Northeastern Jewish Studies Blog
A Blog for Northeastern University Jewish Studies Faculty, Students, and Community
A student reflects on his 2022 Dialogue of Civilization Experience By Frank Mastroianni 6 months ago, I embarked on a Dialogue of Civilizations to Israel that would prove to be critical for my college experience at Northeastern. The program took place in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, focused on Israeli/Palestinian literature and law, and was led… Continue reading Northeastern in Israel: An Eye-Opening Experience
Student Projects in Northeastern's Jewish Studies Use Digital Tools to Explore and Exhibit Boston's Complex Jewish History By Simon Rabinovitch. Last spring I reported on the NUJS Blog about a new class in the works that would use Boston's Jewish history as a subject for learning how to use digital history tools, and digital history… Continue reading Mapping Boston’s Jewish History
Photo from the 2019 Ruderman Lecture, Jessie Sigler left, Yael Sheinfeld right Gideon Klein Scholar Yael Sheinfeld '21 and Ruderman Scholar Jessie Sigler '20 Present about their Work Improving Public Knowledge of the Holocaust By Simon Rabinovitch. On September 24, Northeastern University's Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee held the first of its events rescheduled from… Continue reading Northeastern Students Build Tools to Remember and Teach about the Holocaust
By Simon Rabinovitch. Like many others, I was shocked to read on Saturday (August 15, 2020) that Ruth Gavison, one of Israel’s most prominent legal and constitutional scholars had passed away, at the age of 75. Ruth Gavison spent a long career as an esteemed professor on the Hebrew University’s law faculty (and remained Professor… Continue reading Ruth Gavison, in Memoriam
By Phil Brown. Pack a few trunks and valises, call the “hack” or load your car, and drive to the Catskills for a communal vacation. That’s what millions of Jews did for over a century, and many still do. They took their communities from major east coast cities and set them up for the summer… Continue reading Summer Vacation in the Catskills via the Catskills Institute Website
The image above with the inscription from Deuteronomy, "Tsedek tsedek tirdof" (justice justice you will pursue) is being printed on t-shirts and sold to raise bail funds for arrested activists. The image was created by @maimonides_nutz and promoted on Twitter by the Jewish feminist website @hey_alma. By Laurel Leff. Professors often say that we learn… Continue reading What We Learn from Our Students When They Call for Change
By Lori Lefkovitz. One of the many unsettling and remarkable aspects of sheltering in place all of these weeks is how one day blends into the next and it’s hard to remember what day of the week it is. Today, I found myself happily surprised by the length of daylight and had to remind myself… Continue reading Reading the Book of Ruth on the Holiday of Shavuot
The following article, contributed by Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, and Dr. Hanna Shaul Bar Nissim, highlights the expansion of Jewish communal philanthropy during the current crisis. The Ruderman Family Foundation is a loyal and much appreciated supporter of the Northeastern Jewish Studies Program, sponsoring the Ruderman Chair (held by Professor Lori… Continue reading In Jewish Philanthropy, a Case Study of How a Crisis Can Expand Communal Giving
By Phil Brown. My son Michael Littenberg-Brown is Vice-President of United Hatzalah of Israel (no connection to NY Hatzalah), which does EMT work, especially with minutes-long response time on 1,000 ambucycles (with 6,000 Jewish, Muslim, and Christian volunteers), custom-outfitted motorcycles with lifesaving capabilities. They've added lots of COVID-related work -- among other things, their volunteers… Continue reading Hallelujah and More
An undergraduate student uses the Gideon Klein Award to create an educational animated project By Yael Sheinfeld, 2019-2020 Gideon Klein Scholar. For my Gideon Klein presentation, I am creating an animated short centered around the children’s book The Children’s Tree of Terezin [for more about the Gideon Klein Award, see below this article]. The book,… Continue reading Bringing to Life the Children’s Tree of Terezin
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