News from

Jewish Studies

Reset All Filters
12 Results
New Katz Center fellowship amplifies study of antisemitism through classes, events, and community
Mendel Kranz leaning against bookshelves in a library setting

Mendel Kranz is the inaugural recipient of the Ross-Silk-Lowenstein Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

nocred

New Katz Center fellowship amplifies study of antisemitism through classes, events, and community

Mendel Kranz, the inaugural recipient of the Ross-Silk-Lowenstein Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, elevates awareness and critical inquiry into antisemitism through research projects, classroom dialogue, and educational events.

4 min. read

Two leadership gifts elevate Jewish Studies at Penn Arts & Sciences
College Hall.

The Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt Professorship of Jewish Studies will provide support for eminent scholars in the field, facilitating research and educational opportunities that might have otherwise been out of reach.

nocred

Two leadership gifts elevate Jewish Studies at Penn Arts & Sciences

A pair of gifts from Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt will establish an endowed professorship and create a program fund for graduate support in the Jewish Studies Program that will advance scholarship, community engagement, and global impact.

4 min. read

$21M legacy gift supports Penn Arts & Sciences’ Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the Penn Libraries, and Morris Arboretum & Gardens
rare book room at the Katz Center.

Ione Apfelbaum Strauss & Hilary Strauss Rare Book Room at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.

(Image: Kathryn Maxwell)

$21M legacy gift supports Penn Arts & Sciences’ Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, the Penn Libraries, and Morris Arboretum & Gardens

The donor, alumna Louise Strauss, was a member of the Katz Center’s board of advisors and was dedicated to volunteer work and philanthropy.

3 min. read

Katz Center Fellow Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar trains her anthropologist’s lens on ultra-Orthodox and Amish communities

Katz Center Fellow Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar trains her anthropologist’s lens on ultra-Orthodox and Amish communities

Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar is a senior lecturer at Sapir Academic College in Sderot, Israel, where she teaches courses on research methods, communication, religion, and gender. She is one of 18 current Fellows at Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. This year’s 2024–25 fellowship year is devoted to the study of Jews and health, exploring health through the intersection between bodies and systems, language and physicality, religion, and science.

2 min. read

2025–26 Herbert D. Katz Fellows

2025–26 Herbert D. Katz Fellows

The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies has announced the new cohort of 19 incoming Fellows; the 2025–26 year is devoted to new research into contemporary Jewish life. 

Reframing historical narratives of Jewish sorrow
Panelists at a conference.

Ishay Rozen-Zvi; Ross Shepard Kraemer of Brown, emerita; and Seth Schwartz, of Columbia.

nocred

Reframing historical narratives of Jewish sorrow

Between colleagues in Penn’s Jewish Studies Program, conversations began to surface about two years ago concerning an age-old question of any society: How do we write history?

1 min. read

Penn’s Katz Center: Working to cultivate the next generation of scholars
Galeet Dardashti performing on stage.

Galeet Dardashti performing on stage for the 30th anniversary of Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.

(Image: Lisa J. Godfrey)

Penn’s Katz Center: Working to cultivate the next generation of scholars

For three decades, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies has fostered research on Jewish studies and shares it with the world.

Michele W. Berger

Gratz College gifts Gratz-Mandell Jewish music collection to the Penn Libraries
Old sheet music from the Gatz collection.

Loose music papers of liturgical music, the top composition is a Keddusha by Cantor Moses Zivy from Müllheim, Germany.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Libraries)

Gratz College gifts Gratz-Mandell Jewish music collection to the Penn Libraries

The collaboration to catalog and digitize materials will ensure lasting access to the collection of Jewish Music History.

From Penn Libraries

‘Jews and the University: Antisemitism, Admissions, Academic Freedom’
The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies building entrance.

nocred

‘Jews and the University: Antisemitism, Admissions, Academic Freedom’

The Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at Penn is offering a spring speaker series, “Jews and the University: Antisemitism, Admissions, Academic Freedom,” that includes six events, the first on Tuesday at Penn Hillel.

Louisa Shepard

Locust walks: Making connections and bridging differences
Harun Kucuk shakes hands with people on Locust Walk

Harun Küçük, faculty director of the Middle East Center, and Joshua Teplitsky, director of the Jewish Studies Program, started walking and talking as an act of campus diplomacy in the wake of the violence in Israel and Gaza.

nocred

Locust walks: Making connections and bridging differences

Harun Küçük, faculty director of the Middle East Center, and Joshua Teplitsky, director of the Jewish Studies Program, started walking and talking as an act of campus diplomacy in the wake of the violence in Israel and Gaza.

Kristen de Groot