Berenbaum, who is Jewish, was born in
Newark, New Jersey. He graduated from
Queens College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 and received his doctorate from
Florida State University in 1975. He also attended
The Hebrew University, the
Jewish Theological Seminary and
Boston University. Berenbaum received Rabbinic ordination (
Orthodox) by Rabbi Yaakov Rabin at the age of 23. Berenbaum held teaching posts at
Florida State University,
Yale University,
Georgetown University,
Wesleyan University,
George Washington University, the
University of Maryland, College Park, and
American University, and is currently a Professor of Jewish Studies at the
American Jewish University (Los Angeles). He is the author and editor of eighteen books, including
After Tragedy and Triumph, a study of the state of American Jewry in the early 1990s, as well as
The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust, and
Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. He co-edited
After The Passion is Gone: American Religious Consequences, an examination of the social impact of the film
After the Passion is Gone, with Shawn Landres (2004). Berenbaum and
Landres took a public role in shaping the interreligious response to the film. Berenbaum was the Executive Editor of the Second edition of the
New Encyclopedia Judaica, which comprised 25,000 entries over 22 volumes. It won the
Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association for outstanding reference work for the year 2006. Berenbaum co-produced
One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissmann Klein Story, a film which was recognized with an
Academy Award, an
Emmy Award, and the
Cable ACE Award. He was the chief historical consultant for
Last Days, which also won an
Academy Award in 1998. In 2001, Berenbaum was historical consultant for the
History Channel's The Holocaust: The Untold Story, which won the
CINE Golden Eagle Award and a silver medal at the US International Film and Video Festival. He was also Executive Producer of a film entitled
Desperate Hours about the unique and rarely acknowledged role The Republic of Turkey played in rescuing Jews from Nazi Germany's final solution and "About Face: The Story of The Jewish Refugee Soldiers of WWII." Berenbaum was executive producer of
Swimming in Auschwitz and was a consultant for
Defiance and
Uprising, among other Holocaust-related films and documentaries. Berenbaum is the founding partner of Berenbaum Jacobs Associates, a firm that designs museums, special exhibitions, memorials and educational centers. In 2019 and 2020 he served as a history consultant for the Serbian historical drama film
Dara of Jasenovac. ==Personal life==