2021 Events

“Sefarad... To Be or Not to Be” - Conversion, Expulsion, and the Legacy of 1492

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

Carole S. Kessner, PhD, "Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self"

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

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Studio Israel

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.

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Rabbi Haviva Ner-David, "Hope Valley"

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.

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Navigating the Current Climate Through Judaism: Author Sarah Hurwitz in Conversation with Rav Tiferet Berenbaum

December 2, 2021

Sarah Hurwitz in conversation with Rav Tiferet Berenbaum as they grapple with current issues and turn to Judaism for guidance.

In Search of Late Ottoman Sephardi Women’s Lives

November 22, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University

HBI Scholar in Residence

Boston Jewish Film Festival’s "Leaving Paradise"

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

BOOK LAUNCH - Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Modern Hebrew Literature

November 17, 2021

Cosponsored by: Hadassah-Brandeis InstituteDepartment of Near Eastern and Judaic StudiesDepartment of Women's, Gender and Sexuality StudiesSchusterman Center for Israel Studies; and Women's Studies Research Center, at Brandeis University.

Women's Daf Yomi [Daily Talmud Cycle] Study: The Confluence of Three Religious Revolutions

November 15, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Adam Ferziger, Bar-Ilan University

HBI Scholar in Residence

Revolutionary Legacies: Jewish Feminist Political Thinking

November 8, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Marla Brettschneider, University of New Hampshire

HBI Scholar in Residence & HBI Research Associate

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Geographies of Jewish Latina Literature: Between Scholarship, Poetry, and YA Fiction

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

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She Knows: Using the Brandeis Feminist Collection Archives to Explore the History of Israeli Feminism

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.

Women of Sefarad Series presents: "Heroines"

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.

Judy Batalion, "The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos"

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

#UsToo: How Jewish and Muslim Women Woke Our Communities

October 25, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Keren McGinity, Brandeis University

HBI Research Associate

Studio Israel: Featuring Raida Adon

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. 

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Sandra Seltzer Silberman HBI Conversations Series Launch Event Featuring Judy Bolton-Fasman, author of "Asylum, A Memoir of Family Secrets"

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.

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Henrietta Szold, Judah Magnes, and the “Hebrew Orient”: New Scholarship Concerning American Jewry and the Land of Israel, 1900-1948

October 12, 2021

Cosponsored with the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Narrating Belonging: The Art of Memory

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

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Switching Gender in the Torah: What We Reveal by Changing the Perspective

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.

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Rediscovering the Lost Literature of Unconventional Jewish Women

May 13, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Lori Harrison-Kahan, Boston College

Jessica Kirzane, University of Chicago

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Exploring Jewish Women’s Fiction as Mirrors into Jewish Women’s Lives

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

WATCH HERE

The Crooked and the Straight: Queer Theory and Rabbinic Literature

April 26, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Gwynn Kessler, Swarthmore College
HBI Spring 2021 Scholar in Residence

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Performing Disability in Israel

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. 

Indomitable Woman: Feminism in the Poetry of Rosita Kalina of Costa Rica

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

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"Hadassah: An American Story" with Hadassah Lieberman Moderated by Deborah Lipstadt, MA'72, PhD'76, H'19, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University

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

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Hadassah: An American Story

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.

Conceiving Motherhood: The Reception of Biblical Mothers in the Early Jewish Imagination

April 12, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Sari Fein, Brandeis University
HBI Spring 2021 Scholar in Residence

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Studio Israel: Conversation Series

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

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Dec. 10, 2020 

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Feb. 11, 2021 

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April 8, 2021

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2021 Holocaust Remembrance Panel: Echoes and Reckonings

April 8, 2021

Presented by the WSRC Holocaust Research Study Group

Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority among Haredi Women

April 6, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Michal Raucher, Rutgers University

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Taking Over the Crown: Camille Eskell’s “The Fez as Storyteller"

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

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Virtual Artist Lecture: Camille Eskell | The Fez as Storyteller

March 24, 2021

HBI Artist Program

More information on the exhibition.

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Suffering, Stereotypes, and Psychosis: The Representation of Jewish Femininity in the CW Series "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"

March 22, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Samantha Pickette, Boston University

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The First American Jewish Novelist: Cora Wilburn

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.

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America and the Crypto Jewish Presence: Reclaiming the Legacy of Sepharad

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 Foundation for Jewish Education.

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Four Mothers: Live Program

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.

Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age

March 8, 2021

HBI Seminar Series

Ayala Fader, Fordham University

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From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran

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

Watch a 9-minute highlight video

American Jewish Women Craft Resilience and Community: Making Meaning Through Everyday Action

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.

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The End of Iberian Jewry and The Beginnings of a Sephardi Diaspora: Through the Eyes of Women

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 Foundation for Jewish Education.

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Kugel and Frijoles: Latinx Jews in the United States

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.

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Israel in the Spanish-speaking Media: The Case of Latina Entrepreneurship

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

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Finding Matilda: Uncovering the Life & Death of a Jewish Lithuanian Poet

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.

HBI Virtual Conversations with Rachel Biale, author of "Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood"

January 27, 2021

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