Jewish Studies Fall 2025 Semester Wrap
Dear Students, Staff, Faculty, Friends, and Families,
Though hard to believe, the semester has ended, and the (long) winter break is upon us! We’ve had a packed semester in Jewish Studies, replete with intellectually rigorous and stimulating courses. Our semester was filled with several events, including the Druze Studies Conference, “Druze in the Levant and the Diaspora – Discourses of Tradition and Modernity” spearheaded by Dr. Rami Zeedan. Dr. Samantha Cooper’s Steinhardt Lecture, “Falling off the Roof and Into the Opera House: Jewish Opera-Going, Humor, and Anxiety in American Popular Culture,” provided an opportunity for Jewish Studies to collaborate with the KU School of Music. Dr. Omri Senderowicz’s colloquium presentation, “In Defense of Fetishism: Long, Boring Meetings in a 1970s Kibbutz” encouraged a lively discussion among our faculty committee.
Jewish Studies co-sponsored several events with our partner in education, the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE). In October we co-sponsored "Voices from the Shadows: LGBTQ Experiences During the Nazi Era" and "The Soldier with No Name: Claude Cahun & Queer Jewish Resistance" with Dr. Melissa Karp as well as Dr. Shelley Cline’s presentation, “Dictating Art: The Regimentation of Nazi Culture". In November we co-sponsored MCHE’s Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration presentation, “Eroding the Rule of Law in the Third Reich” with Dr. Cynthia Fountaine, Academic Associate Dean from the University of North Texas, Dallas School of Law. We also attended KU Hillel's Rock Chalk Shabbat, which was fun and meaningful, as always.
We hosted several student-centered events including our annual Fall Open House, our Jewish diversity event, Jew-pardy! with Dr. Rami Zeedan's First Year Seminar class, Hebrew Headbanz with our Hebrew I & II classes in celebration of Rosh Hashanah, and Bagels & Mingle with Kahal which introduced our students to this amazing organization. Our third annual Sufganiyot Social, featuring Jewish professionals and leaders across the Kansas City area, was a very well-attended and super successful event, and a great way to end the semester!
In the spring, in addition to our student centered events like our January open house and our Purim celebration, we are looking forward to hosting guest lecturer, Dr. Melissa Karp from MCHE. Dr. Alyssa Appleman, KU School of Journalism and Keeler Fellow, and Dr. Rami Zeedan will be spring presenters for the Dorothy Stein Ernest Colloquium in Jewish Studies. (The Jewish Studies colloquium is not open to students or the public and is an internal opportunity for faculty to test drive their research).
FACULTY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Our faculty accomplished truly amazing things this semester and deserve recognition for these accomplishments.
In August, Dr. Sam Brody published “In Search of Arab Jews" in the Boston Review.
Dr. Vitaly Chernetsky received the 2025 Kansas Board of Regents Faculty of the Year Award. He was recognized for his academic efforts in 2023-2024 for his public-facing scholarship and education of KU students and the local, national, and international community about the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine. This was reflected in his teaching, scholarship, and service, which were all inextricably intertwined. Dr. Chernetsky was honored at the Kansas Board of Regents meeting in Topeka on September 17.
Dr. Rami Zeedan and graduate student Asaf Day published an academic article, “Populism in Israel: Netanyahu and the strategic approach”, in Mediterranean Politics (2025). Dr. Zeedan co-authored a public-facing article in The Conversation with a colleague, Mr. Said Abou Zaki. This essay provides historical context on the struggle of the Syrian Druze and the massacre of Druze in Sweida this summer. You can read the article here. He was awarded the 2025-2026 Research Excellence Initiative (REI) from the College Dean’s Office, and the Druze Studies project was accepted into the Emerging Scholars Program. Finally, he was honored with the 2025 Shulenburger Award for Innovation and Advocacy in Scholarly Communication!
Dr. Sam Cooper received the Vice Chancellor for Research & Friends of the Hall Center Book Publication Award in support of publishing her first book, American Jews and the Making of the New York Opera Industry, 1880-1940. The project was “praised by the Review Committee for its potential to make a significant impact in a wide range of disciplines.” In August, the Center for Jewish Studies at Arizona State University awarded Dr. Cooper the Salo Wittmayer Baron Dissertation Award in Jewish Studies. The selection committee was most impressed by the originality, sophisticated research methods, and cultural significance of her project, “Cultivating High Society: American Jews Engaging European Opera in New York, 1880-1940.”
Dr. RB Perelmutter won the prestigious 2024 World of Fantasy Award for Best Novella for their work, "Yoke of Stars", another adventure into the complex world of the Birdverse.
Dr. Bogi Perelmutter’s new book—a space opera novel titled Song of Spores—was released by Broken Eye Books, which also published Bogi’s previous short story collection, Power to Yield and Other Stories, a Locus award finalist last year. Publishers Weekly called the book “wildly inventive” and Booklist praised Bogi for how they “deftly weave intersex, trans, and other identities into this fine book that thrillingly crosses genre lines.”
Dr. Ari Linden’s article, “Adorno on Actually Existing Socialism,” was published in the August issue of New German Critique, a top journal in his field.
SPRING 2026 COURSES
In the spring, we are once again offering a variety of exciting courses, many of which are cross-listed with partnering departments. The courses we offer serve many students from across campus in addition to our Jewish Studies majors and minors. In total, we expect to have about 250 students served in our courses.
- Hebrew language at all levels (Noa Savir)
- "The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" & "US and Israel Relations” (Dr. Omri Senderowicz)
- “Israel/Palestine: The War of 1948” (Dr. Rami Zeedan)
- “First Year Seminar: Jewish American Stories through Literature, Letters, and Latkes ” (Dr. Sam Cooper)
- “Jewish Folklore and Folklife” (Dr. RB Perelmutter)
- “Outsiders, Pariahs, and Exiles” (Dr. Ari Linden)
- “Introduction to Judaism” (Dr. Sam Brody)
- “Jewish Secular Culture,” (Dr. Bogi Perelmutter)
- “Jewish American Literature and Culture” (Dr. Sam Cooper)
- “The Holocaust in History” (Dr. Shelley Cline)
- “Jewish Ethics” (Dr. Bogi Perelmutter)
- “Graphic Novels as Memory” (Dr. Ihor Lylo)
- “Prophets and Profits” (Dr. Sam Brody)
- “Politics and Government in Israel” (Dr. Rami Zeedan)
In addition to our regularly scheduled classes, we are pleased to offer our students independent studies, Jewish Studies Senior Seminar (the senior capstone), and Jewish Studies Service Learning.
IMPORTANT NEWS
Higher education in this country is, as many of you know, facing some existential challenges. KU is not exempt from these challenges, and neither is Jewish Studies. A few years ago the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) implemented a set of metrics to assess the viability and value of the various departments at KU; our Program—like several other smaller units on campus—has fallen short of meeting these metrics (one of which stipulates that we graduate at least 10 majors every year and have at least 25 total majors at any given moment). Because of this external pressure, the Dean’s Office has asked us to consider the possibility of a multi-departmental merger with other units on campus, a move which would, they anticipate, protect us from KBOR scrutiny for the foreseeable future. The result would be the creation of an entirely new department, likely to contain one bachelor’s degree and multiple “concentrations” (i.e., a student would earn a B.A. in “X” with a concentration in Jewish Studies).
This would mean, effectively, that Jewish Studies would no longer remain a self-standing Program, but rather exist as one among several programs submerged in a larger department. Our curriculum, the content of our major and minor, our faculty, and our physical space in Wescoe Hall would (theoretically) remain as they are, but the B.A. and minor in Jewish Studies would be discontinued. This would negatively impact our campus visibility as well as our national visibility as one of the few universities in the Midwest to offer a degree in Jewish Studies.
Such a move would carry significant implications. It would effectively shutter the only Jewish Studies Program in the state of Kansas and the only Jewish Studies B.A. offered among our Midwestern peer institutions. As more students with an interest in Jewish Studies migrate from coastal universities to the Midwest, we recognize they seek safe, supportive spaces in which to learn and grow. Campus organizations like Hillel and Chabad—together with a strong Jewish Studies Program offering both a B.A. and a minor—serve as key pillars in attracting and supporting these students.
We are grateful for KU's leadership and ongoing commitment to Jewish students and our campus community, and we are deeply concerned that eliminating the B.A. and the minor, and effectively closing the Program, leaving Jewish Studies in name only, could discourage future Jewish Studies scholars to our campus who seek a welcoming academic experience.
As you might imagine, this news is disheartening, to say the least. We are a small but significant program that serves KU’s student population in multiple ways, measurable and immeasurable; our faculty have gained international reputations for their contributions to the fields of Jewish Studies and Israel Studies and our graduates have high job placement in their fields.
Given this potential threat to our status, our funding, and our students, staff, and faculty, we are considering a few options moving forward. We can choose to resist any potential merger in the hope that KBOR decides to direct its attention elsewhere. We can merge with other units on campus, with all the consequences mentioned above. Finally, we have begun discussions to become a fully endowed Center for Jewish Studies, which would free us from KBOR scrutiny and be in line with many of our peer institutions. If we choose to pursue this path of private fundraising, it is of utmost importance that we maintain our academic independence and integrity.
If you have any questions or suggestions about ways you—as students, friends, or allies of the Jewish Studies Program—can get involved and/or support us in this effort, please contact us at JewishStudies@ku.edu. We welcome your support.
We in Jewish Studies wish you all a restful and restorative holiday break, and a happy and healthy new year. See you in 2026!
Sincerely,
Ari Linden
Interim Director of Jewish Studies
Associate Professor of German Studies