The Work and Future of Jewish Studies Centers in the United States

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The directors of six Jewish Studies Centers propose a Round Table session on the topic “The Work and Future of Jewish Studies Centers in the United States.” Our panelists will explore four main topics: what their centers do at the moment—with an emphasis on their distinctive approaches to Jewish Studies at the undergraduate, graduate and faculty levels; how centers can better serve the outside community; what centers should be doing over the next five years—and what they need to accomplish those goals; and what Jewish Studies Centers might look like ten years from now and how will these institutes deal with the issues they see confronting Jewish Studies in ten years. Each of these institutes does something unique and we believe that a conversation focusing on their current and future work would be useful to the panelists and to the field in general.

Our panelists are: Todd Presner, Director, Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and Professor of Comparative Literature, Germanic Languages and Jewish Studies; Leonard Saxe, Director, Maurice & Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, and Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Director Steinhardt Social Research Institute, Brandeis University; Magda Teter, Shvidler Director, Jewish Studies Program, Chair in Judaic Studies and Professor of History, Fordham University; Jeffrey Veidlinger, Director, Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, and Professor of History, University of Michigan; Steven Weitzman, Director, Herbert Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures. Our moderator is Steven J. Ross, Director, Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life and Professor of History, USC.

We envision this as an open-ended conversation with the audience—who we see as playing a key role in educating center directors as to their needs and desires. Indeed, we hope that the Round Table discussion will help Institute directors better prepare for serving their constituents—inside and outside the university—in the future.

NB: Online forms are a bit whacky: Steve Ross will moderate; the other 5 panelists will be discussants (ignore what registration might say).

Sub Unit

• Social Science

Moderator

• Steven Joseph Ross, University of Southern California

Discussants

• Todd Presner, University of California, Los Angeles

• Leonard Saxe, Brandeis University

• Magda Teter, Fordham University

• Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan

• Steven P. Weitzman, University of Pennsylvania