JANUARY E-NEWS

Happy New Year! With the start of the spring semester, we are thrilled to welcome new fellows to the Katz Center and to see our returning fall fellows back as well.

In this month’s newsletter, we reflect on a successful winter symposium and recent publications from the Center and our fellows. We also look ahead to the spring’s seminar schedule, upcoming outreach programming, and our Summer School for Advanced Graduate Students. Read on to learn more.

The Jewish Quarterly Review

JQR 107.4 is now available in print and online. Special highlights include articles on Socratic Philosophy in Judah Halevi's Kuzari and on Hungarian orthodox theology.

This issue’s free article (available for download without a subscription) is Eliezer Papo’s piece on adaptations of romantic ballads created by followers of Shabbetai Tsvi.

Edan Dekel and David Gantt Gurley, authors of “Kafka’s Golem,” also composed a blog post about how they found themselves writing about the quintessential modern Jewish legend. Click here to read it.

BOOKSHELF

Check out these new books from current and past Katz Center fellows.

Leib und Leben im Judentum (Body and Life in Judaism) was written by Robert Jütte an affiliated scholar at the Katz Center this year and a past fellow in 2010–2011: Converts and Conversion To and From Judaism.

Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Sources From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Volume I was written by John C. Reeves, a fellow in 2007–2008: Jewish and Other Imperial Cultures in Late Antiquity, and also by Annette Yoshiko Reed, a fellow in the same year and again in 2014–2015: New Perspectives on the Origins, Context and Diffusion of the Academic Study of Judaism.

Werner Scholem: A German Life was written by Mirjam Zadoff and translated by Dona Geyer and is the latest addition to the Katz Center's Jewish Culture and Contexts book series, published with Penn Press.

DECEMBER SYMPOSIUM RECAP

On December 13th, the Katz Center hosted the annual December Symposium, “Jews and the Natural World: Bodies, Animals, Evolution.” A roster of panelists featuring fellows from across the globe presented on different aspects of the theme. Special guests from Barnard, Penn, and Swarthmore also participated as chairs and respondents.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Pnina Abir-Am (Brandeis University) will speak about Jewish women who changed the face of science, technology, engineering, and math against significant barriers of opportunity and recognition. Her talk, “The Untold Stories of Jewish Women in the Sciences,” will explore the work of a set of women who have been under-recognized by the scientific establishment despite significant accomplishments, including Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian Jew who made important discoveries about the nervous and immune systems; Esther Lederberg, who found new methods and results in microbial genetics in the US; and Ora Kedem, who was a distinguished inventor of desalination membranes and helped to develop the Israeli high-tech industry.

Sunday, January 28, 3:00 pm | National Museum of American Jewish History

Free and open to the public; seating is limited so preregistration is strongly encouraged.

This is the first of many public programs for the spring semester. To check out the whole series, visit our calendar.

SEMINAR SCHEDULE

The schedule of weekly fellows' seminars is now available. Visit our website to view the spring lineup and note the new time, 3:30 to 5:30 pm on most Wednesdays. All members of the academic community are welcome, RSVP required.

SUMMER SCHOOL: OUT OF THIS WORLD

We are now accepting applications for the Advanced Summer School for Graduate Students in Jewish Studies, to take place at the Katz Center this June. Presented in partnership with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Summer School’s theme this year is “Out of This World: The Supernatural in Jewish History and Culture” and will focus on the magical, the miraculous, and the monstrous in Jewish texts, practices, and ideas past and present. Applications are due March 1; visit us online to learn more about the program and eligibility.

Help ensure that the Katz Center will continue to serve as a laboratory for curiosity-driven research. Your support will enable us to expand the study and knowledge of Jewish civilization in a global context and propel the field of Judaic studies into the twenty-first century and beyond.

Support the Katz Center

Interested in updating your email preferences or subscribing to our newsletter? Enter or modify your contact details now.

Manage your preferences | Opt out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.

420 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA | 19106 US

This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.