Check out Prof Wasserstein’s new article “What has that got to do with the price of bananas in Tunisia?” here!

Check out MyVU’s coverage of our recent event Confronting Hate

Read more here

 “Xai, How Are You?” (a queer talmud podcast) discusses Epstein-Levi’s book–and there’ll be a part II in a couple weeks! Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi joins us to discuss her new book, “When We Collide“, an exploration of Jewish sexual ethics….

After Tartuffe: A reimagining of Molière’s Tartuffe, set in a Christian Fundamentalist post-apocalyptic America. The population has been decimated by the super-strain of the Avian Flu – stolen from a lab, probably by Fundamentalists.      Oral is a rich…

New York, NY – 7 December 2022 – The Modern Language Association of America today announced it is awarding its eleventh Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies for an outstanding translation of a Yiddish literary work to…

Check out this interview with Prof Allison Schachter and scholar Jordan Finkin in the Cincinnati Edition where they delve into the question “What’s driving renewed interest in Yiddish?”

As we head into the 2022 Fall Semester, we would like to alert our students and community members of ongoing construction within Buttrick Hall. This construction will hopefully be completed soon, but while the work continues the Jewish Studies library…

From the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) – “On Sunday, June 26, 2022, the widely praised New Testament scholar, Prof. Amy-Jill Levine, will be awarded the first ever SEELISBERG PRIZE for the major role her scholarship and teaching…

Allison Schachter will discuss her new book, “Women Writing Jewish Modernity, 1919–1939”, in conversation with Karolina Szymaniak and Anastasiya Lyubas. Host: Anita Norich, Collegiate Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan, specializes in Yiddish literature Speakers: Allison Schachter, Associate Professor…

Prof Allison Schatcher‘s recent book, a translation of selected stories by Fradl Shtok titled From the Jewish Provinces, has been reviewed by Tablet. Rokhl Kafrissen has this to say – “… right now, for those of us newly focused on…

Allison Schachter, Chair of Jewish Studies Department and Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, English, and Russian and East European Studies, is featured on the Vanderbilt College of Arts & Science’s Research web page. In this interview, Schachter discusses how her…

Pressed for Time: Five Centuries of Prints from the Jack May Collection is curated by Cainie Brown, Chloe Davis, Peter Stidman, Sarah Treadway, and Professor David H. Price, with assistance from students in HART 2775, History of Prints: Harrison Denman, Christopher Elliott, Sophia Moak, Courtney Rehkamp, Daniel…

Julia Phillips Cohen has been made a new editor of the journal Jewish Social Studies, published by Indiana University Press. The latest issue, and first under Cohen’s name, can be accessed here. Jewish Social Studies plays an important role in advancing…

  Further Reading: A Conversation with Israeli Artist Rami Maymon, November 9, 1pm CST Rami Maymon is an Israeli artist who lives and works in Tel Aviv. He is a faculty member at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design…

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine returns to the the Luke Norsworthy podcast to help get ready for Advent by discussing how to read scripture, Biblical illiteracy, mangers, magi, and her book Light of the World. Luke Norsworthy is a pastor, author, and…

Rebecca Epstein-Levi’s new article in Bitch Media on COVID risk, STIs, rabbinic purity, and why thinking about it in terms of individual responsibility is inadequate— is live. “COVID-19 and sexually transmitted infections both teach us that an all-or-nothing approach to…

David J. Wasserstein, Professor of History and Jewish Studies, and Philip Lieberman, Professor of Jewish Studies, Law, and Religious Studies, have co-authored an opinion piece for The Tennessean titled Avoid Fanning the Flames of Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial Hatred. This piece…

Shaul Kelner, Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies was quoted last week in Judische Allgemeine, a German Jewish newspaper, in an article on the shuttering of American Jewish summer camps due to COVID-19. Kelner has also been awarded a travel grant…

Professor Levine has recently been recommended by The Christian Century for her book, Light of the World. She has also been selected for the United Methodist Women 2020 Reading Program for her book co-authored with Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Who is My Neighbor? For…

Dr. Epstein-Levi has recently published an op-ed on Rewire News, called “How Ancient Rabbis Can Help Combat STI Stigma.” “The sages, or rabbis, whose teachings were collected in the Mishnah, had a concept they called tumah, or ritual impurity. This term,…

As Vanderbilt News reported: “Eleven outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2019 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and…

Phillip I. Lieberman has been awarded a competitive NEH grant for the summer of 2019 to complete his book manuscript on the urbanization of the Jews of Iraq and their migration to the communities of North Africa. It will be called…

  Judy Klass’ new play “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One” is being performed at Chaffin’s Barn Theater in Nashville March 28-30. The comedy follows Alan as he flies to Florida for a family emergency during Passover, only to…

  Shaul Kelner will be speaking at a screening of “Persona Non Grata” at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville. Sponsored by the Japanese Consulate, “Persona Non Grata” is a dramatization of the true story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat…

Julia Phillips Cohen has been elected to the Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History in New York. Read more about the organization here.

Jewish Studies is the proud sponsor of the film Promise at Dawn for the 2018 Nashville Jewish Film Festival. The screening is on Thursday, November 1 at 7pm at the Belcourt Theater. For more information, visit the NJFF website.  

Jewish Studies has updated its requirements to allow for more flexible opportunities for students interested in the broad subject. Take classes in over 17 departments all over Vanderbilt and shape the direction of your own studies. For more information, visit…

Julia Phillips Cohen has been named a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History in New York for the next three years. Read more about the organization here.

Vanderbilt podcast Authorial Intentions interviews Jay Geller about his new book book Bestiarium Judaicum: Unnatural Histories of the Jew. Listen to the interview here. 

Shaul Kelner will be a guest lecturer at Stay the Night (Tikkun Leil Shavuot) at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan on May 19. His talk is titled “Tinker Tailor Tourist Spy.” Read more about the event here. 

  Jewish Studies Essay Contest Submission Form

Allison Schachter gave a talk at the University of California, Berkeley, on March 7, 2018. Read more about it below:

As Vanderbilt News reported: “Twelve outstanding faculty members from across the university have been named to the 2018 class of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. The class comprises highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from all corners of campus.” “Our world-class faculty are…

Jay Geller’s new book “Bestiarium Judaicum: The Unnatural Histories of the Jews” has been featured in a New Yorker article by Paul Reitter entitled, “The Unlikely Kinship of “Bambi” and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.”   Excerpt: “In his thoughtful and deeply researched…

The Program in Jewish Studies is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Classical and Mediterranean Studies and the Israel Antiquities Authority to create a new Maymester program of an archaeological dig in Caesarea, Israel. Email Professor Phil Lieberman…

  Jewish Studies professor Julia Cohen has been elected to the board of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS). 

Allison Schachter has been awarded a 2017 Translation Fellowship from the Yiddish Book Center. In collaboration with Jordan Finkin, Schachter will translate a collection of modernist short stories by Fradel Shtok. Learn more about the fellowship here.

The 2016-17 winner of the Miriam Halachmi Prize is Rachel Hechler. Rachel is a rising Sophomore from Tenafly, New Jersey. She is a student in Peabody College, majoring in Human and Organizational Development following a Health and Human Services Track….

Kayley Romick’s essay “Angles on Angels” has been chosen as the winner of the 2017 Jewish Studies Essay Contest for Best Undergraduate Paper. Set in New York City in the 1990’s, Angels In America follows characters through the throes of illness, infidelity,…

Download or print an Entry Form here.  

The following statement reflects only the views of the individual signees. February 3, 2017 As teachers and researchers in Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, we stand together to oppose President Trump’s executive order to suspend the admittance…

Robert Alter, class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, sat for an interview with the Vanderbilt Library about “scholarly trajectories, disciplinary identities, and translation” for their ongoing series Authorial Intentions. Visit the Authorial Intentions catalog…

Robert Barsky is a professor in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Law School at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of three books on Noam Chomsky. His most recent books are Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law…

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…

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 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’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 (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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

The Brill publishing house has devoted a new volume in its Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers to the work of Lenn E. Goodman, Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University….

Chapter One of Professor Ari Joskowicz’s monograph, The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France, is featured this month on the Religion and Culture Web Forum of the Martin Marty Center of University of Chicago. Two scholars, Gil…

Features editor Maddie Hughes profiles Jewish life on campus in the 9/24/14 issue of the Hustler. As for the Program in Jewish Studies, read on. Aside from campus organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish students are able to learn about Judaism…

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’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…

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…

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,…

The Business of Identity: Jews, Muslims, and Economic Life in Medieval Egypt By Phillip I. Ackerman-Lieberman Stanford University Press, 2014 From the publisher’s website: The Cairo Geniza is the largest and richest store of documentary evidence for the medieval Islamic…

The Gospel of Amy-Jill Levine by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil was published in the 2013 November-December issue of Moment Magazine.

The October 2013 release of the Pew Research Center’s Portrait of American Jews, the first major survey of the American Jewish population in more than a decade, has generated intense debate about its implications for the American Jewish future. Anne…

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…

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:…

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.