Schusterman Center for Israel Studies

Rigorous Academic Study

The Schusterman Center is dedicated to supporting and growing the academic field of Israel studies.

Publications

We sponsor publications that seek to enlighten both a scholarly and non-scholarly audience with the latest research on the modern State of Israel.

All of our publications

Professor Gannit Ankori speaking to Summer Institute fellows about an art exhibit

The Summer Institute for Israel Studies

Our Summer Institute for Israel Studies equips higher-education faculty with the resources they need in order to take a rigorously academic approach to teaching about modern Israel on college campuses.

Full Summer Institute Information

Promoting exemplary teaching and scholarship on the modern state of Israel

The Schusterman Center is unparalleled in the depth and breadth of its ambition and in the intellectual resources available to realize its goals.

Like the best Israel studies centers, the Schusterman Center is dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of Israeli history, politics, culture and society. But its mission goes far beyond scholarship itself. The center is committed to creating and disseminating knowledge about the modern state of Israel, not just at Brandeis, but to a global audience.

The center is shaping and safeguarding the future of Israel studies by training the next generation of scholars in the field. Through innovative research and teaching programs, lectures, conferences, grants, publications, films and art exhibitions, complemented by a unique online resource site, the center is nurturing a worldwide community of people who are knowledgeable about Israel.

Did you miss our recent virtual seminars?

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To help keep you engaged and learning during these strange times of universal quarantine, we were excited to offer a series of three online seminars for the public. They took place between March 26 and April 2 and featured exciting new research in Israel Studies. In response to the interest demonstrated by the robust attendance, we are making the recordings of these lectures available. Watch the seminar with Tomer Persico, andthe one with Uriel Abulof on our new YouTube channel. Stay tuned for the third recording, coming soon!

Hot off the presses: New book by Prof. Alexander Kaye

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We are thrilled to announce that Oxford University Press has published the first monograph by Alexander Kaye, Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Assistant Professor of Israel Studies, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel "is an intellectual history, based on newly discovered material from numerous Israeli archives, private correspondence, court records, and lesser-known published works... the account of the blurring of the categories of "secular" and "religious" illustrated in the book are relevant to all studies of modern history and to scholars of the intersection of religion and human rights." The ebook is available now, while the hardcover will be available on February 19, 2020.