2021-05-18
- Summer 2021
YISH 320: Lit Responses to the Holocaust
In this film course we will be watching and discussing Holocaust Cinema. We will consider different genres, including documentaries, testimony, comedy, drama, musicals and action-adventure films. We consider films from different locations, including the UK, the US,...
- 2021-04-16 - Given the ongoing conditions of the pandemic, we are inviting students to apply for Summer 2021 funding to support participation in an international conference or enrollment in a virtual language course being offered from outside the U.S. This scholarship is open to all graduate students in Jewish Studies and Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies who plan to conduct research,...
- 2021-04-02 - Yossi Klein Halevi and Mohammad Darawshe, two internationally-recognized thinkers on navigating the deeply-held divisions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will speak during a live Zoom event moderated by Chancellor Robert J. Jones on Tuesday, April 6 at 12 pm. This event is free and registration is open to the public. Register at go.illinois.edu/...
- 2021-03-05 - Professor Rachel S. Harris has written an opinion piece in Ha'aretz (2-March-2021) about efforts to disqualify Ibtisam Mara’ana and prevent her from standing for election and the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn the ban issued in February. Opinion | Israeli and Palestinian Men Are Uniting – to Destroy This Arab Woman’s Political Career ...
2021-02-12 - On Wednesday, February 10th, we joined with the Center for African Studies and Illini Hillel to co-sponsor a talk by Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, a Ugandan rabbi serving the Abayudaya, a Baganda community in eastern Uganda. Rabbi Sizomu is the current leader of the 100-year old Abayudaya community of almost 2,000 Jews living in rural villages in Eastern Uganda. He is the grandson of community...
2020-04-20 - The Program in Jewish Culture & Society here at the University of Illinois is excited to announce yet another virtual event for our students and staff to stay engaged in learning and thought during these uncertain times. The next event will be a discussion of the work of Etgar Keret, who visited campus a couple of years ago to discuss his life and how he got to where he is today. Etgar is an...
2020-03-17 - In accordance with the university policies and the advice of public health professionals, the Program in Jewish Culture & Society and the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies office will remain closed until further notice. We also have suspended our public events for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester. We hope to reschedule these programs...
2020-03-05 - Students, faculty, and community members in Urbana-Champaign and in the Chicago suburbs had the chance to learn more about 10-12C. Jewish communities when we hosted Professor Jennifer Grayson earlier this week (March 1-2, 2020). Dr. Grayson serves as Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and as Assistant Professor of...
2020-02-12 - The Program in Jewish Culture & Society is extremely pleased to announce that Joshua Kravitz has been awarded the Spring 2020 Ronald H. Filler Jewish Studies scholarship. Josh is a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Jewish Studies. This award is the most recent addition to his list of accolades and achievements, which include...
2020-01-31 - The Association for Jewish Studies held their Annual Meeting this year in sunny San Diego, California from December 15-17. Many University of Illinois faculty members and graduate students were in attendance. Prof. Brett Ashley Kaplan presented her paper “JewKlansman” on a riveting panel called “Jewishness and Blackness Through the Lens of BLAKKKLANSMAN”, Prof. Dara Goldman presented her...
2020-01-03 - I hit the jackpot of students for the inaugural class of JS 209/CWL 209/ENGL 222, Jewish American and U.S. Minority Literatures in Dialogue. Hailing from physics, psychology, journalism, accounting, business, health sciences, civil engineering, history, social work, English and other disciplines, students came together to read a wide variety of literary texts expressing immigrant and/or minority...
2019-11-09 - The University of Illinois held its annual diversity breakfast on Friday, November 8th, at the iHotel. Sean Garrick--the inaugural Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion--gave the keynote address. He noted that, not only is this year's incoming class the largest in the university's history, but it is also the most diverse. Garrick cited recent initiatives such as Illinois Commitment...
2019-11-09 - Professor Brett A. Kaplan has published a review of Sayed Kashua's Track Changes (2020). The novel is the fourth in what the author views as a quartet that also includes Dancing Arabs (2002), Let it Be Morning (2004), and Second Person Singular (2010).
2019-10-23 - "On October 16th, our class, Jewish American Literatures in Dialogue with U.S. Minority Literatures, enjoyed a rich and detailed tour of the Krannert Art Museum’s exhibit, Art Since 1948. Amy Powell, the curator of the exhibit, generously offered us many details about the fascinating multi-media texts. Our class was particularly interested in a large Frank Stella piece from his Polish Village...
2019-10-14 - A warm welcome to Omri Drumlevich, who is our Israel Studies Project visitor for the Fall semester. Omri was born in Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. He danced with Mehola Jerusalem and studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Omri joined the Batsheva Dance Company in 2012 and spent 7 years with the company. (Indeed, those of you who have seen Mr. Gagamay have already seen Omri...