SDSU Jewish Studies Program - Impact Summary FY2021-22

Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Academic Year 2021-2022

Jewish Studies Scholarship Program Impact Impact ReportReport cal.sdsu.edu

Jewish Studies Program

ACADEMIC YEAR (AY) 2021-2022 STUDENT SPOTLIGHT | VISITING PROFESSORS AND ARTISTS Message from Faculty

Student Spotlight

Sophie Parker,

Student Class of 2024

The Jewish Studies program continues to thrive and remain vibrant despite the challenges associated with distance learning, virtual events, and the global pandemic. The program received a transformational bequest from Thelma Guffan to benefit Jewish Studies students, continues to expand its partnership with the Murray Galinson San Diego Israel Initiative (MGSDII), and contributes meaningful thought leadership to SDSU’s new Presidential Taskforce on Addressing Antisemitism.

Risa Levitt, Ph.D. Director, Jewish Studies Program Chair, Department of the Study of Religion Chair, Department of Classics and Humanities

College of Arts and

Letters

Congratulations to our outstanding graduating senior, Sophie Parker. Sophie has chosen Rabbi Scott Meltzer as her most influential faculty.

Since I was young, I have always maintained a deep appreciation for the history of the Jewish people and their tumultuous but incredibly rich 4,000-year journey. As the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, I feel a certain sense of responsibility to continue to educate and lift up the Jewish people. And as bigotry and anti-Semitism become increasingly prevalent in today’s America, this sense of responsibility to my ancestors only grows. I grew up just minutes from campus, attending Temple Emanu-El. Having that community growing up allowed me to better understand my Jewish identity and where I fit in with such a dynamic culture. During my freshman year at SDSU. I joined Hillel and became more active in the Jewish community on and off-campus. Those first months, I found myself digging deeper into my understanding of the Jewish people and would spend hours online and in classes trying to learn more. However, what truly invigorated me to pursue Jewish Studies was the increasing violence against American Jews. I felt that as a young Jewish individual, I had an important role to play; therefore, my path in life should be a contribution to the advancement and blossoming of the Jewish people. I hope to combat anti-Semitism every day through education and my commitment to the Jewish community.

Visiting Professors and Artists | Academic Year 2021-2022

In partnership with the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative, which seeks to strategically promote, support, and catalyze knowledge discourse and interaction on the modern state of Israel through scholarship, engagement, and collaboration, we welcomed the following Visiting Israeli Scholars to our campus in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Ori Elon (Fall 2021) - Sam Spiegel Film School Ori Elon is an award-winning screenwriter and creator of several popular Israeli Television shows, including Shtisel, which won 17 Israeli Academy Awards. Currently in its third season on Netflix, Shtisel has become an international sensation. He is also the author of The Invisible Show, a collection of short stories which won the Israeli Ministry of Culture Best Novel Award, and several successful children's books. Ori taught ENG 577 Screenwriting.

Ori Elon,

Visiting Artist

Visiting Professors and Artists | AY 2021-2022 (cont'd) Events

Gilad Halpern (Spring 2022) - University of Haifa

Gilad Halpern, Visiting Artist

Gilad Halpern is a journalist, broadcaster, and media historian. He is the News and Current Affairs Editor at TLV1 Radio, and host of The Tel Aviv Review, a podcast dedicated to all things intellectual (and Israeli). He is an Idit Fellow at the University of Haifa, researching the history of the Jewish press in Mandatory Palestine.

Previously, he was Managing Editor for Ynetnews and Assignments Editor for Haaretz English Edition. His work appeared on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Al Monitor, Time Out magazine, the Jewish Quarterly, and the Jewish Chronicle. Gilad taught HUM 410 Studies in Popular Culture and HUM 580 Media and Conflict.

October 2021

A conversation with screenwriter Ori Elon and the creator of the smash Netflix series Shtisel.

Dr. Meir Litvak (Fall 2021) - Tel Aviv University

Dr. Meir Litvak, Visiting Artist

Dr. Meir Litvak is the Department Chair of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University, where he is an Associate Professor. Dr. Litvak is the former Director of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University. His research focuses on modern Islamic movements, Arab perceptions of the Holocaust, and Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity. Dr. Litvak has written numerous articles and books on modern Shi‘a and Iranian history as well as on modern Islamic movements. He is the author of Shi'a Scholars of Nineteenth Century Iraq: The ‘Ulama’ of Najaf and Karbala’ (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and coauthor of From Empathy to Denial: Arab Responses to the Holocaust (Columbia University Press, 2009) and of the forthcoming book Iran: from a Persian Empire to an Islamic Republic (Open University of Israel Press). In addition, he is the coeditor of Religious Fanaticism (Zalman Shazar Center, 2007), Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (PalgraveMcMillan), and The Sunna and Shi‘a in History Division and Ecumenism in Islam (Palgrave-McMillan, 2011). He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1991. Dr. Litvak taught HIST 474 Middle East since 1500 and HIST 574 Arab Israeli Relations Past and Present.

Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz (Fall 2021 & Spring 2022) - Tel Aviv University

Ronit WeissBerkowitz,

Visiting Artist

Ronit teaches screenwriting at the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University and is one of the founders of the Screenwriting Program at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem. She has been a writer on several television series, directed documentaries and also served as a script editor on two series. She is well known in Israel for the drama A Touch Away and the documentary A Place Under the Sun. She was Editor-inChief at Keter Publishing House, one of the largest publishers in Israel, and has edited books by celebrated writers, including Amoz Oz, Shemi Zarhin, and Nava Semel. Her latest series, Abducted (an Israeli Norwregian co-production) will premiere on Netflix later this year.

Author reading and book signing event with Mark Oppenheimer, host of Unorthodox, the #1 Jewishthemed podcast in English.

December 2021 Reception to welcome visiting Israeli scholars to SDSU, hosted by Dean Casper & President De la Torre Global Antisemitism: A Conversation with Jonathan Sarna & Meir Litvak

A webinar discussion with two leading experts on global antisemitism in the 21st century. Assault, harassment and vandalism against Jews remain at near-historic levels across the globe. Here in the U.S., the deadly attacks in synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway have made American Jews feel more vulnerable than they have in decades.

Visiting Professors and Artists AY 2022-2023

Events

Haneen Magadlah (Hebrew University) The Gloria and Rod Stone Visiting Professorship, SDSU School of Social Work

January 2022 Through the Lens: Israel’s Success in Television Netflix's "The Girl from Oslo" with visiting professor and screenwriter Ronit WeissBerkowitz and special guest star Amos Tamam Haneen Magadlah,

Visiting Professor

February 2022 Israel's English-Language Media and its JewishAmerican Readers with SDSU visiting professor Gilad Halpern

Dr. Haneen Magadlah holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in non-profit management. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is now a lecturer at Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, Israel, and at Bethlehem University. Her research focuses on social change, active citizenship, and religious (Islamic) education.

Haneen’s research has been published in local institutes and has had significant impact on the field of social work. Her broad interests include community engagement, teaching for social activism and social justice. She holds a Ph.D. teaching certificate in psychology and sociology from the Hebrew University’s school of education. She is working on developing volunteerism in the Palestinian community.

Ambassador Ido Aharoni (Tel Aviv University and NYU) SDSU Fowler College of Business

March 2022 Ukrainian Jews and Putin's War on Ukraine: Making Sense of the Current Crisis

Discussion and update with Dr. Natan Meir, Lorry I. Lokey Chair in Judaic Studies, Portland State University

Ambassador Ido Aharoni,

Visiting Professor

Ambassador Ido Aharoni serves as a global distinguished professor at New York University’s Program of International Relations in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Aharoni is a 25-year veteran of Israel’s Foreign Service, a public diplomacy specialist and founder of the Brand Israel program. He was Israel's longestserving consul-general in New York and the tri-state area where he oversaw the operations of Israel’s largest diplomatic mission worldwide. In 2013, the news magazine 'Algemeiner' named him among ‘Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life’, commonly known as the "Jewish 100."mIn 2015 he was awarded the ‘Honorary Governor’ status by Tel Aviv University. In 2005 a communications studies scholarship, ‘Wings of Hope’, was named after him by the Yemenite-Jewish Federation of North America. In 1998 he was given the Community Leadership Award by the American Friends of the Rabin Medical Center.

Visiting Professors and Artists AY 2022-2023 (cont'd) Faculty Achievements

Ran Tal (Tel Aviv University) SDSU Department of English & Comparative Literature

Ran Tal,

Visiting Artist

Ran Tal is a world-renowned director whose documentaries focus on Israeli reality through an historic social perspective. Tal graduated the Tel Aviv University Department of Film in 1994 and is an independent director. Tal’s focus is on documentary films, in addition to which he directs diverse television projects and is editor of artistic social endeavors. Tal is the recipient of the Ophir Prize, the Jerusalem Film Festival Volgin Award, the DocAviv Film Festival Award, the Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Award and the Documentary Forum Award. Tal also won the Ministry of Culture Cinema Art prize, and the Mifal Hapayis Landau Award for Stage Art. Tal teaches cinema at the Film Departments at Sapir College and at Tel Aviv University. His most recent film “Love and War,” will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival later this year. In addition, Ran teaches cinema at Tel Aviv University, where he founded the master's in Documentary Film, an international program taught in English.

Matan Yair SDSU Department of English & Comparative Literature

Matan Yair,

Visiting Artist

Matan Yair is a filmmaker, an author and a high school history and literature teacher. He is a graduate of the screenwriting program at the prestigious Sam Spiegel Film & Television School in Jerusalem, as well as of the MFA directing program at Tel Aviv University.

Matan’s literary and artistic work derives from his personal experiences and biography. His documentary film IT IS WRITTEN IN YOUR ID THAT I AM YOUR FATHER (2008) describes a process of growing intimacy between himself and his father, Mordechai, who left home when he was thirteen. The film participated in Haifa International Film Festival’s competitive section as well as other film festivals. Matan’s drama UNSEEN focuses on his experience working as a teacher in a class for kids who were rejected from the regular school system. In 2009, Matan published his first novel, which is built as a diary of a teenager who documents one dramatic year of his adolescence. The novel was awarded from the National Library of Israel, described by the jury as a groundbreaking work.

SCAFFOLDING, his first feature film, was elected to have its premiere at Cannes 2017 in the Acid program, which highlights works from emerging indie filmmakers.

Professors Risa Levitt (Study of Religion/Classics & Humanities) and David Cline (History) are serving as Scholars in Residence at Oxford University’s Institute for Curriculum Development in Critical Antisemitism Studies.

The program is intended primarily for professors with full-time college or university positions. Under the guidance of leading international academics, Scholars-inResidence are required to develop a course syllabus and curriculum in the interdisciplinary study of critical contemporary antisemitism.

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