The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (IIJS) is Columbia University’s center for the academic study and discussion of Jewish life, history, and culture.
Columbia University
Joined November 2022
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How did Bruno Schulz use Polish to explore Jewish exile and identity? Join Karen Underhill to discuss her award-winning book on Schulz's diasporic Jewish modernism.
📅 Oct 21 | 12 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 19 for campus access
eventbrite.com/e/bruno-schul…
Rare glimpse into pre-WWII Jewish fiddle traditions: Join scholar & musician Zisl Slepovitch exploring Sofia Magid's extraordinary 1928-38 recordings.
📅 Oct 15 | 12 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 13 for campus access
🤖 Made with AI
What does it mean to search for home?
Join Nicholas Lemann and Jeremy Dauber for a conversation on Lemann's new book, “Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries”.
📅 Oct 13 | 12 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 8 for campus access
🤖 Made with AI
What did October 7 look like from inside the Situation Room? Join former Ambassador Jack Lew and former Senior Advisor Amos Hochstein in conversation with Prof. Rebecca Kobrin.
📅 Oct 7 | 12:30 PM | Zoom
📝 Register for the link
🤖 Made with AI
What happens when love becomes unrecognizable? Join us for a screening of “My One and Only”—a Gemara-inspired mystery about identity and relationships—followed by a discussion with Stuart Weinstock.
📅 Sep 29 | 6 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Sep 25 for campus access
How did Jewish immigrant bankers transform American finance?
Join Prof. Rebecca Kobrin and Prof. Kim Phillips-Fein to discuss "Credit to the Nation".
📅 Sep 24 | 1 PM | 617 Kent Hall
🤖 Made with AI
What's at stake in Israel's most consequential election in a generation? Join Nadav Eyal for the fall 2026 Abel Lecture on the forces shaping Israel's future after October 7.
📅 Sep 16 | 12 PM | Zoom 📝 Register for the link
What happens when a film disappears for 50 years?
From Darkness to Light explores Jerry Lewis's unreleased Holocaust drama The Day the Clown Cried—a legendary lost film.
📽 Stream June 19–23
🎙 Zoom Q&A with Bob Furmanek
📅 June 23, 12:00 p.m. ET
#LostCinema #JerryLewis #IIJS
Sabbath Queen
Mon, April 27 • 6 PM • Kraft Center
38 generations. One radical choice.
Q&A with Sandi DuBowski & Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
Register: link in bio
#IIJS #ColumbiaUniversity #JewishStudies #DocumentaryFilm
#QueerJudaism #NYCEvents #FilmScreening
The Professor Dan Miron Lecture in Hebrew Literature
“Toward a Poetic Genealogy of Israeli Women Poets with Disabilities”
March 25, 6:00 PM • 617 Kent Hall
Exploring how Israeli poets reimagine disability, gender, and literary tradition.
#HebrewLiterature #DisabilityStudies
IIJS Book Talk:
Jews in the Soviet Union, Vol. 1: Revolution, Civil War, and New Ways of Life
Wed, March 11 • 12 PM
617 Kent Hall
How did Jews endure—and participate in—the Soviet system?
Elissa Bemporad draws on rare archives to explore Jewish life in the USSR’s first decade.
University Seminar:
Printed in Ishmael’s Realm
Mon, March 9 • 12 PM
617 Kent Hall
How did printing transform Sephardi Jewish life? Explore how Hebrew printing in Ottoman Constantinople reshaped religion, community, and Mediterranean connections.
Presentation & Q&A:
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
with Alex Weiser & Ben Kaplan
📍 617 Kent Hall | March 5 | 6 PM
Can a dictionary become a stage for cultural survival?
Join us for a conversation about this bold new opera on Yiddish ambition after the Holocaust.
Planning a summer in Israel?
The IIJS Israel Fellows Program provides funding and academic enrichment for Columbia undergrads undertaking internships, research, language study, or coursework in Israel.
Application Deadline: Mon, Feb 16
Link in bio
IIJS Israeli Film Series
The Property
Monday, February 9
6:00 PM
617 Kent Hall
Please join us for an in-person screening followed by a discussion led by IIJS Film Programmer Stuart Weinstock.
⏱ 110 minutes
🎧 Hebrew, Polish, and English with English subtitles
The Naomi Prawer Kadar Memorial Lecture
Monday, February 2, at 12:00 p.m.
On Zoom
Link to event registration:
eventbrite.com/e/the-2026-na…
How do we understand God’s presence—and absence—in modern Jewish life?
Join us for a lecture exploring divine absence, human responsibility, and the struggle to sustain belief with Arnold Eisen (JTS), as he discusses his book "Seeking the Hiding God."
Wed, Jan 21, @ 12PM
iijs.columbia.edu/upcoming-e…
Full event details and registration on our website
