Exceptional Opportunities & Engaging Programming

The Eastern Michigan University Center for Jewish Studies was formally introduced at a ceremony involving Senator Carl Levin on February 23, 2012. Since that time, the Center has grown and developed significantly. The Center for Jewish Studies provides exceptional curricular and travel opportunities for EMU students and offers accessible and engaging programming to enrich both the EMU and Southeast Michigan communities. The center operates with a combination of university and community support.  

For EMU Students, the Center for Jewish Studies provides excellent educational opportunities including travel courses with excellent faculty to places like New York, Poland, and Israel; high quality programming that brings the richness of Jewish cultural, intellectual, and religious life to campus and the community; and a Jewish Studies minor. 

The EMU Center for Jewish Studies brings a range of excellent programming—some cultural like musical acts or comedians, and others more academic—to the Southeast Michigan Community. All our programs, which are free and open to the public, aspire to be timely and relevant to contemporary discussions as well as accessible and engaging for non-academic audiences.

EMU Center for Jewish Studies Lecture Series

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Jordan B. Gorfinkel, "Gorf": The Four Children: The Superhero, The Supervillain, The Mentor and the Sidekick
In this multimedia presentation using "Marvel-ous” movie clips, popular culture icons, and the Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel, Batman Manager Gorf illuminates how graphic novel style storytelling makes classic texts relevant and new.

EMU Student Center 330, 7pm
December 4th

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Professor Rachel B. Gross: "A Pickle Problem: The Deli Revival and American Jewish Religion"
In recent years, there has been a nostalgic revival of interest in the Jewish deli menu. As Prof. Rachel B. Gross explores in her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, chefs and restaurateurs have deliberately made American Jewish food fit for the twenty-first century, emphasizing sustainability, local produce, and a longing for Eastern European family and communal histories.

By selling and consuming a revitalized deli cuisine, American Jews express their longing for authentic Jewish pasts, build community in the present, and pass on their values to future generations.

Participating in the deli revival provides an alternative, under-appreciated way of practicing American Jewish religion. This analysis of an Ashkenazi culinary revival also provides tools for identifying the challenges in embracing the diversity within American Judaism.

EMU Student Center 300, 7pm
January 20th

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