Pursuing a doctorate in religious studies is a tough task requiring years of study. It’s even tougher when you’ve grown up under state-sponsored atheism in the Soviet Union, lived in largely Jewish Israel and are now studying in the melting pot that is the United States.

This fall a man who has done all that and more, Serge Frolov, will fill the newly endowed Levine Chair in Jewish studies at SMU.

Born in Leningrad during the communist era, Frolov experienced the hardships while growing up Jewish in a country that was officially atheist.

“I’ve been interested in religion since my undergraduate years,” Frolov said. “In the Soviet Union in those years there was no such thing as religious studies. I only got an overview of religion in one course.”

Unable to study his ideal field, he received a master’s degree and doctorate in modern history from Leningrad University in the 1980s. Even with his education, he had little chance of getting a teaching job because of his faith.

“The best I could get was a library job,” Frolov said. “All Jews were under suspicion.”

During the late ’80s, he sensed that the Soviet Union’s stability was threatened and feared a civil war. He decided to emigrate with his wife and son to a new country where life would not be as hard.

“Economically, I knew it would be hard for years and years, especially for people who only know how to research,” Frolov said. “Most of my friends and family who stayed behind and are not in businesses like installing reinforced doors in apartments are not doing so well.”

Frolov chose Israel because of its history and the fact that it was easier to emigrate there than the United States. He speaks a dozen languages today, but didn’t know a word of Hebrew when he moved. It took him a year to learn the language while he was an academic editor of a Russian-language Jewish encyclopedia. He said the country’s atmosphere today has changed since the early and mid-’90s when he lived there.

“I don’t remember being afraid,” Frolov said. “But I’m scared now for my friends and family. When you learn only from the news, it’s all about suicide bombings. They don’t tell about ordinary life and routine.”

In Israel, Frolov couldn’t continue his career in modern history because his studies concentrated on Jamaica and there wasn’t much interest for the island there. After a year, he took part in a program for newly arrived Russian-speaking intellectuals on religious studies.

“It was very profound, where I got the feeling that this was what I would like to do,” Frolov said.

He started writing and publishing articles and began to think about a career studying Hebrew scripture. The University of Israel invited him to formulate a Russian language program. However, he had trouble studying Judaism academically.

“The problem was that I couldn’t develop in Israel,” Frolov said. “It’s a small country and there are more than enough experts in the Hebrew Bible. When trying to get into a Ph.D. program, they would say that I already have a Ph.D. When I asked if I could get a job teaching the Hebrew Bible without a Jewish studies Ph.D., they said no.”

Frolov and his family made their first visit to the United States when he arrived at Claremont Graduate University in California in 2000. He got a second master’s degree, this time in religion, in 2001, and received his second Ph.D. in May of this year. Just as he was nearing the end of his studies, SMU put out the call for a scholar to fill the new chairman position.

Religious studies Chairman Richard Cogley said the selection committee chose Frolov for a number of reasons.

“He has a very interesting personal background. We anticipate he’ll become a major scholar in the Hebrew Bible and his knowledge of post-Biblical history,” Cogley said.

A $1.25 million gift from Dallas residents Nate and Ann Levine will pay Frolov’s salary as well as promote the study of Judaism in Dallas. Cogley said the three main responsibilities of the Levine Chairman would be to teach SMU students, research and work with the community – primarily by giving lectures off campus.

“We’re so happy he’s coming,” Cogley said. “We’re grateful the Levines gave the money and now we have a specialist in every tradition except for Hinduism.”

Frolov is unique because even before receiving his Ph.D., he published a number of papers with reinterpretations of books in the Bible. New ideas tend to be hard to come by, considering the Bible isn’t a very big book and has been studied critically for 200 years.

“You can never say a final word about the Hebrew Bible or any text,” Frolov said. “Every generation discovers something. In Hebrew, there is a word, ‘hydush.’ It means ‘new interpretation.’ It’s highly valued and that’s what I’m really good at.”

The Levine Chair is the religious studies department’s first endowed chair. Frolov will teach classes that deal specifically with the Hebrew Bible or Jewish issues.

“I’m very excited, and I hope that Jewish and non-Jewish students will take advantage of him,” said Jewish Students Association President Julia Aronson, a junior psychology major. “I’m going to become a rabbi, so it’s going to be unbelievable.”

Frolov will begin teaching when school starts in Aug. He said he looks forward to his new job.

“The Hebrew Bible and the Talmud have been studied scientifically for 200 years and some think that every word has been studied,” Frolov said. “But when you look and find new angles, that’s the real fun of scholarship.”