Past Events
December 11, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Loving Strangers is Jay Prosser’s search for belonging and identity through a unique family and historical archive. In this memoir of his mother and grandmother, Prosser explores the rich history and complex understanding of intermarriage in the Singaporean Jewish community, exploring his family’s roots in China and amongst Baghdadi Jews from India. Professor Jay Prosser teaches and researches at the Centre for Jewish Studies and the School of English at the University of Leeds. Loving Strangers was winner of the Hazel Rowley Prize (US, 2020) and shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Prize (UK, 2019).
Recording forthcoming.
November 14, 2024
Join us to explore how Israel-Palestine is discussed, represented, and contested in Jewish organizations in the diaspora. The talk will discuss themes such as diversity and unity, community and nationhood, gender and militarism, loyalty and belonging, and reflect on their relevance to understanding the current crisis in the Middle East.
Dr. Edith Pick is a postdoctoral researcher at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute; and a lecturer at Brandeis Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department and the Hornstein program.
November 13, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Award-winning Israeli-Canadian author Ayelet Tsabari joins HBI to discuss her debut novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted, which explores the experience of contemporary Yemeni Israeli women, the art of Yemeni women’s music, and the terrible legacy of the Yemenite babies’ affair. Tsabari is the author of the memoir The Art of Leaving, finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize and The Vine Awards, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019. Her first book, the story collection The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish Fiction.
This event was recorded and shared with registrants. It is not be available to view on the HBI website.
October 28, 2024
Tamar Biala, HBI Research Associate
Together we will read midrashim written by women from Kibbutzim Kfar Azza and Nir Oz, sharing their experiences from Oct. 7 and afterwards. We will also share midrashim written by other Israeli women from around the country that address issues of captivity, displacement. They all ask, “Where was God on October 7th?”
October 22, 2024
Immediately after October 7th, new and complex Jewish ritual responses emerged worldwide. Among the best known are the posting of images of the hostages, the installation of Empty Shabbat Tables, and the establishment of Hostage Square as a gathering space outside of the Tel Aviv Museum. Ethnographer Rabbi Vanessa Ochs reflects on these and other new practices with attention to spontaneity, resiliency and collectivity.
With support from Brandeis Hillel.
September 30, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Award-winning author Francine Klagsbrun reveals the complex life and work of Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah and a Zionist trailblazer. Using Szold’s copious letters, diaries, essays, and more, Klagsbrun's Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream traces Szold’s life and legacy with an eye to uncovering the person behind the Zionist icon.
Francine Klagsbrun is the author of numerous books, including the award winning Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel.
September 27, 2024
Featuring a panel discussion on "Jewish Feminism in Scholarship, Theology and Practice," with Prof. Lori Lefkovitz '77, Susan Weidman Schneider '65, and Betsy Platkin Teutsch '74. Each of these women did pioneering work in the foregrounding of women in Jewish ritual and scholarship. This event will also include a small display from the Jewish Feminism collections in the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections.
Read more about our panelists.
Cosponsors: Brandeis University Alumni Weekend, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections
September 19, 2024
We invite everyone to join us for an 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. Dietary laws will be observed.
September 19, 2024
HBI Seminar Series with Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar
Dr. Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar, Sapir Academic College, Sderot, Israel, HBI Research Associate, HBI Scholar in Residence (2011-12), HBI Research Award recipient (2013, 2020). Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media is available at Rutgers University Press, Amazon, Bookshop, and your local bookseller.
Co-sponsored by the Brandeis Seminar on Contemporary Jewish Life.
August 22, 2024
Shalom Bollywood reveals the unlikely story of the 2000 year old Indian Jewish community and its formative place in shaping Bombay Cinema, now coined Bollywood. This documentary tells its extraordinary tale through the lives of Indian cinema’s Jewish women who took upon the female lead roles and were at the heart of Bollywood from the turn of the 20th century to the present day. Talkback with Bindu Malieckal, HBI Research Associate and Professor of Early Modern Studies and Postcolonial Literature at Saint Anselm College.
A Vilna Shul event co-sponsored by HBI and Boston Jewish Film.
May 22, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI founding director, Shulamit Reinharz, returned to HBI for a conversation with HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe about her expansive and colorful first person collection, 100 Jewish Brides: Stories from Around the World, co-edited with Barbara Vinick. The collection features stories of Jewish brides from six continents and highlights diverse rituals related to weddings past and present.
Oldest Olive Tree, Mount of Olives, East Jerusalem. Photo 1898
Photo Credit: Penta Springs Limited/ Alamy Stock Photo. Design by Karin Rosenthal
May 6, 2024
HBI’s Holocaust Research Study Group commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah with a panel focusing on how the memory of the Holocaust exists in complex personal and political conversations surrounding the contested narratives of Israel/Palestine, the Gaza War, and its repercussions.
Two presentations were offered prior to a panel discussion by members of the Holocaust Research Study Group:
Sarah Silberstein Swartz, “How I Learned to Listen to the Other Side: A Personal Reflection on the Israel/Palestine Conflict”
Laurel Leff, “How Not to Learn from History: The Holocaust in Press Coverage of the Gaza War”
Neta Weiner and Stav Marin
May 2, 2024
Exploring the diversity of Israel – the beauty and the challenges – through a funky and beautiful blend of music, dance, and conversation.
Stav Marin and Neta Weiner, co-founders of System Ali, a one-of-a-kind Jaffa, Israel-based hip hop band that uses music to connect across languages, cultures, and beliefs joined Yuval Gur, JArts x CJP Community Creative Fellow to share their music and stories in conversation with Yuval Evri, Brandeis University Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
Neta and Stav are in residence at Tufts University for the 2024 spring semester through the BAMAH Visiting Israeli Artists Program. Watch their video, “I Wrote You This Song,” a love song for Israel, written before Oct. 7, and produced, informed, and inspired by their time in Boston.
April 17, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
The recording of this event was shared with registrants after the event for a limited viewing. It is not available to view on the HBI website.
Judy Glickman Lauder, "Harbor, Gilleleje, Copenhagen." 2018. Gelatin silver print.
April 9, 2024
Philanthropist, humanitarian and photographer Judy Glickman Lauder has been photographing Holocaust sites throughout Europe since the late 1980s, and her work is held in prestigious institutions around the world. In this talk moderated by Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, she will discuss what photography teaches us about social justice and resilience. Sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Institutional Advancement.
This event is part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.
April 1, 2024
Rabbi Avigayil Halpern, Independent
HBI Scholar in Residence | HBI Seminar Series
March 26, 2024
Organized by Brandeis professor and HBI Scholar in Residence Ilana Szobel, this session will examine a wide range of issues unique to the experiences of sexual assault victims who have a cognitive, sensory, emotional, or mobility disability.
Events in the year-long Mellon Sawyer seminar series, “Imperiled Bodies: Slavery, Colonialism, Citizenship and the Logics of Gender-Based Violence” are sponsored by a prestigious John E. Sawyer Seminar grant from the Mellon Foundation. Brandeis sponsors and resources include the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Women’s Studies Research Center, the Mandel Center for the Humanities, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, the Rose Art Museum, the Kniznick Art Gallery, the Gender and Sexuality Center, and the Prevention, Advocacy, and Resource Center.
March 21, 2024
Dr. Keren R. McGinity, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Associate, will contextualize the start of the U.S. movement against sexual misconduct and abuse of power, sharing research findings from her new book about women of different faith backgrounds, #UsToo: How Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Women Changed Our Communities (2023). Dr. McGinity is the interfaith specialist at United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. #UsToo is available free-of-charge via Open Access.
Co-Sponsors: Prevention, Advocacy, and Resource Center, Brandeis University, Brandeis Hillel, Center for Spiritual Life at Brandeis University, Jewish Feminist Association of Brandeis (JFAB), The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University , Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University , Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.
March 14, 2024
Haim Sperber, Western Galilee College
HBI Scholar in Residence 2013, 2015 | HBI Seminar Series
March 13, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is honored to have supported Orit Avishai’s research on this project in 2018 with an HBI Research Award.
March 11, 2024
Rachel Kranson, University of Pittsburgh
HBI Scholar in Residence | HBI Seminar Series
March 10, 2024
War Crimes Redefined: The Oct. 7th Attack by Hamas on Women, Children and Families
In observance of International Women's Day, HBI is honored to host Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, international law and human rights expert and founder of The Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children.
The Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture Series was created by Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law founder Sylvia Neil and her husband Dan Fischel in memory of Sylvia’s late sister, Diane Markowicz, to honor her commitment to gender equality and social justice.
March 4, 2024
Ilana Szobel, Brandeis University
HBI Scholar in Residence | HBI Seminar Series
February 28, 2024
February 26, 2024
Elly Teman, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel
HBI Research Associate and Research Award recipient | HBI Seminar Series
February 6, 2024
Ornit Barkai’s film, Laid to Rest: Buried Stories of the Jewish Sex Trade, investigates the underreported story of the historic Jewish sex trade in Argentina between the 1890s and 1930s. View the Laid to Rest trailer.
Co-sponsored by the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.
January 31, 2024
Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice
Reception and gallery tours
Talk by Rachel Kranson, University of Pittsburgh, HBI Scholar in Residence, Holocaust Rhetoric and the Politics of Abortion
Curator Tour by Caron Tabb, Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
January 24, 2024
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Winner of the 73rd National Jewish Book Awards Myra H. Kraft Memorial Award in Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice.
January 23, 2024
Activist Lilly Marcelin, executive director of the Resilient Sisterhood Project and Nayana LaFond, an artivist known for her painting series Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples Painting Project, in conversation with Caron Tabb, curator of HBI’s Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice.
January 12, 2024
Caron Tabb, curator and artist, led a guided tour of Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice. Tabb spoke about her curatorial research, the 21 artists' practices, and how their work responds to this moment in reproductive justice.
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
December 11, 2023
Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice artists Dell Marie Hamilton and Roya Amigh share their practices and join Guest Curator Caron Tabb in conversation.
Artist, writer and curator, Dell Marie Hamilton makes work that examines the diasporic, fragmented, and syncretic nature of the human condition at the intersection of race, gender, power, language, memory, and identity. Using fragmentation to encourage viewers to reflect on the body and its most intimate parts, Iranian artist Roya Amigh raises questions about identity and social history through the lens of gender and sexuality.
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
December 7, 2023
Jewish women and Jewish clergy have played an important role in the struggle for reproductive rights, both before and after Roe and Dobbs. Moderated by HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe and joined by Becca Rausch, Massachusetts State Senator, Melissa Klapper, historian and current HBI Scholar in Residence, Daphne Lazar Price, Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) Executive Director, and Lara Crawford, National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) MA, we explored the history of Jewish women's activism for reproductive rights and the various forms advocacy is taking in the present moment including a look at the recent rupture in coalition-building caused by the failure of many sister feminist groups and national and global women’s and children’s advocacy groups to condemn Hamas' massacre of Israelis and others in Southern Israel on October 7th.
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
November 29, 2023
Andi Arnovitz and Caron Tabb discussed HBI’s art exhibition Deeply Rooted Faith in Reproductive Justice, the current war in Israel, antisemitism, and attacks on women’s rights.
Israeli artist Andi Arnovitz, whose work is featured in Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice, and who has two sons and three sons-in-law currently serving in the IDF, one who was injured, discussed her work in Deeply Rooted, work related to war, and the experience of being a mother and an artist in Israel during these extremely challenging times. Caron Tabb is the curator of Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice and a contributing artist. Born in apartheid South Africa and raised in Israel, Tabb (Boston, MA) is an artist and curator with an extensive background in nonprofit leadership. Her work focuses on social justice and has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the U.S.
Sponsored by HBI, with support from JArts, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis, the Vilna Shul, and CJP/Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
November 28, 2023
British artist Zoë Buckman is known for her multidisciplinary practice, which incorporates sculpture, textiles, ceramics, photography, and large-scale installations through an explicitly feminist lens. Her art explores themes of identity, trauma, and gendered violence, subverting preconceived notions of vulnerability and strength. Buckman was in conversation with Caron Tabb, artist and curator of HBI's 21-artist exhibition, Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice. Co-presented by HBI and the Rose Art Museum, Buckman discussed her artistic practice and her 2019 work, According to Grandma, acquired by the Rose Art Museum in 2023 and included in the HBI's exhibition, Deeply Rooted, on view in the Kniznick Gallery until December 14, 2023.
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
November 28, 2023
November 27, 2023
Melissa Klapper, Rowan University
HBI Scholar in Residence / HBI Seminar Series
November 16, 2023
In the post-Dobbs legal landscape, states across the US are passing laws that prohibit almost all abortions. These bans are inconsistent with the more subtle and complicated approaches to reproductive decision-making counseled by many faith communities. For many, they find support in their religious texts and values for respecting pregnant people's needs and visions for their reproductive lives. In this session, HBI Research Associate Dr. Celene Ibrahim, Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton, Rabbi Lila Kagedan, and HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe discussed the ways in which religious traditions offer alternate ways of framing debates about abortion. Read about our panelists.
November 13, 2023
Allegra Goodman, writer, independent
HBI Scholar in Residence / HBI Seminar Series
watch hereNovember 8, 2023
A wonderful afternoon learning about art on view at Brandeis with a cross-campus tour from the Rose Art Museum and the Kniznick Gallery. The tour featured highlights from re: collections, Six Decades at the Rose Art Museum and HBI's Deeply Rooted: Faith in Reproductive Justice, twenty-one artists working over five decades, four continents, and numerous traditions as they examine abortion and reproductive justice through the lens of faith and culture.
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
November 7, 2023
A presentation by visiting artist Claudia Bernardi, followed by a discussion between Bernardi and Professor Toni Shapiro-Phim about the power of art. Bernardi focused on the intersection of art and human rights, with special emphasis on Argentina, where she lived during the military junta that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983 (Argentina’s "Dirty War"), examining the role of artists and activists from the time of the military dictatorship until the present.
Due to the sensitivity of some of Bernardi's slides, we cannot share the video of the event. Instead, you may view Bernardi's sharable slides.
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
November 6, 2023
Siri Suh, Brandeis University
HBI Seminar Series
November 2, 2023
5:30-8:30 p.m. / In Person / Welcoming remarks, including from Sapna Khatri, director of the newly launched Reproductive Justice Unit of the Massachusetts Attorney General's office, along with an opportunity to meet the artists.
Kniznick Gallery, Epstein Building, 515 South Street, Waltham
Supported by grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies/CJP and the Mass Cultural Council.
October 18, 2023
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
October 17, 2023
HBI Book Launch in the HBI Series on Jewish Women
The Weavers of Trautenau: Jewish Female Forced Labor in the Holocaust by Janine Holc
Paired with Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated in which painter Lauren Bergman and composer Ella Milch-Sheriff honor young women and girls murdered in the Holocaust by using art to imagine the lives they might have led, Professor Holc discussed the over 3,000 Jewish girls and young women who found themselves in forced labor camps and how gender played an important role in the way they experienced the Holocaust.
October 11, 2023
The Holocaust Research Study Group
Six members of the HBI Holocaust Research Study Group (HRSG), Ornit Barkai, Debra Kaufman, Laurel Leff, Rachel Rapperport Munn, Karin Rosenthal, and Sarah Silberstein Swartz, discussed aspects of their own work that intersect with the themes of the HBI art exhibition Lives Eliminated, Dreams Illuminated.
September 13, 2023
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is a network member of the Jewish Book Council.
September 12, 2023
How can art help us better understand the Holocaust and discuss its implications for today? U.S. State Department Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain, Professor Barbara Wallace Grossman, Author Rachel Kadish, and HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe discuss these questions and more.
May 3, 2023
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is honored to have supported Elizabeth Graver’s writing during this project through a residency at HBI.
April 19, 2023
Professor Yofi Tirosh, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law
What is the role of gender in the rise of populist illiberal regimes? The case of Israel provides a timely opportunity to examine this question.
More information about the Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights
April 18, 2023
An Annual Virtual Public Event for Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day
How do we engage with the memory of Holocaust history and understand its relevance for succeeding generations?
More on the Holocaust Research Study Group and this presentation.
Co-sponsored by the Brandeis University Women's Studies Research Center and the Brandeis University Center for German and European Studies.
April 3, 2023
Edith Pick, HBI Research Associate
HBI Seminar Series
March 30, 2023
Painter Zoya Cherkassky in conversation with Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum.
Painter Zoya Cherkassky was born in Ukraine in 1976 and immigrated to Israel in 1991. Her works have been shown in premier Israeli art museums and galleries for over a decade, as well as throughout Europe and North America. Her works bring together languages stemming from ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultures, pop and computer aesthetics. As an immigrant from the former USSR to Israel, Cherkassky deals with issues of identity and alienation as well as the different conflicts that rise in the clash between the cultures.
Discover more of Zoya Cherkassky's work.
March 29, 2023
Artist Marisa J. Futernick
March 28, 2023
Rachel B. Gross, San Francisco State University, HBI Scholar in Residence
HBI Seminar Series
March 22, 2023
In this panel discussion, six Israel experts, including HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, take us on a deep dive into the social and political implications of the proposed reforms with a global and comparative perspective.
March 15, 2023
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
A publication of the HBI Series on Jewish Women
March 14, 2023
Jordan Katz, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
In collaboration with The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.
March 13, 2023
Samantha Pickette, University of Texas at Austin
Pickette's "Peak TV’s Unapologetic Jewish Woman" analyzes the ways in which contemporary American television—with its unprecedented choice, diversity and authenticity — is establishing a new version of the Jewish woman and a new take on American Jewish female identity that challenges the stereotypes of Jewish femininity proliferated on television since its inception.
Dr. Pickette was in conversation with Dr. Rachel Greenblatt, Brandeis University Judaica Librarian & Historian.
March 8, 2023
Moderated by HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe
"The 8th" traces Ireland’s campaign to remove the 8th Amendment — a constitutional ban on abortion.
This event was held in conjunction with the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.
March 6, 2023
Sivan Rajuan Shtang, Sapir Academic College and Shenkar Academic College, Israel, HBI Scholar in Residence
HBI Seminar Series
March 5, 2023
Artist Talk with Marisa J. Futernick
HBI Arts Program: Virtual Opening & Artist Talk
Marisa J. Futernick’s lush, poster-size prints combine old family photographs with invented text to look at the Jewish Catskill resorts of the 1960s.
February 27, 2023
Shula Mola, HBI Scholar in Residence
HBI Seminar Series
February 15, 2023
February 9, 2023
Visual Artist Gil Yefman in conversation with Shayna Weiss, Associate Director Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.
A trans-disciplinary conceptual artist, Gil transforms canonized familiar myths from varied beliefs and traditions in order to undermine the structured definitions and portrayal of the other. Collaborative projects fuse memory, trauma and the body, with transgenerational multilayered relations where soft materials dissolve hard subject matters.
Discover more of Gil Yefman's work.
January 25, 2023
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is honored to have supported Joy Ladin’s writing during this project.
January 23, 2023
Rachel Barenbaum, writer
HBI Seminar Series
December 1, 2022
Singer Aveva Dese in conversation with Shula Mola, Scholar in Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Aveva Dese is an Ethiopian-Israeli singer-songwriter who fuses traditional Ethiopian sounds & grooves with her soul-pop melodies, producing a unique style with universal appeal.
Discover more of Aveva Dese's work.
November 14, 2022
Sara Ronis, St. Mary’s University, Texas
HBI Seminar Series / HBI Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law Scholar in Residence
November 10, 2022
Michal Raucher, Rutgers University
HBI Seminar Series
November 9, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
A publication of the HBI Series on Jewish Women
November 7, 2022
Max Strassfeld, University of Arizona
HBI Seminar Series / HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law
October 26, 2022
October 20, 2022
Children’s book author/illustrator Orit Bergman in conversation with Orna Granot, Associate Curator of Illustrated Children’s Books at the Israel Museum, and moderated by Jonathan Krasner, the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Associate Professor of Jewish Education Research at Brandeis.
October 19, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
A Publication of the HBI Series on Jewish Women
September 14, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is a network member of the Jewish Book Council.
September 8, 2022
Art Exhibit In The Kniznick Gallery
Hosted by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis with generous funding from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Read more in "The Boston Globe" and "JewishBoston."
September 7, 2022
Art Exhibit In The Kniznick Gallery
Hosted by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis with generous funding from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Read more in "The Boston Globe" and "JewishBoston."
July 28, 2022
Art Exhibit In The Kniznick Gallery
Hosted by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis with generous funding from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Read more in "The Boston Globe" and "JewishBoston."
HBI Artist Program with Tamar Nissim
March 10-July 8, 2022
Co-sponsor: The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.
May 2, 2022
Tamar Menashe, University of Pennsylvania
HBI Seminar Series, HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion, and the Law
May 1, 2022
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
Featuring mixed-media artist Sandra Mayo,“Beyond Trauma: Roots and Routes” is an interactive art exhibit that took place at Brandeis University during the 2022 Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts.
April 28, 2022
Presented by the Holocaust Research Study Group (HRSG)
April 11, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is honored to have funded a portion of Falk’s research.
Co-Sponsor: The Brandeis Alumni Association
April 7, 2022
Tamar Nissim in conversation with Lisa Fishbayn Joffe and Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber
Studio Israel is an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. Chaired by Caron Tabb. Studio Israel is a partnership among Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jewish Arts Collaborative, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and the Vilna Shul, and is made possible by generous support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
A series of online workshops organized by the Boston Agunah Task Force, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, JOFA, and Cheirut
March 22, 2022
Panel 1: “Coercive Control” and Get abuse in the United Kingdom
March 29, 2022
Panel 2: Possibilities for Using “Coercive Control” to Fight Get Abuse in the United States
April 5, 2022
Panel 3: Considering the Halachic Implications of Relying on “Coercive Control” Laws to Fight Get Abuse
"Man convicted after refusing a Jewish divorce in landmark English court case", The Jewish Chronicle
"Man jailed for not granting Jewish divorce to wife", BBC News
April 4, 2022
Miriam Udel, Emory University & HBI Scholar in Residence
HBI Seminar Series
March 28, 2022
Ayelet Brinn, University of Pennsylvania & HBI Scholar in Residence
HBI Seminar Series
March 23, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman Conversations Series
Co-sponsors: Hadassah's Attorneys and Judges Council and Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.
March 20, 2022
Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law
March 7, 2022
Gender, Reproductive Rights and Jewish Law: Israeli and American Perspectives: Part 1
March 14, 2022
Gender, Reproductive Rights and Jewish Law: Israeli and American Perspectives: Part 2
Co-sponsor: The Forum for Gender Law and Policy at the University of Haifa, JOFA
March 10, 2022
HBI Artist Program with Tamar Nissim
Opening and Artist Talk
Co-sponsor: The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
February 28, 2022
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester
HBI Seminar Series
February 23, 2022
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
Co-sponsor: Latin American Jewish Studies Association
February 15, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
HBI is a network member of the Jewish Book Council.
February 10, 2022
Dege Feder in conversation with Shula Mola
Studio Israel is an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. Chaired by Caron Tabb. Studio Israel is a partnership among Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jewish Arts Collaborative, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and the Vilna Shul, and is made possible by generous support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
February 7, 2022
Co-sponsor: The Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre
January 31, 2022
Launch Event for NASHIM Issue 37
Co-sponsor: Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
January 30, 2022
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
This program was presented by Jewish Heritage Alliance in partnership with ANU Museum of the Jewish People, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience, Fundación HispanoJudía, EJCC European Jewish Community Center, University of Miami (Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies), Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Kulanu and Reconectar.
January 19, 2022
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Co-sponsor: The Brandeis Alumni Association
December 19, 2021
This program was presented by Jewish Heritage Alliance in partnership with the National Museum of American Jewish History, ANU Museum of the Jewish People, the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, The American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience, Fundación HispanoJudía, EJCC European Jewish Community Center, University of Miami (Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies), Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Kulanu.
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies
December 15, 2021
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Carole S. Kessner, PhD, Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self (HBI Series on Jewish Women and National Jewish Book Award for Biography) in conversation with Peter Osnos
Co-Sponsor: The Brandeis Alumni Association
December 9, 2021
Yuval Evri, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish Studies at Brandeis University in conversation with Neta Elkayam, an Israeli singer and visual artist whose work plumbs the culture of the Moroccan Jews from which she descended.
Studio Israel is an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. Chaired by Caron Tabb. Studio Israel is a partnership among Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jewish Arts Collaborative, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and the Vilna Shul, and is made possible by generous support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies. This event is also cosponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.
December 8, 2021
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, Hope Valley
HBI is a network member of the Jewish Book Council.
December 2, 2021
Sarah Hurwitz in conversation with Rav Tiferet Berenbaum as they grapple with current issues and turn to Judaism for guidance.
November 22, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University
HBI Scholar in Residence
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies
November 7-21, 2021
Leaving Paradise, Dir. Ofer Freiman, Documentary, 2021, Brazil/Israel, 86 min.
Co-sponsors: BJFF, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
November 17, 2021
Cosponsored by: Hadassah-Brandeis Institute; Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Schusterman Center for Israel Studies; and Women's Studies Research Center, at Brandeis University.
November 15, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Adam Ferziger, Bar-Ilan University
HBI Scholar in Residence
November 8, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Marla Brettschneider, University of New Hampshire
HBI Scholar in Residence & HBI Research Associate
November 4, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies
Co-Sponsors: Brandeis Anthropology Department, Brandeis Creative Writing Program, Brandeis Hispanic Studies Program, Brandeis Gender & Sexuality Center, Brandeis Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Wellesley College Spanish Dept., J-Lats Princeton, Facing History and Ourselves, Museo Judío de Chile, CubaOne
November 1, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Orly Nathan, Technion Israel Institute of Technology
HBI Scholar in Residence
At HBI, Orly Nathan will undertake an archival research case study, which has evolved from the work on “She Knows," Israel's Gender Knowledge Center and Isha L’Isha. The first aim is to expand the range of the thesaurus terms by tracing the evolution and transformation of terms expressed by Marcia Freedman and used in feminist and gender research and practice. The case study will attempt to propose in-depth cataloguing of a sample of collection documents using the thesaurus, integrated with the existing LCSH- Library of Congress Subject Headings.
October 31, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies
The Jewish Heritage Alliance and their participating co-hosting partners resume the Women of Sefarad Series presenting “Heroines”, an event celebrating the courage and determination of the Women of Sefarad who played a unique and special role during Medieval and Early Modern times.
This program is being presented by the Jewish Heritage Alliance in partnership with ANU Museum of the Jewish People, the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, The American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience, Fundación HispanoJudía, EJCC European Jewish Community Center, University of Miami (Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies), Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Kulanu.
October 27, 2021
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
Judy Batalion, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
Batalion’s deep exploration of the brave women of the Jewish resistance in the Nazi ghettos.
HBI is honored to have funded a portion of Batalion’s research. Read more in the New York Times.
HBI is a network member of the Jewish Book Council.
VIEW JUDY BATALION SPEAKING ABOUT THE IMPACT OF HER HBI RESEARCH AWARDS
October 25, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Keren McGinity, Brandeis University
HBI Research Associate
October 14, 2021
Studio Israel is an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. Featuring visual and performing artists, designers, dancers and more, all framed by Brandeis University academic expertise.
Dr. Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum and Professor of Fine Arts and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, in conversation with Israeli-born Palestinian multi-media artist, director, and actor Raida Adon.
This program is presented by Studio Israel, an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. Chaired by Caron Tabb. Studio Israel is a partnership among Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jewish Arts Collaborative, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and the Vilna Shul, and is made possible by generous support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies. This event is also cosponsored by the Rose Art Museum, and is supported by the Essential Israel New Israel Fund for Artists.
October 12, 2021
The Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series
In Asylum, A Memoir of Family Secrets, Judy Bolton-Fasman explores her family’s secret and tumultuous past with warmth, passion, and subtle humor, firmly rooted in Jewish tradition.
After complying with her father's request to burn a package of his still unread letters, Bolton-Fasman began to explore her bifurcated ancestry - a Sephardic, Spanish/Ladino-speaking culture inherited from her mother and an Ashkenazi, English-only, old-fashioned American patriotism from her father. While Asylum asks how much do we really know about the lives of our parents and the secrets lodged in their past, Bolton-Fasman shows that the answers may lie in the exploration itself.
HBI is proud to have supported Bolton-Fasman’s research and writing during the early phases of her project.
October 12, 2021
Cosponsored with the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
October 5, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish and Gender Studies
Adriana Katzew, JARTS 2021 Community Creative Fellow and Dalia Wassner, Director of HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies discuss the power of material art in claiming and transmitting personal identity and group history.
Co-Sponsor: JARTS
September 27, 2021
What if all the genders in the Torah were switched? Tamar Biala and Yael Kanarek discuss the HerTorah Project that gender bends the Torah to reveal the divine influence in women’s body language.
May 13, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Lori Harrison-Kahan, Boston College
Jessica Kirzane, University of Chicago
April 28, 2021
HBI Virtual Conversations
A discussion on Jewish women's writing with Dr. Nora Gold, award-winning author, editor of Jewish Fiction .net, and long-standing HBI Academic Advisory member. Dr. Gold was joined by Israeli author Nora Houri-Haim, and American author Diane Lederman who shared their work.
Co-sponsored by Jewish Fiction .net and the Consulates General of Israel to New England and to Toronto/Western Canada
April 26, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Gwynn Kessler, Swarthmore College
HBI Spring 2021 Scholar in Residence
March 11 & April 22, 2021
A two-part series — held in conjunction with Professor Ilana Szobel’s course, Disability Cultures: Art, Film, and Literature of People with Disabilities — that explores real-life experiences and artistic performances of people living with disability in Israel. Artists, writers, and scholars will examine the intersection of disability with Zionist ideology, gender, race, and class.
Presented by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and cosponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute; the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy; and the Program in Health: Science, Society, and Policy (HSSP), all housed at Brandeis University.
April 22, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
LAJGS welcomes Stephen A. Sadow, Professor Emeritus of Latin American Literature and Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, for a conversation about Costa Rican poet and writer of short-stories, Rosita Kalina (1934-2004).
Co-Sponsor: Brandeis Creative Writing Program
April 14, 2021
This program launched the book, "Hadassah: An American Story," by Hadassah Lieberman, published by Brandeis University Press in the HBI Series on Jewish Women.
Sponsored by the Office of the President
April 12, 2021
This program is a partnership between HBI and The Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture with promotional support from the Jewish Women's Archive, The Holocaust Center LA, and the Illinois Holocaust Center and Museum.
April 12, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Sari Fein, Brandeis University
HBI Spring 2021 Scholar in Residence
Studio Israel is a new series, chaired by Caron Tabb, that gives an insider’s view of Israeli society through an array of contemporary creative female voices of diverse Israeli backgrounds. Each one-hour conversation features art and expertise that shed light on important social, cultural, and political issues in Israel today.
The series is a collaboration between the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Jewish Arts Collaborative, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. It is made possible with generous support from CJP Arts & Culture.
Oct. 15, 2020
Dec. 10, 2020
Feb. 11, 2021
April 8, 2021
April 8, 2021
Presented by the WSRC Holocaust Research Study Group
April 6, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Michal Raucher, Rutgers University
April 1, 2021
HBI Research Associate, Dr. Sivan Rajuan Shtang interviewed 2021 HBI artist Camille Eskell.
More information on the exhibition.
Co-sponsored with the Vilna Shul
March 24, 2021
HBI Artist Program
March 22, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Samantha Pickette, Boston University
March 17, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
Professor Jonathan Sarna in conversation with Sephardic scholar Ronnie Perelis, on the well-traversed world of Sephardic America and its intersection with early U.S. Jewish History.
March 11, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
Ron Duncan Hart, anthropologist and author of Crypto-Jews: The Long Journey (2020), and Mary Morris, author of Gateway to the Moon (2018), will engage contemporary cultural and political ramifications of the historic crypto-Jewish presence in the Americas.
Co-sponsors: Brandeis Near Eastern & Judaic Studies, Hispanic Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies. J-Lats Princeton
This program is made possible with generous support from the Ostrowicz Lilienthal
March 8, 2021
The Boston Jewish Film Festival
Join us for a live conversation with subject Rachel Madpis Ben Dor and moderated by Lisa Fishbayn Joffe.
March 8, 2021
HBI Seminar Series
Ayala Fader, Fordham University
March 3, 2021
A collaboration between the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University and The Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University
Jacqueline Saper and Farideh Goldin Discuss Memoirs of Iranian Jewish Girlhood
February 25, 2021
HBI Virtual Conversations with Professor Jodi Eichler-Levine
In Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community, Jodi Eichler-Levine, Ph.D., Professor of Jewish Civilization and Associate Professor of Religion Studies at Lehigh University, takes us inside a flourishing American Jewish crafting movement through her travels across the country to homes, craft conventions, synagogue knitting circles, and craftivist actions.
February 22, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
A mediated conversation between Edith Scott Saavedra, author of The Lamps of Albarracín (2019), and Spanish historians Lucía Conte Aguilar and Miguel Angel Motis, as they discuss the feminist experience of the Inquisition and end of Iberian Jewry, as well as the revival of Spain’s Jewish heritage in the present day.
Co-sponsors: Brandeis Near Eastern & Judaic Studies, Hispanic Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, J-Lats Princeton
This program is made possible with generous support from the Ostrowicz Lilienthal
February 10, 2021
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
LAJGS in conversation with Laura Limonic on her award-winning book, Kugel and Frijoles (2019), which offers new insights into the diversity of Jews and Latino/as in the United States.
February 4, 2021
LAJGS in conversation with Leah Soibel, Fuente Latina founder and CEO, and Susanne Althoff, journalist and author of Launching While Female (2020).
Co-sponsors: Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis International Business School (Asper Center, Latin American Initiative, Israel Initiative), Brandeis Journalism Program
January 27, 2021
In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, we co-sponsored a panel to discuss the search for a little-known Holocaust victim, Matilda Olkin, and her extended family who were killed in an isolated location in northern Lithuania in the beginning of Holocaust in 1941. The film, “Finding Matilda: The Anne Frank of Lithuania" by Kyle Conti, himself a college student, follows the search for the mass grave.
January 27, 2021
Gett advocates receive training to be able to to accompany women through the Jewish divorce process in the Boston Rabbinical court.
Presented by the Boston Agunah Taskforce
November 18, 2020
Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture
Rachel Adler
David Ellenson Professor of Modern Jewish Thought
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Los Angeles Campus
November 16, 2020
HBI Seminar Series
Elazar Ben-Lulu, The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania & Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Discussant: Professor Shirley Idelson, director of Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program
November 15, 2020
Sponsored by the Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies with cosponsorships from the following Brandeis University partners: Brandeis Alumni Association, Hebrew Language and Literature Program, Hillel, and the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
October 26, 2020
HBI Seminar Series
Sarah Swartz, HBI Research Associate
October 20, 2020
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
Poet and scholar Marjorie Agosín and photographer Samuel Shats explore the truth that lies in fragmented memories, the legacy of refugees defined by truncated pasts, and the power of art as a vehicle for healing across generations.
October 19, 2020
A conversation and readings by editors and contributors: Rivka Cohen ’17, Naima Hirsch (HBI Intern 2018), Alona Weimer ’18, and Jordyn Kaufman, moderated by HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe.
October 14, 2020
HBI and Marra B. Gad discussed The Color of Love, Marra’s award-winning and compelling memoir about growing up as “a mixed-race, Jewish unicorn” and how she transcended intolerance, trauma, and racism through love.
October 13, 2020
Launch Event for NASHIM Issue 36
October 8, 2020
HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies
During Sukkot and Latinx Heritage month, join HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies and Jewtina y Co., for a panel discussion on contemporary Jewish Latinx migration in the context of race, gender, and legality.
Co-Sponsored by Jewtina y Co., Brandeis Alumni Association, the Latin America Initiative, International Business School, Brandeis Latin American and Latino Studies Program, Brandeis Hispanic Studies, J-Lats Princeton
September 23, 2020
For those seeking to connect more deeply with their Judaism, and for all those in search of a contemplative approach to these challenging times, poet and scholar Marcia Falk reads from and comments on her groundbreaking book, which re-creates prayers and rituals from a meditative, inclusive perspective.
To purchase a personally inscribed copy of the book please email Marcia Falk with "Purchase Days Between" in the subject line.
September 21, 2020
HBI Seminar Series
Bat-Sheva Margalit Stern, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
September 14, 2020
HBI Seminar Series
Shalva Weil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
September 10, 2020
HBI Virtual Conversations with Beth Ricanati, MD
June 30, 2020
Artist Lynne Avadenka, 2019 HBI Research Award Recipient and 2008 Artist in Residence, explored her newest endeavor, an artistic investigation into Jewish women's involvement in early Hebrew printing. Lynne is an American artist/printmaker specializing in multimedia works influenced by the Jewish experience. She is known for her art that explores text and image, and the physical and philosophical idea of the book.
Co-Sponsored by the Vilna Shul
June 25, 2020
Jonathan Branfman, Cornell University, 2020-2022: Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies
Summer 2020 HBI Scholar in Residence
May 27, 2020
WSRC Scholar, museum educator and art historian, Annie Storr leads a virtual workshop in reflective looking using imagery from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute exhibition "Ich Bin Di Sitra Achra (I am the Other)" by Shterna Goldbloom.
May 20, 2020
Renée Levine Melammed, Schechter Institute in Jerusalem
May 5, 12, 19, 2020
May 13, 2020
May 3, 2020
As part of the Create@Brandeis Living Room Fest, Shterna Goldbloom leads a workshop in fine-tuning your selfie techniques during these selfie-necessary times. Goldbloom will talk about her self-portraits from her current exhibition “Ich Bin Di Sitra Achra (I Am the Other)” at the Kniznick Gallery through the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Artist Program.
March 30, 2020
Esther Brownsmith, Brandeis University
February 27, 2020
A conversation with Aileen Josephs ’86, Rosa Lowinger ’78 and Dalia Wassner as they engage the many ways Latina Jews are impacting America in the fields of law, architecture, art and academia.
The event was co-sponsored by Brandeis Alumni Club of South Florida and HBI's Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies.
February 12, 2020
A film screening of "Next Year in Argentina" followed by a panel discussion. The speakers examined Argentinian Jewry and the subject of return migration.
February 11, 2020
Karen Skinazi, University of Bristol
Skinazi discussed the ways that women have inspired change in Orthodox Judaism through creative and cultural channels, such as memoirs, novels, film, and social media, using Naomi Alderman’s novel Disobedience (2006) as a case study.
February 6, 2020
The Holocaust Research Study Group presents lectures, readings, visual talks, and break-out sessions in a half-day Holocaust Remembrance event
January 30, 2020
It took 72 years for women to get the right to vote in the US. Come to this Teach-In to learn about the mobilization from 1848 at Seneca Falls to 1920 with passage of the 19th Constitutional Amendment.
Co-sponsored by the Women's Studies Research Center, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Politics Department at Brandeis University
January 30, 2020
A conversation about developments concerning Israeli women in Judaism, both Orthodox and secular, and how they have impacted similar issues in the US. Co-sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and JFAB: Jewish Feminist Association of Brandeis.
November 16, 2019
HBI proudly sponsored the film, “Flawless” at the Boston Jewish Film Festival on Nov. 9 and Nov. 16. “Flawless” is a 2018 Israeli film directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon that tackles issues facing transgender youth and other marginalized communities in Israel. In this film, Eden, a trans high schooler, discovers that her two best — and only — friends are secretly planning to sell their kidneys to pay for cosmetic surgery and dresses for prom. Though dubious at first, Eden decides that joining them may be the answer to her prayers. But when their plans go awry, the girls are confronted by their own prejudices and find themselves on a journey of self-discovery, shaping these self-conscious high-schoolers into adults. “Flawless” was nominated for 12 Ophir Awards including the award for Best Picture. This was the first film in the history of Israeli cinema for which a transgender woman, Stav Strashko (Eden), was nominated for the Ophir Best Actress award.
November 13, 2019
November 6, 2019
October 23, 2019
The groundbreaking work of Project Kesher and the gift of its archives to Brandeis University was celebrated. Brandeis’s Archives & Special Collections is home to significant holdings on Jewish feminism and the Project Kesher materials are an enriching and important addition to this repository.
Founder Sallie E. Gratch was joined by Project Kesher Ukraine Director Vlada Nedak to link the history to the present work and vision of the future. A panel of academic experts provided historical context and laid out pathways for future researchers using the Project Kesher archival collection now housed at Brandeis.
October 2, 2019
In the late 1800s and early 1900s in Russia, the only escape from pogroms for thousands of girls was the prospect of a job or marriage that would take them to “America.” Unfortunately, fleeing poverty and strife, an estimated 200,000 Jewish girls and women found themselves in the clutches of Zwi Migdal, a legal traffickers’ union that operated with impunity throughout South America for 70 years. Talia Carner, author of “The Third Daughter,” revealed how the cries of these women prompted her to expose a shameful chapter in Jewish history. She discussed actions that can be taken today to abolish human enslavement.
September 25, 2019
Sivan Rajuan Shtang
September 11, 2019
Tamar Biala
September 8, 2019
Mayyim Hayyim and Kavod (a lay-led Jewish community focused on social justice) presented the 5th annual High Holiday program: Knocking at Our Hearts. The event focused on preparing your whole self — body and soul — for the holidays with the power and joy of communal song. This year, our teacher was singer/composer/scholar, Galeet Dardashti, who offered two workshops focusing on Sephardi and Mizrahi music.
Feb. 28–June 28, 2019
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute presented Ayelet Carmi and Meirav Heiman in “One Foot Planted.” Israeli artists Carmi and Heiman created ambitious video works that explored the impact that politics and conflict have on Israeli women in times of crisis. In their work, Israel is redefined as a mythical and post-apocalyptic world, which feminine and differently-abled bodies must ritually traverse through extreme physical acts. Both the ritual of processing the Israel Trail and counting the Omer become ungendered and labor-intensive sites of communication between bodies, land, machines, and the movement of time itself. In creating these spectacles and invented worlds, the artists’ combined interests in cinematography, live-action performance, group dynamics and mechanical inventions were all at play.
April 10, 2019
This is event was part of the HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies. Ruth Behar, a Cuban-Jewish anthropologist and the first Latina MacArthur Fellow, showed how culture is both an artifact of history and a vehicle of ongoing memory. Included was a reading of her latest book of poetry, “Everything I Kept/Todo lo que Guardé,” discussed in combination with excerpts from her award-winning novel “Lucky Broken Girl,” documentary film Adio Kerida, and photojournalism in “An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba.”
Co-sponsored by Brandeis Alumni Association, the Brandeis International Business School, & Latin American & Latino Studies Program. This event was a part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts Program.
February 7, 2019
Joy Ladin, the first openly transgender professor in an Orthodox institution, read from her new book, “The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah From a Transgender Perspective,” Brandeis University Press/HBI Series on Jewish Women. Ladin discussed the need for this trans perspective, as well as her process and journey. She is a professor of English at Stern College/Yeshiva University.
This event was a part of ’Deis Impact.
Co-Sponsored by Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Jewish Feminist Association of Brandeis, Keshet, Ruach HaYam, Jewish Women's Archive
Oct. 3–Dec. 19, 2018
HBI presented a Me’ah Course taught by Professor Sylvia Barack Fishman.
Women and gender were spotlighted in Jewish literature from gripping biblical narratives through the latest exciting novels by American Jewish writers. This 10-week course examined texts in which women play major roles, exploring various subtexts, literary dimensions, and historical context. After an introductory conversation about stories in Genesis and the Book of Ruth, this interactive class read and discussed works including:
-
Yiddish writers Sholom Aleichem and I.B. Singer (in translation) Immigration authors Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska
-
Classics of American Jewish women’s writing such as Tillie Olsen, Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, and Rebecca Goldstein
-
A selection of works by younger writers such as Allegra Goodman, Dara Horn, Nathan Englander, and Nicole Krauss
November 1, 2018
The Fall 2018 LAJGS launch event featured a dramatic reading of Marjorie Agosín’s illustrated book “Anne: Imagining the Diary of Anne Frank,” which was accompanied by a multimedia presentation and a panel discussion about the ongoing relevance of Anne Frank in Latin America, a region that has struggled with authoritarian regimes and ongoing human rights abuses.
Panelists
-
Dalia Wassner, PhD, HBI Project in Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies, Brandeis University
-
Marjorie Agosín, PhD, Professor of Spanish at Wellesley College
-
Francisca Yáñez, Chilean illustrator, graphic designer and visual artist
-
Nisha Sajnani, PhD, Director of Drama Therapy Program at New York University.
-
Sandra Mayo, Printmaker and mixed media artist.
Co-sponsored by JCC Greater Boston, Facing History & Ourselves, Hadassah Boston, Jewish Women’s Archive, Gann Academy, and Temple Beth Zion.
October 25, 2018
HBI was proud to host Dr. Rachel Adatto, Former Member of Israeli Knesset. Adatto, an international expert on women’s health, spearheaded the Photoshop law in Knesset. This law banned the use of Photoshop to “remake” the images of models in advertising without disclaimers in Israel. There was a panel discussion about the effects of this law including Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, director of HBI and Shayna Weiss, associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.
Rachel Adatto, PhD, is a former Member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), with an undergraduate degree in law, an MBA and MD from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is an expert in women’s health and served as the Chair of the National Council for Women’s Health; the senior advisor to the Minister of Health on women’s issues and on four U.N. committees dealing with women’s health.
Notably, she was the lead sponsor of the 2012 “Photoshop Law” that banned ads featuring underweight models. About the law, Adatto said, “Extremely thin models have become the ideal in the advertising world, which surrounds us all day long and tells us what to buy and what to do. They can no longer serve as role models for innocent youth that adopt and copy the illusion of thinness.”
October 14, 2018
HBI was proud to host Catharine A. MacKinnon, the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for our annual Diane Markowicz Lecture on Gender and Human Rights.
Long before the #MeToo movement, Professor MacKinnon pioneered the legal claim for sexual harassment and, with Andrea Dworkin, created ordinances recognizing pornography as a civil rights violation and proposed the Swedish model for abolishing prostitution. The Supreme Court of Canada has largely accepted her approaches to equality, pornography, and hate speech, which have been influential internationally as well.
Author of 13 scholarly books, Professor MacKinnon practices law, consults nationally and internationally on legislation, litigation, and activism, and works regularly with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), and The ERA Coalition. Serving as the first Special Gender Adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (The Hague) from 2008 to 2012, she helped implement her concept “gender crime.” In 2014, she was awarded the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women’s Section of the American Association of Law Schools, and is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI).
The Markowicz Lecture Series is part of HBI’s project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law and was created by GCRL Founder Sylvia Neil and her husband Dan Fischel in memory of Sylvia’s late sister, Diane Markowicz, to honor her commitment to gender equality and social justice.