Welcome back to the Fall 2024 semester!

Dear students, staff, faculty, friends, and families:

We are excited to start a new school year with the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester on August 26, 2024.

We hope you enjoyed your summer break and are looking forward to new adventures. The start of a new school year is always exciting, filled with hope and new opportunities. We have much to share with you in this edition of our newsletter, from updates on the revised BA and minor in Jewish Studies, our courses, events, scholarships and awards, and news from students, staff, and faculty.

Welcome back to all our majors and minors!
Sasha Albright, Ella Atlas, Evelyn Brand, Brandon Brown, Audrey Bryant, Morgan, Campbell, Cecelia Cohen, Benjamin Cook, Bradley Evans, Eric Fischer, Olivia Fox, David Franke, Abigail Friedland, Evyn Gadd, Molly Handelman, John Hannigan, Libby Herman, Charles Johnson, Brianna Katz, Cami Katzen, Ethan Klinock, Rachel Kricsfeld, Ilana Levenberg, Robert Metz, Samuel Naudet, Eli Richman, Jeremy Rosenwald, Derrick Schaefer, Ellie Segal, Katherine Strane, Sarah Sutton, Adina Thompson, & Alyson Weinberg.

Please feel free to invite your friends to join our community. We offer the Jewish Studies BA (major) and the Jewish Studies minor, which could be added to any other major a student is taking. It is a valuable addition to your education and would better situate you toward your journey beyond your undergraduate studies. To learn more about our offerings, please visit this website.

New Guidelines for BA and Minor

Jewish Studies is pleased to announce that the guidelines for achieving a BA or a minor in Jewish Studies have been updated to reflect a more streamlined and accessible path forward for our learners.

Fall Courses

We are offering a variety of exciting topics this semester or cross-listing with partnering departments. In total, we have 15 courses. The courses we offer this semester serve an increased number of students from across campus, in addition to our Jewish Studies majors and minors. In total, we expect to have this semester about 250 students served in our courses.

With our faculties continuous dedication, we are able to offer a rich and exciting assembly of Fall classes, including Hebrew language at all levels and a new topics course called “Hebrew in Song: Israeli Pop Music I” (Ms. Shelley Rissien), “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” and “Israel: From Idea to State” (Dr. Omri Senderowicz), “Politics & Government in Israel” (Dr. Rami Zeedan and Mr. Asaf Day), “First-year seminar: Life, Death, and Afterlife in Modern Israeli Society” (Dr. Rami Zeedan), “First-year seminar: Jewish American Story Through Literature, Letters & Latkes” (Dr. RB Perelmutter),  Mystical Tradition in Judaism (Dr. Bogi Perelmutter), “Hitler and Nazi Germany” (Dr. Shelly Cline), “Jews, Christians, Muslims” (Dr. Sam Brody), “Understanding the Bible” (Dr. David Woodington), and Graphic Novels as Memory (Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova). In addition to regularly scheduled classes, we are pleased to offer our students independent studies, Jewish Studies Seminar (senior capstone), and Jewish Studies Service Learning.

To check out our course offerings, please visit this webpage. If your desired course is already full, please contact us to advise you on the best solution.

Events

For students, we again have a series of monthly events, which we will announce in our upcoming monthly newsletters. We will kick the year off with our traditional Open House. Please join us in the Jewish Studies suite in Wescoe 4017 on Wednesday, September 4, between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm. We will have food and opportunities to chat with your fellow students and Jewish Studies staff and faculty.

In September, we will have an event for Hebrew students and an event for first-year students with a lot of fun activities to celebrate our largest class in Jewish Studies at KU. More details will be available soon.

We are also partnering with Hillel for a “Hike with Hillel” on September 22nd and partnering with the LJCC to co-sponsor a talk on September 15th with Dr. Henry Bial and Dr. RB Perelmutter about KU Theatre's production of “Indecent” which runs from September 27-29th.

We also expect to offer additional events like Career Planning with Roman Ruiz from the KU Career Center on October 28th from 10-12PM and the Sufganiyot Social in December which allows our students the unique opportunity to mingle with members of the regional professional community. As the semester progresses, we hope to host other events of interest to our students and the community - so stay tuned.

Scholarships and Awards

We are grateful to our supporters and donors. This includes small and large donations that support the education of students in the Jewish Studies Program and help students do research Jewish Studies topics, present them in conferences, or travel to study abroad in Israel and other relevant locations for Jewish history and culture. We thank the Danciger Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City for their continuous support of our program through several opportunities for our students.
 
This Fall, we have the following competitions and opportunities:

• The Danciger Awards for the study of the Hebrew Language will be determined based on excellence in the Hebrew classroom – students do not need to do anything additional in order to be considered. Please come study Hebrew with us!
• The Danciger Research Awards in Jewish Studies ($300 each) – for presenting research related to Jewish Studies at the Fall Undergraduate Research Showcase. Interested students should be in touch with any of the Jewish Studies professors to receive mentorship and support in the application.
• The Danciger Essay competition in Jewish Studies ($500 first place, $300 second place, $200 third place) is open to all KU undergraduates who submit an original essay of 2,500- 5,000 words on any Jewish Studies topic of their choice. The essay can include an assigned term paper on a topic drawn from any generally recognized Jewish Studies subfields, including: The Bible and History of Biblical Interpretation; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Holocaust Studies; Interdisciplinary, Theoretical, and New Approaches; Israel Studies; Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity; Jewish Languages and Literatures; Jewish Mysticism; Jewish Philosophy; Jewish Politics; Jews, Film, and the Arts; Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History; Modern Jewish History; Rabbinic Literature and Culture; Sephardi and Mizrachi Studies; Social Sciences; and Yiddish Studies. The deadline to submit your paper is Friday, December 20th. Criteria to evaluate the essays include: quality of argumentation, depth of research and analysis, originality of thought, clarity and structure, critical thinking, language and academic style, and use of sources and citations.
• Danciger need-based award: FAFSA-eligible students who would like to be considered for the Danciger need-based award need to contact us at jewishstudies@ku.edu. You can consult with Dr. Rami Zeedan in person as well.

Decisions on these competitions are made at the end of the Fall semester.

News from students, staff, and faculty

Congratulations to Mr. Asaf Day, who has received an award from the Israel Institute to teach the course “Politics & Government in Israel” in person in Spring 2025. Mr. Day is a PhD student in the Political Science department, focusing on Terrorism and International Conflict, as well as Populism and Middle Eastern Politics.
 
Congratulations to Dr. Sam Brody who is serving this year as the KU Faculty Senate President.

Congratulation to Dr. Bogi Perelmutter who received the Research Intensive Course Grant for Fall 2024 and will be redesigning their course: “Mystical Tradition in Judaism”.
 
Dr. Rami Zeedan has published about “Arab Druze community in mourning after tragic rocket strike on Golan Heights soccer field − highlighting challenges for Druze within Israel and the region”.

We look forward to an amazing year at the Jewish Studies Program. Please visit us. We would love to see you and tell you more about the program.
 
Sincerely,
Dr. Rami Zeedan
Associate Professor of Israel Studies
Interim Director of the Jewish Studies Program