Events
View our past events page to watch recorded events.
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All of HBI’s events are free and open to the public. HBI is pleased to participate in the Mass Cultural Council’s Card to Culture Program.
Upcoming Events
(l) Hannah Altman (r) Mark Alice Durant
March 20, 2025
6:30-8 pm (EDT) | Hybrid: At the Kniznick Gallery and online
Join Hannah Altman for an artist talk and book launch celebrating her solo exhibition in the Kniznick Gallery, As It Were, Suspended in Midair, and the March 2025 release of her book, We Will Return to You (Saint Lucy Books). Altman will be joined in conversation by photographer and scholar Mark Alice Durant, publisher and editor of Saint Lucy Books. Visit HBI Arts Programs for more information and additional events.
A book signing and reception will follow the artist talk and conversation.
Dr. Nehama HaCohen
March 24, 2025
12 pm EDT | Hybrid: In-Person at HBI | Liberman-Miller Lecture Hall and Online
HBI Seminar Series
Dr. Nehama HaCohen, Achva Academic College, HBI Helen Gartner Hammer Scholar in Residence
Nehama HaCohen's talk will explore the intersection of language, cultural norms, and psychological frameworks within Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. It will address the unique challenges in identifying and addressing cases of sexual abuse, where the language of ḥeseḏ (kindness) and the language of passion are often conflated. Through her research, HaCohen examines how this misidentification can hinder appropriate responses and explore culturally sensitive approaches to therapy and intervention.
Dr. HaCohen is a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of sexual trauma and culturally sensitive psychotherapy. She is a faculty member at Achva Academic College in Israel where she leads a research lab focused on multicultural identities. HaCohen also lectures in the psychology program at Bar-Ilan University.
Register to join in person. Light snacks and drinks will be served.
Dr. Adrienne Krone
March 31, 2025
12 pm EDT | Online
HBI Seminar Series
Dr. Adrienne Krone, Allegheny College, HBI Scholar in Residence
The pollinator population in Ontario, Canada has been subject to degradation and Colony Collapse Disorder in recent years due to industrial pesticide use, invasive pests, wild habitat loss, and climate change. The women-led staff at Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs in Toronto strives to protect and cultivate this vulnerable bee population through an effort that they call “Community Supported Beekeeping.”
In this talk, Dr. Krone will use the Shoresh beekeeping program to demonstrate the innovative blending of Jewish ethical teachings and sustainable practices that the Shoresh staff use to address the challenge of an environmental crisis. She will also analyze this Jewish pollinator repopulation program as an example of the tendency of women-led Jewish community farming organizations to prioritize sustainability and community engagement in their Jewish environmental work.
Dr. Adrienne Krone is Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability and Religious Studies at Allegheny College. She has a Ph.D. in American religion from Duke University, and her research focuses on religious food justice movements in North America.
(l) Hannah Altman (r) Miriam Anzovin
March 31, 2025
7 pm in the Kniznick Gallery
Moderated by Maia Lefferman, Brandeis ‘25
In the spirit of Passover and the contemporary retelling of Jewish stories, join photographer Hannah Altman and online storytelling sensation Miriam Anzovin in conversation, as they share their processes of harnessing the power of narrative using their unique voices. Anzovin will use Altman's photographs as Jewish “text” to encounter as she guides us on a tour of some images in the exhibit highlighting lesser known female stories she finds within. Bring some new ideas to your seder!
Pizza dinner will be served. Dietary laws observed.
Cosponsored by Brandeis Hillel, JFAB: Jewish Feminist Association of Brandeis, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Jewish Arts Collaborative.
Visit HBI Arts Programs for more information.
(top) Dr. Melissa R. Klapper, (bottom) Dr. Dianne Ashton
April 3, 2025
7-8:15 pm | In-Person at The Jewish Library of Baltimore, 5700 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, Jewish Community Center, 1st floor
Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series in partnership with The Jewish Library of Baltimore
The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai, written from 1864-1865 in the antebellum South, charts Mordecai’s daily life and her evolving perspective on Confederate nationalism and Southern identity, Jewishness, women’s roles in wartime, gendered domestic roles in slave-owning households, and more. While never losing sight of the racist social and political structures that shaped Emma Mordecai’s world, The Civil War Diary provides a vivid look at the wartime experiences of a Jewish woman in the Confederate South.
Dr. Dianne Ashton was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and World Religions at Rowan University. She is the author and editor of a number of books, including Hanukkah in America: A History and Rebecca Gratz: Women and Judaism in Antebellum America.
Dr. Melissa R. Klapper is Professor of History and the Coordinator of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Rowan University. She is the author of five books, including Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890-1940, which won the National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies. Klapper is a past HBI Scholar in Residence (2007, 2023) and the recipient of two HBI Research Awards. She completed this book during her residency in 2023.
Colleagues at Rowan, Ashton was a mentor to Klapper long before they ended up at the same university. When Ashton passed away during the writing of this book in 2022, Klapper decided to finish the project. Read 'The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai': Rowan historian completes late colleague’s book focusing on Jewish life in the South (Dec. 2024).
Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event and are also available at Bookshop, Amazon, and your local bookseller.
Registration to attend is recommended. Register here.
Book jacket art: Israeli artist Andi Arnovitz's "Coat of the Agunot" (2010), a composition of hundreds of shredded marriage certificates. Image: Dr. Noa Shashar
May 14, 2025
12:30 pm EDT | Online
Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Cosponsored by The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandeis University
The Marital Knot, Agunot in the Ashkenazi Realm, 1648-1850 tells the family stories of men and women who lived hundreds of years ago. Focusing on agunot, literally “chained women,” who were often considered a marginal group, it sheds light on Jewish family life in the early modern era and on the activity of poskim, rabbis who gave Jewish legal rulings related to agunot.
Dr. Noa Shashar earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.A. in Jewish and Gender Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. Shashar is a lecturer at the Sapir Academic College and the author of several volumes including Not on Bread Alone: The Krell Murachovski Family Histories.
The Marital Knot is a Brandeis University Press publication in the Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion, and Law, created under the auspices of HBI in conjunction with its Project on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law, and The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry.
The Marital Knot is available from the Brandeis University Press, Amazon, Bookshop, and your local bookseller.
