Arnold (Arnie) Eisen is a Jewish Studies scholar in the sociology of religion who received his doctorate in the History of Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1986 he joined the faculty at Stanford University, there he chaired the Department of Religious Studies and served as Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion. In 2006 he was appointed Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Eisen’s publications include Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America (1997), which addresses the renewal of Jewish Community and commitment in America through a series of five essays built around the Five Books of Moses; a historical work about the origins of contemporary dilemmas concerning the issues entitles Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual Commandment Community (1998); and The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America (2000) co-authored with sociologist Steve M. Cohen (2000), which examines the meanings of Judaism and Jewish belonging to contemporary American Jews.