Academic Courses
Courses that include or are organized around study trips have become an increasingly attractive form of academic learning. Such courses have been developed at the Hebrew University, with the Nevzlin Center’s support. They include regular class sessions (before and after the trip), in addition to a week-long educational journey with an intensive academic agenda. Participating students receive grades based on papers at the end of the course. The Nevzlin Center has been supporting study trip courses to Eastern Europe since 2017.
Ukraine | May 2017
Ukraine: The Emergence of a Modern Nation in the Mirror of History was organized by the Department of History at HU and supported by the Nevzlin Center, the International Office of HU and by the Faculty of Humanities. The emphasis of the course was on the role of historical memory and historical narratives on today’s Ukrainian national identity. The course included a weeklong tour to Kyiv and L’viv, during which fifteen course participants, accompanied by four HU teaching staff members, visited Ukrainian and Jewish historical sites, and met Ukrainian intellectuals and students.
For selected photos from this study trip please click here.
Poland | May 2019
National Historical Narrative in Modern Poland was organized by the Department of History at HU and supported by the Nevzlin Center, the International Office of HU and by the Faculty of Humanities. The course focused on the contemporary functions of the Polish national historical narrative (including its Jewish component). The travel component of the course was an eight-day study trip that included visiting the cities of Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków. Course participants took part in tours of city centers, museums of history and art, as well as meetings with Polish historians and students. The study trip was implemented in cooperation with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw) and with the University of Wrocław. Fifteen HU students and three teaching staff members took part in the tour.
For selected photos from this study trip please click here.
Lithuania | May 2022
Lithuania in the 20 Century: Multicultural Perspectives on the Representation of Heritage is organized by Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at HU in cooperation with Vilnius University and supported by the Nevzlin Center, the International Office of HU and by the Faculty of Humanities. The course includes a study tour that will trace current trends in the shaping of Lithuania’s national narrative and will focus on the representation of heritage, as seen from a multicultural perspective. The participants will visit the cities of Vilnius and Kaunas, small Lithuanian towns and former shtetls, with their diverse (both Jewish and non-Jewish) historical heritage.
Czech Republic | August 2022
Sabbatean and Frankist Religious Dissent in Europe is organized by the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry of the Hebrew University, in cooperation with the Kurt and Ursula Schubert Center for Jewish Studies at the Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, and a select international team of lecturers, and with the support of a grant by the Nevzlin Center and the European Association of Jewish Studies. The course will include visits to historic sites related to the life of the Jewish communities in Moravia, their religious practices, and their connections to the theme of the course.
About the program
The Nevzlin Center in cooperation with various departments supports selected courses at the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus that deal with the history and culture of Russian and East European Jewry .
2020-2021
European Forum at the Hebrew University
Shmuel Barnai | Jews in Modern European Politics: Between Totalitarianism and Democracy. Fall semester. Also part of the HUJI's "Cornerstones Program".
Art History Department
Sergei Kravtsov | Architecture of Synagogues. Spring Semester.
2018-2019
European Forum at the Hebrew University
Shmuel Barnai | Jews in Modern European Politics: Between Totalitarianism and Democracy. Spring semester. Also part of the HUJI's "Cornerstones Program".
2014-2015
Department of Jewish History and Institute of Contemporary Jewry:
Zeev Levin | Jewish Immigrants in the Muslim Republics of the USSR. Autumn semester.
2013-2014
School of Fine Arts:
Dr. Miriam Reiner | The Jewish Dimension in Modern Art. Spring Semester.
Department of Hebrew Literature:
Dr. Rafael Tsirkin-Sadan | Immigration in Modern Jewish Literature. Spring Semester.
2012-2013
Department of Art History:
Dr. Miriam Reiner | Berlin: East Meets West. Full-year.
2011-2012
Department of Jewish History and Institute of Contemporary Jewry:
Shaul Stampfer | Migration in East Europe. Full-year.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen | Modern Jewish and Non-Jewish Migration. M.A. seminar. Full-year.
Chen Bram | The Post-Soviet Immigration in Israeli Society. M.A. seminar. Autumn semester. With the support of the Posen Fund.
History of Art Department:
Lola Kantor-Kazovsky | Migrations: Russian and East-European Jewish Artist. Full-year. With the support of the Posen Fund.
Department of History:
Zeev Levin | Deportation of Nations in the Soviet Union. Spring semester.
2010-2011
Department of Central and East-European Literatures and Cultures:
Alexander Kulik, Dr. Judith Kalik | The Wandering Jew between Europe and Asia. Full-year.
Ilia Lurie | The Religious Life of East European Jewish Emigrants in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Spring semester.
Department of Jewish History and Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry:
Zeev Levin | Jewish Immigrants in the Muslim Republics of the Soviet Union in the 20th Century. Spring semester.
Department of Hebrew Literature:
Rafael Tsirkin-Sadan | Representing Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe in the 20th Century. Autumn semester. With the support of the Posen Fund.
History of Art Department:
Miriam Reiner | Art in Exile: Russian and Russian Jewish Emigre Artists Confronting the West: 1870s-1930s. Spring semester. With the support of the Posen Fund.
2006-2007
Department of Jewish History:
Yemima Hovav | The Jewish Woman in Central and Eastern Europe, 15th-18th centuries. Fall semester.
Nathan Shifris | The Discourse on Jewish Nationalism in 19th century Eastern Europe. Spring semester.
Rachel Manekin | From Joseph II to Franz Joseph: Galician Jewry during the Long 19th Century. Fall semester.
Elchanan Reiner | Trends in Ashkenazic Rabbinic Literature in Early Modern Epoch. Fall semester.
Israel Bartal, Dr. Semion Goldin | Historical Source, Text, and Context: Studying East European Jewish History. Full year.
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies:
Judith Kalik | The Church and the Jews in Eastern. Europe: Early Modernity. Full year.
Michael Weiskopf | Image of a Jew in Russian Culture. Full year.
Department of Hebrew Literature:
Victoria Shifris | Yiddish Literature in Hebrew Translation. Full year.
Nathan Cohen | Introduction to Yiddish Studies. Ful Year.
Chais Center for Jewish Studies in cooperation with Rothberg International School for Overseas Students:
Arkady Zeltser | Soviet Jewry in the Interwar Period. Fall semester.
Boris Khaimovich | The Material Culture of the East-European Jewry. Fall semester.
2005-2006
Department of Jewish History:
Rachel Manekin | Jewish Youth Education in Central and Eastern Europe. Full year.
Jonathan Meir | Hasidism in the Eyes of the Haskalah. Full year.
Nathan Shifris | The Discourse on Jewish Nationalism. Full year.
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies:
Dr. Judith Kalik | Converted Jews in Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania. Full year.
Dr. Michael Weiskopf | Judaism, Jews, and Russian Religious-Philosophic Thought. Full year.
Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russian in cooperation with Rothberg International School for Overseas Students:
Ilia Lurie | Jewish Society in Eastern Europe through the Middle Ages and Modern Time. Fall semester.
Dr. Zoya Kopelman | Literary life of Russian and east European Jewry in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Fall semester.
2004-2005
Department of Jewish History:
Rachel Manekin | Religion, Culture and Politics in the Jewish Society of Galicia. Full-year.
Haim Gertner | Tradition under the Test: Halacha, Ranbinics, and Orthodoxy. Full-year.
Yemima Hovav | A Look at the Life of the Jewish Woman in Eastern and Central Early Modern Europe. Full-year.
Jonathan Meir | From Kahal to a Community of Readers: The Jewish Press in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century. Full-year, taught jointly with Prof. Israel Bartal.
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies:
Vladimir Khazan | Russian Literature and the Jewish World. Full year B.A. seminar.
Michael Weiskopf | Russia from the Khazars until the Revolutions: the Jewish Perspective. Full-year.
Judith Kalik | Jews and Slavs in the Early Modern Era. Full-year seminar.
Rothberg International School for Overseas Students, in cooperation with the Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russian:
Ilia Lurie | Spiritual and Political Trends in East European Jewish Society in the Modern Era. Fall semester.
Hillel Kazovskii | Jewish Art and Artists in Modern Eastern Europe. Spring semester.
Institute of Contemporary Jewry:
Semion Goldin | East European Jewry: Late 19th Century - 1945. Spring semester.
2003-2004
Rothberg International School for Overseas Students, in cooperation with the Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russian:
Zoya Kopelman | East European Jewish Literature: Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian. Spring semester.
Rothberg International School for Overseas Students, in cooperation with the Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russian:
Michael Beizer | Jews in the USSR, 1917-1991. Spring semester
Department of Jewish History:
Scott Ury | Jews and the Big City in Eastern Europe, 1800-1939. Spring semester