Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia

Chag Sameach from IIJS #ChagSameach #Pesach2026 #IIJS #ColumbiaUniversity #JewishLife

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-nao…

iijs.columbia.edu/upcoming-event… Full event details and registration on our website

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

Join IIJS and MESAAS in welcoming Yitzhak Lewis on Wednesday, December 10, at noon ET. His book talk on Games of Inheritance: Kabbalah, Tradition, and Authorship in Jorge Luis Borges will take place in person at 617 Kent Hall.

Please join us on Wednesday, December 3, at 5:00 p.m. ET, for a book talk with Naama Harel. She will be joined by Beth Berkowitz to discuss her book, The Jew, the Beauty, and the Beast: Gender and Animality in Modernist Hebrew Fiction. This talk will be held at 617 Kent Hall.

Our fall film series concludes with From Darkness to Light on Monday, December 1, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Join us for an in-person screening at 617 Kent Hall, introduced by IIJS Film Programmer Stuart Weinstock and followed by a Q&A with IIJS’s own Jeremy Dauber.

The 75th anniversary celebration of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies was a warm tribute to the scholarship, dialogue, and community that have shaped IIJS for generations. Here’s to the next 75 years of building and learning together.

Join the Institute on Wednesday, November 19, at 6:00 p.m. ET for this year’s Yosef Yerushalmi Annual Memorial Lecture, “The Jewish Unconscious before and after Freud,” featuring Naomi Seidman in conversation with Clémence Boulouque. The lecture will be held at 617 Kent Hall.

IIJS invites you to a seminar with Dr. Emmanuel Bloch on Wednesday, November 5, at noon ET. His talk, titled “Tsniut, between Gender, Law, and Ideology,” will take place in person at 617 Kent Hall.

Journalist, historian, and professor Gershom Gorenberg joins IIJS for his lecture, “My Story, Your Story, the True Story." This lecture will take place in-person at 617 Kent Hall on Thursday, October 30, at 5:30 p.m. ET.

IIJS and the Center for American Studies welcome Professor Steven Zipperstein for a talk on his recent book, Philip Roth: Stung by Life. He will be joined in conversation by IIJS Director Emeritus Professor Jeremy Dauber on Monday, October 27, at Noon ET in 617 Kent Hall.

All our programs—courses, author events, fellowships in Israel and Poland, student engagement, and more—are made possible by generous donors like you. We invite you to participate today in Giving Day—your support matters now more than ever. givenow.columbia.edu/?_sa=05376&_sd…

This Giving Tuesday, please consider a donation to our incredible colleagues at @ColumbiaIIJS and Kalaniyot: givenow.columbia.edu/?_sa=05376&_sd… kalaniyot.columbia.edu