News
Julia Phillips Cohen elected to Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History
Julia Phillips Cohen has been elected to the Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History in New York. Read more about the organization here.
JS Lecture Series: Miriam Frenkel, “India in Medieval Jewish History and Imagination”
The Program in Jewish Studies is pleased to welcome Miriam Frenkel from Hebrew University to speak on “India in Medieval Jewish History and Imagination.” The lecture will take place at noon on Monday, February 25 at the Central Library Poetry Room…
JS Lecture Series: Art is My Weapon
JS Lecture Series: Michelle Campos, “Rethinking Jewish-Arab Relations in Palestine and Israel: Lessons from the Archives and the Streets”
The Program in Jewish Studies is pleased to welcome Michelle Campos from the University of Florida speaking on “Rethinking Jewish-Arab Relations in Palestine and Israel: Lessons from the Archives and the Streets.” The event will take place on Thursday, January…
Watch and Learn: Amy-Jill Levine, “What’s Jesus Got to Do With It”
Amy-Jill Levine was interviewed on Nashville Public Radio’s (WPLN) live podcast Movers and Thinkers on November 29, 2018 for an episode titled “What’s Jesus Got to Do With It.” Watch the livestream of the recording here.
Watch and Learn: Antisemitism in Contemporary American Politics
Jewish Studies hosted a roundtable titled “Antisemitism in Contemporary American Politics” on November 8, 2018. Moderator was Prof. Allison Schachter, the director of Jewish Studies, and panelists were Prof. Pamela Nadell from American University, Prof. Barry Trachtenberg from Wake Forest…
Weekly Jewish Studies library open house announced
Steven Zipperstein at the JCC Jewish Book Series
JS Lecture Series: Barry Trachtenberg, “The United States and the Holocaust: Race, Refuge, and Remembrance”
The Program in Jewish Studies is pleased to welcome Barry Trachtenberg from Wake Forest University to give a talk titled “The United States and the Holocaust: Race, Refuge, and Remembrance.” The event will be at noon on Thursday, November 8…
JS Lecture Series – Steven Zipperstein, “Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History”
The Program in Jewish Studies is pleased to welcome Steven Zipperstein from Stanford University speaking on “Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History,” also the title of his new book. The event will take place on Thursday, October 11 at…
Jewish Studies sponsors film for 2018 Nashville Jewish Film Festival
Jewish Studies is the proud sponsor of the film Promise at Dawn for the 2018 Nashville Jewish Film Festival. The screening is on Thursday, November 1 at 7pm at the Belcourt Theater. For more information, visit the NJFF website.
Library Open House for Jewish Studies
New Flexible Requirements for Major & Minor
Jewish Studies has updated its requirements to allow for more flexible opportunities for students interested in the broad subject. Take classes in over 17 departments all over Vanderbilt and shape the direction of your own studies. For more information, visit…
Lecture – Susan Bernofsky, “Overseas Conversations: On Translating Jenny Erpenbeck”
Jewish Studies is proud to co-sponsor this lecture from renowned translator Susan Bernofsky titled “Overseas Conversations: On Translating Jenny Erpenbeck.” The lecture will take place on Monday, September 17 at 6pm in Buttrick 102. Talk Description: Translator Susan Bernofsky presents…
Julia Phillips Cohen on Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History
Julia Phillips Cohen has been named a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History in New York for the next three years. Read more about the organization here.
JS Lecture Series – Michael A. Meyer, “Jewish Scholarship and Religious Commitment: The Example of Rabbi Leo Baeck”
The Program in Jewish Studies lecture series kicks off the year with Michael A. Meyer from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion speaking on “Jewish Scholarship and Religious Commitment: The Example of Rabbi Leo Baeck.” …
Vanderbilt to Host Antisemitism Roundtable
Vanderbilt Jewish Studies will bring three scholars to Vanderbilt for a roundtable discussion titled “Antisemitism in Contemporary American Politics.” The event, moderated by Jewish Studies director Prof. Allison Schachter, will take place the evening of Thursday, November 8 at 7pm…
Listen and Learn: Jay Geller on Authorial Intentions Podcast, “Bestiarium Judaicum”
Vanderbilt podcast Authorial Intentions interviews Jay Geller about his new book book Bestiarium Judaicum: Unnatural Histories of the Jew. Listen to the interview here.
David Wasserstein Writes “Fragment of the Month” for Cambridge University Library
David Wasserstein has written the May 2018 “Fragment of the Month” for the Cambridge University Library website. His topic is the Mishnah with Judeo-Arabic translation. Read the full article here.
Shaul Kelner to Lecture at “Stay the Night” in New York City
Shaul Kelner will be a guest lecturer at Stay the Night (Tikkun Leil Shavuot) at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan on May 19. His talk is titled “Tinker Tailor Tourist Spy.” Read more about the event here.
5th Annual Essay Contest Winner: Jessica Goldberg
Jessica Goldberg has been named the winner of this year’s fifth annual Jewish Studies Essay Competition for her paper “From Sholem-Aleichem’s Tevye to Fiddler on the Roof.” This essay, originally composed for Prof. Judy Klass’s “American Jewish Songwriters” course, details…
Joshua Lipsey named 2018 recipient of the Miriam Halachmi Prize in Modern Hebrew
Joshua Lipsey has been named the recipient of this year’s Miriam Halachmi Prize for Excellence in Modern Hebrew, presented by the Program in Jewish Studies. Yifat Crouvi, Lecturer in Modern Hebrew, singled out Joshua’s motivation and strong sense of responsibility…
Adam Meyer Writes Article for Journal of Ethnic American Literature
Adam Meyer has written an article titled, “Occupying the Middle: Italians, Jews, and Racial Positioning in Edward Lewis Wallant’s The Pawnbroker and John A. Williams’ Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light” for the Journal of Ethnic American Literature.
David Wasserstein Writes Article for The Conversation on Iran Mummy Discovery
David Wasserstein has written an article for The Conversation about the recent discovery of a mummy in Iran that has significant consequences for the current political climate. Read the article here.
David Wasserstein Reviews Book for The Tablet (UK)
David Wasserstein has reviewed Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492-1900 by Simon Schama for The Tablet (UK). Read the entire review here.
Undergraduate Essay Competition Deadline is April 23
Jewish Studies Essay Contest Submission Form
Allison Schachter at UC Berkeley: “Friedrich Schiller in the Jewish Provinces: Fradel Shtok and the Aesthetics of Jewish Prose”
Allison Schachter gave a talk at the University of California, Berkeley, on March 7, 2018. Read more about it below:
Robert Barsky Receives Rockefeller Bellagio Writing Residency
Robert Barsky has received the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center writing residency, which takes place in Bellagio, Italy, from March-April. According the foundation: For nearly 60 years, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center has enabled the world’s brightest minds and most ambitious…
New Article by Shaul Kelner on the 1968 American Soviet Jewry Movement
American Jewish History, a publication by Johns Hopkins University Press, has published a new article by Shaul Kelner entitled, “The American Soviet Jewry Movement’s “Uneventful” 1968: Cold War Liberalism, Human Interest, and the Politics of the Long Haul.” You can…
Allison Schachter Named as 2018 Chancellor Faculty Fellow
As Vanderbilt News reported: Twelve outstanding faculty members from across the university have been named to the 2018 class of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. The class comprises highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from all corners of campus. “Our world-class faculty are the…
Amy-Jill Levine Featured in Modern Twist on Classic Bible Stories
In this newly published book, classic Bible stories have been written to focus on aspects not typically highlighted in previous children’s versions. Adjunct faculty member Elizabeth F. Caldwell recently published Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible with clarity, diversity, and accuracy in…
Jay Geller’s “Bestiarium Judaicum” Featured in New Yorker
Jay Geller’s new book “Bestiarium Judaicum: The Unnatural Histories of the Jews” has been featured in a New Yorker article by Paul Reitter entitled, “The Unlikely Kinship of “Bambi” and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.” Excerpt: In his thoughtful and deeply researched…
Archaeological Dig in Caesarea, Israel — New Maymester Opportunity
The Program in Jewish Studies is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Classical and Mediterranean Studies and the Israel Antiquities Authority to create a new Maymester program of an archaeological dig in Caesarea, Israel. Email Professor Phil Lieberman…
1/25/18 – Phil Lieberman Moderates Nashville Jewish Book Series: David G. Dalin & Jewish Justices
In this upcoming event from the Nashville Gordon Jewish Community Center, Vanderbilt Jewish Studies professor Phil Lieberman will interview David Dalin on the lives, legal careers, and legacies of the eight Jews, from Brandies to Kagan, who have served or who…
12/14/17 – Shaul Kelner on Panel “Remembering the Refusenicks: Helping Jews Behind the Iron Curtain”
Jewish Studies professor Shaul Kelner will be part of a panel at the Gordon Jewish Community Center discussing, “Remembering the Refusenicks: Helping Jews Behind the Iron Curtain” on December 14 from 7-8:30pm. More information here.
Robert Barsky edits volume of AmeriQuests: “Border Crossing in Law and Literature”
Jewish Studies professor Robert Barksy, along with David Maraniss, edited the latest volume of AmeriQuests, entitled “Border-Crossing in Law and Literature.” This issue features a series of timely position papers regarding current issues in border-crossing, as well as a…
Listen and Learn: Robert Barksy on WBUR Podcast, “The Chomsky Effect”
Jewish Studies Professor Robert Barksy was interviewed by Christopher Lydon for his podcast “Radio Open Source” in a segment entitled “The Chomsky Effect.” Listen here.
Shaul Kelner at Conference on Mobility and Leisure Travel in the Cold War
Jewish Studies professor Shaul Kelner will be giving a paper entitled “Foreign Tourists, Domestic Encounters: Human Rights Travel and Western Visits to Soviet Jewish Homes” at the Conference on Mobility and Leisure Travel in the Cold War. The conference…
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).
Shaul Kelner at Fairfield University: “How American Jews Mobilized to Free Soviet Jewry: Lessons for Activism Today”
“How American Jews Mobilized to Free Soviet Jewry: Lessons for Activism Today” Jewish Studies Professor Shaul Kelner will be giving a public lecture at Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT) on Tuesday, November 28 at 7:30pm. For more information about the event,…
Julia Phillips Cohen at UCLA: “A Model Minority? Sephardi Jews in the Late Ottoman Empire”
Jewish Studies professor Julia Cohen gave a guest lecture at UCLA on November 8, 2017 for the Averroës Lecture Series on Muslim-Jewish relations. A Model Minority? Sephardi Jews in the Late Ottoman Empire This lecture examines the shifting place…
New Book by Jay Geller: Bestiarium Judaicum
From Fordham University Press: Given the vast inventory of verbal and visual images of nonhuman animals–pigs, dogs, vermin, rodents, apes disseminated for millennia to debase, dehumanize, and justify the persecution of Jews, Bestiarium Judaicum asks: What is at play when…
Listen and Learn: David Wasserstein on Authorial Intentions Podcast, “Black Banners of Isis”
Vanderbilt podcast Authorial Intentions interviews David Wasserstein about his new book Black Banners of ISIS: The Roots of the New Caliphate. Listen to the interview here.
New Book by Professor David Wasserstein explores the roots of ISIS
From Yale University Press: A medieval Islam historian’s incisive portrait of ISIS, revealing the group’s deep ideological and intellectual roots in the earliest days of Islam With tremendous speed, the Islamic State has moved from the margins to the center…
Allison Schachter named 2017 Yiddish Translation Fellow
Allison Schachter has been awarded a 2017 Translation Fellowship from the Yiddish Book Center. In collaboration with Jordan Finkin, Schachter will translate a collection of modernist short stories by Fradel Shtok. Learn more about the fellowship here.
Miriam Halachmi Prize for Excellence in Modern Hebrew Winner: Rachel Hechler
The 2016-17 winner of the Miriam Halachmi Prize is Rachel Hechler. Rachel is a rising Sophomore from Tenafly, New Jersey. She is a student in Peabody College, majoring in Human and Organizational Development following a Health and Human Services Track….
4th Annual Essay Contest Winner: Kayley Romick
Kayley Romick’s essay “Angles on Angels” has been chosen as the winner of the 2017 Jewish Studies Essay Contest for Best Undergraduate Paper. Set in New York City in the 1990’s, Angels In America follows characters through the throes of illness, infidelity,…
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…
4th Annual Essay Contest
Download or print an Entry Form here.
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…
Authorial Intentions Interview with Robert Alter
Robert Alter, class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, sat for an interview with the Vanderbilt Library about “scholarly trajectories, disciplinary identities, and translation” for their ongoing series Authorial Intentions. Visit the Authorial Intentions catalog…
Professor Shaul Kelner in Actualité Juive
This week, Professor Shaul Kelner was interviewed in the French Press on the Trump Presidency and American Jews. What impact will the Trump Presidency have on the American Jewish world? Read the full interview with Professor Kelner here.
Robert Barksy contributes chapter on Zellig Harris to Oxford Bibliographies
Jewish Studies professor Robert Barsky has contributed a chapter on Zellig Harris to Oxford Bibliographies. Read it here.
What Are We Reading and Writing?
Robert Barsky is a professor in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Law School at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of three books on Noam Chomsky. His most recent books are Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law…
Spring 2017 Course Flyer
Click to view the flyer for our Spring courses!
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…
Blake Sidon named 2016 recipient of the Miriam Halachmi Prize in Modern Hebrew
BLAKE SIDON has been named the recipient of the 2016 Miriam Halachmi Prize in Modern Hebrew. “Since the beginning of his Hebrew studies in the Fall,” comments Senior Lecturer in Modern Hebrew Orit Yeret, “Blake has proved great dedication to…
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…
Ari Joskowicz has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
Ari Joskowicz has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship for his project “Jews and Roma in the Shadow of Genocide”. The ACLS Fellowship Program awards fellowships to individual scholars working in the humanities and related social…
Robert Barsky’s Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law has been shortlisted for the Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize
Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law; The Flight and the Plight of People Deemed Illegal by Robert F. Barsky has been shortlisted for the Socio-Legal Studies Association’s Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize for 2016 This book describes the experiences of…
Cohen Wins Multiple Book Prizes For Her Recent Monograph
Julia Phillips Cohen’s Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) has been awarded multiple prizes including the 2015 Jordan Schnitzer Award in Modern Jewish History, the 2015 Barbara Jelavich Prize…
Cohen Receives Chancellor’s Award
Chancellor Zeppos presented Julia Cohen with a Chancellor’s Award for Research at the August 27th Faculty Assembly. He cited the two award-winning publications Julia produced in the past year: Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era,…
Dultz, Sheppard Win Jewish Studies Student Prizes
ELIZABETH DULTZ has been named the winner of the 2015 Jewish Studies Essay Contest. Her entry, “Nashville, Zion, and Mortimer May,” tells the history of a second-generation Nashvillian who led the fight to save refugees from Nazi Europe and became…
Shaul Kelner receives NEH support for research on Soviet Jewry movement
Prof. Shaul Kelner was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for summer research to study cultural dimensions of the Cold War-era American movement for Soviet Jews.
Philosophers honor Lenn Goodman’s research in new book
Longtime colleagues of Philosophy professor Lenn Goodman have edited a new book about his highly regarded research.
Vanderbilt condemns defacing of AEPi house
Julia Phillips Cohen Wins Two 2014 National Jewish Book Awards
Two 2014 National Jewish Book Awards to Julia Phillips Cohen Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman Honored as Finalist Julia Phillips Cohen has won the 2014 National Jewish Book Award for each of her two new books. Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700–1950 (Stanford…
Goodman honored with volume in Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers
The Brill publishing house has devoted a new volume in its Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers to the work of Lenn E. Goodman, Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University….
Joskowicz's "Antisemitism, Anti-Catholicism, and Anticlericalism" featured on Religion and Culture Web Forum
Chapter One of Professor Ari Joskowicz’s monograph, The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France, is featured this month on the Religion and Culture Web Forum of the Martin Marty Center of University of Chicago. Two scholars, Gil…
Vanderbilt Hustler on Jewish Studies
Features editor Maddie Hughes profiles Jewish life on campus in the 9/24/14 issue of the Hustler. As for the Program in Jewish Studies, read on. Aside from campus organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish students are able to learn about Judaism…
Sephardi Lives in Jewish Review of Books
Cohen’s Sephardi Lives is featured in the fall issue of the Jewish Review of Books. Read more at http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/archive/issues/fall-2014/
Every Tuesday You're Invited to Lunch at the Hebrew Table!
Cohen's New Book Traces 250 Years of Sephardi Life
Stanford University Press runs series of blog posts about and excerpted from Julia Phillips Cohen and Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s new co-edited volume, Sephardi Lives. To read each of the five entries, follow the links listed below. How Does One Invent…
Jack Sasson’s scholarly efforts in Assyriology honored
Jack M. Sasson, the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt, has been inducted into the International Association for Assyriology’s Honorary Council.
Dan King Receives Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in Jewish Studies
Dan King’s essay, “Fear and Trembling in ‘A Bitter Farce,’” provides an interpretation of a 1946 short story by the Jewish-American writer Delmore Schwartz through the lens of ideas propounded by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. The story, based on…
Grad Student Anne Grant's T-Shirt Talk Featured in Jewish Daily Forward
Graduate student Anne Grant’s project, “T-Shirt Talk: The Art of Reimagining Cultural Jewish Identity” is featured on the Forward’s blog, The Schmooze. The exhibition-cum-research-project is built around a collection of almost 100 Jewish-themed t-shirts. Grant explains the project in the Forward:…
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…
Deadline to Submit is April 11
Jewish Studies Essay Contest Submission Form
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…
Graduate Student Anne Grant weighs in on Pew debate in Haaretz Op-Ed
The October 2013 release of the Pew Research Center’s Portrait of American Jews, the first major survey of the American Jewish population in more than a decade, has generated intense debate about its implications for the American Jewish future. Anne…
Lieberman Joins Discussion on Writing First Books
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…
Meyer Hosts Session at Southern Festival of Books
Adam Meyer, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, hosted a session entitled “I Witness: Seeking Justice in the Jim Crow South” at the Southern Festival of Books on Sunday, October 13. The session featured Chet Bush, author of Called to the Fire:…
Lieberman Publishes New Book on Jews and Dogs
A Jew’s Best Friend? The Image of the Dog Throughout Jewish History By Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman and Rakefet Zalashik Sussex Academic Press, 2013 From the publisher’s website: A Jew’s Best Friend? The Image of the Dog throughout Jewish History discusses specific cultural manifestations of the…