UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

"Jacob Daniels is not only a skilled historian: he is also a gifted storyteller who makes his subject come to life.” Don’t miss Jacob Daniels’ talk tomorrow about his new and highly acclaimed book, “The Jews of Edirne: The End of the Ottoman Europe and the Arrival of Borders”. It’s not too late to RSVP: https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/event/book-talk-jacob-daniels-the-jews-of-edirne-the-end-of-ottoman-europe-and-the-arrival-of-borders/

Will we see you next week? It’s not too late to RSVP for our 51st Stroum Lectures Series featuring Rafael Neis from the University of Michigan.

Lecture 1: Did ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ Always Exist? What the Talmud Can Tell Us. Tuesday, May 12, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. UW Campus

Lecture 2: Monsters, Hybrids, and Holy Images – Rethinking Bodies in Ancient Jewish Art. Thursday, May 14, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. UW Campus

RSVP today:

Stroum Lectures 2026 with Rafael Neis - UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Join us for the first lecture of the Stroum Center's renowned annual lecture series. This year the series features University of Michigan groundbreaking scholar and artist Rafael Neis.

It's May Day, and it's an especially appropriate day to ask the important question: who gets remembered in history — and who disappears from the archive? This new article from Alexandra Ritsatos, Ina and Richard Willner Memorial Fellow at the University of Washington’s Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, tells the story of Regina Roza and the role she played in the Salonika To***co Strike of April 29, 1931...95 years ago!

***costrike

Regina Roza and the Forgotten Lives of Radical Sephardic Salonikan Women - UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Regina Roza and the Forgotten Lives of Radical Sephardic Salonikan Women Alexandra Ritsatos writes on the activism of Regina Roza, a Sephardic to***co worker in 1930s Salonika, whose leadership in labor strikes reveals the erased history of Sephardic women in Greece’s interwar leftist movements. R...

What can the Talmud tell us about the categories of “woman” and “man”? And what patterns should we look for when examining ancient Jewish art? This year’s speaker, Rafael Neis (University of Michigan) will offer new insights into both these topics during our 51st Stroum Lectures Series.
Read more and RSVP:

Stroum Lectures 2026 with Rafael Neis - UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Join us for the first lecture of the Stroum Center's renowned annual lecture series. This year the series features University of Michigan groundbreaking scholar and artist Rafael Neis.

Today is , an opportunity to show your Husky spirt by supporting the Stroum Center’s student and community offerings. Your gift, no matter the size, makes a huge impact. https://together.uw.edu/i/hgd/Campaign/jackson-school

Mark your calendar for May 12 & 14 and join us for our 51st Stroum Lectures Series. This year’s invited speaker is Rafael Neis from the University of Michigan. Neis is a scholar and artist who offers cutting edge interpretations of rabbinic literature, classics, trans studies, and visual culture. You can read more about Neis’s work and their lectures here:

Exploring the Unexpected in Ancient Jewish Culture with Rafael Neis - UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies By Madison Morgan For more than 50 years, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies has welcomed leading voices in the field through its annual Stroum

Join us Wednesday, April 22 for “Uncertain Empire: Jews, Nationalism, and the Fate of British Imperialism” with Elizabeth E. Imber. Imber, an associate professor of history at Clark University, will discuss her book of the same name, which looks at Jews across the British world after the British takeover of Ottoman Palestine

🗓️ Wednesday, April 22, 2026
⏱️ 4:30 – 6 p.m.
📍 University of Washington campus (this is an in-person only event)
🔗 Register at bit.ly/scjs-imber

Congratulations to Jewish Studies students Jacob Beckert and Ari Forsyth, both PhD candidates in History, who’ve been selected for prestigious 2026-2027 fellowships!

Ari studies race, gender, and disability in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. They’ll continue work on their dissertation, “Big Mother: A History of Jewish Social Work in the United States, 1880-1940,” in New York as an Arcadia Graduate Student Fellow Center with the Center for Jewish History.

Jake is headed to Tulane University, where he’ll hold the Postdoctoral Fellowship in American Jewish Economic History at the Grant Center for the American Jewish Experience. Jake received the 2025-2026 Stroum Center Dissertation Writing Grant for his work on "Profit in the Holy: American Capital in Mandatory Palestine."

Both former Stroum Center Graduate Fellows, Ari and Jake wish to thank the Center's community of staff, students, and faculty for their support.

Check out Jewish Studies Professor Emeritus Martin S. Jaffee's translation of Sifrei Devarim, which is now online at Sefaria. Beth Huppin, local Jewish educator and friend of Marty, shares the following: "After retiring from his position as a beloved professor of Comparative Religion and Jewish Studies at UW, Martin Jaffee’s first project was a labor of love in which he translated Sifrei Devarim, a midrashic work on the book of Deuteronomy. Marty’s scholarly yet accessible translation is a gift that reads like poetry. I studied the book with Marty soon after he completed the translation. My Hebrew is good, but his translation and notes added greatly to my understanding and appreciation of this remarkable text as I prepared for our weekly meetings. Marty’s gift to those studying this beautiful text is now available, with his explanatory notes, at the push of a button on Sefaria." Link to the translation in the comments!

We recently sat down with Miriam Udel, the director of Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University, who visited the University of Washington on Jan. 28 for the lecture “Umbrella Sky—Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature”

The recent National Jewish Book Award winner talked about the importance of Yiddish children’s stories and how they serve as a platform for observing Jewish life across time and place.

Read more: bit.ly/scjs-udel

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