Online Chapter
America and Its Jews at 250
Six discussion groups: Tuesdays from 6-7 p.m. EST | On Zoom
September 15, September 29, October 27, November 3, November 24, December 15
Only at Brandeis, only this year: You’re invited into the classroom.
“America and its Jews at 250” examines the evolving meanings of “America” in Jewish history from the colonial period to the present. Moving chronologically, it asks how Jews have understood America as a refuge, republic, covenant, marketplace, battleground, and moral project — and how, in return, Jews have shaped American law, religion, education, politics, gender norms, and global Jewish life.
Study with top Brandeis professors and special guest speakers.
• Examine the history and development of Jewish life in the United States in all of its facets.
• Explore evolving questions of belonging and antisemitism, culture and religion, Israel and migration.
• Probe key questions central to American Jewish life in this 250th-anniversary year.
At the same time as Brandeis undergraduates are taking this course in the classroom, BNC members and other friends of Brandeis are invited to participate in their own online study group.
Attend all six online discussions and receive a certificate of completion from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
Organized by the Brandeis University Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Online program organized by Brandeis National Committee.
Registration will open in August.
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Individual lecture and discussion group
BNC members: $18 per session
Non-members: $20 per session
The September 1 orientation session is free of charge, but you must register in order to receive the Zoom link.
Series price (all six lectures and discussion groups)
BNC members: $95
Non-members: $105
registRATION OPENS IN AUGUST 2026
Become a BNC member (or renew your membership) and register at the member price.
Join Brandeis national committee
Your entire registration fee is a charitable donation to the Brandeis National Committee Fund, which supports BNC chapter operations.
Tickets are non-refundable.
A week before the scheduled discussion group, you will receive an email with a link to the recorded lecture. Watch the lecture at your leisure.
The following Tuesday, join the online discussion group. All discussions are on Tuesdays from 6-7 p.m. EST. You will receive an email with the Zoom link on the day of the discuss
Tuesday, September 1
Orientation: Meet Dr. Dalia Wassner, discussion group co-facilitator, and learn more about the course. There is no charge for the orientation session, but you must register in order to receive the Zoom link.
Tuesday, September 15
Jewish Rights in the Early Republic: Washington's Letter to Newport
Speaker: Jonathan Sarna, ’75, MA’75, H’25, Brandeis University
Learn about George Washington’s letter to the first Jewish congregation in the United States, indicating the Jews’ place as desirable citizens rather than a tolerated minority.
Tuesday, September 29
The People’s Movements: the Yiddish Press and Workers’ Movements
Speaker: Ayelet Brinn
Explore the vibrancy of Yiddish through the press and cultural highlights focusing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Tuesday, October 27
Who Was Louis Brandeis?
Speaker: Michael Willrich, Brandeis University
Learn about the making of Louis Brandeis as a Supreme Court Justice and his personal and professional trajectory as a champion of social justice and a pathbreaking enunciator of Jewish American values.
Tuesday, November 3
Moving into a New Era: Russian Jews and America
Speaker: Shaul Kelner, Vanderbilt University
The U.S. Jewish community has been built by diverse waves of immigrants since before the nation’s founding. This class will focus on the importance and impact of Russian Jewish immigration to the USA, and within the broader context of the global Jewish diaspora.
Tuesday, November 24
Jews in American Popular Culture: Marx Brothers to Miriam Anzovin
Speaker: Samantha Pickette
Join us for a fun and fascinating discussion about the involvement of Jews in entertainment in American popular culture.
Tuesday, December 15
Contemporary Antisemitism and American Jewish Life
Speakers: Flora Cassen, MA'01, and Rachel Fish, PhD'13
What are the conversations that are dominating American Jewish spaces regarding antisemitism in the U.S. today? How do their language, content, and reach affect American Jewish life and institutions? This conversation will also explore how academic and community-led responses can help address antisemitism in both the Jewish community and the public sphere.
Flora Cassen, MA'01 is the inaugural Lavine Family Director of the Brandeis University Center for Jewish Studies and director of the Sarnat Center for the Study of Anti-Jewishness. She holds a faculty appointment in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department at Brandeis. Cassen’s book "Stained Glass: A Reflective History of Antisemitism" was published by the New Jewish Press in 2026. She writes for Haaretz, The Forward, Slate, Aeon, Sources, and Smithsonian Magazine, on topics ranging from antisemitic imagery in European culture to memory, identity, and her own family’s story.
Rachel Fish, PhD '13, serves as director of the Brandeis University President's Initiative on Antisemitism and is an associate research professor at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. She is co-founder and president of Boundless, an independent think-action-tank promoting Israel education and combating Jew-hatred. In addition, she teaches Israeli history and society at The George Washington University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
Shaul Kelner is Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on transnational Jewish solidarity and the intersection of culture and politics in Jewish life. His newest book, "A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews" (NYU Press, 2024) won a National Jewish Book Award. His first book, "Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism" (NYU Press, 2010), won the Association for Jewish Studies’ inaugural Jordan Schnitzer Book Award.
Samantha Pickette is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and the Assistant Director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in American Jewish literature, film, and popular culture and is most interested in the intersection of gender and Jewish identity in representations of American Jewish life. Her work has been published in the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Shofar, and Studies in American Jewish Literature.
Jonathan D. Sarna, ’75, MA’75, H’25, is University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. He also is the past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Author or editor of more than thirty books on American Jewish history and life, his "American Judaism: A History" – recently published in a second edition -- won six awards including the 2004 Everett Jewish Book of the Year Award from the Jewish Book Council. Sarna is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Academy of Jewish Research. His most recent books are "When General Grant Expelled the Jews; Lincoln & the Jews: A History" (with Benjamin Shapell); "Cosella Wayne" by Cora Wilburn, the first (and hitherto unknown) American Jewish novel; and "Coming to Terms with America," a volume of essays, published in separate English and Hebrew editions.
Michael Willrich is the Leff Families Professor of History at Brandeis University. He teaches courses on American political and legal history (from the colonial period to the present), crime and punishment in U.S. history, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and the literature of American history. Willrich is the author of "City of Courts: Socializing Justice in Progressive Era Chicago," about the smallpox epidemics that struck America and its overseas territories around the turn of the twentieth century; and "American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle Between Immigrant Anarchists and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century" (Basic Books, 2023). "American Anarchy" was named a Finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in History.
Dalia Wassner is the director of Jews of the Americas, an initiative of Brandeis University at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. She is the author of "Harbinger of Modernity: Marcos Aguinis and the Democratization of Argentina" (Boston: Brill, 2014), which illuminates the intersecting roles of Jews and public intellectuals in bringing democracy to post-dictatorship Argentina. She guest edited the launch issue of the journal Latin American Jewish Studies (Spring 2022), and her scholarship has been published in numerous academic journals, including Latin American Research Review, Iberian and Latin American Studies, Contemporary Jewry, and Journal of Modern Jewish Studies.
Other Online Study Groups
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LAW STUDY GROUP
Meets on the third Tuesday of every month through December 2026
4-5:30 pm ET / 1-2:30 pm PT
This study group is for attorneys and retired (or semi-retired) judges. Come together with fellow lawyers for exhilarating conversation that will help strengthen your memory into retirement.
For attorneys who miss the intense, intellectual stimulation of discussing issues of legal significance, this is a unique opportunity to participate in diverse conversation with attorneys from around the country.
The group is open to men and women. Potential topics include recent U. S. Supreme Court decisions, appellate cases, pending litigation of significance to the country, as well as non-constitutional issues, including legal-political cross-over issues. There’s no end to topics of contemporary and historic importance to discuss and debate. The group is led by Paul Fisher, a retired mediator/arbitrator/attorney and a member of the Conejo Valley/San Fernando Valley Chapter..
The $25 registration fee is a donation to the BNC Fund.
Questions? Please email facilitator Paul Fisher at poluxe2015@gmail.com
REGISTER FOR THE LAW STUDY GROUP
National Current Events Study Group
Meets on the second Tuesday of every month through December 2026
4-5:30 pm ET / 1-2:30 pm PT
Share your opinion and hear a diversity of opinions from BNC members around the country.
Topics are proposed and voted on by members a week before each meeting. Group protocols support stimulating discussion without interruptions. Everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. The group is led by Paul Fisher, a retired mediator/arbitrator/attorney and a member of the Conejo Valley/San Fernando Valley Chapter.
The $25 registration fee is a donation to the BNC Fund.
Questions? Please email facilitator Paul Fisher at poluxe2015@gmail.com
register for the national current events study group
Thursday, May 28, 2026
6 pm Eastern / 3 pm Pacific and Mountain
On Zoom
Join author Stephen McCauley for a conversation about his recent novel "You Only Call When You're in Trouble" and how he finds the humor in complex, demanding families.
About the speaker: Stephen McCauley is the author of eight novels, three of which have been made into feature films. The New York Times Book Review dubbed him “the secret love child of Edith Wharton and Woody Allen,” and the French Ministry of Culture named him a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. McCauley is Professor of the Practice of English and co-director of the Creative Writing Program at Brandeis University.
Your $18 registration fee is a tax-deductible contribution to the Brandeis National Committee fund.
Register here.
Previous Online Chapter Events