2017 Newsletter

This has been an incredibly active year for the Program in Jewish Culture & Society and the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies. We have hosted so many lectures, conferences, and film series that my head is spinning! Many of these events are detailed in these pages and I am delighted to report that, with only a few exceptions, most of them were full to capacity. Our reach across campus and the community is growing and, despite the (only recently resolved) budget crisis, we continue to offer a wide array of courses to undergraduate and graduate students and to encourage reflection and engagement by bringing stellar speakers to campus. We are so grateful to all who make these amazing events possible! Thank you!

We teach between 700 and 1000 students each semester in our combined courses, many of our faculty are consistently listed on the Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, and the Associate Director, Dana Rabin, was awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Our courses run the gamut from The Bible as Literature, to Soviet Jewish History, to Jews in the Diaspora, to History of Antisemitism, to Jewish Life Writing, to Introduction to Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies, to Jewish Sacred Literature, to Readings in Rabbinic Midrash, to Russian-Jewish Culture. We are also delighted to be able to teach Hebrew and Yiddish language courses. The range and diversity of these classes strengthen our program. The core faculty work on Russian and Eastern European Studies; Israeli Anthropology, Film, Literature, and Cultural Studies; Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies; Talmud, Hebrew Bible, and Religion; German Jewish philosophy; Jewish Literatures from many parts of the world; Jewish life and literature in Britain, Morocco, Cuba, and other places.

The articles below give you a taste of the things we've been doing with your help, support, and participation.