Welcome to the Spring 2026 Semester!

Dear students, staff, and faculty: 

We hope you’ve all had restful, restorative, and productive winter breaks. We have a lot to share with you in this edition of our newsletter, from our spring courses, events, scholarships, and awards to news about students, staff, and faculty. We are excited to start the Spring 2026 semester!

Spring Courses

We are offering a variety of exciting topics this semester—including three new topics courses: “Jewish Folklore & Folklife” (RB Perelmutter), “Outsiders, Pariahs, and Exiles” (Ari Linden), and “US & Israel Relations” (Omri Senderowicz). Look for these courses next academic year with their new permanent numbers. Each course will fulfill a requirement for the Jewish Studies degree! In total, we are offering 16 courses in Jewish Studies. We also offer one-on-one independent study, service learning, and capstone courses with our faculty.

• HEBR 120 & 220 - Beginning & Intermediate Hebrew II (Noa Savir)
• JWSH 176 – The Jewish American Story Through Literature, Letters, & Latkes (Samantha Cooper)
• JWSH 300 - Topics in Jewish Studies
  • Jewish Folklore & Folklife (RB Perelmutter)
  • Outsiders, Pariahs, & Exiles (Ari Linden)
  • U.S. & Israel Relations (Omri Senderowicz)
• JWSH 325 – Intro to Judaism (Sam Brody)
• JWSH 327 - Jewish Secular Culture (Bogi Perelmutter)
• JWSH 329 – Israel Palestine Conflict (Omri Senderowicz)
• JWSH 336 – Jewish American Literature & Culture (Samantha Cooper)
• JWSH 343 – The Holocaust in History (Shelly Cline)
• JWSH 347 – Jewish Ethics (Bogi Perelmutter)
• JWSH 348 - Graphic Novels as Memory (Ihor Lylo)
• JWSH 379 - Prophets & Profits (Sam Brody)
• JWSH 414 – Israel/Palestine: The War of 1948 (Rami Zeedan)
• JWSH 420 – Politics & Government in Israel (Rami Zeedan)

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

Spring Events

We will again have a series of events this semester, which we will announce in our upcoming monthly newsletters. We will kick the year off with an Open House in the Jewish Studies suite in Wescoe 4017 this Wednesday, January 28, 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!

Our community partner in education, the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, will offer several important talks on topics which have relevance today. We encourage our students to attend in person or virtually whenever possible to learn about the rise of authoritarianism in pre-war 20th century Europe and the impact of fascism.

Upcoming events include “Auschwitz Did Not Fall from the Sky: Rewinding the Holocaust”, which commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th and “This Strange Watchtower: Night and Fog 70 Years Later” on February 12th (online). To register for these events and more, visit https://mchekc.org/.

The third week in February, Jewish Studies will host two engaging events. RB Perelmutter’s course, “Jewish Folklore and Folklife,” will meet with Abby Magariel, curator of The Michael Klein Collection of Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Overland Park. Abby will bring a sampling of objects from the collection to the Jewish Studies suite beginning at 12:30PM. All students are invited to attend (there will be snacks). On February 19th, Samantha Cooper’s course, “The Jewish American Story Through Literature, Letters, and Latkes” will feature a Jewish deli experience where students can build their own deli sandwiches and learn how the Jewish deli provides a cornerstone for Jewish communities across America.

On February 23rd at 4PM, Dr. Melissa Karp, content specialist for MCHE, will present "At the Service of a Vile Power: Figuring Collaborators in Postwar France and Korea". Join us for this talk at the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies. 

Stay tuned for more!

Student Awards

We are, as always, grateful to our supporters and donors who make donations large and small, all of which go to support the education of students in the Jewish Studies Program, from helping them do research on Jewish Studies topics, to presenting their research at conferences, to traveling, 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 student-centered opportunities.

We will be announcing our Danciger Essay and Research award winners from the fall in the coming weeks. Winners of the Danciger Research Award will have an opportunity to present their work to their peers, the award committee, and faculty.

This Spring, we offer the following competitions and opportunities:

The Danciger Jewish Studies Learning Community Participation Award

• $500 awarded at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters.
• Candidates must be actively pursuing a BA in Jewish Studies; and
• Attend at least three Jewish Studies events per semester; and
• Attend a one hour-long Jewish Studies Learning Community roundtable each semester led by the Director of Undergraduate Studies or the Jewish Studies Director.

The Danciger Research Award  

• $500 award offered Fall and Spring semesters
• Granted to students who research and present on any topic in Jewish studies, the format can include a capstone research paper or a research poster presentation
• Must be enrolled in 300-level courses and above and conducting research as part of their course assignments
• Students are encouraged to consult their professors or research mentor to develop the nature of their work.
• Recipients are required to present their research either at the Undergraduate Research Symposium through the Center for Undergraduate Research or before the Jewish Studies Faculty Committee and students of the program.
• Candidates are nominated by faculty or can self-nominate by emailing JewishStudies@ku.edu.
• Research is reviewed by the Jewish Studies Faculty Award Committee.

The Danciger Excellence in Hebrew Award

• $500 award
• Awarded in the Spring to students at any level of Hebrew.
• Awarded to students of Hebrew who have displayed academic excellence or notable improvement related to their Hebrew studies throughout the academic year
• All students enrolled in two semesters of Hebrew courses per academic year can qualify for this award.
• Nominated by Hebrew language instructor and reviewed by Jewish Studies Faculty Award Committee.

The Danciger Award for Service Learning

• $500 award
• Students must be enrolled in JWSH 650 (Service Learning in Jewish Studies)
• Students are encouraged to participate in the Center for Service Learning with the goal of completing a Certificate in Service Learning.
• Nominated by the faculty mentor, or
• Students can request funding to offset costs related to their service which could include travel expenses, materials, and technology (documentation of costs required).

Decisions on these competitions will be made at the end of the Spring semester.

We also want to remind you of the Danciger Need-Based Award. We understand that the end of the semester can be challenging—academically, emotionally, and financially—and a dwindling bank account can add undue stress during an already demanding time. If you are experiencing economic hardship, please reach out. We are here to help.

• $500-$2000 depending on need
• Awarded to Jewish Studies majors and minors 
• Candidates must submit a short narrative detailing explanation of need.
• All submissions are confidential
• No deadline to apply
• Students can apply once a semester by sending an email detailing need to JewishStudies@ku.edu.
• Awards are determined by the Director of Jewish Studies

Faculty News

Rami Zeedan, in collaboration with Samantha Bishop Simmons and Michael Peper of KU Libraries, published “Evaluating the impact of a digital mapping assignment on student learning, engagement, and transferable skills”. Read more about their research here.

Todah Rabah

Finally, we want to acknowledge our sincere appreciation for two recent monetary gifts to our Jewish Studies program by David and Sharyn Katzman and Dennis Littky (The Doc Gift Fund). Their contributions will serve to strengthen our program in all possible ways.

Stay tuned for more updates, and we hope it’s a great start to the new semester!

Sincerely,

Ari Linden

Interim Director of the Jewish Studies Program
Associate Professor of German Studies