CONGRATULATIONS TO…
FACULTY NEWS In October 2020, Lori Lefkovitz, Ruderman Professor of Jewish Studies, delivered a graduate seminar guest lecture Jewish Studies Scholarship at York University, and in May 2021 she chaired a plenary session panel at Queer Jews: A 20th Anniversary Symposium in Memory of David Shneer: Queer Jews: A 20th Anniversary Symposium.
“Fighting Prejudice and Absorbing Refugees from Nazism: The National Committee for Resettlement of Foreign Physicians, 1939-1945,” co-authored with Robert E. Schoen, MD, The Annals of Internal Medicine, May 18, 2021. _________
Professor Lefkovitz contributed to two books: “In the Spaces Between,” chapter for multimedia conversation, Qorbanot, edited by Alisha Kaplan and Toby Kahn, SUNY Press, 2020. “On Pivoting,” Creating Under COVID, Judy Baumel-Schwartz, ed., The Arnold and Leona Finkler Institute of Jewish Research, 2020, p. 82. Ebook: www. ourboox.com/books/creatingunder-covid/ _________ Well Worth Saving: American Universities’ Life and Death Decisions on Refugees from Nazi Europe by Laurel Leff, Professor of Journalism and core faculty in Jewish Studies, was a Finalist for a 2020 National Jewish Book Award. Professor Leff published the following: “The New York Times Nazi Correspondent,” Tablet Magazine, June 3, 2021. “Championing Humanity, Overlooking Atrocity: Edward R. Murrow and the Holocaust,” American Journalism, Fall 2020 37:4, 419-449.
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In April, Simon Rabinovitch, Associate Professor of History and core faculty in Jewish Studies, delivered the 2021 Ruth and Phil Sokolof Lecture in Israel and Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Professor Rabinovitch spoke over two days about Israel’s debate on its nation-state law, and about his current book, Religious Freedom and the Jews: Collective Rights in Modern States. Professor Rabinovitch contributed an article to Haaretz on how a court case on “who is a Jew” continues to reverberate in Israel.
Bill Miles, Professor of Political Science and affiliated faculty in Jewish Studies, has published several pieces: “Open ‘Secrets’ and Uncomfortable Truths: Druze, Jews and Israel’s New Nationality Law,” Anthropology Now 12:3 (2021), pp. 56-63. “The Unconscionable Abandonment of Israel’s Druze,” The Wisdom Daily, August 4, 2020. “Other: Ashkenazi, Reflections on the 2020 Census,” The Wisdom Daily, October 30, 2020. “Who Is An African Jew?” Book review of Noah Tamarkin’s Genetic Afterlives: Black Jewish Indigeneity in South Africa, Current History 120:825 (2021), pp. 200-202. “Les Juifs de Madagascar,” Juifs d’Ailleurs. Diasporas oubliée, identités singulières, Edith Bruder, ed., Paris: Albin Michel, 2020, pp. 322-325. Professor Miles has also offered several adult education lectures in the Boston area.
He also contributed to an online conference in January on digital Jewish studies, #DHJewish - Jewish Studies in the Digital Age, based on his digital history class and the resultant student projects. (See page 10.) Professor Rabinovitch’s 2014 book, Jewish Rights, National Rites, has recently been published in Russian translation as part of the New Literary Observer’s Historia Rossica series, with a new introduction by scholar Valerii Dymshits.
2021 Ruderman Scholar Morgan Knight Morgan Knight ’22 is a third-year student majoring in Political Science and minoring in Jewish Studies, Law & Public Policy, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. After using a Jewish or civil rights lens in many of her courses and co-ops, including serving as a TA for Political Science Professor Candice Delmas, and a co-op at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Knight realized that minoring in Jewish Studies would allow her to synthesize many of her interests and coursework. Her major goal within Jewish Studies is to work towards a nation-wide mandate for Holocaust Education in high schools, and to investigate the intersections of Jewish thought, feminism, and social justice. Involved in Hillel and the Jewish Student Union, Knight will be a full-time intern with the Anti-Defamation League of New England during the fall of 2021. She plans to pursue a legal career focused on civil rights and combatting anti-Semitism.
MORGAN KNIGHT ’22
2021-2022 Gideon Klein Award winner Zach Richmond Zachary Richmond ’22 has been awarded the 2021–2022 Gideon Klein Award. He is a 5th year student in the Music Industry program in the College of Arts, Media and Design. He has focused his curriculum and co-ops on the field of music rights and representation. He is also a drummer and participates in various ensembles at Northeastern such as Jazz Ensemble and Fusion Ensemble. Richmond’s Gideon Klein project will be conducting research on the Nazi Party’s ban of, and subsequent use of, jazz rhythm and music for its own propaganda purposes. He will investigate the idea that it sought out and used this music because of its connection to a free identity, thus imposing a false sense of freedom amongst its victims. He will present his project during Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week 2022.
ZACHARY RICHMOND ’22
And to: Yael Sheinfeld ’21, 2019-2020 Gideon Klein Scholar, on being named one of the Huntington 100 at Northeastern. Sponsored by the Office of Student Life, the Huntington 100 honors outstanding students for achievements which are commensurate with the university’s mission, ideals, values, and Academic Plan. See page 4 for Sheinfeld’s Gideon Klein project. Jasper Trouerbach on his graduation from Northeastern. Trouerbach majored in Economics with minors in Jewish Studies and International Affairs. See page 11. Debra Mandel, Director, Recording Studios at the University Library, member of the Jewish Studies Advisory Board, and longtime member of the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Committee, on her retirement from the University. Debra’s portfolio at the University Library included the Jewish Studies Program. Please see pages 12–13 for more. Professor Bill Miles who was selected as a Fulbright Global Scholar, for a comparative study of public and private efforts to address the “brain drain” in three countries — India, Israel, and Morocco — while also examining the ties, ancient and modern, effected between these three countries through Jewish migration, and what may be learned towards reversing the brain drain.
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