February 2025 Newsletter

The fourth annual Alvin H. Baum Jr. Memorial Lecture in honor of an LGBTQIA+ Jewish social justice activist will be delivered by Rabbi Sydney Mintz. Rabbi Mintz has served as rabbi of the historic Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco for the past 28 years. As a spiritual leader and activist, Mintz has been on the national board of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, the advisory board of The Reimagine End of Life Festival, served as rabbinic scholar for the American Jewish World Service, served as senior rabbinic fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and is the founder of Emanu-El's award-winning young adult program, Late Shabbat. Filled with music and uplifting energy, this creative and innovative program has engaged thousands of young adults as they have rediscovered and redefined Judaism on their own terms.

At this year's lecture, we will announce the student recipient of the Robert Holgate Pride Fellowship Award in Queering Religion, which spotlights student activism in queering religion on the USF Campus. This award honors the ongoing generosity and commitment of Robert Holgate, whose support enables the queering religion ministry to create more inclusive programs and build spiritual communities.

Join Palestinian and Israeli peace activists Osama Iliwat and Rotem Levin as they share their personal stories of transformation and the contrasting realities they face in their shared homeland. Despite the deepening conflict, they believe in a future founded on security, equality, and justice for all people.

lliwat was born in Jerusalem, where his family is originally from, and grew up in Jericho. As a result of the 1967 war, his family, like those of many other Palestinians, was displaced. He has been in the peace world for more than 15 years and is the co-founder of Visit Palestine. lliwat has dedicated his life to nonviolent resistance by working with different organizations (such as the Sulha Peace Project and Interfaith Encounter Association), appearing in several documentaries (including Objector and The Other), and regularly speaking on peacebuilding at organizations and universities worldwide.

Levin was born and raised in Ein Vered. After his military service, he participated in a transformational intensive dialogue program in Germany, where he got to know Palestinians on a personal and intimate level. This instigated a change in perspective on the story he was born and raised with. After this experience, he started organizing similar programs in Aqaba, Jordan, where he offered a similar experience to post-military Israelis and to Palestinian and Israeli medical workers. He is a committed activist and doctor by profession.

The 15th annual social justice Passover Seder will focus on trans and queer justice. We will tell the Passover story while making connections between the ancient story of moving from slavery to liberation. This year, we will be collaborating with the Performing Arts and Social Justice program and incorporating theatre, dance, and musical performances. 

In honor of Genocide Awareness Month, JSSJ proudly invites Channy Chhi Laux, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, to share her personal testimony of survival and resilience. Ms. Laux was a young girl when the Khmer Rouge devastated her homeland, subjecting millions to torture and forced labor and ultimately annihilating 30 percent of the population. Drawing on her own experiences, she will recount the brutal lived realities of genocide and the strength she found to rebuild her life. Her testimony serves to honor all those who did not survive this atrocity and to remind us of the importance of working to prevent genocide. Since 2022, Ms. Laux and JSSJ Professor Alexis Herr have been working together to increase awareness and educational opportunities on the Cambodian genocide through their organization, the Cambodian Genocide Resource Center. 

We are so excited to announce the second year of The Robert Holgate Pride Fellowship Award in Queering Religion, which highlights student activism in queering religion on the USF Campus. This award honors the ongoing generosity and commitment of Robert Holgate, whose support enables the Queering Religion ministry to create more inclusive programs and build spiritual communities. The Robert Holgate Pride Fellowship Award in Queering Religion will award at least one student the amount of $1,500. 

Learn more about the fellowship and how to apply »

If you have any questions about the fellowship, please contact Rabbi Camille Angel.

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the summer 2025 Hebrew San Francisco: Ulpan program! As in the past few years, this summer's program will take place online. The classes will meet from 2–5 p.m PDT. Visit our web page for more information.

If you have any questions about the program, please contact Ulpan Director Dalit Gvirtsman.

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the summer 2025 Arabic San Francisco program! Welcoming anyone interested in the Arabic language, we offer two levels of instruction in small class settings. The focus of the program is on the Levantine dialect of Arabic, though students in Level 1 will spend the first part of the program learning to read and write in Arabic. All instruction for the program will take place online. Classes for Level 1 will meet from 10 a.m.–1 p.m., and Level 2 will meet from 3–6 p.m.

Please email Swig JSSJ Program Assistant Director Oren Kroll-Zeldin with any questions. Visit our web page for more information.

We are so excited to announce that JSSJ Professor Alexis Herr's forthcoming book is now available to pre-order. LGBTQI+ Persecution during the Holocaust: An Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Perseverance, which will be published this summer, gives voice to the experiences of LGBTQ+ persons prior to, during, and after the Holocaust, showing how the Nazi regime instituted a violent, oppressive, and murderous attack on LGBTQ+ life, culture, and identity.

This survey of key topics and themes within the greater landscape of the Holocaust and genocide studies helps identify how deep-seated prejudices against LGBTQ+ persons evolved into eliminationist ideology under the Nazis. Entries consider the lives of the persecuted and the persecutors alongside examinations of the attitudes and ideas that shaped their present and prejudices; in short, how the German society at large came to condone, and at times participate in, the forceful arrest and disappearance of thousands of their fellow citizens. Considering also the resistance movement, profiles of key individuals tell the story of those who resisted the Nazi assault on LGBTQ+ persons. A chronology of key events, perspective essays, and primary sources further help shed light on the resilience and resistance of the community and the evolution of their persecution under the Nazis.

Your generous support of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice will help us engage students in both theoretical and practical approaches of social justice and activism rooted in the Jewish traditions.