In This Issue

From the Chair
Faculty Research Spotlight: Professor Yifat Thareani & Archaeology
Faculty Research Spotlight: Professor Lila Corwin Berman & American Jewish Studies
Congratulations - Professor Michah Gottlieb
In Memoriam - Professor Alfred Ivry
NYU Yiddish Meet Up
Salo and Jeannette Baron New Books in Jewish Studies Series
Hebrew & Judaic Studies Spring Workshops
Congratulations to Students and Alumni

From the Chair

We are delighted to share the Spring 2026 newsletter of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. This newsletter keeps our community of faculty, students, alumni, and friends connected and informed about the activity happening in our department.

This spring marks the launch of two exciting initiatives. The NYU Yiddish Meet Up welcomes anyone interested in Yiddish language and culture—no prior knowledge required. We are also proud to inaugurate the Salo and Jeannette Baron New Books in Jewish Studies Series, made possible through generous support from the Knapp Family Foundation and the Salo and Jeannette Baron Foundation. We invite you to join us for these events and the many other programs we have planned this semester.

Looking ahead to summer 2026, we are thrilled to announce an exciting development: NYU is a partner in the archaeological excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel, led by our affiliate faculty member Dr. Yifat Thareani.

Best wishes to all for a successful Spring semester.

Alex Jassen

Ethel and Irvin Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies

Faculty Research Spotlight:
Professor Yifat Thareani & Archaeology

Dr. Yifat Thareani is the Director of the Program in Archaeology at NYU Tel Aviv and the affiliate member of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She is the director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College. Dr. Thareani completed her BA, MA and PhD in Archaeology at Tel Aviv University and postdoctoral work at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris and the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa. Since 2000, Dr. Thareani is the founder and the director of the multi-cultural scouts' house of Eitan in south Tel Aviv – a home for more than 300 children of undocumented work immigrants and refugees.

Dr. Thareani directs the archaeological excavation at Tel Dan, the site where the famous Tel Dan inscription – the first extra-Biblical reference to King David – was discovered.

The Summer 2026 season under Dr. Thareani's direction will be a joint venture of NYU and the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College. The dig is open to all students – NYU undergraduate and graduate and all visiting students.

Learn More

Faculty Research Spotlight: Professor Lila Corwin Berman & American Jewish Studies

Dr. Lila Corwin Berman, Paul & Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and the director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History, recently co-edited (with Deborah Dash Moore and Beth S. Wenger) The Future of American Jewish Pasts (University of Pennsylvania Press 2025). Professor Berman and the editors of the volume reflect on their book and on the field of American Jewish Studies in The Future of American Jewish Pasts in Three Images. Interested in learning more about this book and Professor Berman’s scholarship? Join Professor Berman for America’s Jewish Questions at 250 Years, the 29th Annual Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Lecture in Judaic Studies at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, February 24, 2026.

Professor Berman’s new book Who Is American? Belonging and the Question of Jewish Citizenship will appear in Summer 2026 with Princeton University Press. Related to her research for the book, Professor Berman has created a new college-level curriculum Who Is American? Citizenship, Law, and Jewish History in the United States – as part of the Posen Library digital curriculum project.

Together with Professor Josh Lambert (Wellesley College), Professor Berman is co-editing NYU Press's Goldstein-Goren Series in American Jewish Studies. Launched in 2009 under the editorship of Professor Hasia Diner, the series has long published innovative and award-winning scholarship. Professors Berman and Lambert are eager to expand the series to span disciplinary boundaries and foster the field of American Jewish Studies through vital conversations about ideas.

Congratulations - Professor Michah Gottlieb

Congratulations to Professor Michah Gottlieb, who has been awarded the Moses Mendelssohn Prize from the city of Dessau-Roßlau. Professor Gottlieb, one of the most distinguished international Mendelssohn scholars, will receive the award at the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau-Roßlau in March 2026. Read more about the award here.

In Memoriam - Professor Alfred Ivry

The Hebrew and Judaic Studies and NYU community mourn the loss of Emeritus Professor Alfred L. Ivry (1935-2026). Professor Ivry held joint appointments in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and served a term as director of NYU’s Medieval and Renaissance Center. He retired from NYU in 2005. Read more about Professor Ivry here.

NYU Yiddish Meet Up

Learn More and RSVP

Salo and Jeannette Baron New Books in Jewish Studies Series

Learn More and RSVP

Hebrew & Judaic Studies Spring Workshops

Learn More and RSVP

Congratulations to Students and Alumni

Yael Berry (Phd candidate), Internship at the MLA (Modern Language Association), Public Humanities Fellowships at NYU.

Yaël Mizrahi-Arnaud (Phd candidate), Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Science, NYU.

Shiyong Lu (Phd candidate), Dissertation Research Grant, American Academy of Jewish Research.

Dr. Flora Cassen (Phd, 2008), Appointed as the inaugural Lavine Family Director of the Brandeis Center for Jewish Studies and director of the Sarnat Center for the Study of Anti-Jewishness.

Dr. Caroline Gruenbaum (Phd, 2019), New book: Reading across Cultures: Translating Romances, Fables, and Poetry in Medieval Ashkenaz (Cornell University Press, 2025.

Dr. Gilah Kletenik (Phd, 2020), New book: Sovereignty Disrupted: Spinoza and the Disparity of Reality (Stanford University Press, 2025).

Samantha Rainford (MA, 2021), Lane Cooper Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Science, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU.

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In This Issue

From the Chair

Alex Jassen

Ethel and Irvin Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies

Faculty Research Spotlight:Professor Yifat Thareani & Archaeology

Faculty Research Spotlight: Professor Lila Corwin Berman & American Jewish Studies

Congratulations - Professor Michah Gottlieb

In Memoriam - Professor Alfred Ivry

NYU Yiddish Meet Up

Salo and Jeannette Baron New Books in Jewish Studies Series

Hebrew & Judaic Studies Spring Workshops

Congratulations to Students and Alumni

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Faculty Research Spotlight:
Professor Yifat Thareani & Archaeology