Join us in-person at 617 Kent Hall at 12:00 PM on Wednesday, April 17, for the Professor Dan Miron Lecture in Hebrew Literature with bestselling Israeli-American author Maya Arad (Stanford University) and Prof. Shachar Pinsker (University of Michigan).

Pinsker and Arad will discuss the possibility of writing Hebrew in America, expanding the setting and characters of Hebrew literature beyond Israel. Using the translation of Arad's collection of novellas, The Hebrew Teacher (Translated by Jessica Cohen), which came out last month (New Vessel Press) as an example, we will raise the question of the place of Hebrew in today’s Israel, in America, and elsewhere.

Maya Arad is the author of eleven books of Hebrew fiction, as well as studies in literary criticism and linguistics. Born in Israel in 1971, she received a PhD in linguistics from University College London and for the past twenty years has lived in California where she is currently writer in residence at Stanford University’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies. Her most recent book, The Hebrew Teacher, will be released in English translation for the first time on March 19, 2024.

Shachar Pinsker is a Professor of Judaic Studies and Middle East Studies, and Associate Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Jewish Research. His scholarly writings include two award-winning books: Literary Passports: The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe (2011), and A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture (2018). He is also the editor (with Sheila Jelen) of Hebrew, Gender, and Modernity (2007), Women’s Hebrew Poetry on American Shores (2016), and Where the Sky and the Sea Meet: Israeli Yiddish Stories (2021). He is currently writing a book on Yiddish in Israeli literature, and co-directing the NEH supported research project: The Feuilleton, the Public Sphere, and Modern Jewish Cultures.

Supported by the generosity of the Knapp family.

While all IIJS events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.

Join the IIJS and the Columbia Alliance Program in-person at 617 Kent Hall at 12:00 PM on Thursday, April 11, for the 2024 Yosef Yerushalmi Annual Memorial Lecture with French historian and sociologist Pierre Birnbaum.

Pierre Birn­baum is a his­to­ri­an and polit­i­cal soci­ol­o­gist who is pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Paris 1 Pan­théon-Sor­bonne. His books in Eng­lish include Paths of Eman­ci­pa­tion: Jews, States, and Cit­i­zen­ship (coedit­ed with Ira Katznel­son, 1995), Jew­ish Des­tinies: Cit­i­zen­ship, State, and Com­mu­ni­ty in Mod­ern France (2000), The Anti-Semit­ic Moment: A Tour of France in 1898 (2011), and Léon Blum: Prime Min­is­ter, Social­ist, Zion­ist (2015). His most recent book, Tears of His­to­ry: The Rise of Polit­i­cal Anti­semitism in the Unit­ed States, was published by Columbia University Press in 2023.

Supported by the generosity of the Knapp and Kaye families.

While all IIJS events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.