Amherst professor among Forward 50

In my quick perusal of the Forward's annual list of the most influential Jews in America, I missed a couple of local figures.

The Forward 50 this year includes Ilan Stavans (left), a professor of Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College. The Forward said of Stavans:

"Scholars want to be judged by the quality, not the quantity, of their work, but in the case of Mexican-born literary critic Ilan Stavans, the numbers are inescapable. Simply put, the range and volume of his writing and expertise — and influence — are astonishing. A tenured professor of Latin American and Latino literature at Amherst College, Stavans has areas of interest that range from Latin American Jewry to Spanish and Yiddish literature, the immigrant experience, the evolution of language and the cultural role of dictionaries. At 47, he has written no fewer than 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, three of them in 2008, and edited 14 more, including definitive anthologies of Pablo Neruda's poetry and Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories. Three more of his books are due out by the summer of 2009, notably a groundbreaking, 2,000-page anthology of Latino literature. For all that, he's not simply a collector of dry facts. His theories of language are hotly debated around the world. He hosted his own PBS talk show for five years and helped stage-manage the 2004 I.B. Singer centenary celebrations (including a special section in the Forward). But nothing captures his complexity better than his latest books: a study of the modern rebirth of Hebrew and a graphic novel titled "Mr. Spic Goes to Washington." Yes, one man can move worlds."

The list also includes Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, who while an undergrad at Brandeis chaired the Massachusetts College Republicans.

(Photo of Ilan Stavans was taken in 2004 by Robert E. Klein for the Boston Globe.)