This week we're highlighting the annual spring colloquium. The first talk was titled, Beyond Race, Ethnicity, and Religion and featured speakers, Ella Shohat, Bryan Roby, and Walter Isaac. Efrat Yerday served as chair, and Gal Levy and Edward Waysband responded.

Watch Ayelet Brinn (University of Hartford) explore how anxieties about American Jewish belonging shaped the development of the Yiddish press. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXeE...

As the 2025–26 academic year closes, catchup with the fellows in our round up of Fellow Q&As. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Is the Golden Age of American Jewry Over? Click below to read insights from the Field of American Jewish studies. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

We're thrilled former Katz Center fellow Britt P. Davis has published a new book, Sanctioned Bigotry: A Documentary History of Antisemitism in the United States.

Watch a conversation between Yair Mintzker (Princeton) and Shaul Magid (Harvard) as they trace the legend of the Wandering Jew back to its source and explore how the legend has evolved through five centuries. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cPN...

We know you're hungry for spring reading, so we dug deep into the JQR archives and harvested several essays on food and drink, all open access. We hope you enjoy this gastronomic tour from the Roman triclinium to the streets of New York, and everywhere in between! katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Elisabeth Becker-Topkara (University of Heidelberg) describes the role of friendship in resisting hate and prejudice. Watch the full lecture here: youtu.be/jJ9k_4FzzJk

Tuesday, May 26 at noon EST, discover the history of one of the US's most consequential publishers in a free, virtual lecture. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/germa...

Read the Jewish Review of Books' review of Katz Center director Steven Weitzman's recent book, Disasters of Biblical Proportions: The Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

Check out these highlights from one of the last seminars of the 2025-26 fellowship year, Sarah Leiter's Jewish at the Edge of Time: A Resurfacing of Ancestral Sephardicness in New Mexico.

Check out this joint Q&A with Katz Center fellows Sara Byala and Peter Decherney as they share their collaborative process. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Tuesday, May 19 at noon ET, join us for Lana Dee Povitz's (Middlebury College) exploration of the feminist Jews who have worked at the intersection of social justice movements. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/impor...

Read the latest Q&A spotlighting Katz Center fellow Efrat as she explores the complex mix of fragility and brutality that underlies national identity. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

The Katz Center is thrilled to announce the incoming cohort of fellows for 2026–27 year focusing on War and Peace in Jewish Thought and History. #jewishstudies #religiousstudies #warandpeace katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

CFA: This postdoctoral fellowship that combines teaching, public scholarship, and research in the field of contemporary antisemitism studies. Consideration of applications will begin on Monday, April 20. katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...

Join us Thursday, April 23 at 12:00 pm ET for the final talk in our series, Antisemitism and Islamophobia: Connected Histories. Sahar Aziz and Santiago Slabodsky explore how different communities anchor narratives and communal memory to distinct timelines. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/race-...

Next Tuesday, April 21 at noon ET, Marina Sapritsky-Nahum (London School of Economics and Political Science) will examine how Jewish life has been reshaped since the collapse of the Soviet Union—and Russia's ongoing war. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/ukrai...

Starting in 45 minutes! katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/ameri...

In two weeks, the Katz Center will host our annual spring colloquium, this year's theme is Contemporary Frontiers in Jewish Life & Thought. Click below for the full program. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/conte...

Call for applications: The Katz Center announces a new postdoctoral fellowship that combines teaching, public scholarship, and research in the field of contemporary antisemitism studies #religiousstudies #academicsky #jewishstudies katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...

Our new series, America's Jewish Questions at 250 years has officially kicked off, click below watch the first lecture on YouTube. #jewishstudies www.youtube.com/watch?v=arZi...

Call for Applications: the Katz Center announces a new postdoctoral fellowship that combines teaching, public scholarship, and research in the field of contemporary antisemitism studies. katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...

The Katz Center is thrilled to share that fellow Peter Decherney has published a new book of photography, Endless Exodus: the Jewish Experience in Ethiopia (Gefen Publishing House), available to purchase starting April 8. Click below to learn more. tinyurl.com/27t3brm6

Now on YouTube! Harvard professors Danielle Allan and Derek Penslar unpack higher education’s responses to Antisemitism and Islamophobia on US campuses. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR0l...

Tuesday, April 14 at noon ET, join us for Ayelet Brinn's (University of Hartford) talk on American Jewish belonging and the development of the Yiddish Press. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/ameri...

Catch our latest Fellow Q&A: Tamar Hess describes how she is "drawn to the points of friction between literature and Jewish nationalism." katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

In his new book, Steven Weitzman, Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, explores how the biblical story of the 10 plagues has been retold for millennia as people make sense of and respond to the disasters of their times. Read More: https://bit.ly/4816irY

Today at noon ET! katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/wande...

This week guest Rachel Feldman (Dartmouth College) gave a seminar titled, From Jerusalem to Côte d’Ivoire: The Digital and Postcolonial Afterlives of Rebbe Nachman. Check out these highlights.

Katz Center fellow Mendel Kranz interrogates the “new antisemitism” and the “Muslim question” in French public life. #religiousstudies Watch the full lecture: studio.youtube.com/video/TyiVZv...

Katz Center fellow Lilach Naishtat shares her exploration into the power of words in a new Q&A. Image: Zvi Lachman, Coleridge's Christabel and Geraldine, reproduced with the permission of the artist. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Watch now! Javier del Barco (Complutense University of Madrid) explores the unique features of two manuscripts housed at the Library at the Katz Center that point to the Sephardic Hebrew Bible as a distinct and coherent book category. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Ar... @sims-mss.bsky.social

Monday, March 30 at noon ET, join us for a conversation with Yair Mintzker and Shaul Magid as they trace the legend of the Wandering Jew back to its source and explore how the legend has evolved through five centuries. katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/wande...

Read an interview with Katz Center fellow Michael Hoberman as he explores the complicated history behind the John Muir Trail in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

We combed through the winners and finalists of the latest AJS Schnitzer Awards and National Jewish Book Awards for JQR alumni, and we have gathered their essays on our blog. Some open-access research by the honorees for your reading pleasure! katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Enjoy these highlights from Katz Center fellow, Efrat Yerday's Wednesday seminar, Ethiopian Jews and Israeli Law Enforcement, 1970–1977: Primary Encounters.

Today at 5:00 pm on Penn's campus! jwst.sas.upenn.edu/events/2026/...

Join us tomorrow at noon ET! #jewishstudies katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/rethi...

On our blog, Joseph Davis traces afterlives of the tale of Ashmedai, the demon who impersonated King Solomon and ruled for a while in his stead. Learn about the history of this fascinating story and read JQR essays on the topic, now in open access! katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Check out these highlights from last week's seminar led by Sara Byala and Peter Decherney, Searching for Lembaland: An African Quest for Israelite Roots.

Now on YouTube! Katz Center fellow Efrat Yerday examines how the history of Ethiopian Jews illuminates the racialization of Israeli citizenship. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRz0...

Check out the Katz Center's new series kicking off Tuesday with Kate Rosenblatt's (Emory University) lecture, Rethinking American Jewish Liberalism: Jewish Communists and "Jewish Life," 1946-56 katz.sas.upenn.edu/americas-jew...

Read a Q&A with Katz Center fellow Cynthia Gabbay in which she reveals the many languages that make up Judaism. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

It's taken far too long, but I'm so glad that I finally sat down to read @theodunkelgrun.bsky.social's incredible book on the Plantin Polyglot. It's on so much more than that - a whole chapter on Bomberg (those matrices 😍) lots on the burning of the Talmud/beginning of expurgation, & so much more!

Join our colleagues in the Jewish Studies and Religious Studies departments for Katz Center director Steve Weitzman's book talk on March 19 at 5:00 pm, College Hall 319 on Penn's campus. Katz center fellow Yosefa Raz will be one of the respondents. rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2026/...

Read an interview with Katz Center fellow Edward Waysband as he explores how Jewish identity transforms across history and culture. katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...

Check out these highlight's from Katz Center fellow Yosefa Raz's seminar last week, The Amalek Moment and Other Chapters in the Contemporary Israeli Bible.

Watch leading scholars in American Jewish studies explore the field’s future opportunities and challenges. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em0p...

Join us Tuesday, March 17 at noon EST! While many scholars have long argued over the shape and content of Jewish liberalism, Kate Rosenblatt will instead ask: what forms of illiberalism were central to mid-twentieth century American Jews? katz.sas.upenn.edu/events/rethi...