Jacob Kodner, 10/27/2025—This course introduces the essential skills for documenting Judeo-Kashani, a critically endangered Jewish language from Kashan, Iran. Participants begin learning the basics of linguistics, techniques for collaborating with native speakers, and methods to elicit vocabulary and create online dictionary entries. The session combines lectures, interactive exercises, and discussion of fieldwork with the language’s last speakers.

Rev. Bruce Bramlett, 10/27/2025—Rev. Bramlett tracks the historical development of antisemitism in Western civilization from the Greco-Roman period to its present resurgence throughout the West. He discusses the nature of antisemitic prejudice, constructions, and concepts of race, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and the ongoing reality of Jew-hatred as a recurring phenomenon. This program seeks to clarify the sources of antisemitism’s post-Holocaust resurgence—paying close attention to current events in the Middle East, the U.S., and Europe—and asks whether antisemitism is a permanent aspect of Western civilization.

Erich Gruen, 10/26/2025—In the ancient world, Jews lived under the shadow of great empires—Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome. How did they understand their place within these dominant cultures, and how did those powers view them? This four-part series explores Jewish identity and its intersections with the wider world, focusing on kinship and identity, Greek and Roman perceptions of Jews, encounters with Greek mythology, and the Jewish place in the religious diversity of the Roman Empire.

Rev. Bruce Bramlett, 10/20/2025—Rev. Bramlett tracks the historical development of antisemitism in Western civilization from the Greco-Roman period to its present resurgence throughout the West. He discusses the nature of antisemitic prejudice, constructions, and concepts of race, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and the ongoing reality of Jew-hatred as a recurring phenomenon. This program seeks to clarify the sources of antisemitism’s post-Holocaust resurgence—paying close attention to current events in the Middle East, the U.S., and Europe—and asks whether antisemitism is a permanent aspect of Western civilization.

Prof. Judith Hauptman, 9/29/2025—Some think the rabbis of the Talmud saw women as their servants. Others think they put women on a pedestal. Where does the truth lie? To answer this question, we will read Talmudic texts in Hebrew/Aramaic, with English translation, and assess how the rabbis viewed women's socio-legal status. We will also read non-legal passages that show how the rabbis thought about women. No Talmudic background needed.

Prof. Judith Hauptman, 9/15/2025—Some think the rabbis of the Talmud saw women as their servants. Others think they put women on a pedestal. Where does the truth lie? To answer this question, we will read Talmudic texts in Hebrew/Aramaic, with English translation, and assess how the rabbis viewed women's socio-legal status. We will also read non-legal passages that show how the rabbis thought about women. No Talmudic background needed.

Judith Hauptman, 9/8/2025—Some think the rabbis of the Talmud saw women as their servants. Others think they put women on a pedestal. Where does the truth lie? To answer this question, we will read Talmudic texts in Hebrew/Aramaic, with English translation, and assess how the rabbis viewed women's socio-legal status. We will also read non-legal passages that show how the rabbis thought about women. No Talmudic background needed.

Fred Rosenbaum, 8/7/2025—Rosenbaum discusses the millennia-long importance of the Rhine River to the economy, culture, and geopolitics of Western Europe with a focus on Frankfurt and the fraught Jewish experience in the region. The lecture encompasses medieval persecution and ghettoization, the astonishing rise of the Rothschild dynasty, the fruits of emancipation, and the destruction of German Jewry at the hands of the Nazis.

Rachel Biale, 8/15/2025—This lecture describes two medieval rabbinic luminaries of the region: Rabbi Gershom ben Judah of Mainz (who prohibited polygamy around 1000 CE), and Rashi (1040-1105), considered the greatest commentator on the Bible and Talmud, who studied and taught in Worms. Rachel Biale also touches on the aesthetic practices, gender roles, and sexuality in these medieval Ashkenazi communities.

Daniel Sokatch, 7/15/2025—Resistance to authoritarian, oppressive regimes is as old as those regimes themselves. We will examine the historical record for resistance efforts and movements around the world with particular emphasis on the ordeal and role of Jews, as victims and/or defiers. Here, Sokatch discusses resistance efforts in Israel.

Robert Alter, 6/11/2025

Albie Sachs in conversation with Louis Freedberg, 7/13/2025—Resistance to authoritarian, oppressive regimes is as old as those regimes themselves. We will examine the historical record for resistance efforts and movements around the world with particular emphasis on the ordeal and role of Jews, as victims and/or defiers. Here, Albie Sachs discusses resistance efforts in South Africa under Apartheid.