2019-09-09
- Etgar Lefkovits was Jerusalem correspondent at the Jerusalem Post, and also worked at the Jerusalem bureau of the New York Times. He was subsequently in Washington D.C. as Israel and Middle East analyst to the US Congress, and then worked as Foreign Affairs Director to Israel's Minister for Social Equality.
"Reflections of a former Jerusalem correspondent" focused on the...
2019-09-08 - The 2019-2020 annual newsletter is now complete! The newsletter can be viewed or downloaded by clicking on 2019-2020 in Electronic Newsletters under Resources. Enjoy, and let us know if you have any...
2019-09-02 - Students, faculty, visitors, and community members gathered at the Margie K. and Louis N. Cohen Center for Jewish Life on Sunday for our 2nd annual "Welcome Bagels" event. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another and to learn more about Jewish Studies and Jewish life on campus--in addition to enjoying schmoozing and, of course, the bagels. PJCS faculty and...
2019-08-17 - The Program in Jewish Culture & Society is pleased to announce that Johnna Jones has been awarded the Fall 2019 Ronald H. Filler Jewish Studies scholarship. Johnna is a junior in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, majoring in Economics and minoring in Jewish Studies. Johnna is an outstanding student, who has been a James Scholar and made Dean’s List both in her first and second years...
2019-08-05 - The Program in Jewish Culture & Society is delighted to welcome Liat Maggid Alon as an Israel Institute Visiting scholar for the 2019-2020 academic year. Maggid Alon (Ph.D., Ben Gurion University of the Negev) is a historian of the modern Middle East with expertise in women, gender, and family, especially the Jewish community of Egypt. During the 2019-2020 academic year, she will be teaching...- 2019-08-01 - 2019 Winners Diana Sacilowski The title of Diana's research project is: Strategies of Silence: Representations of Jewish Poles in Polish Literature since the 1980s Diana writes: In this project, I examine instances of silence in Polish cultural texts since the eighties that deal with Poland’s Jewish history. Specifically, I analyze how they are used to depict Jewish...
2019-05-15 - 2018-2019 Filler Award Winners Yoav Margalit Yoav Margalit looks to both philosophy and Jewish studies as a way to understand things. But learning about Judaism is, like philosophy, so much more than just learning about one thing. Yoav has learned about other perspectives that he...
2018-12-04 - Following Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba in 1998, Fidel Castro Ruz convened a symposium to examine religious life in Cuba. Representatives from different religious communities were invited to attend and share their experiences and perspectives. During that event, members of Beth Shalom Congregation (a.k.a El Patronato)—one of three major synagogues in contemporary Havana—invited Fidel to visit...- 2018-10-29 - On Friday night, several members of the UIUC faculty and staff joined students and community members for a Shabbat dinner. It is a tradition that began a few years ago, and it allows us to connect with the Jewish community on and around campus. Friday night was another enriching experience: it showcased the diversity of people connected with Jewish life on campus and allowed us to...
2018-10-26 - The series that has become “Mad Creative” is the first in what I hope will become an HGMS annual tradition. It generated through a perhaps atypical origin story. I saw on Facebook a posting from one of the wonderful Comparative and World Literature and now HGMS graduate students, Meagan Smith. I’ve been a fan of Meagan’s writing ever since her exams some years ago and I read her post during a...
2018-10-26 - We are now halfway through our 21st Century Jewish Writing and the World series. We have been treated to some amazing events with two very thoughtful writers who care deeply about the world we inhabit and the relationship of Jewish people with that world. On October 8th, we launched the series with the visit of Ruby Namdar. I had the privilege of sitting down with Ruby to discuss his latest...
2018-10-04 - CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Program in Jewish Culture and Society has organized a lecture series, “21st Century Jewish Writing and the World,” for the 2018-19 academic year that features four award-winning Jewish writers. Each writer will visit both the...
2018-09-26 - On the occasion of Yom Kippur, WILL Radio’s “The 21st” hosted an episode reflecting on religion and racism. The host interviewed Rabbi Ari Naveh (Illini Hillel) and our own Professor Brett Ashley Kaplan (Comparative & World Literatures and Director of Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies). The conversation centered on the life and work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and what we can learn...
2018-09-24 - As Director of the Program in Jewish Culture & Society, I attended the convocation ceremony for new students at State Farm Center on Friday, August 24th. In his remarks, Chancellor Richard J. Jones highlighted a number of noteworthy students in the history of the university and their accomplishments. Among these, he specifically cited Rosalyn Yalow, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who...
2018-09-02 - The Program in Jewish Culture & Society partnered with Illini Hillel on September 2nd to co-host the first “Sandy’s Bagel Brunch” of the Fall semester. The bagel brunch is a regular event at Hillel, at which students can mix, mingle, and have a nice nosh. Last week’s brunch provided an opportunity for students and Jewish Studies faculty to get to know one another in a more informal setting as...