American University Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies

Our students and faculty all came together to celebrate the end of the year and honor our two graduating interns Maya Lobel and Peter Donlon with the center for Israel Studies Student Excellence award! We also awarded Maya with the Myra Sklarew Israel Writing Award for her outstanding work on her essay about the African Hebrews of Dimona. Congratulations to both of you! You’ll be missed next year.

For all returning students and Professors, we can’t wait to see in the fall. Thank you for an amazing year!

This past week CIS students and community members had the incredible opportunity to visit the Greek Embassy and speak with Greek and Israeli Ambassadors about relations between the two countries. Thank you so much to the Greek Embassy for hosting us!

The embassy series was made possible due to the generous support of Mimi and Ken Heyman. Stay tuned for more events next semester!

Register for our last event of the year!

We are so excited to announce that we will be having another embassy visit next Monday at the Greek Embassy featuring opening remarks by Greek Ambassador H.E. Antonis Alexandridis

Deadline to register is Friday, April 24 at 9am

Congratulations to Maya Lobel for winning the Myra Sklarew Israel Writing contest for her paper about The African Hebrew Israelites of Dimona!!

Congratulations to Peter Donlon and Maya Lobel for winning the CIS 2026 Student Excellence Award. Both Peter and Maya have done so much for the Israel Center, we appreciate you so much and are proud of all you have accomplished. We will miss you!

Register through the link in our bio! Coming up on Tuesday April 14th:

We invite you to join the Meltzer Schwartzberg Center for Israel Studies for a thought‑provoking book talk with internationally-acclaimed author Ayelet Tsabari. Ayelet will be speaking about her newest book, Songs for the Broken Hearted.

Ayelet Tsabari was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. She is the author of The Art of Leaving, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for memoir, finalist for the Writer’s Trust Hilary Weston Prize, and an Apple Books and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2019. Her first book, The Best Place on Earth, won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and was long listed to the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. The book was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Kirkus Review Best Book of 2016, and has been published internationally. She’s the co-editor of the anthology Tongues: On Longing and Belonging Through Language. Her most recent book Songs for the Brokenhearted (2024) has won the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Fiction Award.
Tsabari will be joined by Professor Lauren Strauss of American University’s Jewish Studies Program, who will moderate our discussion. Their discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and a dessert reception.

CIS offerings for the upcoming fall semester are out! We’re offering a lot of interesting courses with some incredible professors, read through and sign up before spots fill!