The New South</h1> <article> <h1>The New South</h1> <p>awillia2 — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 05:38:14 +0000</p> <span>The New South</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-03-09T00:38:14-05:00" title="Sunday, March 9, 2025 - 00:38">Sun, 03/09/2025 - 00:38</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">In her new book, The Jewish South: An American History, Shari Rabin finds unexpected stories of the lives of Jews in the South.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-03-21T12:00:00Z">Fri, 03/21/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Aimee Levitt</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In 1669, the colonial government of Carolina, which encompassed most of what is now Georgia and North and South Carolina, adopted the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. This document specifically promised religious freedom for Jews, heathens, and other dissenters from the Anglican church. At a time when much of Europe was still embroiled in religious wars, this was historic and even radical.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4292">91ֱ�� Research Review</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25386">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25421">Religion</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/shari-rabin" hreflang="und">Shari Rabin</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies" hreflang="und">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/religion" hreflang="und">Religion</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-cte-images field--type-list-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yes (Individual Images)</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Cookie Moon</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40683" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--distinguished" data-text-size-giant> <p>I wanted to make space for different kinds of Jewish histories than the ones we expect.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40359" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption><em>The Jewish South: An American History</em> by Shari Rabin</figcaption> </figure> <p>But when Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Religion Shari Rabin went back to the text, she found it was not exactly a shining example of religious toleration. While the Fundamental Constitutions did promise that the Anglican church dissenters wouldn’t be ostracized, it wasn’t in the interest of allowing them freedom and self-expression. “They’re all going to be treated nicely,” she explains, “in the hopes that this will make them become Anglicans.”</p> <p>This anecdote appears in Rabin’s book, <em>The Jewish South: An American History</em> (Princeton University Press, 2025), which tells a far more complex story than has been previously depicted. Most histories of Jews in America tend to concentrate on the Northeast; in turn, many histories of the South overlook Jews, who are historically a small minority. Rabin’s account begins in 1492 with Spain and Portugal expelling Jews whose descendants would eventually settle in Charleston and ends in the 1960s with the Civil Rights Movement. In between, <em>The Jewish South</em> looks at the ways Jews were both included and held apart from Southern society—and how Jews themselves responded.</p> <p>Like Jews everywhere, Jews in the South had a range of attitudes and beliefs. They had different levels of religious observance; sometimes quarreled bitterly about politics; and held office in both the Republican and Democratic parties. “It was important to me to think about Jewish history in the South capaciously and to not reproduce narrow expectations of what a Jewish person was or is or looked like,” Rabin says. “I wanted to make space for different kinds of Jewish histories than the ones we expect.”</p> <p>Though she relied on existing work about Jews in the South for <em>The Jewish South</em>, Rabin also conducted archival research. One of her most interesting finds, discovered with the help of student research assistant Sarah Naiman ’23, was a collection of amnesty petitions filed by Jews after the Civil War who were seeking to recover their United States citizenship.</p> <p>“There was this whole cache of documents written in May and June of 1865 laying out their cases, explaining why they had supported the Confederacy and why they had stayed there,” Rabin explains. “There has been this assumption in Southern Jewish history that Jews in the South were Confederates and were loyal to the region they lived in. But you find in this set a lot more ambivalence—people saying, ‘I didn’t like the Confederacy, but I didn’t want to abandon my interests.’ And there’s one extraordinary example of a person saying, ‘I regret everything. I should have left.’”</p> <p>In Rabin’s account, Jews had no special relationship to slavery. They didn’t necessarily operate the slave trade (which is an old antisemitic conspiracy theory), but they did, like many other upwardly mobile Southerners, rely on enslaved laborers to run their households. Many didn’t feel any moral ambivalence about this; it was a way, as Rabin puts it, to participate in whiteness and both display and achieve economic success. There is evidence that a small number of those enslaved Black people identified as Jews.</p> <aside class="pull obj-right"> <div class="basic-box basic-box--light"> <h2 class="small-headline">Student Researcher</h2> <ul class="list--clean"> <li>Sarah Naiman ’23</li> </ul> </div> </aside> <p>Still, Jews were reminded of their otherness during some periods more than others. Rabin found accounts of the murder of three Jewish merchants by the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, though she cautions that there may have been other factors at play besides antisemitism. “They’re seen as outsiders,” she says. “They’re seen as foreign; they’re seen as aligned with Republican anti-racist politics. As merchants, they have complicated financial relationships with both white and Black Southerners. So it’s a swirling array of factors that contribute to the murders.”</p> <p>Rabin also notes that when white supremacists felt more threatened, they tended to focus their attacks on Jews; for example, in the 1950s and ’60s, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, there was a rash of bombings of synagogues and Jewish community centers, in large part because many associated Jews with the movement for Black civil rights. </p> <p>In the future, Rabin hopes historians will continue to mine the archives to learn more about Jews in the South and how they lived. “There’s a vast array of stories to be told,” she says. “<em>The Jewish South</em> is my telling from the material that I found. I hope that it provides an unexpected view of the South that is also an unexpected view of Jewish history and ultimately of American history more broadly.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40357" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <hr> <p><em>Chair of Jewish Studies Shari Rabin is a scholar of modern Judaism and American religions. She earned a master’s in philosophy and a doctorate in religious studies at Yale University and is the author of </em>Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America<em> (NYU Press).</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div class="field field--name-field-bio-card-el-biography field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="biography-card"> <figure> </figure> <div class="biography-card__content"> <h2><span>Shari Rabin</span> </h2> <ul class="item-list list--clean" style="margin-top: 0px;"> <li class="professional-title">Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Religion</li> <li class="professional-title">Chair of Jewish Studies</li> <li class="professional-title">Chair of German</li> </ul> <a class="view-more" href="/shari-rabin">View Shari Rabin’s biography</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40383" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <h2 class="small-headline" style="margin-top: 1.25rem;">About the Illustration</h2> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right" data-cte style="margin-bottom: 1.75rem;"> <figcaption><em>Click the image to expand</em></figcaption> </figure> <p class="subhead" style="color: var(--darkgray);">Illustrator: Cookie Moon</p> <blockquote data-add-quotes data-no-attribution> <p>An illustrator’s inspiration is filtered through the task at hand. In this piece, the universal elements of Jewish life shine in tandem with the details of Jewish life in the American South. There’s a quiet integrity in belonging to a minority faith community—reflected in everything from the distinctiveness of dress to the varying degrees of adherence to tradition. Through a calm color palette and a simple scene, I believe this illustration is faithful to both the spirit and specificity of the time and place described in the article.</p> </blockquote> <p class="icon-text"><span aria-label="Phone" class="icon-text__icon fas fa-fw fa-link" style="color: black;"></span><a href="https://www.illustrationdivision.com/cookie-moon" target="_blank">Cookie Moon’s portfolio</a></p> <p class="icon-text"><span aria-label="Instagram" class="icon-text__icon fas fa-brands fa-instagram"></span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thecookiemoon" target="_blank">@thecookiemoon</a></p> <hr class="hr--light" style="clear: both; margin: 1.25rem 0;"> <p><a class="view-more" href="/node/488025">Return to <em>91ֱ�� Research Review</em></a></p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-40358" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p class="header-tag no-show" id="header-tag">91ֱ�� Research Review</p> <style> .no-show { display: none } </style> <script> (function() { var header = document.querySelector(".story-header"); var headerTag = document.getElementById("header-tag"); header.insertBefore(headerTag, header.firstElementChild); headerTag.classList.remove("no-show"); })(); </script>  <script> (function() { var credit = document.querySelector(".top-combo__figure .figure__credit"); credit.innerText = credit.textContent.replace("Photo credit","Image credit"); })(); </script>  <style> aside .list--clean li { margin-bottom: 0.25rem; } aside ul.list--clean { margin-top: .5rem; font-family: var(--font-sans-serif); font-size: 0.875rem; } aside .basic-box { margin: .5rem 0; max-width: 240px; } aside .basic-box .small-headline { font-size: 1rem; } </style>  <style> .biography-card blockquote { display: none } .body-centered-layout blockquote.blockquote--distinguished { margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: -1rem; } </style> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Sheera Talpaz to Study Poets of Israel and Palestine as Fulbright U.S. Scholar</h1> <p>eburnett — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:09:10 +0000</p> <span>Sheera Talpaz to Study Poets of Israel and Palestine as Fulbright U.S. Scholar</span> <span><span>eburnett</span></span> <span><time datetime="2023-07-06T17:09:10-04:00" title="Thursday, July 6, 2023 - 17:09">Thu, 07/06/2023 - 17:09</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="/node/252571">Sheera Talpaz</a>, an assistant professor of <a href="/node/3356">comparative literature</a> and <a href="/node/3416">Jewish studies</a> at 91ֱ��, will spend the 2023-24 academic year in Israel and Palestine as a <a href="https://fulbrightscholars.org/">Fulbright U.S. Scholar</a>. Her research there will support the completion of a forthcoming book on national poets of the region.</p> <p>Talpaz, who earned a PhD in comparative literature from Princeton University, specializes in modern Hebrew and Arabic literatures with a focus on the intersection of politics, poetry, and literary reception. As part of Fulbright’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Research Program, she will study the phenomenon of the national poet in Jewish/Israeli and Palestinian literature and culture.</p> <p>Through her research, she seeks to define the concept of the national poet and include close looks at the works and reception of poets like Yehuda Amichai, Mahmoud Darwish, and Haim Nahman Bialik, as well as the marginalization of female poets like Fadwa Touqan and Esther Raab.</p> <p>“Although these poets have been discussed and written about extensively, the ideas or phenomena of the ‘national poet’ and ‘national poetry’ have not been adequately defined or comprehensively historicized to account for national poetry in Hebrew/Israeli and Palestinian cultures and literatures,” she says.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">91ֱ�� professor’s research will culminate in a book on national poets of the conflict-riddled region.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2023-07-10T12:00:00Z">Mon, 07/10/2023 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Kate Kaput</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25316">Comparative Literature</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25386">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25241">Peace and Conflict Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-literature" hreflang="und">Comparative Literature</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies" hreflang="und">Jewish Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">courtesy of Sheera Talpaz</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-32098" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--quotemark" data-text-color-red data-text-size-giant> <p>It’s important to me to bring major Hebrew- and Arabic-language poets into conversation with each other rather than keeping literatures and cultures siloed.”</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-27746" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>Talpaz was raised in a bilingual English- and Hebrew-speaking home and began studying Hebrew poetry as a teenager. Years later, while pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Michigan, she was introduced to the works of Palestinian poets and began learning Arabic. The experience ultimately compelled her to immerse herself in the study of comparative literature, kicking off a decade of research on the concept of the national poet.</p> <p>“I wanted to understand how poets and poetry came to matter and what kinds of social and political functions they served, since there seemed to be a connection between political crisis and the popularity of poetry,” she says. “It’s important to me to bring major Hebrew- and Arabic-language poets into conversation with each other rather than keeping literatures and cultures siloed.”</p> <p>Talpaz plans to spend two months this fall living in Israel and conducting research at Tel-Aviv University, followed by two months in the Palestinian territories, where she seeks institutional affiliation at Al-Quds University. The time abroad offers critical access to archives and other materials that will fill in gaps in her research, allowing her to complete the final chapter of her manuscript. She hopes to secure a contract for the book, tentatively titled <em>Resistance and Reluctance: On the ‘National Poets’ of Palestine/Israel</em>, by spring 2024.</p> <p>“Ultimately,” she says, “I’m aiming at a comprehensive view of this phenomenon because I couldn’t find what I was looking for when I learned about it and because there are so many elements about it that fascinate me.”</p> <hr> <p><em>The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program provides opportunities for college and university faculty and other professionals to teach, conduct research, and pursue specialized projects in more than 135 countries. A program of the U.S. Department of State, it seeks to strengthen and expand relationships between the U.S. and other nations. The program boasts more than 400,000 distinguished alumni, including 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 62 Nobel Prize Laureates, 78 MacArthur Foundation Fellows, and thousands of leaders spanning the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.</em></p> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Jewish Studies Program Celebrates 50 Years</h1> <p>anagy — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:36:45 +0000</p> <span>Jewish Studies Program Celebrates 50 Years</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2022-10-20T13:36:45-04:00" title="Thursday, October 20, 2022 - 13:36">Thu, 10/20/2022 - 13:36</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This month, 91ֱ��’s <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies">Jewish Studies Program</a> celebrates its 50th anniversary with public events held over two days and offered in-person and remotely. </p> <p>The <a href="/events/50th_anniversary_of_jewish_studies_at_oberlin">celebration</a> will be held October 30 and 31, and includes an alumni panel presentation, faculty presentation, a photo and documentary exhibition of the program’s 50-year history, an opportunity to attend a Jewish studies class, and an open house at Johnson House, 91ֱ��’s Hebrew heritage residence hall. </p> <p>On Sunday, October 30, Jewish Studies alumni David Eaton '71, Amalia Haas '91, and Kendell Pinkney '09 will host a panel discussion in the 91ֱ�� Center for Convergence, which will also be streamed via Zoom, followed by a performance by the student klezmer band Shtick-and-Poke.</p> <p>On Monday, October 31, the Allen Memorial Art Museum will present a session on "Judaism in Modern and Contemporary Art" led by curator Sam Adams. The Terrell Main Library will hold an open house on its exhibition <em>To Find It Again: The Quest for Jewish Life and Jewish Studies at 91ֱ�� College</em>, on display through the end of the semester. </p> <p>The program concludes in Johnson House with a faculty talk: “The Present and Future of Jewish Studies at 91ֱ��,” followed by a reception and open house.</p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"> <figcaption>Associate Professor Shari Rabin. Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</figcaption> </figure> <p>Associate Professor <a href="/shari-rabin">Shari Rabin</a>, a scholar of modern Judaism and American religions and chair of Jewish studies, says the program began because of student activism, and it has continued to flourish because of the ongoing enthusiasm of students, faculty, staff, and community organizations.</p> <p>“In the last few years, Jewish studies has gained three new faculty members and passed a new curriculum,” says Rabin, who is currently writing a history of Jews, religion, and race in the U.S. South from the 17th century to the present day. “As we enter this exciting new era, it is the perfect time to reflect on the history of the program and what it has meant to generations of 91ֱ�� students.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Faculty and alumni come together for program commemorating milestone anniversary.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2022-10-20T12:00:00Z">Thu, 10/20/2022 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2390">Events</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2377">Arts & Humanities</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25386">Jewish Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/shari-rabin" hreflang="und">Shari Rabin</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies" hreflang="und">Jewish Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">A Jewish studies class led by Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies Sheera Talpaz in the King courtyard.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Shari Rabin Awarded Research Fellowship from National Endowment for the Humanities</h1> <p>anagy — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 19:00:49 +0000</p> <span>Shari Rabin Awarded Research Fellowship from National Endowment for the Humanities</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-01-07T14:00:49-05:00" title="Thursday, January 7, 2021 - 14:00">Thu, 01/07/2021 - 14:00</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The project builds on Rabin’s first book, Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-century America, which traced the development of American Judaism in the period of westward expansion, focusing on how ordinary Jews created religious lives in new places.</p> <p>“Now, I am working on a particular region and expanding the timespan, tracing how shifting local conditions shaped the status of Jews and the development of Jewish religious life,” says Rabin, who recently published an article dealing with Judaism in the U.S. South in <em><a href="https://tif.ssrc.org/2020/02/28/space-place-rabin/">The Immanent Frame</a></em>, and co-authored a piece forthcoming in the Journal of Southern History. This new book project will tell a more expansive history across four centuries. </p> <p>Rabin explains that much of her scholarly work has been interested in understanding how Jewish religious life develops in places where people might be surprised to find it. </p> <p>“This can probably be traced to my own upbringing in Wisconsin and my family's move to Georgia when I was 13, which felt like a very abrupt culture shock at the time,” she says. “I left after high school, but my mother still lives in Atlanta, and before coming to 91ֱ�� I lived and taught for four years in Charleston, South Carolina. Moving in and out of the South, I have been struck by how southern Jews have developed a strong sense of regional identity, even as their history highlights broader—if sometimes underappreciated—themes in Jewish, southern, and American histories. In particular, studying Jews in the South centers important questions about race, religion, and how they operate and intersect in different contexts.”</p> <p>With the fellowship, Rabin will undertake research trips to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, and various archives throughout the South (pending COVID-19 travel safety protocols).</p> <p>Rabin notes that while there are “quite a few Jewish community histories focused on particular southern cities,” as well as a number of edited volumes and more focused monographs, this project is the first attempt at a single-authored scholarly narrative. </p> <p>“The closest antecedent is Eli Evans’ <em>The Provincials</em>, published in 1973, which is a mix of memoir, travel writing, and history, and which initiated the field of scholarship that I am now drawing and building upon.”</p> <p>Rabin’s interest in southern Jewish history has found its way into the courses she teaches, including "Introduction to Jewish Studies: Sacred Spaces and Promised Lands" and "American Religious Traditions.” Her scholarly work will also be incorporated in “Judaism in the U.S.: State, Synagogue, and Beyond" this spring. </p> <p>“I love introducing students to Charleston's fascinating Jewish history (it is home to the second oldest extant synagogue building in the U.S.) and to material on southern Jewish foodways. In the future, I would also love to work with students in some capacity on regional Jewish histories and cultures of the Midwest. I find that taking a more localized approach can be a really powerful way to understand the complexities and layers of human experience, and focusing on Jews in particular offers a different perspective on places we think we know.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-01-07T12:00:00Z">Thu, 01/07/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Religion <a href="/shari-rabin">Shari Rabin</a> has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for Humanities to pursue research and writing leading to publication of a book narrating the history of Jewish people in the American South, from 1669 to the present day.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25386">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25421">Religion</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/shari-rabin" hreflang="und">Shari Rabin</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies" hreflang="und">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/religion" hreflang="und">Religion</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Religion Shari Rabin.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Tanya Rosen-Jones '97</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Jesse Gamoran Awarded Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals Fellowship</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:01:35 +0000</p> <span>Jesse Gamoran Awarded Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals Fellowship</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:01:35-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:01">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:01</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Jesse Gamoran ’16 has been selected to participate in the <a href="https://culturalvistas.org/programs/abroad/congress-bundestag-youth-exchange-young-professionals/" target="_blank">Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX)</a> fellowship program. Funded by the United States Congress and German Bundestag, CBYX is a cultural immersion program in which 75 American and 75 German young professionals spend one year studying, interning, and living with hosts in each others’ countries.</p> <p>From Wilmette, Illinois, Gamoran majored in history, German studies, and Jewish studies at 91ֱ��. He held a number of jobs and volunteer positions, including that of main library reference student assistant, General Faculty Library Committee student representative, and Langston Middle School tutor. He also played flute in the 91ֱ�� College Marching Band.</p> <p>Gamoran has studied the German language since his second year at 91ֱ��. The summer before his third year, he completed a language intensive program with Middlebury Language Schools. He studied abroad in Munich his third year and also completed a month-long intensive language course at the Goethe Institute, after which he passed the CI German language exam.</p> <p>Gamoran says he applied for this fellowship because it offers the unique opportunity to improve his German language skills and study at a university while also gaining professional experience. “This program has three phases: a language phase (August-September), a study phase (October-January), and an internship phase (February-June),” he says. “This program is ideal because the German language phase gives students the ability to excel in their studies at a German university. Then the university phase provides students with the academic skills and knowledge that help them to be most effective during the internship phase of the program. And finally the internship phase gives students real experience and helps them to become immersed in German society.”</p> <p>Gamoran will attend the Carl Duisberg Centrum (CDC) language school in Cologne, Saarbrücken, or Radolfzell for the language phase of the program. While he does not yet know where he will study or intern, Gamoran says he expects to take courses in Jewish history and education and hopes to intern at a Jewish community center or synagogue. Gamoran plans to pursue a career in U.S. secondary education following his fellowship.</p> <p>The graduating senior credits the 91ֱ�� community with helping to prepare him for this fellowship. “Through involvement in clubs, activities, and just through being a student at 91ֱ��, I’ve learned much about what it means to be part of a community. A crucial part of this program will be immersing myself in new communities and getting to know new people. I feel my time at 91ֱ�� has prepared me well for this aspect of the program.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2016-06-14T12:00:00Z">Tue, 06/14/2016 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lisa Gulasy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25381">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25386">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25371">German</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies" hreflang="und">Jewish Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/german" hreflang="und">German Language and Literatures</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Jesse Gamoran</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jennifer Manna</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Talia Greenberg '15 Receives Fulbright Grant to Taiwan</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:02:52 +0000</p> <span>Talia Greenberg '15 Receives Fulbright Grant to Taiwan</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:02:52-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:02">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:02</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Talia Greenberg ’15 has been awarded a 10-month Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in Taiwan. She will begin her fellowship August 1.</p> <p>A psychology major with a minor in Jewish studies and concentrations in cognitive sciences and education studies, Greenberg served as musical director of and performed with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/91ֱ��JA">CHALLaH cappella</a>, a Jewish music a cappella group she and Lyz Glickman ’13 founded in 2012. She also served as Grade Level Coordinator for 2nd grade <a href="https://www.oberlinsites.org" target="_blank">Spanish In The Elementary Schools (SITES)</a> program instructors for the past two years, held leadership positions in <a href="http://oberlinhillel.org/">Hillel and the Jewish Student Union</a> and ViBE Dance Company, and was involved in 91ֱ�� Zionists and Student Honor Committee.</p> <p>Greenberg gained teaching experience by working as a SITES program teacher for eight semesters; a writing associate in the Writing Center and for a course taught by 91ֱ�� College President Marvin Krislov; and a teaching assistant in a course taught by Kim Faber, instructor of Spanish and language teacher training and SITES program director. Greenberg also worked in the Quantitative Skills drop-in center and in the psychology department with Professor of Psychology Patty deWinstanley; taught Hebrew school at a synagogue in Sandusky, Ohio; led on-campus prayer services for Jewish High Holy Days; and recreated and taught a tap dance Experimental College course with junior B.J. Tindal.</p> <p>“I mostly applied for the ETA because I am passionate about teaching. Through my four years in SITES and other teaching experiences, I have honed my skills, created tools and activities, and developed my philosophies of teaching,” Greenberg says. “I'm also really interested in languages. I've studied Hebrew, Spanish, and Arabic, but I've never learned Mandarin, so I'm excited to add it to my linguistic repertoire.”</p> <p>Greenberg will be stationed in Yilan, a county close to the Taiwanese capital Taipei, for her fellowship. She expects to be teaching students ranging from grades 1 through 6, which “would certainly be an exciting challenge,” she says.</p> <p>Following her fellowship, Greenberg says she would like to teach in a public elementary school in her hometown of Boston. “When it comes to education, Taiwan is known as a world leader, so I'm really excited to learn ideas and skills I can bring back and use when I go into education in the U.S.,” she says.</p> <p>She credits 91ֱ�� with helping prepare her for success in her fellowship and future career. “The greatest skill I learned at 91ֱ�� was how to be a leader,” she says. “Each leadership experience I've had involves figuring out how to interact with, teach, and empower others.” She says 91ֱ�� also prepared her by helping her learn one very important lesson: You can’t do everything on your own.</p> <p>“Having been involved in a great number of activities on and off campus over the past four years, I think learning my limits was one of the most important lessons I can take away from 91ֱ��,” she says. “91ֱ�� has taught me to do as much as I can in a meaningful way, but that I also must pass the torch on to others.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2015-05-13T12:00:00Z">Wed, 05/13/2015 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lisa Gulasy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2355">Student Organizations</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2398">Community Education</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25286">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25386">Jewish Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/psychology" hreflang="und">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/jewish-studies" hreflang="und">Jewish Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Talia Greenberg '15 says she could teach students ranging from grades 1 through 6 during her 10 months in Yilan County.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jennifer Manna</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>