Welcome (back) to KU!

Dear Students, Staff, Faculty, Parents, and Friends of the Program,

We hope you all had a wonderful, restful, and/or productive summer, and we are thrilled to start a new school year with you this Fall.

My name is Ari Linden and I’m beginning my first official year as Director of the Jewish Studies Program at KU, after having served as Interim Director during the last academic year. I am also Associate Professor of German Studies. I had a wonderful experience last year getting to better know our students, faculty, and program, and I sincerely look forward to being an integral part of Jewish Studies in the year and years ahead, as we seek to grow and strengthen our program in all sorts of ways. With the additions of Dr. Sam Cooper and Noa Savir last year, we added significant course offerings in Hebrew, Israel Studies, and the Jewish American experience writ large!

Though I will not be teaching this semester, my general office hours will be Mondays, 10am-12pm, and Wednesdays, 9am-12pm. If these are not good times for you, please set up a time to meet with me in my office, 4024C Wescoe Hall. My schedule is flexible.   

Please invite your friends to join our community!

We offer a BA (major) and a minor in Jewish Studies. These degrees complement majors in other programs such as English, History, Global & International Studies, Political Science, and Religious Studies. If you are enrolled in language courses such as Hebrew, Arabic, or Russian, and you plan to take four years of a language, you will be very close to fulfilling the minor requirements. We are also pleased to announce our online minor in Jewish Studies! Online courses for degree or non-degree seeking students are available every semester and provide an accessible option for those wanting to enrich their understanding of Jewish culture, history, and religion. For more information about enrollment, email JewishStudies@ku.edu.

Dr. Rami Zeedan, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and J.D. Smith, Academic Advisor to Jewish Studies, are happy to help you navigate your learning experience. To make an appointment and discuss your future, email Rami or J.D. today. To learn more about our course offerings, please visit the Academic Catalog here. 

Funding for Jewish Studies Majors & Minors

The Danciger Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City supports students by offering several merit and need-based awards. The Harvey Bodker Study Abroad Award and the Miller Fund provide support for study abroad in Israel. The David and Sharyn Katzman Award recognizes a graduating major in Jewish Studies and the Shelley M. Rissien Fund supports the study of the Hebrew language. 

These awards are intended to provide financial support to undergraduate students with interests in Jewish Studies – primarily Jewish Studies majors and minors. We will have more information about these awards as the semester gets underway.

Please email jewishstudies@ku.edu with any questions.

Kudos on faculty accomplishments!

Please join me in congratulating Luciano Tosta on being the recipient of KU's Woodyard International Educator Award!

"The George and Eleanor Woodyard International Educator Award honors faculty who excel in promoting global education. Endowed by KU’s first dean of international studies, George Woodyard, and his wife, Eleanor, the award recognizes faculty on the Lawrence campus for outstanding leadership in expanding KU’s international reach through curriculum development, study abroad programs, partnerships with international institutions and collaboration with global colleagues on significant research."

Samantha Cooper has been selected (from a highly competitive application process) to be one of the six Digital Humanities Fellows for this academic year. Read more about Sam's project (and the others') here: idrh.ku.edu

In addition, her article, “Falling off the Roof and into the Opera House: Jewish Opera Going, Humor, and Anxiety in American Popular Culture” was recently published in the prestigious Journal of the American Musicological Society.

Bogi Perelmutter’s book, Power to Yield and Other Stories, has been selected as the 2025 fiction winner of the Byron Caldwell Smith Book Award for best book by a Kansas author! It is awarded once every two years by the Hall Center, but not necessarily to a KU author! To learn more visit: https://www.brokeneyebooks.com/bookstore/power-to-yield

Mazel tov to Mechele Leon, whose new chapter on the “Jardín de Sefarad” memorial was published and the chapter has pride of place in the anthology Staging Visitation Tourist Performances and Theatricalized Places. You can read the chapter here: https://press.umich.edu/Books/S/Staging-Visitation3

Fall Courses

As always, we are offering an exciting slate of classes this semester, covering various aspects of Jewish Studies, including a brand-new course on the history of Jews in Kansas and the Midwest.

Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, & Independent Studies of the Hebrew Language with Noa Savir

Jews, Christians, & Muslims with Sam Brody

Understanding the Bible with David Woodington

Jewish American Story Through Literature, Letters, & Latkes with Samantha Cooper

Kansas & the Midwestern Jewish Experience with Samantha Cooper

Language & Identity with RB Perelmutter

The Israeli Palestinian Conflict: An Introduction with Rami Zeedan

Mystical Tradition in Judaism with Bogi Perelmutter

Hitler & Nazi Germany with Shelly Cline

Ethics & the Holocaust with Shelly Cline (online)

Politics & Government in Israel with Rami Zeedan (online)

In addition to our regularly scheduled classes, we offer our students independent studies, Jewish Studies Seminar (the senior capstone), and Jewish Studies Service-Learning opportunities. To check out our course offerings, please visit the Jewish Studies website. If your desired course is already full, contact us and we can help you find a solution. 

Events

For students, we host a series of monthly events, which are announced on our social media and through monthly newsletters. If you’re not following us on Instagram, now is the time to do so. We will kick the year off with an Open House and Jewish New Year celebration. Please join us in the Jewish Studies suite (Wescoe 4017) on Wednesday, September 9, 12:00PM - 2:00PM. We will serve lunch and learn about the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), and there will be ample time to get to know your fellow students and Jewish Studies staff and faculty. 

We look forward to another amazing year in the Jewish Studies Program. Please visit us. We would love to see you, learn about you, and tell you more about what we do and who we are!

Sincerely,