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The Current Crisis in Israel and US-Israeli Relations: A Talk by Walter Russell Mead

Join us for a talk by Walter Russell Mead, author of the The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, named a “New York Times Best Book of the Year” for 2022. Professor Mead will discuss the current political crisis in Israel within the context of the relationship between Israel and the US.

A Conversation With Mark Oppenheimer

Whoa, where did this come from? The Antisemitism of 2022 and Its Origins. Mark Oppenheimer has been covering American religion for 25 years. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale, and has taught at Stanford, Wesleyan, Wellesley, NYU, Boston College, and Yale, where he recently retired after 15 years as the founding director of the Yale Journalism Initiative.

American Shtetl: A Virtual Discussion With David Myers And Nomi M. Stolzenberg

Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history—but many precedents among religious communities in the United States. David Myers and Nomi M. Stolzenberg will discuss how this group of pious, Yiddish-speaking Jews has grown into a thriving insular enclave and a powerful local government in upstate New York.

“It Can Happen Here Too”: Antisemitism, Gender, and the American Past

Antisemitism, an American tradition, has once again reared its ugly head. Although scholars have long studied the topic, they have overlooked its gendered dimensions. Yet we know that antisemitism propelled Jewish women to take up their pens, picket toy stores, and walk out on their roommates. This lecture explores Jewish women’s encounters with this hatred and asks whether inserting women and gender will reshape the history of American antisemitism.

Are the Jews a Race?

Recent cultural events have raised the question as to whether Jews are a race or ethnicity. Join us for a panel discussion featuring three faculty from the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida.