featured
3.2.21: Allison Schachter interviewed for Arts & Sciences website
Allison Schachter, Chair of Jewish Studies Department and Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, English, and Russian and East European Studies, is featured on the Vanderbilt College of Arts & Science’s Research web page. In this interview, Schachter discusses how her…
2.21.21: Virtual sermon by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine
On Sunday, February 21, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine delivered a virtual sermon for the First Sunday in Lent titled Listening for Dinah at the Riverside Church in the City of New York. Stream the entire service here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj9DBrC5uEw
2.10.21: Amy-Jill Levine on “The Bible for Normal People Podcast”
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Pete and Jared talk with Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Brettler about some of the themes of their new book, The Bible With and Without Jesus as they explore the following questions: How…
Exhibition co-curated by David H. Price and HART 2775 students
Pressed for Time: Five Centuries of Prints from the Jack May Collection is curated by Cainie Brown, Chloe Davis, Peter Stidman, Sarah Treadway, and Professor David H. Price, with assistance from students in HART 2775, History of Prints: Harrison Denman, Christopher Elliott, Sophia Moak, Courtney Rehkamp, Daniel…
11/30: Amy-Jill Levine joins Luke Norsworthy podcast
Dr. Amy-Jill Levine returns to the the Luke Norsworthy podcast to help get ready for Advent by discussing how to read scripture, Biblical illiteracy, mangers, magi, and her book Light of the World. Luke Norsworthy is a pastor, author and…
12/6: Virtual talk by Amy-Jill Levine at Parnassus Books
Parnassus Books presents a conversation with Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi-Brettler, authors of The Bible with and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. The event is virtual, and will take place on the Parnassus Books…
Article by Rebecca Epstein-Levi, “Ill Will: The Problem With Individualizing COVID Risk”
Rebecca Epstein-Levi’s new article in Bitch Media on COVID risk, STIs, rabbinic purity, and why thinking about it in terms of individual responsibility is inadequate— is live: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/covid-19-pandemic-stis-personal-responsibility “COVID-19 and sexually transmitted infections both teach us that an all-or-nothing approach…
Article by Ari Joskowicz in American Historical Review
Ari Joskowicz, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, European Studies and History and the Director of the Max Kade Center for European and Jewish Studies, published an article for the October 2020 issue of the American Historical Review (AHR) titled “The…
Article by David Price appears in the Jewish Quarterly Review
David Price’s article “The Sincerity of Their Historians”: Jacques Basnage and the Reception of Jewish History” recently appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of the Jewish Quarterly Review. Price is a Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, specializing in the history of…
Shaul Kelner quoted in Judische Allgemeine; awarded travel grant from Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
Shaul Kelner, Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies was quoted last week in Judische Allgemeine, a German Jewish newspaper, in an article on the shuttering of American Jewish summer camps due to COVID-19. Kelner has also been awarded a travel grant…
2020 Contest Winners: “The Best Undergraduate Paper in Jewish Studies” and “The Miriam Halachmi Prize for Excellence in Modern Hebrew”
The Best Undergraduate Paper in Jewish Studies 1st place: Jake Nicastro, “The Changing Southern Jewish Lifestyle in Virginia” (submission from JS 2230W, “American Jews in Southern Life and Literature,” taught by Adam S. Meyer) Honorable mention: Carly Stewart, “Anzia Yezireska and the Hollywood Ending”…
New faculty publication – Lenn Goodman
Professor Lenn Goodman has recently published a new body of work titled The Holy One of Israel. This publication is available through Oxford University Press. Use the promo code AAFLYG6 to save! From the back cover: “The Holy One of Israel…
Julia Phillips Cohen elected to board of Association for Jewish Studies
Jewish Studies professor Julia Cohen has been elected to the board of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS).
Listen and Learn: Shaul Kelner, “The Soviet Jewry Movement”
University of Michigan, Judaic Studies 2015-16 Frankel Institute Secularization/Sacralization Fellow, Shaul Kelner Project Title: Strategic Sacralization in American Jewish Politics: The Contradictions of Cultural Mobilization in the American Soviet Jewry Movement Click here to listen to the Frankly Judaic podcast.
Watch and Learn: Shaul Kelner, “The Timeless and the Timely”
Shaul Kelner gives his presentation, titled “The Timeless and the Timely: Sacralizing Political Activism in the Campaign for Soviet Jewry” on February 25, 2016 at the University of Michigan. The talk was sponsored by the Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies…
Professor Ari Joskowicz: New Article and Special Review
The Journal of Politics, Religion and Ideology just published a special review forum on Ari Joskowicz’s co-edited volume Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times. Read the article here. Additonally, Professor Joskowicz has a new article in Jewish…
Statement on Immigration Executive Order
The following statement reflects only the views of the individual signees. February 3, 2017 As teachers and researchers in Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, we stand together to oppose President Trump’s executive order to suspend the admittance…
Spring 2017 Course Flyer
Click to view the flyer for our Spring courses!
But is it art? Jews, photography, and photojournalism in Britain, 1860-2016 Presented on October 6th by Michael Berkowitz
In a critical period for both journalism and the popularization of the fine arts in Britain, a disproportionate share of press photographers, as well as editors, art-editors, and picture-agency heads were of Jewish origins from 1918 to 1951. Britain’s foundational…
Blanchard wins Jewish Studies Essay Contest
Alyssa Blanchard’s essay “’Let’s End this Charade’: Performance and Jewish Identity” has been named the winner of the 2016 Jewish Studies Essay Contest. Focusing on Dara Horn’s 2009 novel All Other Nights, set during the Civil War era, Blanchard discusses…
Lucas Wilson, MTS, MA
Reflecting the strength of our Program in Jewish Studies, student Lucas Wilson, MTS, MA received the Zaglembier Society Scholarship from The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. This award recognizes students who “have a passion for keeping the…
Judy Klass Receives Act One: One Act Publishing Offer
Judy Klass’s short play Ismene’s Press Conference, a re-imagining of Antigone by Sophocles, is in press at Brooklyn Publishers, which has already published two of her short plays as stand-alone scripts. Her short play Performance Art recently made the finals in the…
Classical Judaism (JS1200)
Catalog Description: History of the Jewish people from biblical origins through the 2nd century CE. The Hellenistic Age, the Age of the Maccabees, Roman rule, and the rise of the Rabbis and Rabbinic literature. Next Offered: AXLE Category: Writing Course:…
11/13/2014: Brandeis U's ChaeRan Freeze visits Vanderbilt
Brandeis University’s Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Dr. ChaeRan Freeze, comes to Vanderbilt on November 13th. “Illness and Everyday Life in Imperial Russia” Thursday, November 13th, 12:00PM, Buttrick 123 Lunch Provided BRIEF BIOGRAPHY Dr. Freeze…
Stay Tuned for Upcoming Events!
Events for the 2015-16 academic year have wrapped up, but stay tuned to the website for the latest information regarding events for 2016-17!
Tamber-Rosenau's "Lethal Women" Takes Silver in 3MT Competition
Ph.D. student in Hebrew Bible, Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, placed second in the Vanderbilt Graduate Student Councils’ 3MT (3-Mintue-Thesis) competition. 3MT is a campus-wide competition in which students from across departments vie to see who can best present their dissertation research to…
Graduate Student Anne Grant Presents "T-Shirt Talk" at Slifka Center at Yale
Anne Grant, a Vanderbilt graduate student studying the Sociology of American Jews, presented “T-Shirt Talk: The Art of Reimagining Cultural Jewish Identity” art exhibit at the Yale University Slifka Center which opened on Tuesday, March 4. Grant and Slifka Arts Curator,…
Lieberman Publishes New Book on Medieval Jewish and Islamic Economic History
The Business of Identity: Jews, Muslims, and Economic Life in Medieval Egypt By Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman Stanford University Press, 2014 From the publisher’s website: The Cairo Geniza is the largest and richest store of documentary evidence for the medieval Islamic…
Cohen Publishes New Book on Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire
Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era By Julia Phillips Cohen Oxford University Press, 2014 From the publisher’s website: The Ottoman-Jewish story has long been told as a romance between Jews and the empire. The prevailing view is that…
Levine Featured in Moment Magazine
The Gospel of Amy-Jill Levine by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil was published in the 2013 November-December issue of Moment Magazine.
Joskowicz Publishes New Book on Jewish Anti-Catholicism
The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France By Ari Joskowicz Stanford University Press, 2013 From the publisher’s website: The most prominent story of nineteenth-century German and French Jewry has focused on Jewish adoption of liberal middle-class values.The Modernity…
Joskowicz Wins German Studies Association Prize for Heine Article
The North American office of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) awarded Ari Joskowicz, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and European Studies, the Article Prize of the German Studies Association for his piece “Heinrich Heine’s Transparent Masks: Denominational Politics and the…
Allison Schachter
Chair, Department of Jewish Studies Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English B.A. (Stanford University 1996) Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley 2006) 615.322.1172 allison.schachter@vanderbilt.edu 142 Buttrick Hall Allison Schachter specializes in modern Jewish literature and culture, with allied interests in…