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Jewish Culture & Society News

Midwest Yiddishfest
Midwest Yiddishfest
From November 14-16, Champaign-Urbana was host to the Midwest Yiddishfest, a three-day Yiddish culture and arts festival co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Culture & Society and the C-U Jewish Federation. The program featured nine public programs that covered a broad array of subjects,...
Ayelet Tsabari
An Evening with Ayelet Tsabari, Author of Songs for the Brokenhearted
On October 28th, Israeli-Canadian author Ayelet Tsabari visited campus as part of her book tour for her debut novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted (2024). The event was supported by the Einhorn Fund, the Israel Studies Project, and the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity. The novel...
Ronnie Grinberg
Write Like a Man: Ronnie Grinberg on Secular Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals
On September 8th, the Program in Jewish Culture & Society and the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies welcomed Ronnie Grinberg, associate professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and author of Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals (...
Ellie Spitz

Alumni spotlight: Ellie Spitz

Ellie Spitz graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Highest Honors in Human Development and Family Studies and dual minors in Sociology and Jewish Culture and Society in 2011. They then graduated from Washington University in St Louis as a Master of Social Work, where they worked for LGBT* Student Involvement and Leadership. Ellie was a recipient of the 2010 Ronald Filler Scholarship, 2013 James M. Holobaugh award, 2017 Samuel A Goldsmith award, and in 2019 was named one of the 36 under 36 by OyChicago. Ellie spent seven years scaling Mishkan Chicago into a nationally...

Featured Courses: Fall 2025
HIST 355

Soviet Jewish History

Exploring the history of Jews in the Soviet Union, this course addresses the following questions: How were Jewish identities transformed during the Soviet period? What did it mean to be a Jew in the Soviet Union? How did Soviet Jewry persevere and restore after the collapse of the USSR?
CWL 209/JS 209

Jewish American and US Minority Literatures in Dialogue

We will encourage comparison across these different contexts while also preserving the distinctions inherent in minority groups. This course fulfills the Literature and the Arts General Education requirement, U.S. Minority Cultures General Education Requirement, the culture cluster for the minor/major in Jewish Studies, and REPCIS requirement for English.
REL 120

History of Judaism

The course examines the social, political, economic, and intellectual history of the Jews from Abraham to the present-day, with particular attention to Jewish thought and society.
REL 494

Modern Judaism: Religion, Culture, Politics

What is the relation of Judaism and the individual Jew to the modern world? Is Judaism a religion, a nationality, an ethnicity, or a combination of these? This course explores various answers to these questions by examining various historical and cultural formations of Jewish identity in Europe, the Americas/Caribbean, Asia, and Africa from the 18th century to the present.
hebrew keyboard

Intermediate Modern Hebrew I

Continuation of HEBR 202, with introduction of more advanced grammar, and with emphasis on more fluency in speaking and reading. 5 credit hours. Prerequisite: HEBR 202 or equivalent.
ruins of an ancient city from JS 231 course flyer

Development of Ancient Cities

Explore the monuments, archaeological remains, and histories illustrating the development of the earliest states and urban centers of the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East, including Uruk, Jerusalem, Carthage, Athens, and Rome.

GER 472/574

German-Jewish Literature from Salomon Maimon to Franz Kafka

This course focuses on expressions of the Jewish experience in German-language literature of the long nineteenth century. The main focus of the course will be the “dual identity” (Mendes-Flohr) experienced by German Jews writing in German.