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Undergraduate Essay Competition Deadline is April 23
Mar. 13, 2018— Jewish Studies Essay Contest Submission Form
Clarice Lispector Translated
Sep. 27, 2016—October 10, 2016 — Vanderbilt University proudly presents a conversation between award-winning translator Katrina Dodson and Professor Earl Fitz on Clarice Lispector’s The Complete Stories (New Directions, 2015). From one of the greatest modern writers, these 85 stories are gathered from...
But is it art? Jews, photography, and photojournalism in Britain, 1860-2016 – Presented by Michael Berkowitz
Sep. 8, 2016—In a critical period for both journalism and the popularization of the fine arts in Britain, a disproportionate share of press photographers, as well as editors, art-editors, and picture-agency heads were of Jewish origins from 1918 to 1951. Britain’s foundational...
SJAS Conference to be held at Vanderbilt University
Jun. 27, 2016—The 17th International Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies will be held at Vanderbilt from 15-18 August. The conference will feature world-renowned scholars speaking on all issues of Judaeo-Arabic language, literature, philosophy, society, and culture. The conference will begin...
Blanchard wins Jewish Studies Essay Contest
May. 17, 2016—Alyssa Blanchard’s essay “’Let’s End this Charade’: Performance and Jewish Identity” has been named the winner of the 2016 Jewish Studies Essay Contest. Focusing on Dara Horn’s 2009 novel All Other Nights, set during the Civil War era, Blanchard discusses...
Lucas Wilson, MTS, MA
May. 10, 2016—Reflecting the strength of our Program in Jewish Studies, student Lucas Wilson, MTS, MA received the Zaglembier Society Scholarship from The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. This award recognizes students who “have a passion for keeping the...
Blake Sidon named 2016 recipient of the Miriam Halachmi Prize in Modern Hebrew
Apr. 12, 2016—BLAKE SIDON has been named the recipient of the 2016 Miriam Halachmi Prize in Modern Hebrew. “Since the beginning of his Hebrew studies in the Fall,” comments Senior Lecturer in Modern Hebrew Orit Yeret, “Blake has proved great dedication to...
Judy Klass Receives Act One: One Act Publishing Offer
Mar. 23, 2016—Judy Klass’s short play Ismene’s Press Conference, a re-imagining of Antigone by Sophocles, is in press at Brooklyn Publishers, which has already published two of her short plays as stand-alone scripts. Her short play Performance Art recently made the finals in the...
Ari Joskowicz has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
Feb. 24, 2016—Ari Joskowicz has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship for his project “Jews and Roma in the Shadow of Genocide”. The ACLS Fellowship Program awards fellowships to individual scholars working in the humanities and related social...
Leo Spitzer to speak on his immigration to the US from Bolivia
Feb. 7, 2016—Leo Spitzer to speak on his immigration to the US from Bolivia February 22 Commons Center, Room 235 7:00 pm Leo Spitzer is Vernon Professor of History Emeritus at Dartmouth College and Visiting Professor of Oral History at Columbia University)....
Dr. Adam Gregerman to Speak
Feb. 6, 2016—To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the groundbreaking 1965 Roman Catholic declaration on the relation between the Church and Judaism, both Jews and Catholics have released major theological statements on Jewish-Christian relations. Dr. Gregerman will critically analyze these...
Sayed Kashua to present "The Foreign Mother Tongue"
Feb. 5, 2016—Monday, March 21, 2016 7:00 pm- 8:30 pm Alumni Hall- 201 In his talk, “The Foreign Mother Tongue,” Sayed Kashua will speak about his experience growing up and pursuing a journalistic and literary career as a Palestinian in Israel, operating...
Nashville Reads at Vanderbilt University
Feb. 4, 2016—Please join us for a discussion of this year’s “Nashville Reads” book THE COLOR OF WATER A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother By James McBride Facilitated by Andrea Blackman and Tasneem Tewogbola of the Nashville Public Library Monday,...
Robert Barsky’s Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law has been shortlisted for the Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize
Jan. 20, 2016—Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law; The Flight and the Plight of People Deemed Illegal by Robert F. Barsky has been shortlisted for the Socio-Legal Studies Association’s Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize for 2016 This book describes the experiences of...
Cary Nelson from The University of Illinois to speak at Vanderbilt
Dec. 2, 2015—Cary Nelson will present “One Land, Two States, Three Narratives: A Proposal” on December 3rd from 7:00 – 8:30 pm, 114 Furman Hall. Nelson is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Emeritus Professor of English. Known as a commentator on higher...
Professor Julia Cohen to present at the 3rd annual International Ladino Day celebration at the University of Washington
Dec. 2, 2015—Sephardi Lives in Living Color Two editors, seven years, fifteen languages, and hundreds of documents. These are the elements of Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History. The impressive new volume out from Stanford University Press was co-edited by Prof. Julia Phillips Cohen of...
SUNY’s Sara Lipton presents: "What's in a Nose? On the Origins, Evolution, and Implications of the Anti-Semitic Caricature”
Dec. 1, 2015—Sara Lipton, Professor of History, State University of New York, Stony Brook will speak at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, November 10th from 4:00-5:30, 123 Buttrick Hall. “What’s in a Nose? On the Origins, Evolution, and Implications of the Anti-Semitic Caricature” With...
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields Presented by Holocaust Lecture Series
Oct. 7, 2015—Now in its 38th year, Vanderbilt’s annual Holocaust lecture series is the longest-running program of its kind at any university in the U.S. This year’s theme is gender and genocide which will explore how the multifaceted entanglements of gender and...
Holocaust Lecture Series Sponsors Screening of Ida
Oct. 6, 2015—Now in its 38th year, Vanderbilt’s annual Holocaust lecture series is the longest-running program of its kind at any university in the U.S. This year’s theme is gender and genocide which will explore how the multifaceted entanglements of gender and genocide,...
Lecture by Inge Auerbacher, Child Survivor of the Holocaus
Oct. 5, 2015—Inge Auerbacher was born in Germany in 1935 and spent three years between seven and ten years of age in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. In her lecture, she will describe her memories of life before World War...
Genocide and Sexual Violence, A Panel Discussion
Oct. 4, 2015—Shame-filled and stigma-fearing silences, sexism, and the nonrecognition of sexual violence as more and other than violent sex have contributed to the marginalization if not outright omission of the occurrences and functions of sexual violence in genocides from Nazi-occupied Europe...
Cohen Wins Multiple Book Prizes For Her Recent Monograph
Sep. 21, 2015—Julia Phillips Cohen’s Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) has been awarded multiple prizes including the 2015 Jordan Schnitzer Award in Modern Jewish History, the 2015 Barbara Jelavich Prize...
Cohen Receives Chancellor’s Award
Sep. 17, 2015—Chancellor Zeppos presented Julia Cohen with a Chancellor’s Award for Research at the August 27th Faculty Assembly. He cited the two award-winning publications Julia produced in the past year: Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era,...
Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times
Jul. 10, 2015—Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times Ari Joskowicz and Ethan B. Katz, Editors University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015 From the publisher’s website: For much of the twentieth century, most religious and secular Jewish thinkers believed that they...
Zimmerman Judaica Collection Exhibit Opens
May. 4, 2015—Vanderbilt’s Judaica Collection : 70 Years in the Making -A nearly yearlong exhibition opened in May commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Mary and Harry Zimmerman Judaica Collection in the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library. The collection, numbering more than 20,000 titles,...
Dultz, Sheppard Win Jewish Studies Student Prizes
Apr. 30, 2015—ELIZABETH DULTZ has been named the winner of the 2015 Jewish Studies Essay Contest. Her entry, “Nashville, Zion, and Mortimer May,” tells the history of a second-generation Nashvillian who led the fight to save refugees from Nazi Europe and became...
Listen and Learn: Lenn Goodman on "Judaism, Humanity, and Nature"
Apr. 7, 2015—Listen to Prof. Lenn Goodman discuss his book Lenn E. Goodman: Judaism, Humanity, and Nature, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes. Prof. Goodman was interviewed by Christopher Benda for the podcast series, Authorial Intentions, on March 31, 2015. Click here...
Lenn Goodman Book Celebration
Mar. 18, 2015—On Monday, April 20th in Buttrick Hall, there will be an event celebrating the publication of the book Lenn E. Goodman: Judaism, Humanity, and Nature (Brill, 2014). The program begins at 4:30 pm with a light reception in the Buttrick Atrium. Beginning...
Orit Yeret Presents Modern Hebrew at Vanderbilt
Mar. 11, 2015—Orit Yeret will be presenting at the Center for Second Language Studies on the teaching of Modern Hebrew at Vanderbilt. Yeret joined the Vanderbilt faculty this past fall (2014) as the University’s first full-time instructor of Modern Hebrew. She is...
UCLA's Tutino Speaks on Catholic-Jewish Relations in 17th C. Rome
Mar. 9, 2015—“Buying with You, Selling with You, & Praying with You? Jewish Properties, Inquisitorial Conflicts, & Probabilist Theology in 17th Century Rome.” Dr. Stefania Tutino, Professor of History, UCLA Wednesday, March 11 4:00-5:30 pm Tillet Faculty Lounge, Vanderbilt Divinity School ...
UCLA's Todd Presner visits Vanderbilt
Feb. 6, 2015—UCLA’s Professor of Germanic Languages, Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies, Todd Presner will speak at Vanderbilt on Friday, February 6th from 11:10-12:30, 123 Buttrick Hall “The Ethics of the Algorithm: Close and Distant Listening to the Shoah Foundation Visual History...
Indiana Univ.'s Mark Roseman Speaks on Holocaust Rescue
Jan. 28, 2015—Indiana University’s Mark Roseman will speak at Vanderbilt on Wednesday, January 28 from 4:10- 6:00, 123 Buttrick Hall The rescue of history: Holocaust rescue beyond altruism and hagiography – a case study Mark Roseman is Pat M Glazer Chair in Jewish...
Schoenberg’s "A Survivor from Warsaw," Performance and Lecture
Jan. 24, 2015—The Vanderbilt Orchestra will perform Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw at Ingram Hall on Saturday January 24th at 8:00 p.m. The piece will be performed with the men of the Vanderbilt Symphonic Choir and with narration by Vanderbilt musicologist Jim Lovensheimer....
Julia Phillips Cohen Wins Two 2014 National Jewish Book Awards
Jan. 14, 2015—Two 2014 National Jewish Book Awards to Julia Phillips Cohen Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman Honored as Finalist Julia Phillips Cohen has won the 2014 National Jewish Book Award for each of her two new books. Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700–1950 (Stanford...
Yeshiva U's Ephraim Kanarfogel on Jews Returning from Apostasy in Medieval Christian Europe – Lunch Provided
Sep. 18, 2014—Yeshiva University’s E. Billi Ivry University Professor of Jewish History, Literature and Law and Chair of the Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies, Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel, comes to Vanderbilt on September 18th. “There and Back Again: Jews Returning from...
Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950
Aug. 22, 2014—By Julia Phillips Cohen and Sarah Abrevaya Stein. (Stanford University Press, 2014) This ground-breaking documentary history contains over 150 primary sources originally written in 15 languages by or about Sephardi Jews. Designed for use in the classroom, these documents offer students an intimate view of how Sephardim experienced the major regional and world events of the modern era. They also provide a vivid exploration of the quotidian lives of Sephardi women, men, boys, and girls in the Judeo-Spanish heartland of the Ottoman Balkans and Middle East, as well as the émigré centers which Sephardim settled throughout the twentieth century, including North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Cohen's New Book Traces 250 Years of Sephardi Life
Aug. 22, 2014—Stanford University Press runs series of blog posts about and excerpted from Julia Phillips Cohen and Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s new co-edited volume, Sephardi Lives. To read each of the five entries, follow the links listed below. How Does One Invent...
Dan King Receives Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in Jewish Studies
May. 21, 2014—Dan King’s essay, “Fear and Trembling in ‘A Bitter Farce,’” provides an interpretation of a 1946 short story by the Jewish-American writer Delmore Schwartz through the lens of ideas propounded by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. The story, based on...
Tamber-Rosenau's "Lethal Women" Takes Silver in 3MT Competition
Apr. 10, 2014—Ph.D. student in Hebrew Bible, Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, placed second in the Vanderbilt Graduate Student Councils’ 3MT (3-Mintue-Thesis) competition. 3MT is a campus-wide competition in which students from across departments vie to see who can best present their dissertation research to...
Brandeis' Marc Brettler on Writing a Critical Jewish Commentary on the Psalms
Mar. 27, 2014—2013-14 Jewish Studies Lecture Series presents Brandeis University's Marc Brettler on March 27, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. in 100 Alumni Hall. His talk is entitled, "Writing a Critical Jewish Commentary on the Psalms."
Graduate Student Anne Grant Presents "T-Shirt Talk" at Slifka Center at Yale
Mar. 12, 2014—Anne Grant, a Vanderbilt graduate student studying the Sociology of American Jews, presented “T-Shirt Talk: The Art of Reimagining Cultural Jewish Identity” art exhibit at the Yale University Slifka Center which opened on Tuesday, March 4. Grant and Slifka Arts Curator,...
Haifa's J. H. Chajes to Speak on Kabbalah and the Diagramming of the Divine
Feb. 27, 2014—2013-14 Jewish Studies Lecture Series presents Haifa University's Yossi Chajes on February 27, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. in 100 Alumni Hall. His talk is entitled, "It's Good to See the King: Visual Kabbalah and the Diagramming of the Divine."
Rabbi Joshua Kullock on Diversity and Change in Latin America Jewry.
Jan. 23, 2014—Vanderbilt's Center for Latin American Studies and Program in Jewish Studies host Rabbi Joshua Kolluck, of Nashville's West End Synagogue, on January 23rd at 12:30 p.m. in Buttrick Hall 123. Kosher Lunch will be provided by Grins.
The Business of Identity: Jews, Muslims, and Economic Life in Medieval Egypt
Jan. 14, 2014—By Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman. (Stanford University Press, 2014) The Cairo Geniza is the largest and richest store of documentary evidence for the medieval Islamic world. This book seeks to revolutionize the way scholars use that treasure trove. Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman draws on legal documents from the Geniza to reconceive of life in the medieval Islamic marketplace.
Cohen Publishes New Book on Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire
Jan. 8, 2014—Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era By Julia Phillips Cohen Oxford University Press, 2014 From the publisher’s website: The Ottoman-Jewish story has long been told as a romance between Jews and the empire. The prevailing view is that...
Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era
Jan. 8, 2014—By Julia Phillips Cohen. (Oxford University Press, 2014) The Ottoman-Jewish story has long been told as a romance between Jews and the empire. The prevailing view is that Ottoman Jews were protected and privileged by imperial policies and in return offered their unflagging devotion to the imperial government over many centuries. In this book, Julia Phillips Cohen offers a corrective, arguing that Jewish leaders who promoted this vision were doing so in response to a series of reforms enacted by the nineteenth-century Ottoman state: the new equality they gained came with a new set of expectations. Ottoman subjects were suddenly to become imperial citizens, to consider their neighbors as brothers and their empire as a homeland.
Levine Featured in Moment Magazine
Dec. 6, 2013—The Gospel of Amy-Jill Levine by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil was published in the 2013 November-December issue of Moment Magazine.
45th Annual Association for Jewish Studies Conference
Nov. 21, 2013—The 45th annual Association for Jewish Studies conference will take place in Boston, MA on December 15-17, 2013 and Vanderbilt’s Program in Jewish Studies will be well represented. Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman: Moderator for Pre-modernity in the Digital Age Julia Cohen: Discussant for Attracting...
Joskowicz Publishes New Book on Jewish Anti-Catholicism
Nov. 6, 2013—The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France By Ari Joskowicz Stanford University Press, 2013 From the publisher’s website: The most prominent story of nineteenth-century German and French Jewry has focused on Jewish adoption of liberal middle-class values.The Modernity...
Nashville Jewish Film Festival
Nov. 1, 2013—The Program in Jewish Studies is a proud sponsor of the 2013 Nashville Jewish Film Festival. For schedule and ticket information, please visit the NJFF website.
NYU's Diner on Great Jewish Migration – Lunch Provided
Oct. 31, 2013—Hasia Diner (NYU) speaks at Vanderbilt on October 31st: "Roads Taken: The Great Jewish Migration in the Long Nineteenth Century and the Peddlers Who Made it Possible," 12:30 P.M., 100 Alumni Hall. Her lecture is free and open to the public.
Screening of "The Dybbuk"
Oct. 30, 2013—This Halloween no one can escape Yiddish zombies from beyond the tomb!! Join the Program in Jewish Studies for "The Dybbuk" on October 30 @ 8 p.m. in the Commons Multipurpose room.
NYU's Fleming Speaks on Greek, Israeli Nation-Building
Oct. 24, 2013—Katherine E. Fleming (NYU) speaks at Vanderbilt on October 24th: "Big Histories, Small States or Herzl at the Akropolis: The Uses of the Past in Greek and Israeli Nation-Building," 4:00 P.M., 100 Alumni Hall. Her lecture is free and open to the public.
Joskowicz Wins German Studies Association Prize for Heine Article
Oct. 9, 2013—The North American office of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) awarded Ari Joskowicz, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and European Studies, the Article Prize of the German Studies Association for his piece “Heinrich Heine’s Transparent Masks: Denominational Politics and the...
Meyer Hosts Session at Southern Festival of Books
Oct. 5, 2013—Adam Meyer, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, hosted a session entitled “I Witness: Seeking Justice in the Jim Crow South” at the Southern Festival of Books on Sunday, October 13. The session featured Chet Bush, author of Called to the Fire:...
The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France
Sep. 28, 2013—By Ari Joskowicz. (Stanford University Press, 2013) The most prominent story of nineteenth-century German and French Jewry has focused on Jewish adoption of liberal middle-class values. The Modernity of Others points to an equally powerful but largely unexplored aspect of modern Jewish history: the extent to which German and French Jews sought to become modern by criticizing the anti-modern positions of the Catholic Church.
A Jew's Best Friend? The Image of the Dog Throughout Jewish History
Sep. 12, 2013—Edited by Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman and Rakefet Zalashik. (Sussex Academic Press, 2013). A Jew’s Best Friend discusses specific cultural manifestations of the relationship between dogs and Jews, from ancient times to the present, highlighting the constant tension between domination/control and partnership which underpins the relationship of humans to animals, as well as the connection between Jewish societies and their broader host cultures.
Lieberman Publishes New Book on Jews and Dogs
Sep. 12, 2013—A Jew’s Best Friend? The Image of the Dog Throughout Jewish History By Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman and Rakefet Zalashik Sussex Academic Press, 2013 From the publisher’s website: A Jew’s Best Friend? The Image of the Dog throughout Jewish History discusses specific cultural manifestations of the...
Rebecca Epstein-Levi
Jul. 27, 2013—Assistant Professor in Jewish Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies Cornelius Vanderbilt Dean’s Faculty Fellow in Jewish Studies rebecca.j.epstein-levi@Vanderbilt.Edu http://RJELevi.com Office: Buttrick 157 B.A.: Religion, Oberlin College, 2008 M.A: Religious Studies, University of Virginia, 2012 Ph.D: Religious Studies, University...
Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller
Jul. 26, 2013—Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller Associate Professor of French and Jewish Studies Licence, Maîtrise and D.E.A (University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) Ph.D. (Emory University) 615.322.6906 n.debrau@vanderbilt.edu 223a Furman Hall Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century French and Francophone Literature (North African...
Jay Geller
Jul. 22, 2013—Professor of Modern Jewish Culture B.A. (Wesleyan 1975) A.M., Ph.D. (Duke 1980, 1985) 615.343.3968 jay.geller@vanderbilt.edu 207 Divinity School An inveterate (not Confederate) Yankee fan, “old original” Jay Geller is Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Culture at Vanderbilt Divinity School and...
Ari Joskowicz
Jul. 20, 2013—Chair of Jewish Studies Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and European Studies Associate Professor of History Mag. phil. (University of Vienna, 2000) Ph.D. (University of Chicago, 2008) 615.322.7371 a.joskowicz@vanderbilt.edu 243 Buttrick Hall Ari Joskowicz is a historian of modern Jewish...
Judy Klass
Jul. 19, 2013—Senior Lecturer of Jewish Studies and English B.A. (Sarah Lawrence College) M. Phil and D. Phil. (Oxford University) j.klass@vanderbilt.edu 420 Benson Hall Judy Klass is a Truman Scholar. Eight of her full-length plays and thirty-six of her one-act plays have...
Douglas A. Knight
Jul. 18, 2013—Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies B.A. (Ottawa [Kansas] 1965) M.Div. (California Baptist Theological Seminary 1968) Dr.Theol. (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 1973) douglas.a.knight@vanderbilt.edu Douglas A. Knight is an expert on Hebrew Bible and the...
Amy-Jill Levine
Jul. 18, 2013—University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Divinity School and College of Arts and Science A.B. (Smith 1978) A.M., Ph.D. (Duke 1981, 1984) 615.343.3967 amy-jill.levine@vanderbilt.edu 235 Divinity School Amy-Jill Levine is University...
Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman
Jul. 17, 2013—Chair of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Law Associate Professor of Classical and Mediterranean Studies Associate Professor of Religious Studies Affiliated Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and History B.A. (University of Washington 1990) M.Sc. (London...
Adam S. Meyer
Jul. 16, 2013—Associate Professor of Jewish Studies B.A. (Kenyon College 1983) M.A. (University of New Mexico 1986) Ph.D. (Vanderbilt 1991) adam.s.meyer@vanderbilt.edu Office: Buttrick 100 Adam Meyer has been an associate professor in the Department of Jewish Studies since 2008, following many years...
Jack M. Sasson
Jul. 15, 2013—Mary Jane Werthan Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible and Professor of Classics B.A. (Brooklyn College 1962) Ph.D. (Brandeis 1966) jack.m.sasson@vanderbilt.edu Professor Sasson retired from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) as its William R. Kenan Jr....
Allison Schachter
Jul. 15, 2013— Professor of Jewish Studies, English, and Russian and East European Studies B.A. (Stanford University 1996) Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley 2006) 615.322.1172 allison.schachter@vanderbilt.edu Office: Buttrick 142 Allison Schachter is Professor of English, Jewish Studies, and Russian and East European...
Choon-Leong Seow
Jul. 14, 2013—Distinguished Professor of Hebrew Bible Choon-Leong Seow Dr. Seow first came to the United States for college (at Pepperdine University) and later received an MDiv degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization from Harvard...
David J. Wasserstein
Jul. 13, 2013—Professor of History and Eugene Greener, Jr. Professor of Jewish Studies; B.A., Ph.D. (Oxford 1974, 1982) 615.322.7801 david.wasserstein@vanderbilt.edu 147 Buttrick Hall Professor Wasserstein came to Vanderbilt from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Middle Eastern and African History, where he taught from...
Diasporic Modernisms: Hebrew and Yiddish Literature in the Twentieth Century
Nov. 8, 2011—By Allison Schachter. (Oxford University Press, 2011). Spanning from 1894 to 1974, Diasporic Modernisms traces the development of a diasporic aesthetic in the shifting centers of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, including Odessa, Jerusalem, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York. Through an analysis of Jewish writing, Schachter theorizes how modernist literary networks operate outside national borders in minor and non-national languages.
The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us
Nov. 8, 2011—By Douglas Knight and Amy-Jill Levine. (Harper Collins Publishers, 2011). Passed down for generations, compiled between 500 and 100 BCE, and finalized around the time of Jesus, the various accounts in the Hebrew Bible took shape under a variety of cultures. Knight and Levine explore this diverse history and equip us with the critical tools necessary to understand what the ancient texts originally meant.
The Other Jewish Question: Identifying the Jew and Making Sense of Modernity
Sep. 1, 2011—By Jay Geller. (Fordham University Press, 2011). Mapping the dissemination of and interrelationships among corporeal signifiers in German-speaking cultures between the Enlightenment and the Shoah, The Other Jewish Question will appeal to readers interested in psychoanalysis, in Jewish studies, in cultural studies, and in the whole question of "the body."
Zellig Harris: From American Linguistics to Socialist Zionism
Apr. 4, 2011—By Robert F. Barksky. (The MIT Press, 2011) In this meticulously-researched biography, Robert Barsky casts a great deal more light upon Harris’s story. Exploring his involvement in the Avukah student group in the 1930s and 40s, Barsky shows how Harris not only strove to advance the cause of socialist Zionism, but also shaped the destinies of several influential thinkers. He also traces the course of the revolutionary programme of linguistic enquiry that Harris laid out, inspired by the example of theoretical physics, and how this ongoing work came to be regarded as eccentric by practitioners of the dominant contemporary research trends.
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Francophone World
Dec. 17, 2009—By Nathalie Debrauwere-Miller. (Routledge, 2009). With interdisciplinary analyses of texts whose origins span the diversity of the Jewish and Muslim traditions, the provocative essays collected in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Francophone World offer startling insights into the meaning of the volatile history of this conflict in the Francophone world.
Maimonides and His Heritage
Aug. 10, 2008—Edited by Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Lenn E. Goodman, and James Allen Grady. (SUNY Press, 2008). This volume celebrates the depth and breadth of Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides’ (1138–1204) achievements. The essays gathered here explore the rich diversity of a heritage that extends over eight hundred years.
On Freud’s Jewish Body: Mitigating Circumcisions
Dec. 2, 2007—By Jay Geller. (Fordham Unviersity Press, 2007). Through a symptomatic reading of Freud’s corpus, from his letters to Fliess through the case of Little Hans to Moses and Montheism, this book demonstrates how “circumcision”—the fetishized signifier of Jewish difference and source of knowledge about Jewish identity—is central to Freud’s construction of psychoanalysis.
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus
Nov. 20, 2007—By Amy-Jill Levine. (Harper Collins Publishers, 2007). Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth-telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.