Seminar on Contemporary Jewish Life

"Can We Talk?":  Rethinking the Jewish-American Princess in the Era of Peak TV

January 10, 2024

• Samantha Pickette, Brandeis Hillel
• Moderator: Jonathan Krasner, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

What is Zionism?

February 14, 2024

• Matt Boxer, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute
• Moderator: Yehudah Mirsky, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Reclaiming Ashkenazi Sound Through Movement

April 10, 2024

• Hadar Ahuvia, Artist in Residence, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
• Moderator: Alexander Kaye, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

When Bettelheim and Kohlberg Met on Kibbutz: The Past Allure of Kibbutz to American Social Scientists

May 8, 2024

• Joe Reimer, Associate Professor Emeritus of Jewish Education, the Education Program and Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program
• Moderator: Jon Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Antisemitism and Contemporary Jewish Life

November 8, 2023

• Rachel Fish, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies
• Laura Jockusch, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
• Jonathan Sarna, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
• Eugene Sheppard, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
• Sabine von Mering, Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literature
• Graham Wright, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies
• Moderator: Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

Learning Hebrew in the Era of "New Bilingualism": Understanding Students' Acquisition of Biblical Hebrew

December 13, 2023 

• Ziva Hassenfeld, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
• Moderator: Shayna Weiss, Schusterman Center Israel Studies

The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the American Jewish Community: Using Data to Inform Policy

March 18 - Cancelled

• Moria Ran Ben Hai, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
• Moderator: Ziva Hassenfeld, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Education Program

April 29

Zoom session

Those Who Can, Teach: Preparing Teachers for Jewish Day Schools in the 21st Century

• Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education
• Moderator: Danielle Igra, Education Program

May 13

Zoom session

What We’ve Learned about Jewish Grandparenting in Interfaith Families

• Ruth Nemzoff, Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center
• Moderator: Ellen Smith, Hornstein Program

October 30

We’ll Cross that Bridge When We Come to It: Life Stage and the Needs of Interfaith Couples

• Fern Chertok, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

• Moderator: Jonathan B. Krasner

November 20

What Can We Learn from American Jewish Involvement in the 20th c. Mexican Cultural Renaissance?

• Dalia Wassner, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

• Moderator: Mark Rosen

December 4

Who Do We Want People to Become through Jewish Education?

• Bill Robinson, Visiting Scholar, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

• Moderator: Avi Bernstein-Nahar, Director

January 16

Honoring Our Founding Values at Brandeis: A CJL Conversation

President Liebowitz created a Task Force on Honoring Our Founding Values at Brandeis. In this special session, we invited the CJL community to an open conversation of several of the key questions that the task force was considering.

February 13

Before Wild Things: Maurice Sendak and the Postwar Jewish American Child as Queer Insider-Outsider

• Golan Moskowitz, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

• Moderator: Jonathan Krasner, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

March 27

Next Year in Jerusalem in Contemporary American Haggadot

• Jonathan Sarna, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS)

• Moderator: Susanne Shavelson, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

April 10

How Many Jews? The American Jewish Community in 2018

• Len Saxe, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

• Moderator: Stephanie Sanger-Miller, Brandeis Hillel

May 8

The Pursuit of Jewish Literacy in Jewish Education

• Jon A. Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and NEJS

• Moderator: Yehudah Mirsky, NEJS

October 17

Re-examining Relevance in the Jewish Studies Classroom

• Ziva Hassenfeld, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

• Moderator: Matt Boxer, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

November 7

Jewish Identity: Shaping the Future Together at Brandeis

• Barry Shrage, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

• Moderator: Jon Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

December 5

Crazy Rich Haredim: Religion, Money, and Love in Israeli Television

• Shayna Weiss, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

• Moderator: Marci Borenstein, Office of Precollege Programs

February 1

Beyond Ten Days: The Long-Term Impact of Birthright Israel

• Leonard Saxe, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

• Moderator: Sharon Feiman Nemser, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

February 28

Hebrew, Jewish Overnight Camps, and the Summer Shlichim Program

• Jonathan Krasner, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

• Sharon Avni, City University of New York

• Moderator: Joe Reimer, Education Program and Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

March 7

Whence Orthodox Feminism? Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Religious Change in the United States

• Michelle Shain, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

• Moderator: Ziva R. Hassenfeld, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

March 21

Join Our Family: A Halakhic Conversion Policy for Our Time

• Zvi Zohar, Bar-Ilan University

• Moderator: David Ellenson, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

May 9

American Christian Zionism: Beyond the Bible

• Walker Robins, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

October 4

Studying Contemporary Jewish Life: the Brandeis Agenda for 2017–2018

• David Ellenson, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

• Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI)

• Jon A. Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

• Len Saxe, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

October 25

How Jewish Law Changes: The Case of Assisted Reproductive Technologies

• Benjamin Samuels, Cong. Shaarei Tefillah

• Moderator: Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, HBI

December 6

Pursuing Fluency in Tanakh: An Intervention Study in a Seventh Grade Classroom

• Ziva Reimer Hassenfeld, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

January 19

Special event – The 2016 Presidential Election and the Jewish Community: A Brandeis Conversation

For the Jewish community, the election raised a particular set of questions, around anti-Semitism and the rise of the alt-right, around minority and immigrant rights, around domestic and foreign policy including Israel and the middle east, and most fundamentally, around the health of our democratic institutions and our democratic culture.

Many of these questions are also the focus of other conversations, as they should be. But this event provided a space for the Brandeis Jewish community, in particular, as well as friends and colleagues from outside the Jewish community.

January 25

Part of the “How Contemporary Jews Read Texts” series.

•  Richard Silberman, Office of the Provost: “How Postmodern Jewish Adults Deconstruct Torah”

• Jon A. Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS): “When Young Jewish Adults Encounter Biblical Criticism”
• Moderator: Yehudah Mirsky, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and NEJS

February 8

Part of the “How Contemporary Jews Read Texts” series.

• Elyse Winick, Combined Jewish Philanthropies: “Five Kinds of Lizards: Opening Traditional Text to the Nontraditional”

• Ariel Pardo, Brandeis Hillel: “How Young Contemporary Jews Study in the Brandeis Beis Medrash”

• Moderator: Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and NEJS

March 22

236 Autobiographies of Life in Germany Before & After 1933

• Eugene Sheppard, NEJS

• Moderator: Rachel Fish, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

May 3

What We Now Know about the Jews of Boston

• Len Saxe, Janet Aronson, and Matt Boxer, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

• Moderator: Ellen Smith, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

October 26

Part of the “How Contemporary Jews Read Texts” series.

• Iddo Haklai, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS) and Schusterman Center for Israel Studies: How Contemporary Secular Israelis Read Texts

• Diane Tickton Schuster, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education: How American Jewish Adults Read Texts

November 30

Part of the “How Contemporary Jews Read Texts” series.

• Ronit Ir-Shai, Rikki Shapira and Avishalom Westreich, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute: The Intersection of Religious Law, Family and Gender in Israel Today

This special CJL session was hosted by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

December 14

Part of the “How Contemporary Jews Read Texts” series.

• Charlie Schwartz, Precollege Programs: “How American Jewish Adolescents Read Texts”

• Ziva Reimer Hassenfeld, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education: “How American Jewish Schoolchildren Read Texts”

January 27

Learning to do Shabbat at Camp

• Joseph Reimer, Education and Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Programs

• Moderator: Jon A. Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

February 24

A National Study of Chabad on Campus: Preliminary Findings

• Mark Rosen, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

• Discussants: Elyse Winick, Brandeis Hillel; Peretz Chein, Chabad of Brandeis

April 6

Race, Religion, Food and Community: Doing Public History in Mattapan, MA

• Sara Shostak, Sociology

• Moderator: Ellen Smith, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

May 4

Orthodoxies Then and Now: What the Controversies in the 1860s Tell Us about the Controversies Today

• David Ellenson, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

September 30

Critical Connections: How Families and Social Circles Shape American Jewish Individuals and Societies

• Sylvia Barack Fishman, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS) and Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI)

• Moderator: Jon A. Levisohn, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education

October 28

Millennial Children of Intermarriage: Touchpoints and Trajectories

• Fern Chertok, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

• Introductory remarks: Len Saxe, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

• Moderator: Sylvia Barack Fishman, NEJS and HBI

December 9

Making Sense of Contemporary Israeli Culture: A Look Back at the Last 30 Years of Literature, Television and Film

• Ari Ofengenden, NEJS and Hebrew Program

• Moderator: Rachel Fish, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

February 25

Encounters with Anti-Semitism: Jewish Feminists and the Feminist Movement

• Joyce Antler, American Studies

March 25

Jews Who Choose for Twos: Exploring the Demographic of Families with Young Children

• Mark Rosen, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

April 15

On the Origins and Persistence of the Jewish Identity Industry in Jewish Education

Celebrating Jonathan Krasner’s Appointment to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Chair in Jewish Education Research

• Jonathan Krasner, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

October 22

Why Rav Kook Still Matters — and in America, Too

• Yehudah Mirsky, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

November 5

The Government of Israel-World Jewry Joint Initiative: A Perspective from the Jewish Agency

• Alan Hoffman, Director General, The Jewish Agency for Israel

December 3

Israel, Gaza and Contemporary Jewish Life

• Elyse Winick, Brandeis Chaplaincy

• Ilan Troen, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

• Len Saxe, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies