American University's Jewish Studies Program emphasizes the rich tradition of Jewish heritage in Western Civilization. The interdisciplinary Jewish Studies Program encompasses more than a dozen award-winning faculty from a variety of departments across the University. AU's Jewish Studies professors and scholars include prize-winning authors; internationally-renowned experts in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts; and several recipients of the Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award, AU's highest faculty honor. In addition to spending time in the classroom, these faculty make frequent media appearances and work with a wide range of scholarly and cultural institutions in our nation's capital and beyond dedicated to advancing knowledge of Jewish civilization to a wider public. Internships and other opportunities enable AU students to join with the faculty as they reach out to the wider community. A degree in Jewish Studies enables students to analyze the civilizations of the Jewish people and their various cultural and religious expressions from the antiquity to the present. The Jewish Studies Program offers a major in Jewish Studies, and minors in Jewish Studies and in Israel Studies.
Why Take a Course in Jewish Studies?
Through the Jewish Studies Program, students may train for a career in the Jewish community or in Jewish education, learn about Jewish issues and opportunities for Jewish public service, and develop a deeper understanding of American and world Jewry. Moreover, since dynamic contact with many other religions and cultures influenced the development of Jewish civilization, students study Jews and Judaism within the broader context of dominant societies and the spectrum of the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Faculty News
Lynn Addington, School of Public Affairs (SPA), continues her collaboration with Yaacov Yablon of Bar-Ilan University to examine school violence cross-nationally, especially in the United States and Israel. Their most recent publications appeared in the American Journal of Education and Victims & Offenders.
Boaz Atzili, SIS, published his article, “State Weakness and Vacuum of Power in Lebanon,” in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. He lectured on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict at the Foreign Service Institute, wrote an article for the Huffington Post on the 1967 border and appeared on the Radio Voice of Russia.
Richard Breitman, Department of History (CAS), continues as editor-in-chief of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, published by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He recently published and submitted to US Congress, in collaboration with Norman J.W. Goda of the University of Florida, “Hitler's Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War.”
Erran Carmel, Department of Information Technology (KSB), continues to research Israeli technology firms. His most recent publication, “Rural Outsourcing: Delivering ITO and BPO Services from Remote Domestic Locations,” will appear in IEEE Computer. He moderated an event on the divide in Israel’s high-tech sector which featured two leaders of the Israeli nonprofit Tsofen.
Randall Geller, Department of History (CAS), recently earned his doctorate in Israel Studies and Middle Eastern history at Brandeis University. Prior to beginning his doctoral work, he lived in Israel and worked as a journalist, lecturer, and tour guide. He is currently revising his dissertation “Non-Jewish Minorities and the Question of Military Service in the Israel Defense Forces, 1948-1958.”
Calvin Goldscheider, faculty associate in CIS and the Jewish Studies Program, published a new book, A Typical Extraordinary Jew: From Tarnow to Jerusalem, coauthored with Jeffrey Green. He continues to write and lecture on Israeli society and Jewish identity.
Gerhson Greenberg, Department of Philosophy and Religion (CAS), serves as consultant to the International Archives Division of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Previously, he served as visiting professor in the Department of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at Hebrew University and at other universities in Israel.
Alan Kraut, Department of History (CAS), chairs the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island History Advisory Committee and was elected Vice President of the Organization of American Historians. He published "Dispersion, Pluralism, and the Nebulous Contours of Post-Jewish Identity," in American Jewish History. He delivered the Twelfth Annual Professor John C. Livingston Lecture in American Jewish History.
Fred Lazin, Department of Sociology (CAS), published a new book, Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity: Cross-National Perspectives, coedited with Matt Evans and N. Jayaram. He continues his research on the Soviet Jewry movement in the US. He recently lectured on Israeli society at the Institute of Sociology and gave a key note address on immigrant absorption in Israel at the Israel Embassy.
Lisa Leff, Department of History and Jewish Studies Program (CAS), Director of the Jewish Studies Program for the 2010-2011 academic year, continues to work on her book on Jewish historian Zosa Szajkowski. She recently lectured at the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies, at the University of Chicago and at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Robert I. Lerman, Department of Economics (CAS), presented a seminar, "The Potential for Expanding Apprenticeship in Israel," at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem on the need for an expanded role of apprenticeship in Israel.
Alan Levine, Department of Government (SPA), who serves on the governing board of Hillel, published a new book, A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson, coedited with Daniel Malachuk. He was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities on “The Idea of American in European Political Thought: 1492 – 9/11.”
Allan Lichtman, Department of History (CAS), taught an Honors course, “FDR, the Jews, and the Holocaust,” based on his forthcoming book coauthored with Richard Breitman.
Richard Linowes, Department of Management (KSB), recently lived in Japan researching how international businesses adjust to local cultures. He met with Israeli businessmen in Japan, Thailand and India promoting Israel-dealings among Japanese companies and academics.
Eric Lohr, Department of History (CAS), published “1915 and the War Pogrom Paradigm in the Russian Empire,” in Anti-Jewish Violence: Rethinking the Pogrom in East European History.
Gail Humphries Mardirosian, Department of Performing Arts (CAS), pioneer of AU’s Voices of Terezin Project, continues to teach about the Holocaust through performing arts. During the last academic year the AU community saw DPA performances of I Never Saw Another Butterfly and a one-woman play on Anne Frank.
Pamela S. Nadell, Department of History and Jewish Studies Program (CAS), has returned from sabbatical as director of the Jewish Studies Program and chair of the Department of History. She continues as a member of the Historians Team and as Consulting Historian for Media to the new National Museum of American Jewish History, which opened on Philadelphia's Independence Mall in November 2010.
Saul Newman, Department of Government (SPA), finished a comparative study on the impact of religious beliefs and terror on the willingness of Israeli Jews and Northern Irish Protestants to make concessions for peace. He was recently elected President of the Hillel Board of Directors and served on the search committee that hired the new Hillel Executive Director, Jason Benkendorf.
Yossi Olmert, School of International Service, published “Syria and Israel- The Elusive Peace” in the Digest of Middle East Studies and “One Person, One Vote in Syria” in The Cairo Review. He presented “Jabotinsky, Begin, Lieberman: The Evolution of Right-Wing Thinking on the Status of Arabs in Israel” at the 27th Conference of the Association of Israel Studies.
Maina Singh, Department of History (CAS), was appointed Senior Associate Fellow of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. She published “The Indian Jews in Israel- A Forgotten Diaspora?” in the Foreign Policy Research Centre Journal.
Myra Sklarew, professor emeriti, Department of Literature (CAS), continues to publish poetry and essays on Jewish themes.
Jeffrey Sosland, Washington Semester Program and KSB, presented his research on the Israeli-Palestinian water negotiations to the St. Paul-Minneapolis Committee on Foreign Relations in Minneapolis and presented his paper “Economic Interdependence and the Arab-Israeli Conflict” at the 2011 Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago.
Howard M. Wachtel, professor emeritus, Department of Economics (CAS), is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Israel Studies and chairs the Association’s Task Force on Israel Studies Centers & Professors. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise’s Israel Scholar Development Fund.
Guy Ziv, School of International Service, new director of the SIS Summer Abroad in Israel Program, published “Cognitive Structure and Foreign Policy Change: Israel's Decision to Talk to the PLO" in International Relations. He continues to write a blog for the Huffington Post about Arab-Israeli peacemaking.
Student News
Congratulations to our scholarship winners!
Zach Belinsky, Greenfield Family Scholarship
Linda Benesch, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Scott Berman, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Arielle Finegold, Jane and Jerrold Goodman Scholarship
Rebecca Levy, Greenfield Family Scholarship
Hayley Miller, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Cornelia Poku, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Rachel Rabinowitz, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Rachel Ripps, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Mary R. Rothemich, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Alahna Sergi, Judaic Arts and Studies Scholarship
Matthew Zonis, Jane and Jerrold Goodman Scholarship
