Duke Center for Jewish Studies

Malachi Hacohen discusses Chatham Sofer, Empire and Jewish Exile in his keynote lecture for the Modern Jewish Thought and Empire workshop being held at Duke University.

This just arrived from Duke CJS Director, Kata Gellen! Pick up your copy today of Toronto Press: https://utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/9781487528898

On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, Trinity sophomore Terry Gershman invited students from his SLG to participate in a “Stu-Fac” event on the life and works of Franz Kafka with Professor Kata Gellen. Terry is a student in Professor Gellen’s Kafka seminar this semester, and he suspected there would be broad interest in discussing this major modern author with his SLG. And he was right! Over tea they had a lively discussion about discourses of self-confidence and self-doubt in today’s world, especially with regard to young people and students, and what Kafka can teach us about both. They read diary entries and letters in which Kafka exposes his deepest vulnerabilities and insecurities, and discussed how self-doubt can be debilitating and destructive, but it can also be a surprisingly powerful motor for creative expression.

A variety of scholarly views on Christian Zionism this evening with Professors Yaakov Ariel, Motti Inbari and Ross Wagner.

Fantastic lecture by Carolin Duttlinger “Between Individual and Community: Paradoxes of Responsibility in Kafka’s Short Prose Writing,” introduced by Director, Kata Gellen. We also were pleased to welcome DKU Professor Yitzhak Lewis back to campus, who attended the lecture with Professor Shai Ginsburg.

Tonight (2/12) at 7pm @ NC Museum Of Art, join Kata Gellen in Q&A with Director Oren Rudavsky, who will discuss his documentary on Elie Wiesel, “Soul on Fire.”

Jewish Film Series: Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire (2024). Directed by Oren Rudavsky, 1 hr. 27 min., documentary, NR This doc is an intimate and unprecedented look into the life and legacy of Elie Wiesel, one of the most…

Fantastic talks by Marc Brettler, Daniel Herskowitz, and Peter Casarella, moderated by Malachi Hacohen on Breaking Barriers, Building Bonds: 60 Years of Interfaith Dialogue After Nostra Aetate.

Celebrating the scholarship of Professor Marc Brettler this afternoon with an incredible line up of scholars !

https://jewishstudies.duke.edu/celebrating-marc-brettlers-scholarship-bible-public-square-revisited

Priority deadline for the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies here at the Duke Center for Jewish Studies is January 15!

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies The Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies at Duke University offers a competitive stipend, as well as benefits, for one full year with an option for a second-year renewal. The Fellow will be expected to be in residence, to conduct research in Duke's library and archival collections, to participa...

Dr. Reut Ben-Yaakov, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, discusses Israeli literary responses and protest after October 7 at the 2025 Association for Jewish Studies Annual conference.