Program Awarded Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Grant

We are pleased to announce that we have just been awarded a major grant from the Association for Jewish Studies for public programming in 2012-2013 on the topic of "Squirrel Hill, The Jewish Community of Pittsburgh,and American Urban History."  We will present a series of lectures, workshops, and panel discussions between September 2012 and May 2013 in a variety of venues and co-sponsored with a number of community partners.  Watch this space for more details! 

Apply for the Halpern Award:  Applications Due February 13, 2012

Undergraduates:  Apply for the Ethel M. Halpern Award for Jewish Studies to fund study, travel, research related to Jewish Studies. Read More

Upcoming Events

THURSDAY DECEMBER 1, 2011, 4:00-6:00 pm

History Department Lounge, Posvar Hall

Christian Gerlach (University of Bern): 

"Resistance, Partisans, Civil Wars: What Did This Have to Do with the Murder of Jews, 1939-1945?"

[Jewish Studies is pleased to co-sponsor this session of the History Department’s European Colloquium, with our former colleague Christian Gerlach.]

SUNDAY DECEMBER 4, 6:00 pm

Israel Heritage Room, Cathedral of Learning

Israel Heritage Room Annual Meeting and Halpern Award Information Session

Dan Chyutin (PhD student, Film Studies)

“Orthodox Cinecorporeality: Fleshing Out the Haredi Male Body in Contemporary Israeli Cinema”

Students and faculty will speak about the Israel Heritage Room Scholarship and the new Ethel M. Halpern Award for Jewish Studies.

[Organized by the Jewish Studies Program and the Israel Heritage room Committee]

Congratulations 2010-2011 Graduates

Joseph Assouline (graduated December 2010)

Eva Dubinsky

Derek Kwait

Naomi Plasky

Amanda Russell

Samantha Aviva Vinokor

We wish our newest Jewish Studies Certificate all the best as they move onto the next phase of their lives!

Join Us in the World of Social Media

Check out our new announcements blog "Pittsburgh Platform," especially for students and come find us on Facebook.

Welcome Rachel Kranson

The Jewish Studies Program welcomes Rachel Kranson, who takes up a new tenure-track position in modern Judaism and American Jewish history in the Department of Religious Studies. See here for details.

Congratulations to Certificate Recipient Michele Orr

Congratulations to Michele Danovitz Orr (class of 1998) who was recently honored by the Agency for Jewish Learning as a 2011 Unsung Jewish Hero for her work as an educator at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Thursday, February 2, 2012, 5 pm, 602 CL:  We will co-sponsor a lecture by Horst Lange (University of Central Arkansas), "On the Complexities of Religious Discourse in the Eighteenth Century: The Case of Goethe.” (German, Humanities Center, Religious Studies)

March-April 2012:  During JFilm’s Jewish/Israeli Film Festival, we will once again sponsor the “Film Schmooze” post-screening film discussions with members of our faculty and other scholars.  Our sponsorship of JFilm is through our Giant Eagle Foundation Endowment for Community Outreach.

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 7 pm, Frick Fine Arts Auditorium: We will co-sponsor a screening and discussion of the documentary film, “A Suitcase Full of Chocolate:  The life of the pianist Sofia Cosma, (1914-2011)” with the film’s producer Lincoln Mayorga and Professor Beverly Harris-Schenz (German). 

Thursday, April 11, 2012:   Fradle Freidenreich, whose book, Passionate Pioneers:  The Story of Yiddish Secular Education in North America, 1910-19, was published last year, will speak at Rodef Shalom Congregation. We will co-sponsor this talk with the Rauh Jewish Archives, Rodef Shalom, and Congregation Dor Hadash, through our Giant Eagle Foundation Endowment for Community Outreach.

Monday, April 23, 2012:  Conference:  “The Holocaust and the Middle Ages: Medieval Anti-Judaism in the Crucible of Modern Thought,”  organized by Hannah Johnson (English) and Nina Caputo (University of Florida).   Details TBA.