Lectures
The Tauber Institute organizes numerous lectures throughout the academic year to keep Brandeis faculty and staff abreast of current research and trends in all fields of Jewish Studies.
In addition, the Tauber Institute also organizes thematically-based lecture series designed to provide students and academics with a more in-depth look at a particular area of scholarly inquiry.
Recent Lectures
March 25, 2025
Juliet Carey and Abigail Green delivered the 61st Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture on March 25, 2025, at Brandeis University. This year's lecture was titled "Jewish Country Houses: Memory and Heritage."
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 2025 can be viewed below.
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April 4, 2024
Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, delivered the 60th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at Brandeis University. This year's lecture was titled "Does Jewish Studies Have a Theory? Changing Historiographical Methods and Contexts from the 19th Century to the Present."
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.
March 9, 2023
Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany, delivered the 59th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture, "Racism, Antisemitism, and Rethinking Historical Reckoning," on Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 7:30pm.
April 7, 2022
Annette Yoshiko Reed, Professor in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Department of Religious Studies at New York University, delivered the 58th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture, "Forgetting Second Temple Judaism: History, Memory, and the Dead Sea Scrolls," on Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 7:30pm.
November 11, 2020
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 Twentieth Century," on Wednesday, November 11, 2020 at 7:00pm.
November 13, 2019
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.
November 8, 2018
Samuel Moyn (Yale University) delivered the 55th Annual Simon Rawidowicz Memorial Lecture, "Rights and Nationhood from 1948 to the Present." The Rawidowicz Lecture is sponsored by the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, with the support of the Valya and Robert Shapiro Endowment, the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life.
Simon Rawidowicz Lecture Speakers 1964-2024 (click the image below to be redirected to the video)
