Center for Jewish Civilization - CJC

Summer Update (2/2): The Center for Jewish Civilization’s Father Patrick Desbois is a Professor of the Practice of the Forensic Study of the Holocaust and the President of Yahad In-Unum. His research identifying the killing fields of central and eastern Europe has expanded Holocaust studies. Together with CJC Post-Doctoral Fellow Andrej Umansky (Member, Board of Directors, Yahad In-Unum), Desbois led the Center’s annual Holocaust Forensics Fieldwork Centennial Lab. This year marked the sixth iteration of our student forensics trip, which took place in France. To date, past trips have taken place in Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. Visit our Instagram page (instagram.com/cjcgeorgetown/) and click on our highlight, "Forensics '22," to watch videos featuring reflections from our students.

Summer Update (1/2): This summer, the CJC celebrated commencement through its graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2022 and 2020. Congratulations to our outstanding CJCers!

Today: The Center for Jewish Civilization's annual Yom HaShoah lecture will take place online this evening from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM EDT. Join us for Professor Alvin H. Rosenfeld's lecture, “Remembering and Dismembering the Holocaust: Implications for Today.” The discussion will be moderated by Ms. Marie Harf of Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Read our speaker spotlights and RSVP for our event here: rosenfeld2022.eventbrite.com/

The Center for Jewish Civilization invites you to attend our 2022 Yom HaShoah lecture with Professor Alvin H. Rosenfeld on Wednesday, April 27 (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT). Prof. Rosenfeld will offer his online lecture, "Remembering and Dismembering the Holocaust: Implications for Today." RSVP here: rosenfeld2022.eventbrite.com/

Remembering and Dismembering the Holocaust: Implications for Today The Center for Jewish Civilization invites you to attend our 2022 Yom HaShoah lecture with Professor Alvin H. Rosenfeld.

This month's student spotlight is CJCer Talia Fogelman (COL '22), a study abroad student from London. Previously, she studied at the University of Sussex and currently majors in both English and American Studies at Georgetown. Read our interview with her below!

CJC Student Spotlight: Talia Fogelman (COL ’22) Happy April! To usher in the Spring, CJC student Talia Fogelman sat down with us for our latest CJC Student Spotlight. Fogelman is a study abroad student from London. Previously, she studied at the…

The Center for Jewish Civilization is pleased to announce that Dr. Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy will serve as this year’s Andrew H. Siegal Professor in American Middle Eastern Foreign Policy. You may RSVP for the 2022 Siegal Lecture (Thu, April 7th, 6 PM) here: levitt2022.eventbrite.com/. Read more about the annual event and professorship in our October profile of Dr. Levitt:

Introducing our 2021-2022 Andrew H. Siegal Professor in American Middle Eastern Foreign Policy The Center for Jewish Civilization is pleased to announce that Dr. Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy will serve as this year’s Andrew H. Siegal Professor in Amer…

“Almost 20 years ago, my organization Yahad In Unum and I began to investigate the Holocaust by Bullets crimes committed in Ukraine followed by other countries, in each village occupied by the N**i units...I never thought that in 2022, I would need to once again be investigating war crimes on these same lands.” The CJC's Father Patrick Desbois and his group Yahad - In Unum will join with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center to collect testimonies and evidence of civilians being targeted in Ukraine. For more on this, read here: bit.ly/3IyacJt. For additional faculty updates, follow us on Twitter .

Babyn Yar memorial teaming up with French priest to document Russian war crimes * * *

The Andrew H. Siegal Memorial Lectureship is an annual lecture delivered on the topic of American Middle Eastern foreign policy. We are excited to welcome Dr. Matthew Levitt, who holds the 2021-2022 Andrew H. Siegal Professorship, to deliver a talk titled, "Balancing Counterterrorism and Interstate Competition: Implications for U.S. Interests in the Middle East" on Thursday, April 7th.

The 2022 Siegal Lecture will be a hybrid event, taking place in person (location: Georgetown University's Main Campus) and via Zoom. In adherence to Georgetown's current Covid-19 guidelines and restrictions, only a limited number of "in person" tickets are available. In order to attend the event in person, please (a) present your "in person admission" ticket upon arrival, (b) follow the University’s protocol for verifying your vaccination status, and (c) complete a health attestation on the morning of their visit to attest that they are symptom-free.

More information regarding this process will be emailed to those who RSVP and present their "in person admission" tickets upon arrival." "Zoom admission" tickets will not be accepted.

Any person with an accommodation request is welcome to email us at [email protected].

eventbrite.com/e/2022-andrew-h-siegal-lecture-by-professor-matthew-levitt-tickets-296441132407

2022 Andrew H. Siegal Lecture by Professor Matthew Levitt The Center for Jewish Civilization invites you to attend the annual Andrew H. Siegal Memorial Lecture featuring Matthew Levitt.

The Center for Jewish Civilization invites you to its 2022 Hal Israel Endowed Lectureship in Jewish-Catholic Relations. On March 22nd, History at Fordham University's Professor Magda Teter will discuss her recent book, 'Blood Libel: On the Trail of An Antisemitic Myth.' Our event will be moderated by our very own Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming. Visit our eventbrite to RSVP: teter2022.eventbrite.com/

2022 Hal Israel Endowed Lectureship in Jewish-Catholic Relations The CJC invites you to our annual Hal Israel Endowed Lectureship in Jewish-Catholic Relations, with Professor Magda Teter.

ICYMI: The CJC's February Student Spotlight is Michelle Fan. Fan is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service studying International Politics with a concentration in International Security. She is from San Diego, California. In addition to minoring in Jewish Civilization, she is pursuing a minor in Linguistics. Read our interview with her below!

CJC Student Spotlight: Michelle Fan (SFS ’24) Happy February! Our latest CJC Student Spotlight is Michelle Fan, a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service studying International Politics with a concentration in International Security. Fan is…

Only 10 days left until our online lecture with Professor Laura Arnold Leibman! On Thursday, February 24th (6 PM EST), Prof. Leibman will discuss her book, 'Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multi-Racial Jewish Family.' RSVP here: leibman2022.eventbrite.com/

About the Book (From Oxford Scholarship Online):
An obsessive genealogist and descendant of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Yet she found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmother’s maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Moses’s ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiress’s assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor, Christian, and enslaved in Barbados.

Tracing the siblings’ extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York to show how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and—at times—white. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten population of people with mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as 10 percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived, and sheds new light on the fluidity of race—as well as on the role of religion in racial shift—in the first half of the nineteenth century.

This Thursday (February 10th at 6 PM EST), Professor and CJC Senior Advisor Jacques Berlinerblau will offer an online lecture on his latest work, 'The Philip Roth We Don't Know: S*x, Race, and Autobiography.' In the lead up to our event, you may purchase a discounted copy of his new book from the University of Virginia Press' website using the 30% discount code, 10ROTH. This promo is valid until March 15th. Lastly, RSVP for our upcoming event here: berlinerblau2022.eventbrite.com/. Email any accommodation requests to [email protected].

The Philip Roth We Don't Know Let it be said, Philip Roth was never uncontroversial. From his first book, Roth scandalized literary society as he questioned Jewish identity and