Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

January 21, 2021

6:00 - 7:15 PM EST
Via Zoom

Register

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 is 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. 

January 27, 2021

2:00 - 3:00 PM EST
Via Zoom

Register

Join us for 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 is Eyal Miller, the site's project and technology manager.

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

February 3, 2021

A Crown Seminar with Fredrik Meiton
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST
Register

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. 

February 4, 2021

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm, EST

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

Register

Zoom links will be sent at least 24 hours prior to the event via email.

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).

Questions? Contact Dalia Wassner: daliafw@brandeis.edu  

February 11, 2021

February 16, 2021

12:00 - 1:00 PM EST
Via Zoom 
Register

Join us to examine the changing meanings of Blackness in Israel, Africa and the USA. Among the questions we will consider 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 and workshop leader for courses in Civics and Tolerance Department. Founding member of “Mothers on Guard,” and NGO dedicated to reducing police brutality against Ethiopian Israeli youth. Dr. Mola has been researching different aspects of inequality, and multiculturalism. She is 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 24, 2021

12:00 - 1:00 PM EST
Via Zoom
Register

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

Participants will receive a discount code during the event for 30% off the purchase price of the book.

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. 

March 2, 2021

A Symposium Marking the 100th Year Since his Passing
Tuesday, March 2, 20201
12:00 - 1:00 PM EST
Via Zoom (registration link forthcoming)

Join us for a series of conversations about Aaron David Gordon, better known as A.D. Gordon. We will kick off the series with "Journeys to Gordonia: Who Was A.D. Gordon?" Details forthcoming!

The next events in the series will take place 12:00 - 1:00 PM EST:

• Tuesday, March 9, 2021: A Religion of Labor: A.D Gordon and the Sacred Secular
• Tuesday, March 16, 2021: The Nature of A.D Gordon: Environment, Nationalism, Jewish Culture