Wishing You a Warm and Light-Filled Hanukkah!
To celebrate the Festival of Lights, we’re sharing eight highlights from HBI’s 2025 programs and seminars of feminist inquiry across a wide range of subjects - moments made possible by HBI's thoughtful and generous community. Become a Friend of HBI with a gift of $180, or any amount that is meaningful to you.
We Would Never, Tova Mirvis
Former scholar in residence and best-selling author, Tova Mirvis, joined the Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series to share her gripping new mystery. Inspired by a true story, We Would Never, is an intimate family drama and a provocative exploration of loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred line between protecting and forsaking the ones we love most. Mirvis is also the author of the memoir The Book of Separation as well as three novels, Visible City, The Outside World, and The Ladies Auxiliary, which was a national bestseller. Watch here.
Holy Rebellion: Religious Feminism and the Transformation of Judaism and Women's Rights in Israel, Ronit Irshai, PhD, and Tanya Zion-Waldoks, PhD
Holy Rebellion, a publication of the Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, edited by Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, SJD, and Sylvia Neil, JD, and the recipient of the 2025 National Jewish Book Award in the Women’s Studies category, examines the impact of orthodox feminism in modern day Israel and explores possibilities for long-term change. Irshai and Zion-Waldocks joined the Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series in March 2025 to discuss their work. Watch here.
As It Were, Suspended in Midair, Hannah Altman, HBI 2025 Spring Art Exhibition
This artist talk and book launch celebrated photographer Hananah Altman's solo exhibition in the Kniznick Gallery and the March 2025 release of her book, We Will Return to You (Saint Lucy Books). Altman was joined in conversation by photographer and scholar Mark Alice Durant, publisher and editor of Saint Lucy Books. Watch the artist talk here. (R) Hannah Altman, Yad, 2023, Archival pigment print, 20 x 25 inches.
Confusion Between the Language of Ḥeseḏ and the Language of Passion: Misidentification of Sexual Abuse among Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women, Nehama HaCohen, PhD
A Helen Gartner Hammer Scholar in Residence at HBI, HaCohen examined how linguistic norms, cultural expectations, and psychological frameworks within Ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel can obscure recognition of sexual abuse, particularly when the language of ḥeseḏ (kindness) and the language of passion are conflated. Watch HaCohen’s HBI Seminar here.
Together in Manzanar, The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp, Tracy Slater, Brandeis PhD ’99
Together in Manzanar explores the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans, including more than 2,000 mixed-race families, through the story of Elaine Buchman Yoneda, a Jewish American woman, Karl Yoneda, her Japanese American husband, and their three-year-old son, Tommy. Slater’s intimate account underscores painful choices and conflicting loyalties, the upheaval and violence that followed, and the Yonedas’ quest to survive with their children’s lives intact and their family safe and whole. Slater joined the Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series in September 2025. Watch the conversation here.
Recognition and Justice for Victims of Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, LLM, JSD
This seminar was presented in October 2025 by Professor Halperin-Kaddari of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University Law Faculty and the Dinah Project, a dedicated group of legal and feminist experts working to hold perpetrators accountable for the heinous sexual violence and gender atrocities perpetrated on October 7th, 2023 and throughout captivity in Gaza. Addressing the challenges of prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence, particularly when survivor testimony and forensic evidence are limited, Halperin-Kaddari shared the Dinah Project's A Quest for Justice – October 7 and Beyond, the first comprehensive legal and evidentiary framework to analyze the systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war during the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Watch the HBI Seminar here.
A Tale of Two Surrogates: A Graphic Narrative on Assisted Reproduction, Elly Teman, PhD, and Zsuzsa Berend, PhD
Based on more than a decade of research conducted by this anthropologist/sociologist team, A Tale of Two Surrogates is a rich exploration of the complicated emotional, medical, legal, and ethical issues surrounding surrogacy based on the intertwined stories of two fictional women, one from California and one from Tel Aviv. HBI is delighted to have supported Teman and Berend's work with a Research Award in 2022 and that Teman continued her research and writing while an HBI Research Associate. Watch the discussion in the Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series here.
How to Survive? Israeli Women Civilians Coping with Hamas Captivity, Gabriela Spector-Mersel, MSW, PhD
Associate Professor and the chairperson of the aging branch in the Sadot Resilience and Growth Center at the School of Social Work at Sapir College, Israel, Spector-Mersel presented her groundbreaking analysis of the coping strategies used by women abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Her work, conducted with Dr. Leah Shelef, offers essential insights to support rehabilitation and reintegration after release. Watch the HBI Seminar here.