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2016 SPRING REVIEW October 2016 News CJS 2016 SPRING REVIEW October 2016 news CJS IN THIS ISSUE Faculty & Staff News ........ 1 Visiting Scholars ............ 3 Lectures & Events .......... 6 News from the Center for Named Funds & Friends .... 11 Jewish Studies at From the CJS Mailbox . 14 Harvard University Student News ............ 18 Online at cjs.fas.harvard.edu DENA DAVIS THANK YOU, DENA DAVIS! DIRECTOR David Stern Dena Davis, our part-time office assistant of almost six years, left the Center for Jewish Studies at the end of this summer ADMINISTRATION and moved away from the Cambridge area. Dena retired from Rachel Rockenmacher, Administrator Sandy Cantave Vil, Staff Assistant her position as Coordinator at the Harvard Semitic Museum Dena Davis, Assistant (downstairs from our office) in 2009 and we were very fortu- Ilana Brandes-Krug, Assistant nate that she came to help us afterwards. Dena has worked on archaeological excavations in Israel organizing and marking CHAIR, FRIENDS OF THE CENTER pottery and other finds from the digs. FOR JEWISH STUDIES Peter J. Solomon Dena’s organizational skills contributed tremendously to our office. She is well liked by our faculty, visitors, staff and MEMBERS OF THE CJS students (who will surely miss her). We have benefited from EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE her experience working at events, knowledge of kashrut, and Irit Aharony, Shaye J.D. Cohen, Noah hospitality at our lectures and events. We have come to depend Feldman, Luis Girón Negrón, Peter Gordon, Jay M. Harris, Jon Levenson, on her meticulous attention to detail with our filing, archiving, Eric Nelson, Derek Penslar, David Stern, and especially proofreading. D. Andrew Teeter, Saul Zaritt We wish Dena all the best in this new chapter of her life, and ADVISORY COMMITTEE know she will keep busy with the trips she has planned, her Charles Berlin, Marshall Goldman, many friends and activities and, of course, her granddaughters. Stephen Greenblatt, Jeffrey Hamburger, Paul Kosmin, Kevin Madigan, Kay Shelemay, Doris Sommer CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES Harvard University 6 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 PHONE: 617.495.4326 Like us on Facebook! If you use Facebook, please “like” the FAX: 617.496.8904 Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University E-MAIL: [email protected] to hear about events, programs, application WEB: cjs.fas.harvard.edu deadlines and other important information. FACEBOOK: facebook.com/ You can find our Facebook page at CenterForJewishStudies facebook.com/CenterForJewishStudies TWITTER: @HarvardCJS PHOTOGRAPHY: Marcus Halevi and Ilana Brandes-Krug Follow us on Twitter! DESIGN: Erin Dowling Design @HarvardCJS FACULTY & STAFF FACULTY JAY HARRIS INTRODUCES DAVID STERN MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR by David Stern, Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Jewish and Hebrew Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature I WANT TO BEGIN THIS LETTER — my first, as the new- In December, the Center will sponsor an international ly appointed Director of the Center for Jewish Studies — by conference to commemorate the establishment of the Venice thanking my colleague Professor Jay Harris for directing the Ghetto five hundred years ago. Organized by Professor Jay Center for Jewish Studies during the past year. Since coming Harris, the conference will explore not only the meaning of to Harvard a year ago, I have been continually astounded the Venice Ghetto within its own historical context but also by all that Professor Harris, the Harry Austryn Professor its comparative significance, as a precedent for later ghettos of Jewish Studies and Dean of Undergraduate Education and forced population centers, both Jewish and Gentile. In in Harvard College, manages the fall, Professor David Ellenson to accomplish, both as a gifted will deliver our annual Dreben administrator, an acclaimed It is a great honor for me to Lecture in Jewish Law and in teacher, and as an active and succeed Jay [Harris] and to the fall, the Center will bring productive scholar. It is a great continue the very fine work distinguished Holocaust historian honor for me to succeed Jay Saul Friedlander for our annual and to continue the very fine he has done in leading and Doft Lecture. In the spring, the work he has done in leading and re‑invigorating Jewish Studies Center will also sponsor and host re-invigorating Jewish Studies at at Harvard. our annual Starr Seminar; this Harvard. year’s theme is Jews and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World, and The coming academic year promises to be a remarkable one will be directed by Professors Paul Kosmin of the Department that will build upon all that we have accomplished in the of Classics and Shaye Cohen of the Department of Near past several years. We welcome two new faculty members Eastern Languages and Civilizations. to Jewish Studies, Professor Derek Penslar, William Frost Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of All this is, of course, in addition to the Center’s regular History, and Professor Saul Zaritt, Assistant Professor of sponsorship and coordination of courses, other academic Yiddish and Modern Jewish Literature in the Departments programs in Jewish Studies, and the fellowship and research of Comparative Literature and Near Eastern Languages and support we offer to our students on both the undergraduate Civilizations. You will hear more about Professors Penslar and graduate levels. These activities and programs are all and Zaritt in the Spring issue of CJS News; for the present, made possible through the support of the Faculty of Arts and I will say only that their simultaneous arrival marks an aus- Sciences and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities, picious moment for the study of modern Jewish history and and through the generosity and help of our many donors and culture at Harvard. Friends. To all of you we offer our heartfelt gratitude. n cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 1 FACULTY & STAFF FACULTY BERNARD SEPTIMUS (EMERITUS), DAVID STERN AND HIS WIFE, KATHRYN HELLERSTEIN DIRECTOR STERN GIVEN A WARM CJS WELCOME Students, faculty and staff celebrated on March 28th when Jay Harris welcomed David Stern as our new Harry Starr Professor of Classical and Modern Jewish and Hebrew Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature. DAVID STERN RACHEL WAMSLEY NOAH FELDMAN 2 CJS NEWS n Spring Review 2016 VISITING SCHOLARS CENTER VISITORS DANIEL JEREMY SILVER FELLOW RABBI GEOFFREY GOLDBERG RABBI GEOFFREY GOLDBERG spent the spring 2016 semester at the Center for Jewish Studies as our twenty- second Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellow. This fellowship was established in memory of Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver ’48 to enable an “active congregational rabbi who has demon- strated exceptional intellectual and academic interest, originality, and energy” to engage in full-time academic research at Harvard. Rabbi Goldberg came to us from Temple Beth El in Lancaster, PA. During his stay at Harvard, he worked on a study entitled “From Liturgical Soloist to Liturgical Song Leader: The Development of Congregational Song in the American Conservative Synagogue.” Rabbi Goldberg enjoyed the wonderful resources for research at Harvard, as well as exchanging ideas with the group of scholars at the weekly Starr Seminars. The Starr Fellows enjoyed his presentation at the Purim Starr Seminar on “The Musical RABBI GEOFFREY GOLDBERG Detours of Megillat Esther in the Ashkenazic Tradition.” n SPRING VISITORS SUMMER VISITORS 2015–2016 HARRY STARR FELLOWS IN JUDAICA FELLOWS AND VISITING SCHOLARS Yonatan Miller, Harvard University Rachel Greenblatt Sara Ronis, Yale University Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University Elisha Russ-Fishbane, New York University Ofra Tirosh-Becker, The Hebrew University Sasha Senderovich, University of Colorado Boulder of Jerusalem Nadav Sharon, University of Toronto Rachel Wamsley, University of California, Berkeley DANIEL JEREMY SILVER FELLOW Geoffrey Goldberg, Lancaster, PA FELLOWS Rachel Greenblatt, Wesleyan University Liora Halperin, University of Colorado Boulder cjs.fas.harvard.edu/ n CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES 3 VISITING SCHOLARS STARR FELLOWS: (REAR) NADAV SHARON, YONATAN MILLER, ELISHA RUSS-FISHBANE, (FRONT) SARA RONIS, RACHEL WAMSLEY, SASHA SENDEROVICH HARRY STARR FELLOWSHIP IN JUDAICA SEMINARS THE HARRY STARR FELLOWSHIP IN JUDAICA meetings during the spring semester. These presentations supports a group of scholars from around the world to gather often elicit lively discussions between the Starr Fellows, other at Harvard to engage in full-time research in Jewish Studies. visiting scholars, and faculty and students from Harvard This research fellowship was founded with a generous bequest and other area universities. In addition, Starr Fellows met from the estate of Harry Starr ’21, former president of the at weekly Starr Fellows’ Reading Group meetings to discuss Lucius Littauer Foundation. published work by other scholars. The Starr Fellowship is open to scholars at different stages of In 2015–16 we opened the Starr Fellowship to post-doctor- their academic careers. Most years we organize the fellowship al fellows and junior faculty only and did not designate a around a designated subject area. This year, Professors Shaye particular subject area. We gathered a dynamic group with a J. D. Cohen and David Stern co-hosted the Starr Seminars, diverse array of research interests. n where Fellows present their works in progress at weekly STARR MARCH 3 MARCH 23 APRIL 13 READING GROUPS MARCH 9 MARCH 30 MAY 4 SPRING 2016 MARCH 16 APRIL 6 MAY 18 4 CJS NEWS n Spring Review 2016 STARR SEMINARS VISITING SCHOLARS FEBRUARY 4 MARCH 31 Orientation
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