Recent Spring 2026 Events

• Ongoing Monthly Yiddish Tish Online Luncheon Discussions – A small group of faculty, students, and community members interested in Yiddish met monthly to read and translate Yiddish stories together. Launched in 1982.
  • Location: Online via Zoom

• Lunch Discussion: The Roots of Extremism
  • Presenters: Dr. Omar Mohammed, Director of Antisemitism Research Initiative at George Washington University, and David Collins, Senior Research Fellow of Program on Extremism at George Washington University
  • Date & Time: February 12, 2026 at 12:30 to 1:45 PM
  • Location: UConn Storrs, Homer Babbidge Library, Heritage Room and online via Zoom

• The Power of Hiding Then & Now: An Interview with Roland Tec on Memoir and Intergenerational Legacy
  • Presenter: Roland Tec is a filmmaker, composer, and producer of plays, musicals, films, and opera. His parents were Holocaust Survivors who arrived in the U.S. in 1952.
  • Date & Time: February 19, 2026 at 5:30 to 7:00 PM
  • Location: UConn Stamford, Main Auditorium – Room 109 and via livestream

• 30th Annual Phyllis Hoffman Hartford Jewish Film Festival: Soul of a Nation
  • Presenter: This film was followed by a Reel Talk with Dr. Jessica Cooperman, Director of UConn Center for Judaic Studies
  • Date & Time: February 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM
  • Location: Mandell JCC of Greater Hartford

• Social Media in Israel Right After the October 7th Attack (Co-sponsored by UConn Hillel and Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life)
  • Presenter: Dr. Naama Appel Doron, Visiting Assistant Professor at UConn Center for Judaic Studies
  • Date & Time: March 10, 2026 at 5:00 PM
  • Location: UConn Hillel

• Two American Histories: Anti-Catholicism and Antisemitism
  • Presenter: Dr. Hasia Diner, Professor Emerita at the Departments of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and Director Emerita of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History.
  • Date & Time: March 11, 2026 at 12:30 to 1:45 PM
  • Location: The Dodd Center for Human Rights, Public Lounge

• How the Irish Helped the Jews Become American
  • Presenter: Dr. Hasia Diner, Professor Emerita at the Departments of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and Director Emerita of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History.
  • Date & Time: March 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM
  • Location: Mandell JCC of Greater Hartford

• How You Live in My Memory!: Yiddish Song in America After the Holocaust
  • Presenter: Zeke Levine, PhD is a musicologist whose research focuses on Yiddish-American folk song, the American Folk Revival, and American improvised music.
  • Date & Time: March 26, 2026 at 5:30 to 7:00 PM
  • Location: UConn Stamford, Main Auditorium (Room 109) and via livestream

• Expanding the Palette of Jewish Representation – One Pirate at a Time (Co-sponsored by UConn Digital Media & Design and Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life)
  • Presenter: Filmmaker and author Arnon Z. Shorr shared a multimedia journey exploring Jewish stories and his efforts, on the screen and on the page, to push past the stereotypes that have defined Jewish representation in popular entertainment.
  • Date & Time: April 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
  • Location: Online via Zoom

• Shared Cultures: Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Citizens at the Palestinian-Israeli Market
  • Presenter: Dr. Azri Amram, Adjunct Lecturer at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and the Open University of Israel
  • Date & Time: April 16, 2026 at 12:30 PM
  • Location: Online via Zoom

• From Vienna to Stamford — Maria Bohm Jacobson: Refugee, Immigrant, Scientist
  • Presenter: Jonathan Jacobson transcribed, translated, and annotated his mother’s early history: a captivating story of the uprooting of one immigrant family, surmounting countless challenges, and ultimately achieving their American dream
  • Date & Time: April 30, 2026 at 5:30 to 7:00 PM
  • Location: UConn Stamford, Main Auditorium (Room 109) and via livestream