Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

March 29, 2022

March 9, 2022

Watch the recording

Lecture by Deborah Starr (Cornell University) and Eyal Sagui Bizawe (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Part of the Sephardi Thought and Modernity Series: Continuity and Rupture, which focuses on continuity and rupture as a way to deepen our dialogue about the different forms modernity has adopted throughout Sephardi history. The series interrogates concepts including the meaning of “modernity” in non-European contexts such as the Levant and/or the Arab world. It explores how non-European Jewish societies developed ways of life that synthesized tradition, change and cultural diversity throughout time. The lectures delve into Sephardi intellectual life, cosmopolitanism, cultural belongings, language, translation and mobility.

Organized by Dr. Angy Cohen, Inaugural Hy and Jenny Belzberg Postdoctoral Associate in Israel Studies, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary, and Dr. Yuval Evri, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies on the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jewish Studies and a core faculty member at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

Sponsored by the Belzberg Program in Israel Studies at the University of Calgary and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. With the collaboration of the American Sefardi Federation, Centro Sefarad Israel, and the International Network for Jewish Thought. 

March 7, 2022

Watch the recording

Michal Ben-Horin in conversation with Assaf Shelleg about his book, "Theological Stains: Art Music and the Zionist Project" (Oxford University Press, 2020). The program will take place in Hebrew. Free and open to the public. Registration required.

Assaf Shelleg is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the award-winning book "Jewish Contiguities and the Soundtrack of Israeli History" (Oxford University Press, 2014) and "Theological Stains: Art Music and the Zionist Project" (Oxford University Press, 2020). Shelleg is also a music contributor for Haaretz, and the curator of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Michal Ben-Horin is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Head of the Department of Comparative Literature at Bar-Ilan University. She is the author of "Musical Biographies: The Music of Memory in Post-1945 German Literature" (de Gruyter, 2016), and "Reading the Voices: Musical Poetics between German and Hebrew" (in Hebrew), forthcoming (The Bialik Institute, 2022).

This event will be in Hebrew. Presented by the National Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH) and cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, it is part of the NAPH series, “Conversations with Friends (Who Are Also Writers)." Each meeting brings together a pair of authors to discuss their recent academic books. The series aims to present innovative scholarly work in the field of Modern Hebrew literature and to promote meaningful conversations and engagements among scholars and fields of interest. It is co-organized by Ilana Szobel, Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Core Faculty in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University, and Dana Olmert, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature at Tel Aviv University.

February 14, 2022

Watch the recording

A conversation between Professor David Katz and five core faculty members at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies who authored new books in 2020 and 2021, discuss their scholarship and their contributions to the field of Israel Studies. 

David Katz, Visiting Professor of History in the Departments of History and of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and Director of the History of Ideas Program, Brandeis University 

in conversation with:

• Yuval Evri, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies on the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jewish Studies: The return to Al-Andalus: Disputes over Sephardic culture and identity between Arabic and Hebrew Magnes Press, 2020 
• Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies: The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel Oxford University Press, 2020 
• Yehudah Mirsky, Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies: Towards the Mystical Experience of Modernity: The Making of Rav Kook, 1865-1904 Academic Studies Press, 2021
• Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies: Coming to Terms with America: Essays on Jewish History, Religion, and Culture Jewish Publication Society, 2021
• Ilana Szobel, Associate Professor on the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Chair in Hebrew Literature: Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Modern Hebrew Literature SUNY Press, 2021

February 10, 2022

Watch the recording

Dege Feder, an award-winning Ethiopian-Israeli choreographer, dancer and musician, in conversation with Dr. Shula Mola. Feder has performed, choreographed, and taught around the world. In addition to her global presence, she has also worked as a dance teacher to empower women and young girls in Israel's Ethiopian community.

Shula Mola is the Schusterman Center post-doctoral fellow. Dr. Mola uses the power of academics to advance social justice, addressing social stratification, oppression, and structural racism. Her current focus is on the preservation of the Ethiopian-Israeli community's history and heritage.

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. 

About the Artist
Dege Feder is a choreographer, dancer, artistic director, and musician. She has been the manager and choreographer of Beta Dance Troupe since 2013. Before that, she danced solo parts in Eskesta dance troupe and was among the founding dancers of Beta Dance Troupe. Feder has performed in many international festivals in Germany, France, Columbia, Croatia, South Africa, the USA (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago), and more. She also performed on the main stages in Israel festivals and gave workshops and masterclasses worldwide in Jacob’s Pillow Festival, the National Ethiopian Theatre, Costa Rica National Dance Company, Ohio State University, and others. Feder received the Israeli Minister of Culture prize for dance creators in 2018, the New Israeli Fund Essential Art prize in 2020, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration prize for outstanding contribution for art and society in 2021, and the Rabinovich Foundation/Neve Schechter prize for original Israeli art in 2021. 

February 9, 2022

Watch the recording

Lecture by Lital Levy (Princeton University). 

Part of the Sephardi Thought and Modernity Series: Continuity and Rupture, which focuses on continuity and rupture as a way to deepen our dialogue about the different forms modernity has adopted throughout Sephardi history. The series interrogates concepts including the meaning of “modernity” in non-European contexts such as the Levant and/or the Arab world. It explores how non-European Jewish societies developed ways of life that synthesized tradition, change and cultural diversity throughout time. The lectures delve into Sephardi intellectual life, cosmopolitanism, cultural belongings, language, translation and mobility.

Organized by Dr. Angy Cohen, Inaugural Hy and Jenny Belzberg Postdoctoral Associate in Israel Studies, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary, and Dr. Yuval Evri, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies on the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jewish Studies and a core faculty member at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

Sponsored by the Belzberg Program in Israel Studies at the University of Calgary and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. With the collaboration of the American Sefardi Federation, Centro Sefarad Israel, and the International Network for Jewish Thought. 

January 19, 2022

December 13, 2021

Jews and Muslims live together in contemporary Dubai, Berlin, and Warsaw. Our three speakers will present three case studies evaluating emerging trends and patterns in each trans-urban context. Through qualitative anthropological research centralizing respondents' own lived experiences and worldviews, interactions between Muslims and Jews in each location are studied as a formative part of public discourse.

Perhaps the most visible manifestations of these relations are represented by the ambitious interfaith projects that were recently established in each area. The Abrahamic Family House (UEA), The House of One (GE), and The Community of Conscience (PL) reveal the aspirations of multi-faith religious leaders to overcome polarizing dichotomies and search for common ground. One of the conclusive outcomes of the study is a somewhat diminishing impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Jewish-Muslim relations; however, the extent differs in each location. The scholars also detected something they did not expect to find: an inclination towards a joint-Muslim-Jewish Middle Eastern identity. Read more.

Speakers:

• Marcela Menachem Zoufalá is Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague, and Summer Institute for Israel Studies 2015 Fellow. 

• Joanna Dyduch is Associate Professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, at the Department of Israel and Levant at Institute of Middle and Far East. 

• Olaf Glöckner is a researcher at the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies in Potsdam (MMZ), and Lecturer at the Historical Institute and at the Department of Jewish Studies at Potsdam University. 

Presented by the Center for German and European Studies, in coordination with the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. 

December 9, 2021

November 21, 2021

Dr. Shula Mola discussed the struggle of Ethiopian Jews in Israel for "normality," and the variety of ways to deal with exclusion and racism. Dr. Mola is an Israeli civil and human rights activist and educator. Shehas been a leader of the Association for Ethiopian Jews (AEJ) for over 20 years. She is a founding member and key activist of Mothers on Guard – a group of mothers who protest police brutality against youth of Ethiopian origin. She is a board member of the New Israel Fund and a post-doctoral fellow at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. 

Cosponsored by Temple Emunah, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. 

November 21, 2021

November 17, 2021

Watch the recording

A discussion of Prof. Ilana Szobel's new book. "Flesh of My Flesh" (SUNY Press, 2021) looks at one of the most silenced and repressed aspects of Israeli culture by examining the trope of sexual violence in modern Hebrew literature. Prof. Szobel explores how sexual violence participates in, encourages, or resists concurrent ideologies in Jewish and Israeli culture, and situates the rhetoric of sexual aggression within the contexts of gender, ethnicity, disability, and national identity.

Introduction: ChaeRan Freeze, Frances and Max Elkon Chair in Modern Jewish History, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; Chair, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis University

Discussants: 
Sue Lanser, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, English, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis University 

Ilana Szobel, Associate Professor on the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Chair in Hebrew Literature, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; core faculty in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

Q&A moderated by: Shayna Weiss, Associate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University 

Use code XAIS21 to purchase the book online at a discount of 30% paperback or 40% hardcover, through December 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

November 9, 2021

Watch the recording

"War of Shadows" author Gershom Gorenberg in conversation with Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna and Prof. Yehudah Mirsky. 

In the summer of 1942, Rommel's army was a day from Cairo, a week from Tel Aviv. The SS was ready to go into action. The Jews of Palestine expected catastrophe. Espionage brought the Nazis this far - and only espionage could stop them.

"War of Shadows" is the epic story of the World War II intrigues that brought Germany's Erwin Rommel to the brink of conquering the Middle East. Years in the making, based on newly discovered documents, this book is a feat of research and storytelling. As in his previous work, Gorenberg strips away myths about Middle East history. War of Shadows debunks the established "war without hate" narrative about the battle for North Africa - a narrative that erased the people who lived in the region and the reach of the Holocaust beyond Europe.

As political history, War of Shadows describes events that would shape the Middle East and set the stage for the creation of Israel. As espionage history, it describes the origins of high-tech encryption and hacking. And as cinematic non-fiction, it's the story of forgotten heroes, people who changed the world and were erased from memory.

Gershom Gorenberg is a historian and journalist. His previous books include "The Unmaking of Israel" and "The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977." He is a columnist for the Washington Post, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly and The New York Review of Books and in Hebrew for Haaretz. He lives in Jerusalem, except during stints teaching a workshop on writing history at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Jonathan D. Sarna directs the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He is University Professor, and Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.

Yehudah Mirsky is a professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and core faculty member at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Cosponsored by the Center for German and European Studies and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. 

October 14, 2021

October 12, 2021

October 5, 2021

Watch the recording

A public conversation, in conjunction with the release of Genomic Citizenship: The Molecularization of Identity in the Contemporary Middle East, with its author, Prof. Ian McGonigle, and Prof. Sara Shostak, two experts working at the intersection of science and society.

Based on ethnographic work in Israel and Qatar, two small Middle Eastern ethno-nations with significant biomedical resources, Genomic Citizenship explores the relationship between science and identity. Prof. McGonigle discusses biological understandings of Jewishness, especially in relation to the intellectual history of Zionism and Jewish political thought, and considers the possibility of a novel application of genetics in assigning Israeli citizenship. He also describes developments in genetic medicine in Qatar and analyzes the Qatari Biobank in the context of Qatari nationalism and state-building projects.

Ian McGonigle is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Science, Technology, and Society at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and an alumnus of the Schusterman Center’s Summer Institute for Israel Studies. Before joining NTU, he held postdoctoral positions at Tel Aviv University, Harvard University, and the University of Cambridge. Prof. McGonigle’s work in the social study of science examines the role of science in identity formation and nation-building, revealing the privileged role of biology in mediating ethnic and national identities and stabilizing national consciousnesses.

Sara Shostak is Associate Professor of Sociology and Health: Science, Society and Policy, Brandeis University. She is the author of the award-winning book Exposed Science: Genes, the Environment, and the Politics of Population Health, served as the associate editor of a special issue of the American Journal of Sociology focused on genetics and social structure, and has an extensive record of publications on whether and how genetic information shapes people’s lives and life chances. 

September 14, 2021

 Watch the recording

Prof. Adriana Katzew will present her photographic work in conversation with Dr. Shayna Weiss. Katzew has been unearthing stories and memories of people, moments and places, inspired and driven by the history of her own Mexican-Jewish family. Prof. Dana Arieli will then join the discussion to address some of the similarities and differences between their works. Moderated by the exhibition curator, Dr. Rotem Rozental.

About the Exhibition
In “The Zionist Phantom,” Prof. Dana Arieli shapes a panoramic view of a landscape defined by the uneasy presence of its missing limbs. With dozens of photographs captured across Israel from the 1980s to the present, the exhibition presents abandoned and active spaces, unfinished buildings, military presence in civilian areas, sites of collective remembrance and personal loss, exhuming the past lives of the sites, of what will never return. 

September 1, 2021

Watch the recording

Film Premiere and Lecture by Herzl biographer, Prof. Derek Penslar

in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Theodor Herzl’s "The Jewish State." Viewers around the world and on the Brandeis campus watched the premiere screening of "Herzlmania," a short film celebrating David Matlow's Theodor Herzl Memorabilia Collection, the world's largest private collection of Herzl artifacts. We then took a deeper look at the legacy of this pivotal figure in a lecture by Herzl’s biographer, Derek Penslar, the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University and author of "Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader" (Yale University Press, 2020). Filmmaker Daniel Mooney directed "Herzlmania," and the film was commissioned by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. 

April 27, 2021

April 26, 2021

Watch the recording

The Zionist Phantom
by Dana Arieli 
A virtual exhibition presented by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Curated by Rotem Rozental.

The Israeli landscape is haunted by ghosts. Assembling what she refers to as “a worldview,” Dana Arieli shapes a panoramic view of a landscape defined by the uneasy presence of its missing limbs. The idea of the phantom reflects what should have been there. Going beyond a sense of longing, the phantom embodies a sensory experience: what the mind wants to see or hear, what it is convinced—even momentarily—is, in fact, there. And yet, we tend to discover, the sound or sight are a misunderstanding, an internal malfunction. More than conveying what was there, the phantom experience exhumes what will never return.

We are so excited to launch our very first virtual exhibition! Join us for a candid artist talk with Professor Dana Arieli, Design Faculty, Holon Institute of Technology and Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev, and curator Dr. Rotem Rozental, Chief Curator and Senior Director of Arts and Culture at American Jewish University. 

Cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and the Consulate General of Israel to New England. Free and open to all. Registration required. 

Part of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts, April 25-May 1, 2021 at Brandeis University.

April 22, 2021

Performing Disability in Israel
Session 2

Sunny Yudkoff is an assistant professor at The University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of Tubercular Capital: Illness and the Conditions of Modern Jewish Writing, winner of the 2018 Salo Wittmayer Baron Book Prize (Stanford University Press, 2018). 

This lecture was the last in a two-part series — held in conjunction with Professor Ilana Szobel’s course, Disability Cultures: Art, Film, and Literature of People with Disabilities — exploring 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. Our presenters, thus, examine the ways performance of disability on stage, on the screen, and in everyday life raises questions about Israeli subjectivity. 

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 12, 2021

Presented by the Consulate General of Israel to New England and moderated by Brown University students, Ilana Emanuel and Ivy Scott, this is a rare opportunity for students across New England to learn directly about political journalism, international affairs, and Middle Eastern politics through the eyes of veteran reporter and chief political correspondent and analyst for the Jerusalem Post, Gil Hoffman. 

Hoffman, a well-known Israeli journalist, is a routine political analyst for CNN, Al-Jazeera, and other significant news outlets. Known as "the most optimistic man in Israel," Hoffman is known for providing his readers a behind-the-scenes look into Israeli politics via his connections to Israeli and Palestinian figures from across the political spectrum. Leading media have interviewed Hoffman on six continents, and he has lectured about Israel in all 50 U.S. States. 

This event is generously co-sponsored by 16 universities, university departments, and student organizations from across all New England States. 

April 8, 2021

From Within and Without

Watch the recording

Tamar Borer has been creating and performing for over 20 years. Her background combines classical ballet technique, modern dance, dance traditions from various cultures, including Balinese and Mexican, and movement therapies and practices such as Feldenkrais.

A car accident in 1990 left Tamar paralyzed in both legs. She has continued to evolve her work since then, and has performed at many dance festivals across Israel and Europe. She was awarded the Buchman Hyman “Promising Artist Award,” and the distinguished Artist Award bestowed by the Ballet Master Albert Gaubier fund. She was also awarded the “Grace Award” (Hebrew – Ot Ha-Chesed) for her empowering and inspiring work with various physically and situationally challenged communities. Learn more about her unique choreography and artistic output.

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.

March 16, 2021

The Lives and Legacies of A.D. Gordon: A Retrospective
A Symposium Marking the 100th Year Since his Passing
Session 3
Watch the recording

Nearly a century since his passing, the life and work of Aharon David Gordon (1856-1922) have drawn renewed attention. One of the most original of Zionism's foundational thinkers, his ideas are strikingly relevant to contemporary questions, from ethics and nationalism, to the connectedness of environmentalism, community and social justice, to the possibility of  vibrant Jewish culture beyond familiar dichotomies of secularity and religion.  

The rare intellectual who lived out his ideas, Gordon moved in his mid-40s from Russia to Palestine, where by day he worked as an agricultural laborer, and by night wrote penetrating essays on the meaning of Jewish national - natural revival, and powerful, poetic correspondence with young activists, who later put his ideas into practice in the Kibbutz movement and Labor Zionism. Yet Gordon's significance looms much larger than his status as a revered icon of Labor Zionism. His writings and example still challenge assumptions about the meaning of Jewishness and the Land, on the possibility of living authentically in industrial society and invite readers to think about their lives as Jews and as human beings. 

A flurry of new publications from manuscripts, scholarly studies, and renewed popular interest in Gordon among social activists and artists, point to the vitality of his thought, as a point of entry into Zionist history, and a means of exploring Jewish cultural and social renaissance today. This major figure is little-known in the English-speaking world. This symposium will open a window to the man, his times and legacies, and hopefully open participants' horizons too.   

Organized by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies in cooperation with the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.

Third and final session of the symposium
Discussants: 
Ruth Calderon, Co-founder, Elul; Former Member of Knesset; Educator; and Talmud Scholar
Ron Margolin, Professor of Modern Jewish Thought, Department of Jewish Philosophy and Comparative Religion, Tel Aviv University; Research Fellow of the Kogod Research Center, Shalom Hartman Institute
Shay Rabineau, Shay Rabineau, Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, Binghamton University
Moderator: Yehudah Mirsky, Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

Previous events in the symposium took place March 2 and 9. 

March 11, 2021

March 9, 2021

The Lives and Legacies of A.D. Gordon: A Retrospective
A Symposium Marking the 100th Year Since his Passing
Session 2
Watch the Recording

Nearly a century since his passing, the life and work of Aharon David Gordon (1856-1922) have drawn renewed attention. One of the most original of Zionism's foundational thinkers, his ideas are strikingly relevant to contemporary questions, from ethics and nationalism, to the connectedness of environmentalism, community and social justice, to the possibility of  vibrant Jewish culture beyond familiar dichotomies of secularity and religion.  

The rare intellectual who lived out his ideas, Gordon moved in his mid-40s from Russia to Palestine, where by day he worked as an agricultural laborer, and by night wrote penetrating essays on the meaning of Jewish national - natural revival, and powerful, poetic correspondence with young activists, who later put his ideas into practice in the Kibbutz movement and Labor Zionism. Yet Gordon's significance looms much larger than his status as a revered icon of Labor Zionism. His writings and example still challenge assumptions about the meaning of Jewishness and the Land, on the possibility of living authentically in industrial society and invite readers to think about their lives as Jews and as human beings. 

A flurry of new publications from manuscripts, scholarly studies, and renewed popular interest in Gordon among social activists and artists, point to the vitality of his thought, as a point of entry into Zionist history, and a means of exploring Jewish cultural and social renaissance today. This major figure is little-known in the English-speaking world. This symposium will open a window to the man, his times and legacies, and hopefully open participants' horizons too.   

Organized by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies in cooperation with the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.

Second session of the symposium
Discussants:
Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman, Associate Professor and Chair of the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Department, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Yossi Turner, Professor of Jewish Thought at the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem; Author of "Quest for Life: A Study in Aharon David Gordon's Philosophy" (Academic Studies Press, 2020) 
Yair Bar Tzuri, Doctoral student in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Schusterman Scholar at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University
Moderator: Shayna Weiss, Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University

The final event in the symposium takes place March 16. 

March 2, 2021

The Lives and Legacies of A.D. Gordon: A Retrospective
A Symposium Marking the 100th Year Since his Passing
Session 1

Watch the recording
Nearly a century since his passing, the life and work of Aharon David Gordon (1856-1922) have drawn renewed attention. One of the most original of Zionism's foundational thinkers, his ideas are strikingly relevant to contemporary questions, from ethics and nationalism, to the connectedness of environmentalism, community and social justice, to the possibility of  vibrant Jewish culture beyond familiar dichotomies of secularity and religion.  

The rare intellectual who lived out his ideas, Gordon moved in his mid-40s from Russia to Palestine, where by day he worked as an agricultural laborer, and by night wrote penetrating essays on the meaning of Jewish national - natural revival, and powerful, poetic correspondence with young activists, who later put his ideas into practice in the Kibbutz movement and Labor Zionism. Yet Gordon's significance looms much larger than his status as a revered icon of Labor Zionism. His writings and example still challenge assumptions about the meaning of Jewishness and the Land, on the possibility of living authentically in industrial society and invite readers to think about their lives as Jews and as human beings. 

A flurry of new publications from manuscripts, scholarly studies, and renewed popular interest in Gordon among social activists and artists, point to the vitality of his thought, as a point of entry into Zionist history, and a means of exploring Jewish cultural and social renaissance today. This major figure is little-known in the English-speaking world. This symposium will open a window to the man, his times and legacies, and hopefully open participants' horizons too.   

Organized by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies in cooperation with the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.

First session of the symposium 
Discussants:
Ari Ackerman, Golinkin Professor of TALI Jewish Education, The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies 
Yehudah Mirsky, Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University
Einat Ramon, Senior Lecturer in Jewish Thought and Jewish Women’s Studies; Founding Director of the Marpeh pastoral care program, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies
Eugene Sheppard, Department Chair of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies; Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought; and Associate Director, Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, at Brandeis University
Moderator: Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair of Israel Studies and Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University

The next events in the symposium take place March 9 and March 16. 

February 28, 2021

A conversation with Sagi Muki, the Israeli Judo World champion.

Muki was born and raised in Netanya, Israel and served in the Israel Defense Forces as a Sergeant at the Sde Dov airbase. A few of his achievements include placing first in the 2019 World Championships Senior in Tokyo, first in the 2015 and 2018 European Senior Championships, first in the 2019 Grand Prix in Tel Aviv, third in the Masters Tournament in Qatar in 2021, and fifth at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro. In 2018, Muki placed first in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, which was the first time an Israeli competitor competed under the Israeli flag and not under the International Judo Association flag. The competition marked a major milestone when the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, played in the Gulf State.

In 2019, Sagi was ranked world number one judoka (judo expert). He has won the European championships, and he will represent his country at the Tokyo Olympics. But this Israeli hero is also a strong advocate for peace and equality between all nations. After an Iranian competitor had to forfeit a match due to the Iranian Regime, Sagi reached out to him, and they have since become friends. Sagi believes that sports can be a powerful bridge between peoples, culture, and beliefs. These days, Sagi is getting ready for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
 
​Cosponsored by t​he Consulate General of Israel to New England, ​BIPAC, ​Brandeis Hillel, the Brandeis ​Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation​, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. 

February 24, 2021

Watch the recording

The authors of "The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians," Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor helped us examine issues of diaspora, conflict, immigration with an illuminating discussion. 

We are happy to offer a 30% discount for the book! Please use code E20MORAL and the following link: https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-moral-triangle. 

Moderated by Dr. Sabine von Mering, Director of the Center for German and European Studies and Professor of German and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, at Brandeis University

Dr. Sa’ed Atshan is an Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He is spending the 2020-2021 academic year as a Visiting Professor of Anthropology and Visiting Scholar in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He received a PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.

Dr. Katharina Galor is the Hirschfeld Associate Professor in Judaic Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University. She specializes in the visual and material culture of Israel/Palestine. Her publications include The Archaeology of Jerusalem: From the Origins through the Ottomans (Yale University Press, 2013; co-authored with Hanswulf Bloedhorn) and Finding Jerusalem: Archaeology between Science and Ideology (University of California Press, 2017).

Cosponsored by the Center for German and European Studies.

February 16, 2021

Watch the recording

We examined the changing meanings of Blackness in Israel, Africa and the USA. Among the questions considered are:

• What are the meanings of "Blackness" in Israel? How are they in conversation with the way the concept plays out in America, Africa, and Europe?
• What role has the idea of "Blackness" played in the formation of the identities of Israel's different communities - Mizrachim, Ashkenazim, Ethiopian, Palestinian? How has it been used in movements for social justice in Israel?
• How does this help us have constructive conversations around questions of race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality in Israel and in the USA?

Discussants:

• Dr. Yuval Evri is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Kings College London. His research focuses on the cultural and political history of Palestine/Land of Israel, concentrating on Sephardi and Arab-Jewish thought. His recent book "The Return to Al-Andalus: Disputes Over Sephardic Culture and Identity Between Arabic and Hebrew" was published by Magnes press in 2020. 
• Dr. Shula Mola is an educational content developer, workshop leader, and researcher focusing on civics, tolerance, inequality, and multiculturalism. She is the founding member of “Mothers on Guard,” an NGO dedicated to reducing police brutality against Ethiopian Israeli youth. She is also a former chairperson of the Association of Ethiopian Jews, Jerusalem, Israel.
• Dr. Bryan K. Roby is Assistant Professor of Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. His expertise is on Middle Eastern and North African Jewish history in the modern era. His research interests include the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in Israel/Palestine; 19th and 20th century North African history; and the legacy of French colonialism on Arab and Jewish identity. His first book, "The Mizrahi Era of Rebellion: Israel’s Forgotten Civil Rights Struggle 1948-1966" (Syracuse University Press, 2015), provides an extensive history of social justice protests by Middle Eastern Jews in Israel.

Moderator:

• Dr. Alexander Kaye is the Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair of Israel Studies and Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. An expert in Israel Studies, his research in the history of Israel focuses on the relationship between law, religion and politics, and in particular in the history of religious Zionism.

Cosponsored by the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, the School of Arts and Sciences Co-Curricular Fund and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, at Brandeis University.  

February 11, 2021

Watch the recording 

Israeli tastemaker, entrepreneur and curator Galit Reismann of TLVstyle combines her passion for fashion with her deep connection to Tel Aviv. Using PechaKucha, a storytelling format that shows 20 images with 20 seconds of commentary each, Reismann and selected designers tell the multicultural story that is contemporary Israel through fashion and design. The work of Elisha Abargel, Akal, Orna Barkan Liftz, Tamar Branitzk, and Hana Menkes ranges from clothes to accessories to tallitot. Introductory remarks by Dr. Shayna Weiss, associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. 

Studio Israel is a 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.

Questions? Email Amy Powell. 

February 4, 2021

Watch the recording

Presented by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies (LAJGS)

Join LAJGS in conversation with Leah Soibel, Fuente Latina founder and CEO, and Susanne Althoff, journalist and author of Launching While Female (2020).

The event will address the entrepreneurial and journalistic aspect of Fuente Latina’s mission to bring Israeli news coverage to a global Hispanic audience, exploring Leah Soibel’s role as a Latina entrepreneur and the organization's women's centered journalism programs.

Co-sponsored by: Brandeis International Business School (Asper Center, Latin American Initiative, Israel Initiative), Brandeis Journalism Program, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University

Moderated by Dalia Wassner, Ph.D. Director, HBI Project in Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies

Panelists:

• Leah Soibel, founder and CEO of Fuente Latina, is a Hispanic American and Israeli who has more than a decade of experience on the ground in Israel, the U.S, Latin America and Spain working with Spanish-language journalists and opinion leaders from around the world.

• Susanne Althoff, Assistant Professor at Emerson College and past editor-in-chief of Boston Globe Magazine, is author of Launching While Female: Smashing the System that Holds Women Entrepreneurs Back (Beacon Press, 2020).

February 3, 2021

Watch the recording

A Crown Seminar with Fredrik Meiton

Political power and electrical power have something in common. They must both move through physical materials whose properties govern their flow. At the dawn of the Arab-Israeli conflict, both kinds of power were circulated through the electric grid that was built by the Zionist engineer Pinhas Rutenberg in the period of British rule, from 1917 to 1948. In this talk, Fredrik Meiton will chart a story of rapid and uneven development that was greatly influenced by the electric grid and set the stage for the conflict between Arabs and Jews. The grid shaped relations among the Zionists, Palestinians, and British rulers—and anticipated the outcome of Jewish statehood and Palestinian statelessness in 1948—by imposing a logic that has continued to shape the area and the conflict until today.

Fredrik Meiton is an assistant professor of history at the University of New Hampshire.
Ekin Kurtic, discussant, is a junior research fellow at the Crown Center.

Presented by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and co-sponsored by the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies program, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and Department of History, at Brandeis University.

Image: Illustration of Rutenberg’s hydropower station from the Palestinian newspaper Falastin, published on November 2, 1932 - the fifteenth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. 

January 27, 2021

Watch the recording

A virtual tour of the newly revitalized Historical Jewish Press. This web resource is a rich repository of digitized newspapers at the National Library of Israel in a wide variety of languages (Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, French, Spanish, English and more), including many Palestinian newspapers from the first half of the 20th century. These records shed light on modern Jewry in its Middle Eastern and global contexts, providing rich resources for educators and scholars alike. Our guide for the hour was Eyal Miller, the site's project and technology manager.

Jointly sponsored by Brandeis Library and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

January 21, 2021

Watch the recording

Through texts found in their natural habitat, in the streets of Tel Aviv, we'll decipher textual graffiti, lost pet ads and stickers. We'll talk about the influence of other languages on Modern Hebrew and celebrate the different cultural and linguistic layers of Israeli society. We'll also talk about words like "haverimot", about gender and inclusive language. 

Speaker:
Guy Sharett teaches Hebrew in the Shanghai International Studies University in Shanghai, China. He has a B.A in Linguistics of Hebrew Language from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an M.A from the University of London. Sharett, who was born in Ashdod, Israel, speaks seven languages, and is the presenter of the Streetwise Hebrew podcast, where he teaches Hebrew using music and pop culture, talking about slang, intonation, grammar and identity. 

Moderator:
Shayna Weiss is the associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. Previously, Dr. Weiss was the inaugural Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Israel Studies at the United States Naval Academy. After completing a PhD from New York University in Hebrew and Judaic Studies, she completed postdoctoral fellowships in Israel at Bar Ilan University and Tel Aviv University. She is interested in study of Haredi Jewry, and the politics of popular culture in Israel.

This event was part of the How to Revive a Dead Language in 100 years series organized by the Consulate General of Israel to New England, and co-hosted by Brandeis University's Hebrew Program, The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, The Jewish Studies Program at Colby College, Middlebury Language Schools, Hebrew College, and Northeastern University Hillel. 

December 10, 2020

A pilot partnership between the Schusterman Center, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Jewish Arts Collaborative, and chaired by artist Caron Tabb, this group will bring together leaders across artforms and backgrounds to understand how Israeli art represents the swath of cultural opportunities and challenges that face Israel currently. With a focus on female artists of diverse Israeli backgrounds, we’ll dive deep into what Israel is today. 

Series made possible with generous support from CJP Arts & Culture.

November 17, 2020

Watch the recording

Hosted by the Office of the President at Brandeis University. A panel discussion and Q&A on the implications of the U.S. presidential election for the Middle East. The panelists will examine the Biden administration's options for addressing crucial challenges and opportunities in the region, including U.S. relations with Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other countries.

Panelists: 

• Eva Bellin, Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University
• Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, Founder and President of the Emirates Policy Center in the UAE
• Yehudah Mirsky, Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University
• Michael Singh, Lane-Swig Senior Fellow and Managing Director, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
• Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution

Moderated by:
Gary Samore, Crown Family Director of the Crown Center and Professor of the Practice in the Department of Politics, Brandeis University

Q&A moderated by:
Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair of Israel Studies and Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

Cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University. 

November 15, 2020

Online Event

Presented by the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC), Israel Summit at Harvard, Pro-Israel Cadre at Clark University, and Huskies for Israel, as part of the Boston-Wide Israel Speaker Series.

Bakari Sellers made history in 2006 when, at just 22 years old, he defeated a 26-year incumbent State Representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African American elected official in the nation. In 2014 Sellers won the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor and is widely considered to be a rising star within the Democratic Party and leading voice for his generation. 

In addition to his impressive list of early accomplishments, Sellers served on President Barack Obama’s South Carolina steering committee during the 2008 election. That coupled with his uncommon ability to reach across the aisle and get things done has led to numerous accolades including being named to TIME Magazine’s 40 Under 40 in 2010 as well as 2014’s “The Root 100” list of the nation’s most influential African-Americans. Sellers has been a much sought after public speaker and has provided political and social commentary and analysis on many major national news outlets.

This event is co-sponsored by Brandeis Hillel, Brandeis Politics Department, The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and Israel Campus Roundtable. 

November 15, 2020

Watch the recording

TLV TV Israeli TV Binge: Unchained
Season 1 (Episodes 1–12), Hebrew with subtitles
Massachusetts Premiere
In this 2019 Israeli TV Series, Rabbi Yossef Mourad works for Israel’s rabbinical courts, tracking down husbands who refuse to give their wives a gett, the document required to grant women Jewish divorces. But when Yossef uncovers a secret which threatens to dissolve his own marriage to Hana, his world begins to crumble. Read more and watch the trailer. The series was introduced by Dr. Shayna Weiss, Associate Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University.

Unchained: Live Q&A
On Zoom
A conversation with creator/director Tamar Kay, lead actress Avigayil Koevary, and Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Shulamit Reinharz Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, moderated by Boston Jewish Film Artistic Director Ariana Cohen-Halberstam. 

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. 

November 9, 2020

Watch the recording

Co-hosted by the Office of the President

Natan Sharansky, hero of the Soviet Jewry movement and former chair of Israel's Jewish Agency, along with his "Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People" co-author, historian Gil Troy, discussed Israel's relationship with American Jewry, antisemitism on college campuses, the failed compromise aimed at opening the Western Wall for non-Orthodox prayer services and more -- in conversation with Schusterman Center director, Jonathan D. Sarna, and Director of the Hornstein Program, Dr. Shirley Idelson.  

Natan Sharansky is one of the most famous former Soviet refusniks and an Israeli politician, author and human rights activist.  Read more.

Gil Troy is a Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University, currently living in Jerusalem, and an award-winning American presidential historian and a leading Zionist activist. Read more.

Jonathan D. Sarna is University Professor, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University

Shirley Idelson is Leon A. Jick Director of, and associate professor in the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University 

October 28, 2020

watch the recording

Illustrated lecture with Sato Moughalian, author of "Feast of Ashes - The Life and Art of David Ohannessian." 

Joining for Q&A: Marc Mamigonian, Director of Academic Affairs, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

Ms. Moughalian detailed the lineage of her grandfather David Ohannessian's ceramic tradition, reconstructing her grandfather's history and legacy in Armenian pottery. She spoke about the process of coming to terms with her family’s past, the ways in which that served as an impetus to excavate and reconstruct her grandfather’s history through archival research, and the importance of preserving the stories of peoples displaced through migration. 

Since 2007, Ms. Moughalian has traveled to Turkey, England, Israel, Palestine, and France to uncover her grandfather’s traces and has published articles and given talks on the genesis of Jerusalem's Armenian ceramic art. In 2019, Stanford University Press published her biography of her grandfather, Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian, which was longlisted for the PEN/America Literary Awards Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography, and a finalist for the American Association of Publishers PROSE Award for Biography & Autobiography. She is currently at work on a second book.

Sato Moughalian is an award-winning flutist in New York City, who, until the pandemic struck, toured widely on five continents as a chamber musician, served as principal flute for Gotham Chamber Opera, American Modern Ensemble and a number of other NY groups. She is flutist and Artistic Director of Perspectives Ensemble, founded at Columbia University in 1993. Moughalian’s professional activities as a flutist and her intense, life-long interest in the visual arts, material culture, and writing, are increasingly intersecting.

Cosponsored with the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

October 15, 2020

We are proud to kick off the series with Israeli art curator, critic, and writer Dr. Smadar Sheffi, who gave a brief overview of contemporary Israeli art to set the stage for this series.

A pilot partnership between the Schusterman Center, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Jewish Arts Collaborative, and chaired by artist Caron Tabb, this group will bring together leaders across artforms and backgrounds to understand how Israeli art represents the swath of cultural opportunities and challenges that face Israel currently. With a focus on female artists of diverse Israeli backgrounds, we’ll dive deep into what Israel is today. 

September 30, 2020

Watch the recording

The speakers discussed what the etrog, or citron, can reveal to us about larger historical trends.

Welcome words by:

• Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History; Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University
• Shmuel Feiner, Professor of Modern Jewish History, Bar-Ilan University; Chairman of The Historical Society of Israel

Introduction and moderation by:

• Joshua Teplitsky, Associate Professor of History, Stony Brook University

Speakers:

• Debra Kaplan, Associate Professor, Department of Jewish History and Director of the Halpern Center for the Study of Jewish Self-Perception, Bar-Ilan University
• Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University
• Zev Eleff, Associate Professor of Jewish History, Touro College 

Commentator:

• Christine Hayes, Robert F. and Patricia Ross Weis Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica, Yale University

In partnership with the Historical Society of Israel and The International Association of Historical Societies for the Study of Jewish History. 

September 14, 2020

Watch the recording

FALL KICKOFF EVENT

The Jews are Coming (Ha-Yehudim Baim) is an Israeli Academy Award-winning satire now in its fourth season, airing on Kan 11, one of the official channels of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. The sketch comedy covers the history of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present, from Moses to Barbie and everything in between. Join our associate director Dr. Shayna Weiss for a lively conversation with the show's creators, Natalie Marcus and Asaf Beiser. The conversation featured clips from the new season, never before translated for an English speaking audience! 

Speakers:

• Asaf Beiser:
  Based in Tel Aviv, Asaf Beiser has been a writer and showrunner in Israel’s highest rated, comedy, satire and drama shows for over 15 years.  He is the co-creator and head writer of the award-winning sketch show The Jews are Coming. Asaf was a writer for Fauda, The Good Cop, Eretz Nehederet (The Israeli version of Saturday Night Live), and many more award winning programs for Israeli television.  
• Natalie Marcus
  Natalie Marcus is a highly acclaimed, award-winning, screenwriter and director based in Tel Aviv. For the past 10 years, Marcus has been a writer and showrunner in Israel’s highest rated, comedy, satire, and drama series. Marcus is the creator and showrunner of the acclaimed historically themed sketch show The Jews are Coming. Marcus teaches comedy writing and lectures about writing and Jewish history all around the world, and lives in Tel Aviv with her husband and two kids.
  

• Shayna Weiss, Associate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

Q&A Moderator:

• Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

August 24, 2020

July 21, 2020

Amotz Asa-El, Author; Senior columnist and former executive editor, Jerusalem Post; Research fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute.

in conversation with:

Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History; Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

This was the fourth and final event in our Summer Online Series. Listen to the recording on our YouTube channel.

July 7, 2020

Mark Kligman, Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music; Director of Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music; Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology

in conversation with:

Shayna Weiss, Associate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

This was the third event in our Summer Online Series. Watch the recording on our YouTube channel. 

June 23, 2020

Yaron Ayalon, Associate Professor of Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies and Director, Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program, College of Charleston

in conversation with:

This was the second event in our Summer Online Series. Watch the recording on our YouTube channel. 

June 9, 2020

A panel discussion with:

Eva Bellin, Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University 

David Makovsky, Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on Arab-Israel Relation

Bar Sananes, MA/MBA'20, Recent graduate of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, Brandeis University

Discussant and Moderator:
Yehudah Mirsky, Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

This was the first event in our Summer Online Series. Watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

April 2, 2020

An online seminar with Tomer Persico,the Shalom Hartman Institute Bay Area Scholar in Residence and the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught for eight years at the Department for Comparative Religion in Tel-Aviv University. 

Watch it on our YouTube channel.

March 31, 2020

An online lecture with Rachel Rojanski about her book Yiddish in Israel: A History. Rachel Rojanski is an Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University. Her research focuses on the history of  the east European Yiddish-speaking Jewish diaspora from late 19th century to the end of the 20th century, with a special interest in American Jewish history, Zionism and Israel studies.

Watch it on our YouTube channel. 

March 26, 2020

An online seminar with Uriel Abulof, a senior lecturer in Politics at Tel-Aviv University. He is an LISD Research Fellow at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and at the Truman Institute. Since Fall 2019, Abulof has been an Israel Institute Visiting Professor at Cornell's Department of Government. Abulof studies the politics of fear, happiness and hope, legitimization, social movements, existentialism, nationalism and ethnic conflicts.

Watch it on our YouTube channel.

February 26, 2020

A book launch and discussion of Professor Alexander Kaye's new book, The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel. A book signing followed.

Presentation: 

Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

Comments:

David Katz, Visiting Professor in the Department of History, Brandeis University

Yehudah Mirsky, Professor, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

Moderator:

Shayna Weiss, Associate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

 

February 12, 2020

A film screening of  "Next Year in Argentina," a documentary exploring Jewish-Argentine history, identity and attitudes towards Israel. Following the screening, join us for a panel discussion examining Argentinian Jewry and the subject of return migration.

Jonathan Sarna, Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies 

Raanan Rein, Elías Sourasky Professor of Latin American and Spanish History and Vice President of Tel Aviv University

Tali Flomenhoft, Associate Director of Parent and Family Giving at Brandeis University, a Mexican-Israeli Jew

Adrián Krupnik, postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University and the University of Potsdam and a Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Summer Institute fellow. 

Dalia Wassner, Ph.D., Director, HBI Project on Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies

Cosponsored with The HBI Project in Latin American Jewish & Gender Studies (LAJGS), the International Business School and The National Center for Jewish Film 

January 30, 2020

A conversation about developments concerning Israeli women in Judaism, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox, and how they have impacted similar issues in the US. Watch the recording.

Featuring presentations by:

Moria Ran Ben Hai, Scholar in Residence at Hadassah-Brandeis Institute: How Jewish Women Are Challenging Israeli Orthodoxy

Einat Libel-Hass, post doctoral fellow in the Sociology Department at Bar Ilan University; lecturer at Ashkelon Academic College in Israel: Jewish Women in Reform and Conservative Settings in Israel: Past, Present and Personal 

Comments:

Rabbi Stephanie Sanger-Miller, Assistant Director at Brandeis Hillel on Divergence and Dialogue - Israeli & US Developments

Student comment: 

Lily Schmidt-Swartz, '20 on Looking Forward.

Moderated by:

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, The Shulamit Reinharz Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and Director, Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and Law

Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Cosponsored with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, in collaboration with the Jewish Feminist Association at Brandeis.

January 19 - 20, 2020

The Schusterman Center will be hosting its 4th Biennial Graduate Student Workshop for graduate students writing a dissertation in modern Jewish Studies. The topic of the workshop is the formation of new Jewish communities in the Americas, Israel, Australia and beyond.

The goal of the workshop is to help situate doctoral students’ research within broader comparative, transnational, and global themes.  By drawing together students with diverse perspectives and research interests, the workshop will facilitate productive boundary-pushing conversations about American Jewish history, Israel Studies, and other areas in modern Jewish Studies. This workshop is designed to give advanced graduate students in modern Jewish history a space to discuss their work, explore pedagogy and professionalization, and create an intellectual community. Participants will read and discuss a dissertation chapter with an opportunity for feedback from their peers and facilitators. There will also be sessions on archives, publishing, and the job market.

Facilitators include: Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University and Yael Zerubavel, Professor of Jewish Studies and History, Emerita, Rutgers University.

November 13, 2019

"Natural Supernaturalism: Themes of Mystic Light and Despair in the Poetry of Chaim Nahman Bialik" was the subject of 56th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Lecture, given by Michael Fishbane, PhD '71. 

Followed by Reception

Co-sponsored by The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, and the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

November 12, 2019

Galut: Exile and Existence in Modernity

Lecture by Alexander Kaye
Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair Family Assistant Professor of Israel Studies

Followed by Reception

Galut, commonly translated as "exile", is a very old term that Jews have used to describe their condition. Originating in the context of the Jewish diaspora in antiquity, it once meant primarily geographical displacement from the Land of Israel. In time, it became a political, and then a theological, and even an existential concept. This lecture will examine the ways that this ancient idea has been refashioned as it encounters modern phenomena, such as the global experiences of mass migration, statelessness and political exile, and modern ideologies such as existentialism, communism and nationalism. It looks at the ways that galut remains a key term in the way that Jews are understood, both by themselves and by others, and contemplates its significance at a time of political upheaval.

Cosponsored by the Brandeis University Provost's Office, the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

November 1, 2019

October 31, 2019

David Makovsky, Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on Arab-Israel Relation, spoke on themes in his new book coauthored with Amb. Dennis Ross, Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel's Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny.

Moderated by Leon Kraiem '21.

Cosponsored by Brandeis Hillel.

October 10, 2019

October 3, 2019

5:30 - 7:00 PM
Brandeis University

A discussion with Daniel Gordis and Jonathan D. Sarna on the relationship between American Jews and Israel. Dr. Gordis's recently published book We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel and the second edition of Dr. Sarna's seminal American Judaism: A History, published in June, were available for signing.

September 19, 2019

5:00 - 6:30 PM
Brandeis University

An evening with Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, author of President Carter: The White House Years. Ambassador Eizenstat was the chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter and served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996 and as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001.

Chair and Moderator: Gary Samore, Crown Family Director and Professor of the Practice of Politics, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University
Cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, the Department of History, the Department of Politics and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.

September 19, 2019

12:00 - 1:30 PM
Brandeis University

The returning 2018-2019 Frances Taylor Eizenstat ’65 Undergraduate Israel Travel Grant recipients shared experiences with members of the Brandeis community and with Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, who established this travel grant program to honor and continue the legacy of his wife, Frances Taylor Eizenstat '65.

If you are a Brandeis undergraduate interested in advancing your academic and/or career interests with an internship, volunteer program, research, work experience or special project in Israel, please email scis@brandeis.edu to learn how you, too, can apply for the grant!

September 18, 2019

7:00 - 8:30 PM
Brandeis University

A special evening with the first Arab-Israeli Rhodes Scholar, Lian Najami, who spoke about her push for shared existence in Israel. She also discussed issues concerning minorities and individuals with disabilities, two groups with which she strongly identifies.

Cosponsored by Brandeis Hillel, the Heller School For Social Policy and Management, and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

September 3, 2019

Mandel Center for the Humanties, 3rd Floor
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

The Schusterman Center held a festive open house to welcome new and returning Schusterman Center scholars, faculty, students and friends and to launch the new academic year. 

May 7 - 19, 2019

We are proud to be among the sponsors for the 2019 National Center for Jewish Film's (NCJF) Annual Film Festival. The lineup featured a number of Israeli and Israel-themed selections, including the New England premieres of "Back to Maracanã" and "Tel Aviv on Fire."  Visit the festival website to view the program. 

May 7, 2019

9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Brandeis University

This one-day workshop is for doctoral students, post-doctorates, and faculty in the Boston area who teach, or plan to teach, Israel-related topics. Renowned educator Dr. Erika Falk will conduct the workshop. Dr. Falk is the program director of the Israel Institute, an academic organization dedicated to promoting teaching and research about modern Israel. 

May 5, 2019

April 16, 2019

5:30 - 7:00 PM
Rapaporte Treasure Hall
Goldfarb Library 
Brandeis University

Lecture by Ambassador Ross, followed by Q&A moderated by Hornstein students Tali Flomenhoft MA/MBA ’19, Bar Sananes MA/MBA ’20

Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He is Co-Chair of The Jewish People Policy Institute.

Presented by the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program and the Initiative for Jewish Identity at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

April 11, 2019

2:00 - 3:30 PM
Skyline Commons
Brandeis University

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (WGS) presents the 2018-2019 Distinguished Faculty Lecture, by Professor Ilana Szobel: "Sexualized Violence in Modern Hebrew Literature and Israeli Culture."  She is Associate Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and a core faculty member at the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and here at the Schusterman Center. Her research interests include modern Hebrew literature, disability studies, women and gender studies, sexualized violence, psychoanalysis, trauma studies, and film theory. Professor Szobel is currently working on a book project, Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Hebrew Literature and Israeli Culture, which explores the literary history of gender-based violence in Hebrew literature and situates the rhetorics of sexual aggression within the context of gender, race, disability, and Zionism. 

Created in 2004, the Brandeis Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series features a presentation each year by a Brandeis professor who is an internationally recognized scholar of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. 

April 4, 2019

12:00 – 1:30 PM

A presentation by our Writer in Residence, Dr. Chantal Ringuet, an award-winning Canadian author, scholar and translator. Dr. Ringuet was previously Scholar in Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, in 2016. Learn more about Dr. Ringuet.

Her talk focused on the main issues and challenges pertaining to the translation and dissemination of modern Israeli literature in France. What are the main issues encountered in writing a reference book on Israeli literature destined to a French readership? While l’Académie française (founded in 1635) is acting as the main authority on the French language, how do the cultural parameters of Israel conform to those of France through the medium of literary translation? These are the main questions that the lecture examine.

Cosponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.

April 3, 2019

12:15 – 1:45 PM 

A Brown Bag Seminar with Lior Sternfeld, Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Open to the public. Bring your lunch. Light refreshments will be served. 

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a broad-based revolution in Iran that eventually gave birth to the Islamic Republic. In March 1978, a revolutionary group was elected to the leadership of the Jewish communities in Iran. They began forming alliances with non-Jewish leaders of the revolutionary movement and actively taking part in operations, including publishing newspapers and pamphlets aimed to recruit more members to the movement. This facilitated the active participation of Iran's Jews, the largest group in the Middle East outside of Israel, in anti-Shah demonstrations. In this talk, Lior Sternfeld will analyze the social and political transformations undergone by Iranian Jews that eventually led to the role they played in one of the most important revolutions of the twentieth century. 

Cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University.

March 31 - April 1, 2019

A collaboration between the Asper Center for Global Entrepreneurship at Brandeis International Business School and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, this two-day conference united scholars innovators, economsts and entrepreneurs to explore Israeli innovation "from all angles." The keynote featured Dr. Karnit Flug, the first female Governor of the Bank of Israel, in discussion with Dr. Lisa M. Lynch, Brandeis University provost and economic expert. 

Flug served as, overseeing the design and implementation of Israel's monetary policy from 2013 to 2018. She is widely credited for maintaining stability and supporting growth in the Israeli economy.

To learn more, you may read the conference recap, view conference schedule, and check out the speakers. Find relevant tweets using hashtag #InnoIsrael. The conference was free and open to the public. 

March 27, 2019

March 27, 2019
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Hassenfeld Conference Center
Geller Conference Room
Brandeis University

A panel discussion. Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

Moderator: 
Shayna Weiss, Associate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Panelists: 

• Eva Bellin, Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics, Crown Center for Middle East Studies
• Shai Feldman, Crown Family Director and Professor of Politics, Crown Center for Middle East Studies
• Yehudah Mirsky, Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
• Doron Shapir, M.A. Candidate for International Economics and Finance at the Brandeis International Business School

Cosponsored with the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University.

March 25, 2019

Lecture in English: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM 
Q&A discussion in Hebrew: 12:00 PM  
Merrick Theater, Spingold Theater Center
Brandeis University

Brandeis University welcomed Dror Keren, actor, playwright and director. The funny guy. The creative genius. The winking, witty, geeky, lovable best friend. Dror Keren is one of the most important people in Israeli theatre. He has starred in countless productions over the past 20 years, touring with productions he has adapted, directed and acted in – from Lincoln Center in New York to national theaters in China. Known for his razor sharp wit and punchy-writing, Dror Keren showcases what it means to be Israeli: The dilemma of living in the conflict; acknowledging, as a second generation Holocaust survivor, the need for a Jewish homeland; struggling to find an artistic voice amid people suffering from PTSD and the side-effects of war. Keren has delved into the fundamental question of what, for a writer like himself, is home. Is it within his writing? Is it wherever his readers and viewers are? Or is home just the place where he sits down and writes?

Sponsored by the Center for German and European Studies, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, the Department of Theater Arts, and the Hebrew Program at Brandeis University. For more information, please contact hebrew@brandeis.edu 

March 11, 2019

5:30 - 7:00 PM
Mander Center for the Humanities, 3rd Floor Reading Room
Brandeis University

A roundtable discussion exploring the relationship between Ireland and Israel, past, present and future. Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

Moderator:

Dr. Lisa Lynch, Provost and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy, Brandeis University 

Panelists:

• Former Ambassador to Ireland

• Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Near East and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

• Frances Malino, Sophia Moses Robison Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History, Wellesley College

Cosponsored by the Center for German and European Studies at Brandeis University.

February 12, 2019

2:00 - 3:20 PM
Shapiro Campus Center Theater
Brandeis University

Filmmakers Iris Ben Moshe and Elad Cohen presented and discussed their documentary film about being deaf and gay in Israel, "The Sign for Love" (2017). The film was screened in conjunction with Prof. Ilana Szobel's course, Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture. It has won accolades at various film festivals and is particularly praised for its portrayal of disability. The multilingual Q&A after the screening took place in ASL, ISL, and English. Learn more about the film. 

December 6, 2018

An intimate talk with Israeli video artist Nevet Yitzhak, whose work is on exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Yitzhak creates large-scale video installations with appropriated images that re-contextualize current social and political conditions. Cosponsored by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

November 15, 2018

Jerusalem Post correspondent Yonah Jeremy Bob spoke about military courts in the West Bank and international law surrounding the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Yonah Jeremy Bob is the Intelligence, Terrorism and Legal Analyst for The Jerusalem Post and has spoken in universities, federations and synagogues throughout the US, Canada and Israel, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto and others dating back to 2000. Prior to working at the Post, he worked on Hasbara (public relations) and international security law issues in the IDF Legal Division, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice International Law Division. Mr. Bob has been interviewed by and provided commentary for CNN, BBC, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Turkish TV, Sky News, Los Angeles KABC Radio, Voice of America, and others. 

Cosponsored with Brandeis Hillel.

November 7, 2018

A talk by Tally Kritzman-Amir. Over the last years, the Israeli asylum system has become both institutionalized and increasingly exclusionary, to the point of preventing the entry of any asylum seekers and promoting their deportation. Kritzman-Amir’s talk described the gradual processes of institutionalization and exclusion in a comparative context, and discussed the broader implications for refugee protection and responsibility sharing.

Dr. Tally Kritzman-Amir is a Senior Lecturer of immigration and international law at the College of Law and Business, Israel. In 2017- 18, she was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program and a scholar-in-residence at the Hadassah Brandeis Institute of Brandeis University. She is currently an Israel Institute Associate Professor in the Harvard University Department of Sociology. 

Sponsored by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, with cosponsorship by the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, Department of International and Global Studies, Legal Studies Program, and Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

November 6, 2018

Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Mandel Center for the Humanities
3rd Floor Conference Room (Room 328)
Refreshments served.

What do Brandeis students do with their Frances Taylor Eizenstat ’65 Undergraduate Israel Travel Grant? Join the returning 2017-2018 grantees, hear about their projects and let them inspire you to design your own! This is your chance to ask  questions, both of the grantees, and of the Schusterman Center staff. Learn how you can advance your academic & career interests with the help of an Eizenstat grant. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat will be in attendance. All majors welcome and eligible to apply! Learn about the Eizenstat Undergraduate Israel Grant and how to apply.

October 25, 2018

12:30 p.m.

Brandeis Skyline Commons

Free and open to the public. Kosher lunch provided, RSVP here.

Panel discussion with Dr. Rachel Adatto, a former Member of Knesset and an expert in women’s health. Adatto spearheaded the Photoshop law in the Knesset, which banned the use of Photoshop to “remake” the images of models in advertising without disclaimers. She served as 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. Adatto has an undergraduate degree in law, an MBA and MD from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Panelists:

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, director, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Brandeis University

Shayna Weiss, associate director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

Cosponsored by Brandeis Hillel, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, the Brandeis Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Seminar on Contemporary Jewish Life, and the Israeli Consulate.

October 18, 2018

Noon-2 p.m.
Mandel Center for the Humanities Reading Room (Room 303)

RSVP: Sarah Shoemaker, sshoemak@brandeis.edu

Lunch and panel discussion to celebrate the launch of the Brandeis/Haifa Feminist Collaborative, a joint project of Brandeis Library’s Archives & Special Collections Department and the Haifa Feminist Center (Isha L'Isha).

Panelists:
Joyce Antler, Samuel Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Emerita, Brandeis University

Marcia Freedman, American-Israeli activist and feminist; member of Israel's Knesset (1973–1977)

Hannah Safran, co-founder, Haifa Feminist Institute, Isha L'Isha

Surella Seelig, Outreach and Special Projects Archivist, Brandeis University

Moderator:
Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Shulamit Reinharz Director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute; Director, Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and Law

Cosponsors:
This project is supported by a grant from the Bronfman Brandeis-Israel Collaborative Research
Program and by the following divisions of Brandeis University:
Brandeis Library
Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
American Studies Program
Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Women’s Studies Research Center

October 15, 2018

Offered the week of October 15, 2018.

Join us for a week of amazing performances by international Israeli artists starting October 15, 2018.  Note events are in Hebrew and/or English.  All are welcome.

Sponsored by: Schusterman Center for Israel Studies; Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; Consulate General of Israel to New England; Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Center for German and European Studies; International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life; Hillel at Brandeis; Department of Theater Arts.

April 26, 2018

April 12, 2018

Book launch and author talk with
Gil Troy

Gil Troy is an American political historian and a distinguished scholar in North American History at McGill University. He has also taught at the Ruderman Program on relations between Israel and American Jewry at Haifa University, at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, and at the Rothberg Program for Overseas Students at Hebrew University.

Troy's most recent manuscript is: The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow (JPS, 2018).

Building upon Hertzberg’s classic text, Troy's The Zionist Ideas is the most comprehensive Zionist collection ever published. Over 170 passionate visionaries (4x more than Hertzberg, now including women, mizrahim, and other overlooked thinkers) are organized by three time periods, then subdivided into six schools of Zionist thought—Political, Revisionist, Labor, Religious, Cultural, and Diaspora—shedding light on the surprisingly diverse and shared commitments to realizing Israel as a democratic Jewish state. This mosaic of voices will engage equally diverse readers in reinvigorating the Zionist conversation—weighing and developing the moral, social, and political character of the Jewish state of today and tomorrow.

March 25, 2018

The Ilan Troen Lectures on Contemporary Israel Affairs
Daniel Shapiro, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel
"The United States and Israel Face a Changing Middle East”

Rivka Carmi, President, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
“Personal and National Stories Intertwine: Israel at 70"

Monday, March 26, 2018
10th Anniversary Conference

Roundtable: "Home, Land, and Homeland"

Presenters:

Safa Abu Rabia, Harvard University
Shay Rabineau, Binghamton University
Yehudah Mirsky, Brandeis University

Followed by facilitated small-group discussions

"The Distance between Beirut and Jerusalem: 162 Kilometers or 101 Miles"

A workshop on reimagining the past

with "Theatre of Operations" artists Hagar Ophir and Hakim Bishara

March 15, 2018

Haifa: City of Steps," by Nili Scharf Gold
Brandeis University Press, 2017

Author Nili Scharf Gold, Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature, in Conversation with Prof. Ilana Szobel

Haifa: City of Steps is a rich look, from a native daughter, at the evolving relations of people, architecture, and landscape in Haifa over several decades.

January 30, 2018

Book launch and author talk for “Birthrate Politics in Zion: Judaism, Nationalism and Modernity under the British Mandate”

 (Indiana University Press, 2017)

 with author, Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman

 January 30, 2018

November 15, 2017

Returning Eizenstat Israel Travel Grant recipients shared stories of their projects and adventures in Israel, followed by a discussion with Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and former Deputy Secretary of the United States Treasury.

November 6, 2017

Discussant: Yehudah Mirsky, Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

Moderator: David Ellenson, Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University

Justice Rubinstein’s visit courtesy of the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

Cosponsored by Brandeis University and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University

November 6, 2017

We celebrated the release of the 20th-anniversary edition of Marcia Falk's The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival (Central Conference of American Rabbis), with Marcia Falk herself! Dr. Falk also read from her recent book, The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season (Brandeis University Press, The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Series on Jewish Women).

The Central Conference of American Rabbis was delighted to bring Marcia Falk's groundbreaking book of creative liturgy back into print. With new essays by scholars Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, Rabbi Naamah Kelman, Rabbi Dalia Marx, and Rabbi David Ellenson, this volume will inspire a new generation and re-ignite those who encountered this innovative collection when it was first published in 1996.

Cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the Brandeis University Program in Religious Studies

November 1, 2017

A riveting evening with Dorit Rabinyan, one of Israel's most acclaimed young novelists. The author discussed and signed copies of her international bestselling, award-winning "All the Rivers," the controversial love story between an Israeli writer and a Palestinian painter.

Cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and by the Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation Program (CAST); the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; and the Hebrew Language Program.

October 26, 2017

In June 1967, Jerusalem was transformed from a small, divided and threatened town with an international border running through it, to a large metropolis, under Israel's control. The unification of Jerusalem radically changed the city's character. The residents, regardless of religion and ethnicity, were sharing in the new city, now managed by Israel during one of its most euphoric and triumphalist moments. Dr. Elan Ezrachi is a native of Jerusalem and the author of a new book (in Hebrew) telling the story of what happened in Jerusalem since 1967.

Cosponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Brandeis Hillel

October 16, 2017

Award-winning filmmaker Tamar Kay shared her Oscar nominated documentary short (32 minutes), “The Mute's House,” in Professor Gannit Ankori's “Art and Trauma: Israeli, Palestinian, Latin American and United States Art" class. This was followed by Q&A with the director, moderated by Prof. Ankori.

June 12, 2017

Keynote conversation with Leon Wieseltier:

"Reflections on the Balfour Declaration"
June 12, 2017
Moderator: Ilan Troen

Plenary session I, “50 Years Since ’67”
June 13, 2017
Moderator: David Ellenson, Brandeis University
Speakers: Anita Shapira, Tel Aviv University
     Hussein Ibish, Arab Gulf States Institute
     Dan Kurtzer, Princeton University
     Husam Zomlot, Chief Representative of the Palestinian General Delegation to the United States

May 2, 2017

The Schusterman Center's newest publication has just been published: Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century. The book launch featured an introduction by David Ellenson, remarks by co-editors Rachel Fish and Ilan Troen, as well as commentary by Len Saxe, director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies.

March 30, 2017

An internationally renowned leader and advocate of religious liberty, Rabbi Uri Regev – President and CEO of Hiddush – spoke about the tension between the religious establishment in Israel and democratic values.

March 21, 2017

Filmmaker Rita Ender screened and discussed her documentary film, with commentary provided by Schusterman Center and Anthropology Department visiting professor André Levy.

January 25, 2017

As International Holocaust day approached, we joined Dr. Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Howard P. Berkowitz Chair in U.S. Middle East Policy. His talk focused on research for his book Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands.

An expert on Arab and Islamic politics as well as U.S. Middle East policy, Dr. Satloff has written and spoken widely on the Arab-Israeli peace process, the challenge of Political Islam, and the need to revamp U.S. public diplomacy in the Middle East.

The event was cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

This online course was offered to Brandeis alumni and members of the Brandeis National Committee on three Tuesdays in January-February, 2017. Professor David Ellenson presented the topic in three live online seminars, provided readings and answered questions.

November 22, 2016

A sizeable audience heard from David Ellenson, Ilan Troen, Eugene Sheppard and the author herself, followed by a book signing. Abigail Jacobson is the academic director of the Mediterranean Neighbors Program at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and co-author of the Oriental Neighbors with Moshe Naor, assistant professor in the department of Israel Studies at the University of Haifa.  

Cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

November 14, 2016

Twoo hundred educators took part in this conference in Ft. Lee, New Jersey which was developed by the Schusterman Center in order to help educators in Jewish high schools understand and deal with what their graduates are likely to experience in college. Program details.

The program was cosponsored by the Avi Chai Foundation.

November 9, 2017

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat attended our third annual reception for grantees of the Frances Taylor Eizenstat '65 Undergraduate Israel Travel Grant Program. President Ron Liebowitz, Provost Lisa Lynch, Center Director David Ellenson and audience members heard from last year's grantees who studied at Hebrew University; interned at the Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma; volunteered on a farm for school-leavers; researched Jewish law; and excavated antiquities.

September 20, 2016

A talk by David N. Myers drew a standing-room only crowd at the Mandel Center for the Humanities Reading Room. Myers is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at UCLA and has written widely in the fields of Jewish intellectual and cultural history. Among them is his book Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz, published by Brandeis University Press in 2008.