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Introducing New Faculty: Eli Rosenblatt
Eli Rosenblatt joined the Department of Religion as an assistant professor in Fall 2024. His research and teaching illuminate Jewish texts, ideas, and practices in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular interest in the Caribbean and United States. His...
Spring 2025 Courses
The following courses are pre-approved for the Jewish Studies major and minor.
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Harriet Murav's book talk
On October 14, 2024, we had a great turnout for Harriet Murav's lecture on her recently published book, "As the Dust of the Earth: The Literature of Abandonment in Revolutionary Russia and Ukraine." From 1918 to 1922, as many as 40,000 Jews were killed in the pogroms of the Russian Civil War....
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Research Spotlight: Alice Balestrino
Alice Balestrino is a PhD candidate in Italian Studies and The Initiative for the Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies. Her dissertation focuses on two Jewish authors who collaborated, to varying degrees, with fascism: Margherita Sarfatti and Gertrude Stein. Caught between resistance to the...
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Israel Studies Project visitors
The week of September 16, 2024, was full of adventures with our Israel Studies Project visitors, Judy Maltz, a senior correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and Amit Schejter, a full professor of communication studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. A lunch with seniors at the...
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Research Spotlight: Alice Balestrino
Alice Balestrino is a PhD candidate in Italian Studies and The Initiative for the Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies. Her dissertation focuses on two Jewish authors who collaborated, to varying...
Read full story about Research Spotlight: Alice Balestrino
Fall 2024 Courses
The following courses are pre-approved for the Jewish Studies major and minor.
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Samuel Freedman's public lecture
On September 11, 2024, PJCS kicked off the new academic year with a marvelous event. Samuel Freedman, an award-winning author and professor at Columbia University, delivered a terrific lecture on Hubert Humphrey's battles against antisemitism and extremism in mid-century America.
Dana Steingold
Dana Steingold is majoring in Political Science with a concentration in international affairs, and minoring in Jewish Studies. She is a rising sophomore, but academically she is entering her second semester of her Junior year. Dana plans on continuing her education after graduation from the University of Illinois.
In Spring 2024, Dana took JS 495: Jewish Life in Central Illinois, where the class analyzed the U of I’s Central Illinois Jewish Communities Archives (CIJCA). Dana loved this course as it was an opportunity to look into a part of American Jewish history that had...
Samantha Levy
Samantha Levy is from Evanston, Illinois, and is a rising junior majoring in Architecture and minoring in Jewish Studies. After graduation, she plans to pursue a graduate degree in Architecture and she aspires to blend her major of Architecture and minor of Jewish studies by designing synagogues or other Jewish religious sites.
Samantha believes it is of the utmost importance to be immersed in the Jewish community. During freshman year, Samantha joined the student board of Hillel where she is currently serving as the treasurer, was a WIZDM intern on campus, and she is currently a MASA campus...