Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

5/2 – Studio Israel: The Multilingual Music of Jaffa, with Neta Weiner and Stav Marin  
5/7 – Arénas: Music Remembers What History Forgets - Sephardi Modernities Seminar Series 2024
5/21 – Seven Blessings (Sheva Brachot), part of The National Center for Jewish Film’s Annual Film Festival, May 12-21

See a list of past events and access links to recordings of many of them, which you can view on our YouTube channel. Subscribe if you would like to be notified when new recordings are posted.

Read about the evolution of the Schusterman Seminars.

April 7, 2024

Sunday, April 7 - Monday, April 8, 2024

Since 2023, Israel has faced two of its biggest crises since its establishment 75 years earlier. The year began with the massive social upheaval over a proposed judicial reform that would alter the nature of Israeli democracy. Subsequently, the Hamas attacks on October 7th and the ensuing war in Gaza have had brutal consequences for Israelis and Palestinians, as well as global ramifications. “Democracy and its Alternatives: The Origins of Israel's Current Crises,” the annual conference of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, offered a scholarly understanding of a country and a region in crisis, and places these pivotal events in their larger historical, regional, and political contexts.

This conference is the culmination of the inaugural cohort of a new fellowship program, the Schusterman Center’s Institute for Advanced Israel Studies (IAIS). The only program of its kind, each year the Institute convenes a cohort of scholars from around the world to work together on an important theme in the field of Israel studies. Our fellows will be forming the panels on the second day of the conference. This year the Institute was co-hosted by our partner, the Center for Jewish History in New York City, and we thank them for their generous participation. (Learn how you can apply for the 2024-25 fellowship, when our theme will be Digital Humanities in Israel Studies.)

LEARN MORE     

Image: Detail from Lisa Reinke's "Hymn to the Masses"

April 24, 2023

The conference offered a fresh perspective on Ethiopian immigration to Israel. Instead of the traditional narrative that focused on the "rescue" of African Jews, it brought Ethiopian scholars, activists, and artists to the forefront. It shifted the focus to the malleable and contingent nature of this encounter, and the event explored not only the impact of Israel on Ethiopian Jews but also how these immigrants influenced Israeli society. 

Image: Rina Ingidau, from "Ethio Afrofuturism" series, 2020. Digital collage and drawing.

April 1, 2019

The Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship at Brandeis International Business School and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies jointly presented an event where attendees learned from experts about the roots and future direction of Israel's innovation economy and its societal impact.