A Message from the Director
By Lisa Fishbayn Joffe
People often think the summer is a quiet time, but for most academics, it is a hectic season filled with research, writing and meeting up at conferences. What a pleasure it was, this summer, to see and meet many HBI affiliates and research and travel grant recipients, at every stage of their careers, presenting new and exciting work, at the conference on Jews, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Bristol and Canon, Authority and the Creation of Halacha at Harvard Law School. Just last week, we capped off the summer with a talk on Indian Jewish women in Bollywood by HBI Research Associate, Professor Bindu Malieckal, over dinner and a movie at the Vilna Shul here in Boston.
This summer also marked the 26th season of the HBI’s Gilda Slifka Summer Internship 
Program. In addition to welcoming a fabulous cohort of young researchers who came to work on projects ranging from the history of girl’s yeshiva education to the role of Jewish content creators in the online conservative “manoverse,” HBI hosted the first intern reunion. It was a joy to welcome alumni from around the country who shared how their time with us had shaped their careers in academia, public policy, communal leadership, and the rabbinate.
As the new term begins, HBI returns to our mission of supporting and sharing research on the diversity of Jewish women’s lives and the significance of gender in Jewish studies. We will host scholars and speakers who will deepen our understanding of these topics throughout history and in the challenging moment we find ourselves in now.
As part of a university-wide initiative to commemorate the attack on Israel of October 7, 2023, HBI will host a lecture on October 22 by anthropologist, Professor Vanessa Ochs, discussing new rituals created in response to and in memory of October 7. On October 28, HBI Research Associate, Tamar Biala, will present new midrashim written by Israeli women reflecting on October 7.
We have three new researchers joining us this term. Dr. Nehama HaCohen, from Achva Academic College, will be conducting a study on Confusion Between the Language of Ḥesed and the Language of Passion: Misidentification of Sexual Abuse among Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women . Professor Rachel Perry, from the University of Haifa, will analyze how artists presented Holocaust memory in “Who Will Draw Our History?” Graphic Witnessing by Jewish Women Holocaust Survivors. Former HBI Research Associate, now newly minted Dr. Edith Pick, will be returning to HBI as a post-doctoral fellow, continuing her research on antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace.
We will also feature work by and about Israeli women and the diversity of the Jewish community this term.
On September 19, anthropologist and HBI Research Associate, Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar will launch her new book, Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media. Please stay after the talk for HBI’s Fall Open House, from 5 pm to 6:30 pm, to share a bite to eat, meet the HBI community and hear about our plans for the year.
We kick off the Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series on September 30 with Francine Klagsbrun, author of Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream. A celebrated biographer, Klagsbrun used Szold’s copious letters, diaries and essays, along with other archival documents to trace Szold’s life and legacy with an eye to uncovering the person behind the Zionist icon in new ways.
On November 13, Israeli-Canadian author Ayelet Tsabari will join us online to discuss her new novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted, exploring the experience of contemporary 
Yemeni Israeli women, the art of Yemeni women’s music, and the terrible legacy of the Yemenite babies’ affair.
Dr. Jay Prosser, author of Loving Strangers: A Camphorwood Chest, A Legacy, A Son Returns, will join us on December 11. In this memoir of his mother and grandmother, Prosser explores the rich history and complex understanding of inter-marriage in the Singaporean Jewish community, exploring his family’s roots in China and amongst Baghdadi Jews from India.
HBI’s research residencies and public programs are made possible through the generosity of our donors. I’m so grateful to all of you who make this work possible. Please consider becoming one of the Friends of HBI this year by making a sustaining annual gift of $250.
Wishing you all a productive and joyful year,
Besorot tovot (may we hear good news),
Lisa