Richard A. Freund

Dr. Richard A. Freund is the Maurice Greenberg Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. Professor Freund has directed over a dozen archaeological projects on behalf of the University of Hartford in Israel, including sites associated with the beginnings of Christianity and Judaism at Nazareth, Bethsaida, the Cave of Letters, Yavne and Qumran (site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls). In addition, he has directed projects on behalf of the University of Hartford in Spain (2 sites), Poland (3 sites), Rhodes, Greece (four sites) and Lithuania (15 sites in Lithuania).

Dr. Freund’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Time magazine, Reader’s Digest, Newsweek, Archaeology, three major articles in Smithsonian magazine and featured on the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and Fox News and in hundreds of media outlets worldwide.

His work is featured in 20 television documentaries from National Geographic, CNN, Discovery, History Channel and PBS. His most recent work in Lithuania has been chronicled in a recent NOVA PBS science series episode: “Holocaust Escape Tunnel” on the new discoveries made in the Ponar burial pits and the Great Synagogue of Vilna, Lithuania that has been seen around the world. His most recent work on “The Good Nazi” was viewed [in Hebrew] on April, 2018 on Israeli TV for Holocaust Memorial Day and will be on US and Canadian TV for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

Dr. Freund is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and twelve books (written or co-edited) including: Digging through History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012; paperback 2016). In spring, 2019 his 12th book was published: Archaeology of the Holocaust: Vilna, Rhodes, and Escape Tunnels (Rowman &Littlefield, 2019).