The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry

Paola Tartakoff — Jewish Studies Colloquium

Hadar Feldman Samet — Jewish Studies Colloquium

Ildikó Barna — Jewish Studies Colloquium

Tomaz Jardim on the "Bitch of Buchenwald"

Brandeis in 1948: The Quests for Rights and Social Justice

Miriam Goldstein — Jewish Studies Colloquium 

"The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity Between the Lines" Author Marat Grinberg in conversation with Prof. ChaeRan Freeze

April 27, 2023

"The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity Between the Lines" author Marat Grinberg discussed his book over Zoom with Prof. ChaeRan Freeze. 

"Here is the untold story of [Soviet Jews'] ongoing, multigenerational struggle for self-determination as told by a native son with great clarity, thoroughness, and empathy. Were this not enough, Marat Grinberg has also redefined Jewish literature as that which a living polity has rescued through conscious acts of creative rereading." — David G. Roskies, Sol & Evelyn Henkind Emeritus Professor of Yiddish Literature and Culture, The Jewish Theological Seminary

Purchase from Brandeis University Press.

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Sven-Erik Rose — Jewish Studies Colloquium

April 25, 2023

The Tauber Institute welcomed Sven-Erik Rose from the University of California, Davis, for the final installment of the Jewish Studies Colloquium of this academic year. He presented his paper "Making and Unmaking Literature in Nazi Ghettos in Poland." The event was exclusively streamed live on Zoom at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. 

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Spinoza & Revolution

April 18, 2023

Prof. Eugene Sheppard's class "Spinoza Now" (NEJS 157A) featured Michael Rosenthal of the University of Toronto as he gave a talk entitled "Spinoza & Revolution." The event was scheduled for 11:10am in Schwartz 103 on the Brandeis campus.

The event was sponsored by the Tauber Institute, with the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, the Center for German and European Studies, and the History of Ideas Program.

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Jordan Katz — Jewish Studies Colloquium

March 14, 2023

The Tauber Institute's Jewish Studies Colloquium hosted Jordan Katz of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as she presented her paper "Registers of Belonging, Registers of Difference: Early Modern Jewish Midwives and their Records." The event was held on Zoom on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.

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The 59th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture

 March 9, 2023

Susan Neiman delivered the 59th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture, "Racism, Antisemitism, and Rethinking Historical Reckoning," on Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Brandeis University. 

Susan Neiman is an American philosopher and writer, and the director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. She has written extensively on the Enlightenment, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and politics.

The Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture is named for Simon Rawidowicz (1896–1957), one of the most innovative Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century and a founding member of the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.

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Elias Sacks — Jewish Studies Colloquium

February 14, 2023

Elias Sacks, director of the Jewish Publication Society, presented the paper "Do Citizens Need to be Philosophers? Nachman Krochmal's Diasporic Jewish Politics" at the Jewish Studies Colloquium. 

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Joshua Picard — Jewish Studies Colloquium

January 24, 2023

Joshua Picard of Princeton University presented the paper "The Precedents and Origin of Djerba's Or Torah Fund," at the Jewish Studies Colloquium. 

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Book Launch of Gilad Sharvit's "Dynamic Repetition"

December 5, 2022

For the launch of "Dynamic Repetition: History and Messianism in Modern Jewish Thought" — the newest title in the Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry at Brandeis University Press — author Gilad Sharvit was in conversation with Professor Eugene Sheppard discussing the book described by Martin Jay as "[a]nalytically rigorous, boldly imaginative, and lucidly written" that "demonstrates how that most improbable of hopes is itself a revenant that refuses to die."

Purchase "Dynamic Repetition" from Brandeis University Press.

Elisabeth Gallas — Jewish Studies Colloquium

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal — Jewish Studies Colloquium 

Na'ama Rokem — Jewish Studies Colloquium

September 13, 2022

Na'ama Rokem, associate professor of Modern Hebrew Literature and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago presented the paper "Pedagogy, Language, and Labor Politics in Kafka's Hebrew Notebooks," at the Jewish Studies Colloquium.

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"Memories of the Eichmann Trial": Film Screening and Panel Discussion

April 12, 2022

The Tauber Institute co-sponsored a free screening of the new digital restoration of Memories of the Eichmann Trial (Dir. David Perlov, 1979, Hebrew & Polish w/ English subtitles) at the Wasserman Cinematheque at Brandeis University. The event was presented by the National Center for Jewish Film.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmaker Yael Perlov, Professor Laura Jockusch, and NCJF Executive Director Sharon Pucker Rivo, introduced by Professor Jonathan Sarna.

David Perlov's 1979 documentary, "Memories of the Eichmann Trial," reveals the trial's pivotal role in Israeli society through intimate interviews with Holocaust survivors, Israelis of the second generation, and others directly involved in the case. Broadcasted only once on Israeli television, the film was rediscovered and restored by the Perlov family in partnership with the Yad Vashem Visual Center, with support from the Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Memory in Israel.

Kim Wünschmann — Jewish Studies Colloquium

April 12, 2022

Kim Wünschmann, director of the Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg, presented the paper, "How to Draw German-Jewish History? The Graphic History Project 'Oberbrechen: A German Village Confronts its Nazi Past," at the Jewish Studies Colloquium. 

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58th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture

April 7, 2022

The 58th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture featured Annette Yoshiko Reed of New York University presenting "Forgetting Second Temple Judaism: History, Memory, and the Dead Sea Scrolls." The event streamed live on Zoom. The recording will be posted on the Tauber Institute website.

Reed is a professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Department of Religious Studies at New York University. Her research spans Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, and Jewish/Christian relations in Late Antiquity, with a special concern for retheorizing religion, identity, and difference. Her books include "Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity" (Cambridge 2005), "Jewish-Christianity and the History of Judaism" (Mohr Siebeck, 2018), "Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages" (with John Reeves; Oxford 2018), and "Demons, Angels, and Writing in Ancient Judaism" (Cambridge 2020). 

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Shira Billet — Jewish Studies Colloquium

 March 15, 2022

Shira Billet of Yale University presented the paper "Hermann Cohen's Virtue Ethics: Power and Agency within the Experience of Marginalization" at the Jewish Studies Colloquium. 

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Daniella Farah — Jewish Studies Colloquium

February 15, 2022

Daniella Farah of Rice University presented the paper, "From the 'Wretched' to the 'Bourgeoisie': Jews in Modern Iran," at the Jewish Studies Colloquium.

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David Shyovitz — Jewish Studies Colloquium

January 18, 2022

David Shyovitz of Northwestern University presented the paper, "Soul Food and Salvation in Medieval Ashkenaz: the Ambrosian Bible's 'Heavenly Banquet' Revisited," at the Jewish Studies Colloquium. 

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Martin Dean — Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Martin Dean of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center presenting the paper "Babyn Yar 80 Years Later: New Findings, Areas of Dispute, and Remaining Questions." This event streamed live on Zoom on Nov. 16, 2021. 

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Devi Mays — Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Devi Mays of the University of Michigan, presenting the paper "Two Steps from the Abyss: An Ottoman Jewish Witness to War." This event streamed live on Zoom on Oct. 12, 2021. 

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David Koffman — Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured David Koffman of York University, presenting the paper "Métis, Jews, and the Politics of Counting Difference in Canada." This event streamed live on Zoom on Sept. 14, 2021.

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Interview with Tauber Author Cedric Cohen-Skalli on Abravanel

Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the great inventors of Jewish modernity. A merchant, banker, and court financier, a scholar versed in both Jewish and Christian writings, a preacher and exegete, a prominent political actor in royal entourages and Jewish communities, Abravanel was one of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the aftermath of the expulsion of 1492.

Noam Sienna — Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Noam Sienna of the University of Minnesota, presenting the paper "'Sit and Study This Book with Your Family': Print Culture in 19th Century North Africa." This event streamed live on Zoom on April 20, 2021. 

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Launch of Brandeis Library Volume on Hasidism

Hasidism has attracted, repelled and bewildered philosophers, historians and theologians since its inception in the 18th century. In Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and Life in the Modern World, Ariel Evan Mayse and Sam Berrin Shonkoff present students and scholars with a vibrant and polyphonic set of Hasidic confrontations with the modern world. 

To mark the publication of this volume, a recent addition to the Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought, editors Mayse and Shonkoff, joined joined by Eugene Sheppard, associate director of the Tauber Institute and editor of the BLMJT, discussed the book on April 15, 2021. The book and its selections, which consciously move between everyday lived experience and the most ineffable mystical secrets, reflecting the multidimensional nature of this unusual religious and social movement.

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Joseph Sassoon — Jewish Studies Colloquium

The most recent meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Joseph Sassoon of Georgetown University, who presented the paper "The Global Merchants: The World of the Sassoons." This event streamed live on Zoom on March 23, 2021. 

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The Lives and Legacies of A.D. Gordon: A Retrospective

Presented March 16, 2021

A Symposium Marking the 100th Year Since His Passing

Nearly a century since his passing, the life and work of Aharon David Gordon (1856-1922) have drawn renewed attention. A flurry of new publications from manuscripts, scholarly studies, and renewed popular interest in Gordon among social activists and artists, point to the vitality of his thought, as a point of entry into Zionist history, and a means of exploring Jewish cultural and social renaissance today. This major figure is little-known in the English-speaking world. The symposium on March 2, 9 and 16 via Zoom was organized by the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies in cooperation with the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.

Sarit Kattan Gribetz - Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Sarit Kattan Gribetz of Fordham University, who presented the paper "Jerusalem's Ancient Queens: Gender, Power, and Erasure." This event streamed live on Zoom Feb., 23, 2021.

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Jillian Stinchcomb — Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Jillian Stinchcomb of Brandeis University, who presented the paper "Riddling Materiality: The Queen of Sheba and Solomon in Ninth Century Texts." This event streamed live on Zoom on Nov. 17, 2020. 

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57th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture 

Sarah Abrevaya Stein, the Viterbi Family Endowed Professor in Mediterranean Jewish Studies, & Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, delivered the 57th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture, "A Sephardic Family’s Journey Through the 20th Century," on Nov. 11, 2020.

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Dagmar Herzog — Jewish Studies Colloquium 

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium featured Dagmar Herzog of the Graduate Center at CUNY, who presented the paper "God's Disability: Confronting the 'Euthanasia' Murders." This event streamed live Oct. 27, 2020. 

Marc Dollinger — Jewish Studies Colloquium

This meeting of the Jewish Studies Colloquium on Sept. 22, 2020, featured Marc Dollinger of San Francisco State University, who presented the paper "From the Left and the Right: Campus Antisemitism and American Jewish Life." 

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56th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture

The Tauber Institute hosted Professor Michael (Buzzy) Fishbane, Ph.D. '71, who delivered the 56th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Lecture, "Natural Supernaturalism: Themes of Mystic Light and Despair in the Poetry of Chaim Nahman Bialik." Professor Fishbane is the Nathan Cummings Distinguished Service Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago

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The Quest for Community 

The Tauber Institute presented "The Quest for Community: The Havurah Movement and Its Impact on American Judaism," an event marking 50 years since the founding of Havurat Shalom in Somerville, Massachusetts. Featuring Arthur Green, Joseph Reimer, Aliza Arzt, Laura Bellows, Jonathan Sarna and Seth Winberg, the event also featured a display of artifacts from the Havurat Shalom Collection, courtesy of the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections. 

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1948 Roundtable 

At the conclusion of the international scholars workshop "1948: The Jewish Quest for Rights and Justice in the Postwar Moment," the Tauber Institute hosted a roundtable discussion with Ron Liebowitz, president of Brandeis University; Stephen Whitfield PhD '72, the Max Richter Professor Emeritus of American Civilization; Jonathan Sarna '75, MA '75, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History; and Deborah Dash Moore '67, the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History at the University of Michigan. The discussion was entitled "1948: Seeking Social Justice - 70 Years of Brandeis University."

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