2024 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).
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.
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.