Upcoming Events

A woman and a man grappling, their hands covering each other's faces
Photo from "Cut.Loose" performance, courtesy of Stav Marin and Neta Weiner.

At a Glance

January 10 - Live Performance by One of Israel's Greatest Voices: A Yoni Rechter Retrospective

The Sephardi Modernities Seminar Series returns on January 26. The year's theme will be Diasporas: Sephardi Perspectives. Learn more and register. 

January 26 - 
Thinking with Diaspora: A Multi-Rooted Approach to the Sephardic Jewish Experience

February 23 - 
Fashioning Diaspora: Moroccan Jewish Histories in Los Angeles

March 5 - From Morocco, Elsewhere: Jewish–Muslim Entanglements Through the Lens of Cultural Intimacy

April 16 - Between Israel and Morocco: Jewish Moroccan Cultural Displays in the Homeland and the Diaspora 

May 12 - The Long Way Home: Key Themes in Sephardi and Mizrahi Diaspora Studies

Save the date

April 13-14 - Spring Conference: Diversifying the Israeli Diaspora. Stay tuned for details! 

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Coming up

Yoni Recheter and Inbar Shifrin
Live Performance by One of Israel's Greatest Voices: A Yoni Rechter Retrospective

Saturday, January 10
7:30 PM - 9 PM
The Vilna Shul, 18 Phillips St., Boston 
Tickets: $36


LEARN MORE AND purCHASE TICKETS 

Yoni Rechter is synonymous with Israeli culture, having written and performed dozens of songs that are the backdrop to the Israeli experience (including his beloved "Hayalda Hachi Yafa Bagan"). Now, you can join him at The Vilna for an evening of music and conversation led by host Inbar Shifrin, a Schusterman Center doctoral fellow and PhD candidate in Brandeis University's Department of Music. Top Israeli jazz musicians from Berklee will accompany Yoni as he walks us through his career in song.

This program is part of the Studio Israel series, exploring Israeli culture through art and music.
Presented in partnership with the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, and The Vilna Shul

"Shekhina" by Neta Elkayam: A folk-art painting of a faceless woman in a patterned blue kaftan and headscarf, centered before a white building with a red roof under a floral-patterned arch.
Sephardi Modernities Seminar Series 2026 - Diasporas: Sephardi Perspectives

January 26 | February 23 | March 5 | April 16 | May 12
12:30-2 PM ET on Zoom

Learn more and register


This annual lecture series presents different experiences of Sephardi modernization across place and time. The 2026 series explores the concept of diaspora as a lens for understanding the modern and contemporary Sephardi world.  We will address the diversity of modern Sephardi Jewish experiences by considering diaspora as shaped by histories of migration and return, continuity and rupture, belonging and exclusion.

We will engage with the histories and experiences of Sephardi communities across imperial, colonial, and post-colonial landscapes in order to examine questions of multiple belongings, identity formation, and cultural transmission.

Organized by Angy Cohen (Spanish National Research Council) and Yuval Evri (Brandeis University). Sponsored by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University and the Calgary Institute for the Humanities at the University of Calgary.

Image: Shekhina, by Neta Elkayam

Past Event

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