Celebrating the Stroum Center at 50
Tuesday, March 11, 2025, UW Campus
We invite you to join past and present SCJS faculty and students as we mark 50 years of cultivating diverse Jewish thought on campus, in the community and around the globe. We have a full day of events planned, starting with a series of daytime panels highlighting SCJS’s key accomplishments and ending with an evening discussion titled “Today’s campus conflicts and the future of Jewish Studies.”
Schedule of Events
Morning panels: “50 years of impact on campus and beyond”
9:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m, Peterson room, Allen Library
- 9:30-10:15 – Panel 1: Engaging the Public: The Legacy of the Stroum Lectures
- 10:15-11:00 – Panel 2: Launching the Next Generation of Scholars with the Cole and Graduate Fellowships
- 11:00-11:15 – Break Coffee/Snack
- 11:15-12:00 – Panel 3: Creating an Institutional Mark on UW’s Campus: Honoring our Faculty Trailblazers
- 12:00-12:45 – Panel 4: Shaping the Future of Sephardic Studies: A Decade of Scholarship, Global Engagement and Cultural Preservation
Evening talk: “Today’s campus conflicts and the future of Jewish Studies” A discussion with current faculty Gilah Kletenik and Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies, Dr. Devin E. Naar
7:00 p.m – 8:30 p.m, Kane Hall 210
Media and political attention are focused on college campuses, and Jews figure prominently in these debates. Jewish Studies programs, often the campus address for studying Jews, Judaism, and Israel now find themselves at ground zero of public debates around academic freedom, antisemitism, and the role of higher education.
Join Jewish philosophy scholar Dr. Gilah Kletenik and historian Dr. Devin E. Naar in a conversation moderated by former Cole Fellow, Daniel Heller to reflect on key questions provoked by our current moment.
- How does the history of Jewish Studies help us understand the relationship between the study of Jews and Judaism, and attitudes about higher education?
- How can Jewish Studies bridge these divides, while at the same time serve as a crucial resource for students and colleagues on campus today?
- What is the relationship between an academic center focused on Jewish Studies and the Jewish community, at a time of increasing intra-community debate?
- What role can the study of Jewish texts, cultures, and history play in making sense of our moment and navigating its fissures?