Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia

The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies (IIJS) is Columbia University’s center for the academic study and discussion of Jewish life, history, and culture.

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

When art and life collide in the age of social media. Join us for a virtual screening of "Cabaret Total" and a live Q&A with writer/director/star Roy Assaf.

📅 Oct 26 | 12 PM | Zoom
📝 Register for the film link & Q&A

https://t.co/humNMH4X5p

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

How did Bruno Schulz use Polish to explore Jewish exile and identity? Join Karen Underhill to discuss her award-winning book on Schulz's diasporic Jewish modernism.

📅 Oct 21 | 12 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 19 for campus access

https://t.co/OFWMaBUyxJ

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

https://t.co/DnJ8lULAmV

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

What is the true economic cost of conflict? Join Prof. Joseph Zeira for a discussion on the long-term impact of conflict, conscription, and defense spending in Israel.

📅 Oct 20 | 6 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 16 for campus access

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

Rare glimpse into pre-WWII Jewish fiddle traditions: Join scholar & musician Zisl Slepovitch exploring Sofia Magid's extraordinary 1928-38 recordings.

📅 Oct 15 | 12 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 13 for campus access

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

What does it mean to search for home?

Join Nicholas Lemann and Jeremy Dauber for a conversation on Lemann's new book, “Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries”.

📅 Oct 13 | 12 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Oct 8 for campus access

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

What did October 7 look like from inside the Situation Room? Join former Ambassador Jack Lew and former Senior Advisor Amos Hochstein in conversation with Prof. Rebecca Kobrin.

📅 Oct 7 | 12:30 PM | Zoom
📝 Register for the link

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

What happens when love becomes unrecognizable? Join us for a screening of “My One and Only”—a Gemara-inspired mystery about identity and relationships—followed by a discussion with Stuart Weinstock.

📅 Sep 29 | 6 PM | 617 Kent Hall
📝 Register by Sep 25 for campus access

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

How did Jewish immigrant bankers transform American finance?

Join Prof. Rebecca Kobrin and Prof. Kim Phillips-Fein to discuss "Credit to the Nation".

📅 Sep 24 | 1 PM | 617 Kent Hall

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

What's at stake in Israel's most consequential election in a generation? Join Nadav Eyal for the fall 2026 Abel Lecture on the forces shaping Israel's future after October 7.

📅 Sep 16 | 12 PM | Zoom 📝 Register for the link

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

What happens when a film disappears for 50 years?

From Darkness to Light explores Jerry Lewis's unreleased Holocaust drama The Day the Clown Cried—a legendary lost film.

📽 Stream June 19–23
🎙 Zoom Q&A with Bob Furmanek
📅 June 23, 12:00 p.m. ET
#LostCinema #JerryLewis #IIJS

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

Sabbath Queen
Mon, April 27 • 6 PM • Kraft Center

38 generations. One radical choice.

Q&A with Sandi DuBowski & Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
Register: link in bio

#IIJS #ColumbiaUniversity #JewishStudies #DocumentaryFilm
#QueerJudaism #NYCEvents #FilmScreening

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

Chag Sameach from IIJS
#ChagSameach #Pesach2026 #IIJS #ColumbiaUniversity #JewishLife

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

The Professor Dan Miron Lecture in Hebrew Literature
“Toward a Poetic Genealogy of Israeli Women Poets with Disabilities”
March 25, 6:00 PM • 617 Kent Hall

Exploring how Israeli poets reimagine disability, gender, and literary tradition.
#HebrewLiterature #DisabilityStudies

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

IIJS Book Talk:
Jews in the Soviet Union, Vol. 1: Revolution, Civil War, and New Ways of Life
Wed, March 11 • 12 PM
617 Kent Hall

How did Jews endure—and participate in—the Soviet system?
Elissa Bemporad draws on rare archives to explore Jewish life in the USSR’s first decade.

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

University Seminar:
Printed in Ishmael’s Realm
Mon, March 9 • 12 PM
617 Kent Hall

How did printing transform Sephardi Jewish life? Explore how Hebrew printing in Ottoman Constantinople reshaped religion, community, and Mediterranean connections.

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

Presentation & Q&A:
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
with Alex Weiser & Ben Kaplan

📍 617 Kent Hall | March 5 | 6 PM

Can a dictionary become a stage for cultural survival?
Join us for a conversation about this bold new opera on Yiddish ambition after the Holocaust.

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

Planning a summer in Israel?

The IIJS Israel Fellows Program provides funding and academic enrichment for Columbia undergrads undertaking internships, research, language study, or coursework in Israel.

Application Deadline: Mon, Feb 16
Link in bio

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

IIJS Israeli Film Series

The Property
Monday, February 9
6:00 PM
617 Kent Hall

Please join us for an in-person screening followed by a discussion led by IIJS Film Programmer Stuart Weinstock.

⏱ 110 minutes
🎧 Hebrew, Polish, and English with English subtitles

[Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies @ Columbia @ColumbiaIIJS]

The Naomi Prawer Kadar Memorial Lecture
Monday, February 2, at 12:00 p.m.
On Zoom

Link to event registration:
https://t.co/XhlLWY5c9G