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Please scroll down to learn more about current HBI projects and events. From challenging stereotypes of Jewish women through our annual calendar project to advancing gender equality by working through conflicts between women's rights and religious law, we invite you to explore our website and experience the impact of the HBI.


Jewish women artists, scholars, writers, and communal professionals across the world are supported and transformed through the work of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.



Upcoming Deadlines

HBI Research Award Program 2010

Application Deadline: September 15, 2010

The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute awards annual research grants to support interdisciplinary research on topics concerning Jewish gender studies. Scholars, activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists who are pursuing projects on broad questions of significance to the study of Jewish gender issues and/or Jewish women may apply.

Click here for application guidelines and more information.

Rosalie Katchen Travel Grant

Application Deadline: October 30, 2010

The Rosalie Katchen Travel Grant is available to junior scholars presenting papers exploring topics related to Jewish women and gender issues at the Association of Jewish Studies Annual Meeting. Scholars who completed their dissertation within the past five years are invited to apply.

Grants are made as travel reimbursement for expenses up to $250 following the AJS meeting (upon submission of an original receipt).

Click here for application guidelines and more information.


HBI Artist in Residency Program March 2011

Extended Application Deadline: October 1, 2010

This residency provides artists the opportunity to be in residence at Brandeis University while working on a significant artistic project in the field of Jewish women's and gender studies, and to produce an exhibit for the Kniznick Gallery at the Women's Studies Research Center (WSRC) at Brandeis University. The residency will be 3 - 4 weeks in length, and will take place in March. The exhibit will immediately follow and be on view for a minimum of 8 weeks.

Click here for application guidelines and more information.


New HBI Publications







If a Tree Falls

Jennifer Rosner's revelatory memoir explores family, silence, and what it means to be heard. When her daughters are born deaf, Rosner is stunned. Then she discovers a hidden history of deafness in her family, going back generations to the Jewish enclaves of Eastern Europe. Traveling back in time, she imagines her silent relatives, who showed surprising creativity in dealing with a world that preferred to ignore them. Rosner shares her journey into the modern world of deafness, and the controversial decisions she and her husband have made about hearing aids, cochlear implants and sign language. An imaginative odyssey, punctuated by memories of being unheard, Rosner's story of her daughters' deafness is at heart a story of whether she—a mother with perfect hearing—will hear her children.

Read on.








The Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education, 1910-1965

The first volume to examine the contributions of women who brought the forces of American progressivism and Jewish nationalism to formal and informal Jewish education The conventional history of Jewish education in the United States focuses on the contributions of Samson Benderly and his male disciples. This volume tells a different story—the story of the women who either influenced or were influenced by Benderly or his closest friend, Mordecai Kaplan. Through ten portraits, the contributors illuminate the impact of these unheralded women who introduced American Jews to Hebraism and Zionism and laid the foundation for contemporary Jewish experiential education. Taken together, these ten portraits illuminate the important and hitherto unexamined contribution of women to the development of American Jewish education.
Read on.


Past Sponsored Events

Gender and Jewish Identity Conference

Date: June 2-3, 2010
Place: Bar Ilan University, The Feldman International Conference Center

This conference, sponsored by the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center for the Study of Women in Judaism together with the Gender Studies Program, the Emanuel Rackman Center at Bar Ilan University and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, brings together scholars from diverse fields to discuss research related to gender and Jewish identity. Presenters will address Jewish women's identity within a range of topics: Jewish and gendered identity in Ethiopian theatre; North American cinema; ultra-orthodox, orthodox and secular educational and cultural environments; rabbinic and medieval texts; as part of historical changes such as secularization and in the area of religious ritual and legislation. The keynote speaker will be Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman of Brandeis University.

For details please contact: jwmn@mail.biu.ac.il or visit: www.biu.ac.il/js/jwmn




Check out the current issue of 614 the HBI E-Zine!




Taking Jewish Music Mainstream
Jewish music can be described in many wonderful ways, but "cool" isn't typically one of them. So Aaron Bisman, CEO of JDub Records, had his hands full when he set out to promote artists creating uniquely Jewish content (with Jewish texts, melodies, stories, or ideas). Bisman is rising to the challenge—creating an internationally recognized brand and getting Jewish voices into mainstream culture. This month, we partnered with JDub and bring you three of their incredible women musicians who are making Jewish music that is smart, provocative, and most decidedly cool.
Read on.




Established at Brandeis University in 1997 with major funding from Hadassah, our work
is further made possible through the generous support of individuals and foundations.
Your contributions make it possible for HBI to continue our innovative programs impacting
scholars, artists, and the community.


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