group of students in a small group presentation

Study Jewish Culture at Illinois

Jewish Studies events

View all events

Jewish Culture & Society News

Student Award 2026 Collage
2026 Award Winners
We mark the end of the 2025-2026 academic year by celebrating the successes of Jewish Studies and the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies students. Here are our award winners.  Matthew Fam (PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative & World Literature...
Miriam Udel
Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Jewish Children's Literature
The Program in Jewish Culture & Society welcomed Miriam Udel to campus on February 23rd as a part of the Krouse Family Visiting Scholar in Judaism and Western Culture Fund's annual lecture series, with additional support from the Center for Children's Books. Udel is the Judith London Evans...
Dan Shapiro Event Flyer
An Evening with Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro
On the evening of January 26th, the Program in Jewish Culture & Society and Illini Hillel welcomed Dan Shapiro to campus as part of the Israel Studies Program, with additional support from the Jewish United Fund. Shapiro, a graduate of Uni High School in Urbana and son of Michael Shapiro, one...
Andrew Demshuk
Alumni Spotlight

Andrew Demshuk

Andrew Demshuk's research focuses on post-1945 German and Polish history. His first monograph, "The Lost German East: Forced Migration and the Politics of Memory, 1945-1970" (Cambridge University Press, 2012) examines how, amid the charged political context of the early Cold War, millions of West Germans expelled from the province of Silesia after World War II came to recognize that physical return was not possible. A fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2014-2015) supported work on two further book projects. His second book, "Demolition on Karl Marx Square...
Read more

Featured Courses: Fall 2026
RUSS 465

Jewish Culture in the Russian (and Soviet) Empire

This course explores what Jewish culture was in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and why it was significant.
HIST 400

Making of the Jewish Nation

"Making of the Jewish Nation" traces the development of different forms of Jewish nationalism (diaspora nationalism, Zionism, territorialism, etc.) and the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.