Tauber Institute Events
Upcoming Events
December 5, 2023
The Tauber Institute welcomes Paola Tartakoff of Rutgers University to the Jewish Studies Colloquium. She will present her paper "Mendicant Jewish Converts and Miracle Stories in the Medieval Pyrenees" at 12:45pm on December 5, 2023 in Lown 315 and streaming live on Zoom. Registration is required for Zoom.
The event is free and open to the public, and a light kosher lunch will be served at 12:30pm. The paper is available by request only.
January 23, 2024
The Tauber Institute welcomes Jonathan Crane of Emory University, Emily Filler of Washington and Lee University, and Mira Wasserman of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College to the Jewish Studies Colloquium. They will present their paper "Introducing Modern Jewish Ethics, 1970-Present" at 12:45pm on January 23, 2024 in Lown 315 and stream live on Zoom.
The event is free and open to the public, and a light kosher lunch will be served at 12:30pm. The paper will be available two weeks in advance.
February 27, 2024
The Tauber Institute welcomes Kirsten Collins of the University of Chicago Divinity School to the Jewish Studies Colloquium. She will present her paper "That Other Fornication: Race and Judaism in Foucault's Concept of Critique" at 12:45pm on February 27, 2024 in Lown 315 and stream live on Zoom.
The event is free and open to the public, and a light kosher lunch will be served at 12:30pm. The paper will be available two weeks in advance.
March 12, 2024
The Tauber Institute is proud to present our own Eugene Sheppard—the associate director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry and faculty member in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and the History of Ideas Program at Brandeis University—at the Jewish Studies Colloquium. He will present his paper "Towards a Philosophical Critique of Hegel and Antisemitism" at 12:45pm on March 12, 2024 in Lown 315 and stream live on Zoom.
The event is free and open to the public, and a light kosher lunch will be served at 12:30pm. The paper will be available two weeks in advance.
April 4, 2024
Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, will deliver the 60th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 4:30pm Eastern at Brandeis University. The event will be in person, with a reception to follow. More information is forthcoming.
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. Recordings of Rawidowicz lectures from 2018 to 2023 can be viewed on our Lectures page.
April 16, 2024
The Tauber Institute welcomes Hasia Diner of New York University and Lois Dubin of Smith College to the Jewish Studies Colloquium. They will present their paper "Moveable Feasts: Jews and Food Across Time and Space" at 12:45pm on April 16, 2024 in Lown 315 and stream live on Zoom.
The event is free and open to the public, and a light kosher lunch will be served at 12:30pm. The paper will be available two weeks in advance.
Recent Events
November 14, 2023
The Tauber Institute hosted Hadar Feldman Samet of the Tel Aviv University to the Jewish Studies Colloquium. She presented her paper "Between the Public and the Communal: Depictions of Sabbatian Spaces in the Late Ottoman Era" on Tuesday November 14, 2023 in Lown 315 and live on Zoom.
October 24, 2023
The Tauber Institute welcomed Ildikó Barna of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest to the Jewish Studies Colloquium. She presented her paper "Interdisciplinary Exploration of Post-Holocaust History through Digital Tools: Opportunities and Limitations" on Tuesday October 24, 2023 in Lown 315 and live on Zoom.
October 20, 2023
Brandeis students, faculty and staff were invited to join an open session of Laura Jockusch's course "Revenge, Justice, and Reconciliation: Mass Atrocity Trials in the Long Shadow of Nazi Crimes" (NEJS 136B) with Tomaz Jardim of the Toronto Metropolitan University discussing his book Ilse Koch on Trial: Making the Bitch of Buchenwald.
October 13, 2023
The Tauber Institute presented a discussion of the founding of Brandeis University in the postwar moment, against the backdrop of the aftermath of WWII and the Holocaust, the Nuremberg Trials, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, antisemitism in America, and the founding of the State of Israel.
The event featured opening remarks by Sylvia Fuks Fried, executive director of the Tauber Institute, and a conversation between faculty associates Eugene R. Sheppard, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought, Laura Jockusch, Albert Abramson Associate Professor of Holocaust Studies, and ChaeRan Freeze, Frances and Max Elkon Chair in Modern Jewish History, moderated by Jonathan Decter, Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies. The event was part of Brandeis University's 75th Anniversary Celebration. A video recording is forthcoming.
September 12, 2023
The Tauber Institute hosted Miriam Goldstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the first installment of the Jewish Studies Colloquium of the 2023-24 academic year on September 12, 2023. She presented her paper "The Bible in Baghdad: A Medieval Karaite Interprets Genesis."
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
March 15, 2022
