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Jewish Culture & Society News

Dana Rabin
Announcing a new Director of our program
This fall, Rabin succeeds Tobor Family Endowed Professor of Modern European Jewish History Eugene M. Avrutin as Director of the Program in Jewish Culture & Society. She specializes in the history of law, gender, and race in eighteenth...
Student Award 2026 Collage
2026 Award Winners
We mark the end of the 2025-2026 academic year by celebrating the successes of Jewish Studies and the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies students. Here are our award winners.  Matthew Fam (PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative & World Literature...
Miriam Udel
Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Jewish Children's Literature
The Program in Jewish Culture & Society welcomed Miriam Udel to campus on February 23rd as a part of the Krouse Family Visiting Scholar in Judaism and Western Culture Fund's annual lecture series, with additional support from the Center for Children's Books. Udel is the Judith London Evans...
Ellie Spitz
Alumni Spotlight

Ellie Spitz

Ellie Spitz graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Highest Honors in Human Development and Family Studies and dual minors in Sociology and Jewish Culture and Society in 2011. They then graduated from Washington University in St Louis as a Master of Social Work, where they worked for LGBT* Student Involvement and Leadership. Ellie was a recipient of the 2010 Ronald Filler Scholarship, 2013 James M. Holobaugh award, 2017 Samuel A Goldsmith award, and in 2019 was named one of the 36 under 36 by OyChicago. Ellie spent seven years scaling Mishkan Chicago into a nationally...
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Featured Courses: Fall 2026
RUSS 465

Jewish Culture in the Russian (and Soviet) Empire

This course explores what Jewish culture was in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and why it was significant.
HIST 400

Making of the Jewish Nation

"Making of the Jewish Nation" traces the development of different forms of Jewish nationalism (diaspora nationalism, Zionism, territorialism, etc.) and the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.