Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (IIJS)

A life unfolding over decades—and a tradition reimagined in real time.

Sabbath Queen is a rare, forward-looking documentary that traces the journey of Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie while asking what it means for Judaism to evolve. Filmed over 21 years by Sandi DuBowski, the film invites viewers to consider their own transformations, identities, and histories.

Join us for a screening and conversation with Sandi DuBowski and Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie.

Part of the IIJS Israeli Film Series
📍Kraft Center for Jewish Life - Rennert Hall
606 West 115th Street
🗓️ Monday, April 20 | 6:00 PM
🔗 Register via link in bio

IIJS Film Series:

Sabbath Queen
📅 Monday, April 27th | 🕕 6:00 PM
📍 Kraft Center for Jewish Life
606 W 115th St, Rennert Hall

38 generations. One radical choice.

Filmed over 21 years, this documentary follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie as he reimagines Jewish identity, community, and tradition.

Followed by a Q&A with Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie.

🎟️ Link to registration in bio

Chag Sameach from IIJS!

The Professor Dan Miron Lecture in Hebrew Literature
"Toward a Poetic Genealogy of Israeli Women Poets with Disabilities"
📅Wednesday, March 25, 6:00 PM
📍617 Kent Hall

Explore the emergence of an Israeli tradition of poetry by disabled women, as contemporary poets reimagine embodiment, gender, illness, and artistic inheritance—assembling a newly visible archive and envisioning bold disability futures.

IIJS Book Talk:
Jews in the Soviet Union, Volume 1: Revolution, Civil War, and New Ways of Life
📆Wednesday, March 11 • 12:00 PM
📍617 Kent Hall

How did Jews endure—and participate in—the Soviet system?

Drawing on rare archival sources, Elissa Bemporad’s new volume explores how Jews adjusted to, shaped, and endured the Soviet state in its first decade, both as individuals and as part of a Jewish collective.

University Seminar:
“Printed in Ishmael’s Realm: Hebrew Printing in Early Ottoman Constantinople”
📅Monday, March 9 • 12:00 PM
📍617 Kent Hall

How did printing transform Sephardi Jewish life in the early modern world?

This talk offers a glimpse into the unique atmosphere of an early modern Jewish print house in the Islamic world, revealing how Hebrew printing reshaped religious practice, community life, and Mediterranean connections.

Presentation and Q&A:
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
with composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan
📅Thursday, March 5 • 6:00 PM
📍617 Kent Hall

Can a dictionary become a stage for cultural survival?
Join us for a presentation and discussion of The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, a bold new opera exploring Yiddish ambition after the Holocaust. Composer Alex Weiser and librettist Ben Kaplan will share an excerpt and reflect on writing a 21st-century opera about language, memory, and revival.

Book Talk:
"Modern and Radical" with Kamil Kijek
📅Tuesday, February 24 • 6:00 PM
📍Marshall D. Shulman Seminar Room, 1219 International Affairs Building

Why did a generation of Jewish youth in interwar Poland embrace radical politics?

Join IIJS and the Harriman Institute for a book talk with Kamil Kijek, exploring "Modern and Radical". Drawing on hundreds of autobiographies, Kijek examines how Jewish youth in 1930s Poland navigated education, exclusion, nationalism, and revolutionary political ideas, forging a complex relationship with the Polish state on the eve of catastrophe.

IIJS Book Talk:
Happy New Years with Maya Arad
📅Wednesday, February 18 • 12:00 PM
📍In person at 617 Kent Hall

What can a lifetime of New Year letters reveal—and what do they conceal?

Join us for a book talk with Maya Arad on Happy New Years, a moving portrait of an Israeli émigré in America, told through five decades of carefully crafted letters that expose hidden struggles, quiet resilience, and the truths between the lines.

IIJS Book Talk and Special Collections Session:
"Out of Her Own Head!?" Jewish Women and the Written Word

📅 Wednesday, February 18
🕠 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
📍 In person at 523 Butler Library

How did Jewish women shape communal, intellectual, and economic life in early modern Europe?

Join IIJS and the Norman E. Alexander Library of Jewish Studies for a book talk and special collections session with IIJS Co-Director Elisheva Carlebach and Professor Debra Kaplan, exploring their new book, "A Woman Is Responsible for Everything."

Planning a summer in Israel?

The IIJS Israel Fellows Program provides funding and academic enrichment for Columbia undergrads undertaking internships, research, language study, or coursework in Israel.

Visit our website for full details (link in bio).
Application Deadline: Mon, Feb 16