Katz Center Fellows Reach out through Community Partnerships

Last week, current fellow Chen Bram (Hebrew University) sat down at Penn Hillel with a group of students interested in multiculturalism in Israel. In a ninety-minute discussion he offered them a taste of the graduate course he teaches in Jerusalem on the city’s complex intergroup relations. Inviting the students to comment and raise concerns as he spoke, Bram joked that as an Israeli he is more comfortable with direct confrontation than passive silence.

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Rabbis, Academics, and Binaries

This week, the Katz Center welcomed a cohort of rabbis to begin a year-long collaboration. They are participating in the LEAP program, a partnership now in its fourth productive year with Clal, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. This remarkable, interdenominational group will visit the Center three times this year and learn from a variety of fellows and colleagues to explore the depth of research being carried out in the area of our current fellowship theme, Jewish culture in modern Islamic contexts. 

In Memoriam: Dr. D. Walter Cohen

This summer, the Katz Center lost a member of its board of overseers, Dr. D. Walter Cohen, who was an extraordinary person. A pillar of the Philadelphia community, Walter was internationally renowned for his scientific and educational contributions. He was a founder of Penn's department of periodontics, revitalizer of its dental school in his tenure as dean, and served as an equally effective chancellor of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, now a part of Drexel University. 

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