Summer School: Crises, Change, and Creativity in Jewish Experience

With the globe reeling from the current pandemic, the 2022 Summer School will focus on the experience and consequences of crises—how traumatic, overpowering events have transformed Jewish life, and what continuities, changes, and innovations have followed these experiences.

Over a week of intensive learning with a cohort of leading scholars from different subfields and disciplines, graduate students will explore the ways Jews, as individuals and as communities, contended with different sorts of crises over the course of history, ranging from public health emergencies to pogroms, from social and political breakdowns to psychological trauma. The week will also give participants a chance to reflect together on the current pandemic and its impact on scholarship and teaching, and will include sessions devoted to professional development.

Directors

Elisheva Baumgarten (HUJI)
Vivian Liska (University of Antwerp)
Steven Weitzman (University of Pennsylvania)

Faculty Members

Avraham Faust (Bar-Ilan University)
Hadar Feldman Samet (Tel Aviv University)
Keren Peleg Friedman (College of Management)
Anna Hajklova (Warwick University)
Tsafi Sebba-Elran (University of Haifa)
Giddon Tickotsky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Jeffrey Veidlinger (University of Michigan)

About the Summer School

The Katz Center, together with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, co-organizes an annual Summer School for advanced graduate students. Guided by leading scholars of Jewish studies from around the world, the Summer School is interdisciplinary and extends into all periods of Jewish history.

The Summer School is a week-long intensive course rotating between the United States, Israel, and Europe. Meant to promote a sense of intellectual community among scholars and graduate students, the program welcomes participants from any institution, in any subfield of Jewish studies, past or present, and focuses on a unique theme each year.

The Katz Center is able to host the Summer School every third year thanks to the generous support of Dr. Garry Rayant and Dr. Kathy Fields-Rayant.

Click here to browse past Summer School themes.