Yale University Press published The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 6: Confronting Modernity, 1750-1880, edited by Prof. Elisheva Carlebach. This volume covers a momentous period, described by Carlebach as a time “in which every aspect of Jewish life underwent the most profound changes to have occurred since antiquity.” The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization is comprised of The Posen Digital Library (PDL), available at posenlibrary.com, and a 10-volume print anthology of Jewish culture.
Read Prof. Clémence Boulouque’s New York Times book review of Norman Lebrecht’s Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947.
Francine Klagsburn, author of Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel, shared her thoughts on the Institute’s conference History and Memory: The Legacy of Yosef H. Yerushalmi in the New Jersey Jewish News.
Tablet Magazine shared our upcoming screening of The Pawnbroker followed by a Q&A with Prof. Maura Spiegel.
History and Memory: The Legacy of Yosef H. Yerushalmi
On Sunday, December 1, 2019, the Institute welcomed over 350 individuals to History and Memory: The Legacy of Yosef H. Yerushalmi, a conference created to mark the 10th anniversary of Prof. Yerushalmi’s passing.
Among the presenters and participants were his former students, the current leaders in the field of Jewish Studies. The opening remarks were made by Pierre Birnbaum and a keynote was delivered by Sir Simon Schama.
The day was filled with reminiscing on personal memories of the man, while expounding upon his profound legacy and indelible mark on the way Jewish History is studied. Francine Klagsburn, author of Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel, shared her thoughts on the Institute’s conference History and Memory: The Legacy of Yosef H. Yerushalmi in the New Jersey Jewish News.
Below is the schedule of the day, along with a portion of the lectures presented.
1:00 pm - Welcoming Remarks - Elisheva Carlebach
Introduction to Conference- Michael Stanislawski
Opening Remarks - Pierre Birnbaum
Between Hope and Despair: Yosef Yerushalmi’s Vision of the Vertical Alliance
1:30 - 3:00 pm - "Yerushalmi The Historian" moderated by Lois Dubin
Edward Fram: Yosef Yerushalmi the Historian as Teacher and Advisor
Benjamin Gampel:The Royal Image of Yosef Yerushalmi
Marina Rustow: Yerushalmi and the Historical Olfactory
3:30 - 5:00 pm - "Narrative, History, and Yerushalmi" moderated by Jonathan Karp
Olga Litvak: No Consolation! Isaac Babel Declares War on Jewish Time
Nancy Sinkoff: Still Asking, What is the Use of Jewish History
Magda Teter: Following Yerushalmi’s Sephardic Paper Trail
6:30 - 8:00 pm - Keynote address by Sir Simon Schama
Selective Memory: Yerushalmi and the Tension Between Remembrance and Forgetting
Faculty in the News: Bialystock and Rhodes
Join Prof. Rebecca Kobrin at Ramapo College on November 26 for “Competing Diasporas, Shifting Centers: Bialystok’s Jews in the Age of World Wars.”
Los Corassones Avlan, a pop-up installation at the Primo Levi Center and co-curated by Dr. Isabelle Levy was featured in The New York Times and in numerous Italian publications including La Voce di New York, La Stampa, and Ansa.it.
October at the Institute
October was filled with exciting events at the Institute.
On October 16, we welcomed Prof. Paula Fredriksen to speak about her latest book, When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation.
On October 30, the IIJS and CUNY Graduate Center co-hosted a conference titled Jewish Ghosts: Haunting and the Haunted in Literature and Culture and a public lecture with Jonathan Boyarin on The Jewish Dead in Literature and Lore. Students, scholars, and members of the public explored the world of the Jewish dead from the Talmud to Fiddler.
Faculty in the News: Jewish Life in Rhodes
Adjunct Lecturer Isabelle Levy collaborated on an exhibition titled Los Corassones Avlan: Conversations on Jewish Life on the Island of Rhodes. The project is a collaboration between Kehila Kedosha Janina, the American Sephardi Federation, and Centro Primo Levi. The exhibit at 148 West 4th Street runs through November 24 is free and open to the public. For more information visit http://primolevicenter.org/.
Prof. Jeremy Dauber on his newest book, what he's working on, and who he'd invite to a dinner party.
Prof. Rebecca Kobrin lectured on the legacy of Jewish immigrants at the New City Jewish Center. Read more here.
September at the Institute
This month, the Institute had the pleasure of welcoming two different speakers to present talks attended by both students and members of the public.
Pamela Nadell, author of America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, spoke on Monday, September 23, about the history of Jewish women in America and their involvement in shaping modern notions of Jewish culture and in fighting for suffrage, trade unions, civil rights, and Jewish rights. Nadell highlighted the lives of particularly historically significant Jewish women over the course of America’s history, and how their Jewishness affected their lives--including poet Emma Lazarus, and justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
On Tuesday, September 24, the Institute hosted The Political Economy of the News Media in Israel, led by Israeli journalist and clinical professor at the University of Chicago, Guy Rolnik. Rolnik expounded on the relationship between elected politicians and the news media in Israel--and how deals are struck to give specific papers and websites an edge over their competition in exchange for positive media coverage of certain politicians. Rolnik also met with Undergraduate Israel Fellows to discuss the intersection between the economy and media in Israel.
The Institute also hosted its first Young Alumni Dinner. Prof. Rebecca Kobrin gave a lecture titled 'Forging 'The American Jewish Lobby:' Jews and the Politics of US Immigration, 1898-1965.'
Welcome Back to the Institute
The past few weeks the Institute has been brimming with activities. On Friday, September 6, we welcomed 27 undergraduates for a Welcome Back Brunch to learn about classes, fellowships, and public events open to students. On Thursday, September 12, the Institute welcomed back our faculty and graduate students. Ph.D. candidates Lynton Lees and Ishai Mishory shared their summer experiences conducting research at archives in the UK and Turkey, respectively.
List of Jewish families on the Lower East Side
Summer in the Stacks
It’s been a busy summer in the Judaica collections at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library! Many collections were processed and are now available for use, thanks to the efforts of some fantastic students. This post, by Yoav Varadi, is the first of a series describing some of the work on our collections this summer. Read more here.
Summer Highlights at IIJS
20 Undergraduate Israel Fellows took Hebrew language courses; interned at various tech companies; and conducted groundbreaking medical research - all while learning about the diversity and complexity of Israeli society.
Jewish Studies Ph.D. students utilized Institute travel funds to explore archives; present papers; and gain pedagogical skills to become the next leaders in the field.
The Institute co-hosted the Nevzlin Conference. The conference brings together current Ph.D. students to workshop their dissertations and receive mentoring from leaders in the field. Prof. Rebecca Kobrin and Prof. Jeremy Dauber participated in the workshops along with scholars from Israel.
IIJS co-sponsored a conference at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews titled "The Activities of the Joint in Poland and Neighboring Countries 1945-1989: Reality and Perceptions.”
Faculty in the News: The Washington Post and Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism
"This week, as we mark the 25th anniversary of the greatest single loss of Jewish lives outside Israel since the Holocaust, it is imperative that we grapple with anti-Semitism as a global issue. An ideology that combines racism and right-wing politics, anti-Semitism has long pervaded Europe and the United States - and South America." Read more in the Washington Post op-ed by Prof. Rebecca Kobrin and Prof. Federico Finchelstein (The New School).
Prof. Beth Berkowitz’s essay “The Slipperiness of Animal Suffering: Revisiting the Talmud’s Classic Treatment” was published in Jewish Veganism and Vegetarianism.
The History of the Institute
Solomon Wiener (Undergraduate Israel Fellow '18, CC '19) writes about the history of the Institute in The Current, a student journal of contemporary politics, culture, and Jewish affairs at Columbia University.
Baron New Voices in Jewish Studies Award
We are delighted to announce that the winners of the Baron New Voices in Jewish Studies Award are Elazar Ben Lulu (Ph.D., Ben Gurion University) and Alon Tam (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania). Elazar Ben Lulu works on issues of gender and ritual in Israeli Reform congregations; his research lies at the intersection of social sciences and Jewish Studies. Alon Tam’s work investigates the urban, social, and political history of Cairo’s coffeehouses, from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. Both recipients demonstrate the impressive vibrancy of scholarship being done by the next generation of Jewish Studies scholars. We will be welcoming them to our campuses in the coming academic year.
2019 Rabin-Shvidler Joint Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies
Columbia University’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and Fordham University’s Center for Jewish Studies are delighted to announce that the joint post-doctoral fellowship in Jewish Studies for the 2019-2020 academic year will be held by Ayelet Brinn (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2019), whose dissertation on gender and the press examines the role "women's content" in American Yiddish press played in the history of the press, design, and format, and the Americanization of immigrant Jews. Her presence will add new dimensions to the teaching of modern Jewish history across a broad spectrum of interests. We look forward to welcoming her to our growing joint community of scholars.
This fellowship has been made possible by the Stanley A. and Barbara B. Rabin Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund at Columbia University and the Eugene Shvidler Gift Fund at Fordham University.
The Naomi Prawer Kadar Annual Memorial Lecture with Jonathan D. Sarna
The Institute welcomed Jonathan D. Sarna to share his research on Cora Wilburn, the first Jewish novelist in America. The sold-out event included students, faculty, and members of the public. The lecture was presented in partnership with the Naomi Foundation, whose work is to advance the teaching and learning of Yiddish, particularly in academic and scholarly settings.
From the Stacks: Passover Haggadahs
Norman E. Alexander Jewish Studies Librarian Michelle Chesner shares Passover Haggadahs from the collection.
Faculty in the News: 'The Lehman Trilogy' and More
Rebecca Kobrin's essay, "A Jewish American Success Story" was featured in the playbill of The Lehman Trilogy now playing at the Park Avenue Armory.
On March 28, Rebecca Kobrin briefed Mayor Bloomberg on the current rise in global anti-Semitism at Bloomberg News and on April 10, she was invited to participate in a small, high-level consultation with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief about the trajectory of antisemitism in the United States at the American Jewish Committee.
Rebecca Kobrin spoke about Jewish migration to the United States at The Global Forum of the National Library of Israel (held March 17-19 in Jerusalem).
Jeremy Dauber gave a lecture on his latest book, now in paperback, Jewish Comedy, A Serious History at Ursinus College. Read about the lecture here.
Fall 2019 Classes
The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies is thrilled to offer an array of courses devoted to Israel and Jewish Studies. Classes include Music in New York, Israeli Law v. Jewish Law, and Trauma in Yiddish Lit. Click here for a full list of classes.
Don’t Panic, Don’t Ignore: How to Report on Hate
On Thursday, March 28, the Institute and Columbia Journalism School hosted a panel discussion entitled Don’t Panic, Don’t Ignore: How to Report on Hate, curated by Gershom Gorenberg, Knapp Adjunct Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor of Journalism. It brought together Adam Serwer, staff writer at The Atlantic, Laurie Goodstein, Deputy International Editor for The New York Times, Jane Eisner, former editor-in-chief of The Forward, Rachel Glickhouse, Partner Manager for the Documenting Hate project at ProPublica in conversation with Columbia Journalism School professor Samuel G. Freedman. The panel discussion was very well attended and included members of the press and public, and a mix of students from the Journalism School and IIJS. This event, the third that has been produced in partnership with the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism was a seamless collaboration, with many thanks to the Knapp Family Foundation.
Spring@IIJS: Experiencing Jewish Music in America: A Listener’s Companion
On Monday, February 25, Tina Fruhauf, shared highlights from Experiencing Jewish Music in America: A Listener’s Companion. Participants had the pleasure of hearing cantorial music from Yossele Rosenblatt and versions of Vay Mir Bist Du Schoen by Molly Picon and the Barry Sisters.
Dr. Fruhauf will be teaching an undergraduate class in the Fall entitled “Jewish Music in New York.”
Faculty in the News: Newsweek, Jerusalem Post & The Council on Foreign Relations
Prof. Rebecca Kobrin weighs in on anti-Semitism in Newsweek.
Prof. Yinon Cohen, along with Tel Aviv University's Prof. Noah Levin Epstein and Prof. Amit Lazarus, examine the gaps between third generation Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jews in Israel. Read more.
Prof. Rebecca Kobrin participated in a panel discussion on the rise of global anti-Semitism. Keep reading for the full transcript and video.