Making waves in the field of Judaic Studies, is a recent discovery by State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni and Professor Stuart Miller in Old Chesterfield, CT. Read about what they uncovered.The mikveh barely existed in 19th century American, where Jewish immigrants turned against religion. But one has been found in Connecticut, and it is more similar those in Israel than in the US. Nicholas Bellantoni, state archeologist, left, Stuart Miller, professor of Hebrew, history and Judaic studies look down into the site of a old US mikveh (Photo Credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo) Researchers in Connecticut have unearthed in a old farming community a 19th century mikveh that has totally changed view of Jewish history in the United States. Read more
Month: March 2015
UConn Celebrates Primo Levi
Posted by CindyMindell on February 27, 2013 in CT News,
STORRS – A quarter-century after his passing, Italian-Jewish philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi is the subject of a year-long academic series, a collaboration between the University of Connecticut’s Department of Literatures, Cultures and Languages and its Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life.
The program is organized by Dr. Philip Balma, who straddles the two academic foci, as both assistant professor of Italian Literary and Cultural Studies, and affiliated faculty member of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Balma credits a high-school teacher for inspiring his admiration for the Italian-Jewish philosopher. “I must acknowledge, first and foremost, the efforts of the late Carla Serram,” he says. “She was my literature professor in the Italian public school system in the 1980s in Florence, Italy, and she was the person who introduced me to Primo Levi’s first autobiographical book, If This Is a Man, also known in English translation as Survival in Auschwitz. Prof. Serra planted a seed that, many years later, has grown into a much larger initiative on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, on the flagship campus of UConn in Storrs.” Read full story
Judaic studies introduced as vibrant, stimulating
By Kyle Constable, Campus Correspondent
Published: Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Updated: Friday, August 23, 2013 17:08
Professors from the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life introduced what they described as “a very vibrant and stimulating field of study” to students in the UConn Honors Program last night.
“Judaic Studies is not just for Jewish students,” Professor Jeffrey Shoulson said to a group of about a dozen students gathered in an Oak Hall classroom. “It asks interesting questions about identity, about ethnicity, about not just religious questions but political and social questions.”
The event, put on by the Honors Program, is the first in the “Take a Look” series that gives students an opportunity to see how taking courses in unique fields can supplement the education they are receiving at UConn.
Three professors associated with the center participated in the presentation and Q-and-A session with students. Leading the presentation was Professor Stuart Miller, who is in his 30th year of teaching at UConn. Shoulson and Professor Susan Einbinder joined Miller for the presentation, which also served as a makeshift introduction for these two professors who are both in their first year at the university.
“The Judaic Studies program has been totally reconstituted,” Miller said. “Whereas, over the last 30 years, I’ve been the only full-time person teaching Judaic Studies and I’m now very happy and very pleased to say there are three of us.” The retooling of the Judaic Studies program is expected to bring about new course offerings for students, some being in very unique areas. As Miller conceded, his “heart is in Antiquity,” which has set a limitation on which courses have been taught, with Judaism in the medieval period taking the largest hit.
A Thinker Who Works Out Philosophical Problems Through Writing
For a long time, Lewis Gordon did not describe himself as a philosopher. Instead, he thought of himself as a writer working out the answers to problems through his writing. “For me every true thinker is always a thinker and something else,” says Gordon, who will arrive in Storrs next summer from Temple University, where he is a renowned philosophy professor and director of both the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies and the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought.He will join the UConn faculty as part of the University’s initiative to hire up to 500 new professors over four years, to strengthen the academic core. Click here to read more>>
Q & A with Prof. Stuart S. Miller: UConn’s Judaic Studies program enters new phase
Posted by CindyMindell on July 11, 2012 in CT News
The Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life recently announced several developments, including the appointment of a new chair. Recently, Professor Miller spoke with the Ledger about these changes, as well as his work at the university and how his own role is changing. Click here to read more
Dr. Susan Einbinder Hired as Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Susan Einbinder has been hired as Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Dr. Einbinder holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and was formerly Professor of Hebrew Literature at HUC-JIR/Cincinnati.
She has published two monographs on medieval Judaism, entitled No Place of Rest: Jewish Literature, Expulsion, and the Memory of Medieval France (U of Pennsylvania P, 2009) and Beautiful Death: Jewish Poetry and Martyrdom in Medieval France (Princeton UP, 2002); and she is currently in progress on a third, entitled Detours and Delays: On Medieval Jewish History and Literature. A 2004 recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship that allowed her to pursue research on her second book, Dr. Einbinder has also received a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies, School of Historical Studies, as well as a grant from the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. http://medievalstudies.uconn.edu/newsevents/recent-events/
Counting Jewish Communities
Counting the Jewish population in the U.S. and uncovering previously unknown Jewish communities has become an annual project for Arnold Dashefsky, his graduate students, and his colleagues. Dashefsky, the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies, and his colleague Ira Sheskin, a human geographer at the University of Miami, recently found that there are about 6.6 million Jews in the U.S., a figure 20 percent higher than the one reported in a 2000 National Jewish Population Survey.
The exact figure is hard to establish – defining who is a Jew is one elusive feature of a population count – but Dashefsky and Sheskin have been refining their project for five years. Each year, they are discovering new, previously unreported Jewish communities.“People who follow this issue are intrigued by it,” says Dashefsky, a sociologist who is director of the North American Jewish Data Bank, which is housed at UConn.
Population report: More Jews live in the US than in Israel
A 2010 population report from the University of Miami and the University of Connecticut releases new estimates on American Jewish Population
CORAL GABLES, FL (October 21, 2010)–Researchers from the University of Miami (UM) and the University of Connecticut (UConn) have published a 2010 report on the American Jewish population, as part of a new North American Jewish Data Bank Report series.
Chair in Judaic Studies Established with Gift from Konovers
Two founding supporters of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University, Doris and Simon Konover of West Hartford, will endow the Center’s first faculty chair. The Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies will support teaching and research by a leading scholar of Jewish life, history, and religion. The endowment of a chair will enable the Center, which has just celebrated its 25th anniversary, to attract a scholar with an international reputation to develop new courses and provide research leadership in the field of Judaic Studies.
Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship (RIG) in Global Jewish Leadership
The Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship is JDC’s premiere leadership opportunity, awarded to one person annually, for young Jewish thinkers and doers — writers, artists, policy shapers, business innovators, and community builders. The fellowship is a paid, professional opportunity to live and work in several overseas locations where JDC is active, providing an inside look at JDC’s global operations though individualized assignments.
Each fellow works with JDC staff to identify and design their unique overseas placements, shaped by their skills, interests, and critical needs of communities overseas.
Qualifications include:
- Professional achievement in the candidate’s chosen career
- Demonstrated exceptional leadership and communication skills
- Strong interest in international Jewish affairs and public service
- Knowledge of foreign language(s) is a plus but not a requirement
- Formal and/or informal Jewish education is a plus but not a requirement
- Bachelor’s degree and proven academic excellence. Master’s degree a plus but not a requirement.
Application deadline: May 31, 2015