School of Humanities

Why did renowned Jewish historian Zosa Szajkowski steal tens of thousands of archival documents from France—and why did libraries in the U.S. and Israel accept them? In this gripping talk based on her award-winning book The Archive Thief, Prof. Lisa Leff uncovers the complex story of a scholar whose illicit actions helped preserve a vital Jewish past. Through Szajkowski’s life, Leff explores urgent questions of memory, ownership, and the legacy of Holocaust-era archives.

Professor Dina Danon tells the story of a long-overlooked Ottoman Jewish community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing extensively on a rich body of previously untapped Ladino archival material, she tells a story through the voices of beggars on the street and mercantile elites, shoe-shiners and newspaper editors, rabbis and housewives. Across Europe, Jews were often confronted with the notion that their religious and cultural distinctiveness was somehow incompatible with the modern age. Yet the view from Ottoman Izmir invites a different approach: what happens when Jewish difference is totally unremarkable? What happens when there is no “Jewish Question?” The talk underscore how it was new attitudes to poverty and social class, not Judaism, that most significantly framed this Sephardi community’s encounter with the modern age.

Join us for a compelling book talk with Professor Christophe Lebold as he discussed his book, Leaonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw Angels Fall. Blending literary analysis, theology and cultural theory, Prof. Lebold explores the poetic, spiritual and philosophical dimensions of Cohen’s life and lyrics, tracing how the legendary singer-songwriter navigated faith, doubt, desire, and redemption. Lebold reveals Cohen as a modern-day mystic whose art continues to resonate across generations.

What happens when we place commerce at the center of American Jewish immigration history?
Between 1870 and 1930, thousands of East European Jewish immigrant bankers transformed both Jewish migration and American finance. In this talk, Prof. Rebecca Kobrin explores how these entrepreneurs financed migration, extended credit when mainstream banks would not, and left a lasting mark on New York City’s economic landscape. Drawing on court cases, memoirs, and immigrant press, her work reveals the overlooked power of immigrant banking in shaping transatlantic Jewish life.

Honoring our students academic achievements.