Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

December 15, 2023

The Student Docent program for HBI’s exhibitions in the Kniznick Gallery this fall allowed HBI to give students opportunities to assist in all aspects of mounting and presenting an art exhibition. 

May 31, 2023

By Yofi Tirosh

Recently, I spoke at the protest against Israel's government in New York's Washington Square Park. The response was overwhelming, but I know that criticizing Israel publicly can be difficult for its friends in America. To that, I said, "If you think you will support Israel by not speaking up against its regime, there will be no Israel left to support. Israel as you know it is on the edge of extinction."

March 24, 2023

By Shula Mola

The last time I tried to draw a butterfly, my little daughter asked if there were butterflies in Ethiopia. So clumsy was what I drew that she imagined that maybe I had never seen a butterfly. Even though my own daughter cannot recognize my attempts at art, I didn’t let that fact stop me from applying to the F ull Disclosure Worksho an innovative program sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA) that weaves together story collecting, artistic representation, and community celebration to honor the lives of Jewish women and to encourage them to reflect on themes and influences that have shaped their lives.

March 3, 2023

By Samantha Pickette

When looking back at the history of Jewish women in television comedy, the sheer lack of Jewish female characters is striking, if not totally surprising considering American pop culture's complicated relationship with Jewish femininity. By comparison, contemporary TV comedy offers an embarrassment of riches, both in terms of the sheer number of series with Jewish female showrunners and in terms of the diversity of the Jewish female protagonists that appear on these series. How did we get from Molly Goldberg and Rhoda Morgenstern to Rebecca Bunch and Midge Maisel?

January 19, 2023

This past summer, HBI held a workshop in conjunction with the art exhibition, "Seven Species, Three Generations." As we experimented with weaving and collage under the tutelage of Mia Schon and Charlie Dov Guterman Schön, the conversation flowed amongst the women around the table. Ronnie Levin, BA ‘73, MA ‘78, and a "Friend of HBI," told us how apt it was for us to be meeting in the Epstein Building, now home to the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. She recalled that in 1972, she and nine other women had gathered in this space, then the home of the Brandeis Facilities garage, for a class on car repair taught by the university's mechanic. That may have been the first women's only class taught at Brandeis, but Levin and her peers continued to demand women's studies offerings. The creation of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, now entering our 25th year, is in part the fruit of this advocacy a half century ago.