Dear Friends of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies –
We begin the spring semester at Carolina with a renewed sense of the importance of our mission on campus: to promote a deeper understanding of Jewish history, culture and thought through teaching, research, and outreach initiatives. The tragic events of October 7th in Israel, the fate of the hostages, and the continued loss of life among both soldiers and citizens, are devastating to our community.
The subsequent rise in antisemitism, especially on university campuses, has only strengthened our resolve to tackle the challenges of antisemitism by offering opportunities to students from all backgrounds to educate themselves about its complex history and current manifestations.
Our faculty and graduate instructors are committed to creating a safe intellectual environment for all Carolina students to engage in productive conversations about these difficult issues. To that end, we offer a robust set of course offerings and programming. This spring, our students can learn about Jewish philosophy and ethics, the Jewish American Experience, Religion in Modern Israel, Ancient Synagogues, the Jewish South, and Hebrew language, among many other important topics.
Beyond the classroom, students and community members are invited to participate in our lecture series and lunch seminars. In the upcoming weeks, we are hosting or co-sponsoring more than a dozen events, including a lecture on Jewish food taboos (– what is the kosher status of “Impossible Pork”?); a panel with UNC Professors Jeff Spinner-Halev and Navin Bapat on “The Politics of the Israel-Palestine Conflict”; a talk by our Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor Brett Ashley Kaplan on the relationship between aesthetics and genocide during the Holocaust; and the presentation of a longitudinal study by a demographer tracing how antisemitic experiences shape Jewish college students, how they cope with such incidents, and to what extent memories of these experiences endure over time. Please explore our website for more information on upcoming events.
We hope to see you at some of our events this spring at the Center and thank you for your continued support of our vital mission at Carolina. We take very seriously our responsibility to promote a deeper understanding of Jewish Studies both on and off campus, and to encourage civil discussion of diverse topics within Jewish Studies. Together we will continue to expand the intellectual horizons of our students and help give them the skills to thrive in today’s world.
Sincerely yours,
Patricia A. Rosenmeyer
Director, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies
Seymour and Carol Levin Distinguished Term Professor