The Jewish Experience

History and Culture

Two Jewish settlers of American West

The Changing Identity of Jews in the American West

A new Brandeis University Press book examines the role Jews played in America's westward expansion, raising troubling questions about their complicity with this country's racist and colonial past.

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ewish police in Germany detain an alleged Jewish concentration camp guard, circa 1945.

Professor Laura Jockusch studies the special honors courts that decided the fate of Jews who allegedly committed crimes against their fellow Jews during the Holocaust.

Drawing of people putting a Band-Aid on a globe

Once an obscure term, tikkun olam is now ubiquitous in American Judaism. Professor Jonathan Krasner explains how the concept has evolved over the millennium.

An illustration of the Queen of Sheba from Konrad Kyeser's "Bellifortis" ("Strong in War"), a military treatise from Germany circa 1405.

Professor Jillian Stinchcomb traces the depiction of the Queen from the Bible through the Qur’an to the medieval origin story of the Ethiopian royal family.

Jacob (Jack) Brandon Maduro

Scholar Dalia Wassner charts the life and career of Jacob Brandon Maduro, who aided German Jewish refugees in Cuba during World War II.

An iconic image connected to Jungfernhof projected onto the wall of the Šķirotava train station.

Scholar Karen Frostig is battling to preserve the memory of the Jungfernhof concentration camp in Latvia, where her grandparents perished.