Northeastern Jewish Studies Blog
A Blog for Northeastern University Jewish Studies Faculty, Students, and Community
By Laurel Leff. I’ve always wanted to honor Shabbat, I’ve always meant to honor Shabbat, but I never have. I wasn’t willing to lose a day I desperately needed to catch up on the week’s work, and to do the errands and chores that had plagued me all week long. In this lockdown era, however,… Continue reading Rethinking Shabbat in Lockdown
Academic Video Online Database has Jewish Studies Documentaries By Debra Mandel. While working from home, our screen time has increased enormously. We are balancing zoom sessions, binge watching series, and tuning in to difficult daily news. To add to this mix, the Northeastern Library has wonderful streaming videos and music to choose from. Here is… Continue reading Enrich your Screen Time!
By Simon Rabinovitch. This past fall I taught for the first time Northeastern's introductory course to Jewish religion, history, and culture (JWSS/PHIL 1285) and took the students to a couple of spots in Boston relevant to Jewish history in the city. We strolled down the street from where our class met, to the Columbus Avenue… Continue reading Digital History of the Jews of Boston
By Joel Bresler. My love of Sephardic music began in my college years. I loved Renaissance music, especially Spanish Renaissance music. A group named Hespèrion XX brought out a double LP of Christian and Sephardic music. (See here for a discussion of performing Sephardic music as Early Music, but that’s a whole separate discussion. I’m grateful for… Continue reading In Search of Sephardic Music
By Alexander Levering Kern. While we will surely remember this April as the trying time of Coronavirus/COVID-19, for three of the world's great faiths this is also a deeply holy season, made somehow more precious by the sense of suffering and struggle that we share. As Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities observe Passover, Easter, and… Continue reading Anatomy of Yes: A Poem, with Questions to Ponder
By Debra Mandel. As you finish up your research projects and ponder your next ones, visit the library’s Jewish Studies Subject Guide , a handy gateway exploring Jewish scholarship, information and multimedia in databases, periodicals, encyclopedias and websites. Key databases include Jewish Studies Source, a multidisciplinary gateway to Jewish civilization and Index to Jewish Periodicals which… Continue reading Jewish Studies Research Resources and Information at your Fingertips
By Kathryn Ruth Bloom. In my teens, I learned about two extraordinary women whose years of forced isolation are now helping me through my own sheltering in place during the current pandemic. I’m a Boomer and those “virtual” introductions of my youth came from books and magazines. I learned about Anne Frank when a friend… Continue reading Looking back at Two Women during Difficult Times
By Lori Lefkovitz. I saw a sort-of joke on Twitter (maybe too real to be funny): 30 days hath September, April, June, and etc….except for March, which has 8,000. I am interested in time, and especially in Jewish conceptualizations of time, including how our holiday cycles flow into one another, acknowledging seasonal rhythms, and telling… Continue reading Anticipatory Time
By Deanna Schwartz. I’m Deanna Schwartz, a journalism and Jewish studies student at Northeastern. In addition to being the campus editor for the Huntington News I write regularly for Alma, including my recent article about how Jewish college students have taken to virtual spaces to stay connected, and make new connections, during the COVID-19 pandemic.… Continue reading Reporting, and Connecting, in a Pandemic
By Simon Rabinovitch. The most important research center for studying the history, culture, literature, politics, religion, and society of Eastern European Jewry is today located in New York City. The idea to found a Jewish historical and ethnographic archive and a Jewish research institute (and eventually a museum) devoted to the study of Eastern European… Continue reading Learning about and through the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Northeastern Jewish Studies Blog 