See a Sampling of our Past Events

Yiddish Song Workshop
Yiddish Song Workshop

March 22, 2023

Join the NEJS and German and European Studies Departments for a Yiddish Song Workshop with Adah Hetko. Everyone is welcome; no knowledge of music or Yiddish necessary!

Bagels and Trivia

March 12, 2023

Join the NEJS, Hebrew, and Yiddish UDR students for fun trivia questions, to get to know each UDR and their departments, and a great nosh!

bagel

A Sweet New Year with NEJS

Picture of a honey jar and dipper

Ilana Szobel and book cover
Book Launch — Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Modern Hebrew Literature

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 SzobelAssociate 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 WeissAssociate Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University 

Studio Israel: Featuring Raida Adon

October 14, 2021

Studio Israel is an online conversation series that looks at Israeli culture and diversity through the lens of contemporary Israeli artists and creatives. Featuring visual and performing artists, designers, dancers and more, all framed by Brandeis University academic expertise.  

The season launched with Israeli-Palestinian multimedia artist, director, and actor Raida Adon, in conversation with Prof. Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum and Professor of Fine Arts and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. 

October 7, 2021

Rima Farah recently received her doctoral degree in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. Her research revolves around the cultural and political history of minorities in the Middle East, with an emphasis on the formation and development of their ethnic and national identities. She published an article in the journal "Israel Studies," titled “The Rise of a Christian Aramaic Nationality in Modern Israel.” She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from the University of Haifa, the city where she was born and raised, as well as an MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Having grown up in a multicultural and multilingual society, Farah is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. She teaches Hebrew at Brandeis University and Middlebury College. 

September 30, 2021

Slava Greenberg is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and Casden Institute. His research explores the potential of mainstream and emerging media forms to offer transformative experiences in reference to disability studies, trans studies, and gender. He is the author of "Animation and Disability: Cripping Spectatorship" (Indiana UP 2022) and co-editor of "Fireflies: Journal of Film and Television II."

His articles have appeared in "Review of Disability Studies," "Animation," "TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly," "Jewish Film and New Media," "Frames Cinema Journal," and are forthcoming in "The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists" and in "The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion." He has also contributed to anthologies on disability and documentary, queer TV, Israeli new media, and thinking with an accent.

He is currently working on a second book project focusing on the history and visual culture of gender dysphoria through the lens of trans and crip theories. ("Cripping" entails the practices of revealing the assumptions of the ableist body and its exclusionary effects.)