Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, UMass Amherst, Education, 650 N Pleasant St, Amherst, MA.
02/05/2026
We’re excited to host Professor Nadje Al-Ali at UMass Amherst on 2/17! She is a Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology, and International Studies at Brown University.
Check the link in our bio for more information!
This event is free and open to the public!
04/29/2025
JNE is participating in UMassGives, UMass Amherst’s online giving campaign, today and tomorrow. You can make your gift at https://umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-day/98035/department/98068 and please share about UMassGives on social media!
04/25/2024
A big thank you to those of you who have contributed to our campaign! Your support is greatly appreciated.
🔗 in bio!
Just a reminder that UMassGives ends tonight at 11:59 pm.
Whether or not you are able to make a gift, it would mean the world to the Department if you could share our link with anyone whom you think may be interested in supporting our students. Even just one social media post or share could make a huge difference for our students who may not be able to afford doing a summer internship or intensive summer language instruction.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
04/23/2024
We are excited to announce that for the first time we will be offering Judaic 102, one of our core, Gen Ed courses, over the summer through University + (previously UWW)! You can register NOW on Spire.
The synchronous class will run 5/21-7/3.
For more information on how to take a University + course, head over to https://www.umass.edu/universityplus/ (link in bio)
For any questions for the Department of Judaic & Near Eastern Studies at UMass Amherst, email [email protected].
04/29/2022
Today is day 2 of UMassGives!
We are establishing a new fund to help our students pursue summer internships and intensive language study instruction regardless of their financial ability. We hope you will help us invest in this key aspect of our students’ futures! LINK IN BIO ⬆️
Pictured are JNES alumni studying abroad:
Kyle Thorne in Morocco 🇲🇦
Isabelle Domingos in Jordan
Bonnie Chen in Jordan 🇯🇴
04/28/2022
https://umass.scalefunder.com/gday/giving-day/54179/department/54243
UMassGives 2022 Don't miss out! Make your gift to 2022 today!
04/27/2022
Posting live from Can’t We Talk About Something More Jewish? An Evening with Roz Chast!
It has been funny and poignant. Roz Chast is truly delightful.
Thanks to everyone who came out!
#2022
04/27/2022
UMassGives starts at midnight tonight! Check back tomorrow for the link to our site.
UMassGives: What We Can Do Together Dear HFA Faculty and Staff, I invite each of you to join me in supporting HFA during . Beginning at midnight tonight and running through Friday, April 29, together with our students and alumni, we can make this grassroots online giving campaign the best it can be for HFA. Participation is...
04/26/2022
DON’T FORGET!
TOMORROW at 4:30 PM
Can’t We Talk About Something More Jewish?
Roz Chast
Campus Center Auditorium
UMass Amherst
For its annual Jacobs Lecture, the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies is delighted to present an evening with cartoonist and best-selling author, .
She will speak about her work, and its connection to Jewish themes and her Jewish background. A book signing will follow Chast's remarks and audience questions.
The event is free and open to the public, subject to safe social-distancing practices.
04/20/2022
Debating between ✨Persian Epic: The Book of Kings✨ or ✨Islamic Society and Culture in the Middle Ages?✨
End your dilemma and take BOTH courses in the fall! They are no longer scheduled at the same time.
12/14/2021
Professor Olga Gershenson is teaching a new course this Spring called "Bad Fences: Trauma, Memory, and Desire in Israeli and Palestinian Cinemas." Check out the course trailer!
FILM 697B/JUDAIC 497B/MIDEAST 497B
TH 4-6:45pm
This course uses film to interrogate an array of issues defining Israeli and Palestinian societies, including competing views of national histories. The course will open with looking at the emergence and development of Israeli and Palestinian cinematic discourses and proceed to explore the dynamic of representation from the period of British mandate, through establishment of the state of Israel, and the onset of Palestinian diaspora, the wars of 1948 and 1967, to the current era. Discussion will be structured around the following major themes: borders and walls; historical traumas; collective and interpersonal memory; cultural influences and appropriations. In addition to film, we will bring into conversation other intertexts, including media, music, and visual arts. All readings and films are with English translation.
Bad Fences Class Trailer Class Trailer for Professor Gershenson’s course, “Bad Fences: Trauma, Memory, and Desire in Israeli and Palestinian Cinemas” at the University of Massachuset...
04/30/2021
It’s day 2 of ! Thank you to all who have generously donated so far. We are so grateful for your support. There’s still time to donate (you have until 11:59pm tonight) and help us raise funds for our students to pursue summer internships and intensive language instruction.
Check out out Instagram to see what some of our recent graduates have to say about the importance of studying languages.
For their full statements, please visit our website at
Student Testimonials : Judaic and Near Eastern Studies : UMass Amherst The Importance of Language Study