Four current and past Katz Center fellows won top honors:

On December 21, 2022, Penn’s Judaica collections received a magnificent gift of twenty-seven historic ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts) from Penn alumni Joseph T. Moldovan, C’76 and Susan Alkalay Moldovan, C’76.  The donation features twenty-five handwritten and two printed ketubot, dating from 1678 to 1946, originating in Persia, Gibraltar, Italy, Morocco, Ottoman Palestine, Holland, Tsarist Russia, the U.S., the Kingdom of Poland, Yemen, and British Mandate Palestine. Accompanying the gift are detailed descriptions of each ketubah and high-resolution TIFF images.

With Bonnie Blankenship’s retirement on December 31, 2022, the Jewish Quarterly Review loses a sustaining pillar, and the Center says farewell to the person with the longest memory of this institution, as she moves on to a life of art, books, and leisure.

Since 2020, staff members Sam Cardillo, Carrie Love, Becky Friedman, and Bonnie Blankenship have moved on to wonderful new pursuits. We miss them dearly and remain indebted to them for their collective decades of service and unique contributions to the Katz Center. Rest assured that 420 Walnut Street remains hopping, as five dynamic new staff members have come on board!

JQR 112.4 is now available, online* and in print. 

In this issue:

JQR 112.3 is now available, online* and in print. 

In this issue:

JQR 112.2 is now available, online* and in print. 

In this issue:

Working together with the Tanenbaum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Penn's Jewish Studies Program, and partners from other leading Jewish studies programs, the Katz Center has launched a small grant initiative to support colleagues in Jewish studies caught in the war in Ukraine.

The Katz Center is thrilled to announce the cohort for the 2022–23 academic year, engaging the theme of Jews and Modern Legal Culture. The fellows will join us from Israel, France, Germany, Canada, and the United States, and represent a range of methodological, disciplinary, and historical specializations.

JQR 112.1 is now available, online* and in print. 

In this issue:

Simcha Gross and Avigail Manekin-Bamberger introduce Aramaic incantation bowls that draw on rabbinic and elite literary sources, forcing a reevaluation of the “popular” religion traditionally ascribed to the bowls.