Please join us in celebrating a wonderful year of Jewish Studies at UC-Santa Cruz. In 2008-2009, the Center for Jewish Studies continued to distinguish itself as one of the most dynamic and intellectually compelling programs at the university. Our courses—in a wide variety of fields, including history, music, literature, feminist studies, and language—attracted hundreds of students. The minor in Jewish Studies drew a fine cohort of dedicated students; after years of careful planning, a proposal for a new major in Jewish Studies was submitted for approval, a process that will likely take place during the fall of 2009.
Over the past year, Jewish Studies has hosted or co-sponsored a series of events—lectures, exhibits, conferences, interdisciplinary dialogues, and colloquia—that have dramatically expanded the definition of the field, created new pathways for collaboration, and drawn members of the wider community to campus. Among our highlights were an international symposium “Italian Jewish Culture in the Age of the Ghetto”; a collaborative exhibit “Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identity, 1516 – 1870,” in partnership with the Museo Italo Americano of San Francisco; a Jewish Studies alumni conference and celebration “Jewish Studies at Santa Cruz: On the Cutting Edge of Tradition,” and an interdisciplinary dialogue “Ghetto: Jews, African Americans, and the Urban Imaginary.” We also launched new lecture series in Jewish mysticism, Jews in Muslim lands, and Jewish women writers, and continued our tradition of regular research colloquia led by faculty members and visiting scholars. Our campus partners have included Sociology, American Studies, Mediterranean Studies, the Urban Studies Research Group, and the Institute for Humanities Research. We look forward to more collaborative projects that will serve as a bridge to the larger community.
We would like to thank the major donors whose support helped to make Jewish Studies at UC-Santa Cruz possible in 2008-2009: the Helen Diller Foundation, the Neufeld Levin Holocaust Endowed Chair, the Koret Foundation, the Delmas Foundation, the Puknat Fund, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Special thanks goes to the David B. Gold Foundation for giving us a major grant of $150,000 to support our new programming initiative "Crossing Boundaries and Building Bridges.”
As we look forward to another exciting year in 2009-2010, the Center for Jewish Studies invites you to be a part of our future.
