College in Cincinnati in 1970.
His contributions earned numerous honors, including the President and Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the Medallion for Distinguished Service. In 2020, the UI honored Holstein for 50 years of teaching with the event Jay Holstein: A Golden Legacy of Learning, which drew a record audience for his commemorative lecture.
The Gazette reports “Quest for Human Destiny” was among Holstein’s most popular courses — spawning a Quest II. He also taught courses on “The Bible and the Holocaust,” “The Bible in Film,” and “The Bible and the Sacrifice of Animals.”
Holstein officially retired in 2022 but continued teaching online courses as an emeritus professor.
Link to the Iowa Now article: https://clas.uiowa.edu/news/2025/11/beloved-iowa-professor-jay-holstein-dies-87
Link to Holstein’s obituary: https://obits.legacy.com/legacy/jay-holstein