UVA Jewish Studies Program

Watch our latest video interview with Alumna Graduate Fellow Alexa Luborsky (MFA '25) about her experience researching collective memory of landscape among genocide survivors at the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/alumna-fellow-alexa-luborsky-reflects-her-usc-dornsife-research-fellowship-holocaust-studies

Last spring, recent graduate Eli Bardash took some time to reflect on his UVA Jewish Studies experience in the classroom, at special events, and as a member of the inaugural Undergraduate Fellows cohort. Read about his experiences: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/recent-graduate-eli-bardash-reflects-his-jewish-studies-experience

Our YouTube channel is home to dozens of videos from leading scholars across fields like Holocaust Studies, Rabbinic Law, Jewish Philosophy, and so much more. Explore our content, newly updated with video chapter markers for easier navigation: https://www.youtube.com/

Jewish Studies Director Jennifer Geddes and UC-Davis Professor Sven-Erik Rose have been selected to co-lead the seminar on “Ethics in the Midst of Atrocity” at the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University's (HEFNU) 2026 Lessons and Legacies Conference in Chicago. Learn more: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/director-jennifer-geddes-and-uc-davis-professor-sven-erik-rose-convene-hefnu-seminar

This fall, UVA Jewish Studies will co-sponsor another event in the "Difficult Pasts" international symposium at Queens University Belfast. Learn more: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/uva-jewish-studies-co-sponsor-difficult-pasts-symposium-fall

Everyone knows and loves the "great houses" of literature — from Pemberley to the House of Usher. But how does Jewish fiction interpret and adapt the "great house" for its own purposes? Watch English Professor Caroline Rody's colloquium presentation: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/watch-caroline-rody-analyze-great-house-trope-jewish-fiction

Jewish Studies Director Jennifer Geddes will give a paper on gender and Holocaust narratives at the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies conference in London later this month: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/director-jennifer-geddes-present-paper-british-and-irish-association-jewish-studies-conference

Professors Caroline Kahlenberg, Caroline Rody, and Jennifer Geddes were recently recognized for their outstanding mentorship by the graduating class of 2026. Learn more: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/several-jewish-studies-professors-recognized-mentorship-class-2026

UVA Jewish Studies would like to thank the Mark J. Friedman family for their endowment of the Jewish Studies Graduate Fellows Program. Thanks to their contributions, our graduate fellows will have even greater opportunities to conduct and share their research, be mentored by Jewish Studies faculty, and get to know graduate students interested in Jewish Studies from across the university: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/mark-j-friedman-family-endows-jewish-studies-graduate-fellows-program

UVA Jewish Studies would like to thank Susan and Mark B. Sisisky for their endowment of the Jewish Studies Undergraduate Fellows Program. Their generosity secures this program's future at UVA and provides undergraduate fellows greater opportunities to meet scholars, conduct research, and engage Jewish history, culture, and thought: https://jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu/susan-and-mark-b-sisisky-endow-uva-jewish-studies-undergraduate-fellows-program