Staff

Media Inquiries: Please contact news@brandeis.edu.
Alexander Kaye
Alexander Kaye
Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies;
Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair in Israel Studies; Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
781-736-5927 Mandel Center for the Humanities, 317

Expertise: Jewish thought, intellectual history, political thought, legal history

Shayna Weiss
Shayna Weiss
Senior Associate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
781-736-5923 Mandel 316

Expertise: Israeli history, gender, Orthodox Jews, politics of popular culture, television and film, nationalism, politics

Mai Dewees
Assistant Director
781-736-2152 Mandel Center for the Humanities, 316
Keren Goodblatt
Keren Goodblatt
Marketing and Communications Specialist
781-736-7310 Mandel Center for the Humanities
Pronouns: Media Inquiries: Please contact news@brandeis.edu.

Media Inquiries: Please contact news@brandeis.edu.

Keren Goodblatt has been with the Center for over 12 years. Before coming to Brandeis, she was the student life coordinator at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Keren was born in Israel and grew up in California. She has a BA in French from UCLA, and studied romance philology, semiotics and sociolinguistics at the University of Bologna, Italy. Keren speaks Italian, French, Hebrew and Welsh.

Mengqi Tian
Mengqi Tian
Program Administrator
781-736-2154 Mandel 319

Mengqi is a Brandeis alumna ('21) who majored in psychology and education studies. In her prior work, she focused on supporting educational and psychological services and research in universities and NGOs across the United States, United Kingdom and China. She also has an MEd in human development and education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her native language is Mandarin Chinese.

Wendy Schwartz
Wendy Schwartz
Senior Department Coordinator
781-736-2166 Mandel Center for the Humanities 308 (reception)

Before joining the Schusterman Center in the fall 2018, Wendy served as the admissions coordinator for the Trust Center for Early Education at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline and has worked for Eim Chai, a local start-up Jewish women’s organization, to name a few. She also spent 13 summers as the office manager for Camp Pembroke, a Jewish girls' overnight camp, in Pembroke, Massachusetts.

“Introducing my students to Israeli culture opens their eyes, their minds, and their hearts. They gain a critical understanding of the complexity and diversity of Israel's multiethnic and multicultural society, which disrupts preconceived notions and undermines stereotypes.”

Gannit Ankori

Professor of Art History and Chair of the Israeli Art, Department of Fine Arts, Brandeis University