Jews of the Americas Spring 2025 Events

Photo Credit: Lior Neiger
Upcoming Events
March 18, 2024
Professor Raanan Rein and Professor Federico Finchelstein7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Mandel Center Forum, Brandeis University
Event with book signing and dessert reception to follow
We welcome Professor Federico Finchelstein of the New School in New York, to join in conversation with JOTA Visiting Professor Raanan Rein. They will speak about Argentine President Javier Milei’s unique and notable public attitude to Judaism and the State of Israel and the the broader conversation about current right-wing populist movements in the Americas and Europe.
Their latest books, Las Fuerzas del Cielo: Argentina, Milei y los Judíos and The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy, will be available for sale during a dessert reception and book signing.
Free and open to the public.
Register to join in person or to receive a recording of the event.
Featured Speakers

Raanan Rein is a Visting Scholar at CMJS as part of the Brandeis Initiative on the Jews of the Americas. He is the Elías Sourasky Professor of Latin American and Spanish History and former Vice President of Tel Aviv University. He is a member of Argentina’s Academia de Historia and ex-President of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA). Rein is the author of numerous books, including Jewish Self Defense in South America (2023); Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina (2020); and Fútbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina (2015).

Federico Finchelstein is Professor of History at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College. Finchelstein is Director of the Janey Program in Latin American Studies at NSSR. He is the author of eight books on fascism, populism, Dirty Wars, the Holocaust and Jewish history in Latin America and Europe. His latest book is The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy (University of CA Press).
Past Events

February 24, 2025
Professor Raanan Rein12:30 PM ET
Mandel Center for the Humanities, 3rd Floor, Room 328
Professor Rein discussed the participation of Jews from the Yishuv who fought on the side of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War.
This event was cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the Jews of the Americas (JOTA) initiative of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.