Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Rochester

03/25/2026

March 30 @ 5PM - God Bless the Pill: Sexuality and Contraception in American Religion with Samira K. Mehta (University of Colorado Boulder).

Most people today understand contraception as central to women’s liberation, and when the birth control pill arrived in 1960, the media thought it would usher in a sexual revolution. But a surprising number of religious Americans in the mid-twentieth century also saw contraception as part of God’s plan—a tool to create happy, prosperous American families in the post–World War II era.

03/03/2026

Tomorrow: March 4th @ 5PM.

In the Midst of Pogrom Violence: Jewish Women as Victims, Chroniclers, and Survivors

This talk will focus on the genocidal violence against the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe unleashed during the Russian Civil War, 1918-1921. By exploring the different roles that Jewish women came to play in the midst of these pogroms, the talk will highlight some continuities between this wave of anti-Jewish violence and the events that occurred in the same regions of Eastern Europe some twenty years later, during the Holocaust.

Details: https://events.rochester.edu/event/in-the-midst-of-pogrom-violence

02/18/2026

Congratulations to former Humanities Center fellow Michela Andreatta, an associate professor of Hebrew Language and Literature in the Department of Religion and Classics, and co-director of the Center for Jewish Studies at URochester. Andreatta was awarded finalist in Jewish Literature and Linguistic category of the 2025 Jordan Schnitzer Book Awards by the Association for Jewish Studies at the AJS Conference in December. AJS, the main academic organization for Jewish Studies in the United States, annually awards one winner and one finalist in each category of the annual book prize.

Andreatta was named a finalist for her book Hell Arrayed (Tofteh ‘arukh): A Seventeenth-Century Hebrew Poem on the Punishment of the Wicked in the Afterlife (Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies at the University of Toronto,2023). Completion of the book was supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities individual fellowship (NEH Fel-267562-20). The book was previously selected for Honorable Mention (Best Translation) for the Mediterranean Seminar Prize for the Best Source Edition, Book Translation, or Essay Collection 2025. Hell Arrayed is now available open access thanks to a dedicated grant by the Humanities Center and River Campus Libraries at URochester.

02/10/2026

Today!

Devin J. Stewart received a B.A. magna cm laude in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 1984 and wrote an honors thesis on the scholars of Safavid Iran, 1576–1629. He received a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, and his dissertation earn...

02/03/2026

02/02/2026

Edited: unfortunately, this event has been cancelled.

Wednesday!

A talk by Lee Yaron. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required (please use the "Register" link above). Lee Yaron is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience at Haaretz, one of Israel's most respected and influential newspapers. Her investigative reporting...

01/29/2026

Devin J. Stewart received a B.A. magna cm laude in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 1984 and wrote an honors thesis on the scholars of Safavid Iran, 1576–1629. He received a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, and his dissertation earn...

12/02/2025

The new documentary "Family Recipe: Jewish American Style" includes Elizabeth Denio Professor Nora Rubel, Chair of the Department of Religion & Classics and Co-director of the Center for Jewish Studies, among the featured experts. The PBS feature is a historical, genealogical and culinary journey through the Jewish diaspora in homes across America.

“Jewish cuisine is influenced by the economics, agriculture and culinary traditions of the many countries where Jewish communities have settled and varies widely throughout the whole world,” says Rubel.

“Jewish food, as we think about it now, is a culture of foods connected with holidays and rituals. In the United States, these foods are an amalgamation of recipes carried here by Jewish immigrants from their countries of origin. Cookbooks and family recipes are vital historical documents that preserve culture and history by recording culinary traditions, revealing social life, and demonstrating how communities adapt over time.”

Family Recipe is available on PBS stations, and will air Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-HDTV. Check local listings for more information and additional viewings.

Watch the preview of Family Recipe: Jewish American Style here: https://www.burst-films.com/familyrecipe