The Tauber Institute
for the Study of European Jewry

The Tauber Institute organizes numerous lectures throughout the academic year to keep Brandeis faculty and staff abreast of current research and trends in all fields of Jewish Studies. In addition, the Tauber Institute also organizes thematically-based lecture series designed to provide students and academics with a more in-depth look at a particular area of scholarly inquiry.  Most recently, the Tauber Institute put together lecture series on the relatively new fields of Israel Studies and Sephardi Studies.

Simon Rawidowicz (1896-1957) was a student of Jewish philosophy; an innovative thinker who formulated a comprehensive philosophy of the Jewish experience; an original cultural-national theoretician; a deeply committed Hebraist; a prolific essayist and editor; and the founder of two publishing houses. Rawidowicz earned his Ph.D in Philosophy in 1926 in Berlin. He came to Brandeis in 1951, and served as Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Hebrew Literature, and first chair of the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies until his death in 1957. The range of distinguished scholars who have delivered the Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture - from Bible to Contemporary Jewish Studies - attests to the breadth of Rawidowicz's erudition and interests.

Immanuel Etkes is the Bella and Israel Unterberg Professor of History of the Jewish People and Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. A prolific author, Etkes has published in Hebrew several works on major religious movements in the modem period including Hasidism and the Musar movement. He has published critically acclaimed monographs on the lives of major Jewish religious figures, including the The Gaon of Vilna: The Man and His Image (UC Press, 2002) and The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader (Brandeis University Press, 2005).

Reception to follow 

The Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture has been generously supported by the Valya and Robert Shapiro Endowment, the Martin Weiner Fund for Distinguished Lecturers, and the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Gift Fund.

For more information and directions, visit www.brandeis.edu/tauber or call 781-736-2125 or 781-736-2950.