12:00pm - 1:00pm
IASH Room, LN 1106
Join the Center for Israel Studies on October 5th from 12-1pm in the IASH Room (LN 1106) for our Israel Studies Roundtable Lunch featuring聽Prof. Andrew Atwell聽of Bard College.
On the Moral Imagination of "Strengthening Jewish Identity" in Central Israel
In May 2021, following an outburst of internecine violence in the central Israeli city of Lod, the city鈥檚 鈥淭orah seed鈥 group became the object of regional and international scrutiny and attention. This group is part of a wider national-religious movement aiming in the wake of the Oslo Accords to 鈥渟ettle in the hearts鈥 of their fellow Israeli Jews after 鈥渟ettling in the hills鈥 of the post-1967 West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Beginning in the late 1990s the movement built 鈥淭orah seed鈥 groups in binational cities inside the Green Line that intervened in these cities through myriad projects including, in the case of Lod, 鈥渟trengthening Jewish identity.鈥 Through examining this project of 鈥渟trengthening Jewish identity鈥 in relation to its critics, in this talk I explore how a perhaps surprising sense of national-religious discomfiture has shaped and constrained 鈥淭orah seed鈥 group moral imagination and effected political-theological shifts within Israel and far beyond it.
Andrew K. Atwell is an anthropologist, Judaism and Middle East specialist, and Assistant Professor of the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions and Jewish Studies at .听
Vegetarian lunches will be served.
Please register on
Brought to you by the Center for Israel Studies and the 91社区 Department of Anthropology.
On the Moral Imagination of "Strengthening Jewish Identity" in Central Israel
In May 2021, following an outburst of internecine violence in the central Israeli city of Lod, the city鈥檚 鈥淭orah seed鈥 group became the object of regional and international scrutiny and attention. This group is part of a wider national-religious movement aiming in the wake of the Oslo Accords to 鈥渟ettle in the hearts鈥 of their fellow Israeli Jews after 鈥渟ettling in the hills鈥 of the post-1967 West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Beginning in the late 1990s the movement built 鈥淭orah seed鈥 groups in binational cities inside the Green Line that intervened in these cities through myriad projects including, in the case of Lod, 鈥渟trengthening Jewish identity.鈥 Through examining this project of 鈥渟trengthening Jewish identity鈥 in relation to its critics, in this talk I explore how a perhaps surprising sense of national-religious discomfiture has shaped and constrained 鈥淭orah seed鈥 group moral imagination and effected political-theological shifts within Israel and far beyond it.
Andrew K. Atwell is an anthropologist, Judaism and Middle East specialist, and Assistant Professor of the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions and Jewish Studies at .听
Vegetarian lunches will be served.
Please register on
Brought to you by the Center for Israel Studies and the 91社区 Department of Anthropology.
7:00pm - 9:00pm
AM 189
Credit to the Nation: East European Jewish Immigrants and American Banking, 1873-1930
2026 Rabbi Moses Margolis Lecture
Thursday, October 22nd聽 |聽 7:00 p.m.听聽
AM 189 (Admissions Center)
Dr. Rebecca Kobrin, Russell and Bettina Knap Associate Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University
Based on her just-published book from Harvard University Press, Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930, Kobrin asks, what if the story of Jews and American banking wasn鈥檛 about Wall Street titans鈥攂ut about immigrant families who built commercial banking businesses that helped others thrive? Indeed, many are familiar with the names of famous early-twentieth-century German Jewish bankers such as Jacob Schiff, but far fewer have heard of men like Sender Jarmulowsky, Max Kobre, or Saul Singer. These East European Jewish immigrants helped millions of migrants with a few dollars and a dream buy ship tickets, borrow and save money, and send small sums back home. Millions saw their financial lives shaped by these men whose stories are now in the dustbin of history. In her talk Professor Kobrin shares their stories and explains how they reshaped American banking as well as the businesses of mass migration and real estate development. Signed copies of Kobrin鈥檚 book will be on sale at the event.
Rebecca Kobrin works in the fields of immigration history, urban studies, business history, East European history and American Jewish History, specializing in modern Jewish migration. Her book Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora (Indiana University Press, 2010) was awarded the Jordan Schnitzer prize (2012).听 She is the editor of Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism (Rutgers University Press, 2012), Salo Baron: Using the Past to Shape the Future of Jewish Studies in America (Columbia University Press, 2022) and is co-editor with Adam Teller of Purchasing Power: The Economics of Jewish History (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).听 In 2015, she was awarded Columbia University鈥檚 Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award for her outstanding teaching and graduate student mentoring. She is one of the principal investigators leading the award-winning digital humanities, an award-winning map that visualizes the demographic and spatial changes wrought in New York City between 1850 and 1940.
The talk is sponsoredby the Margolis Family Lecture Fund and the Judaic Studies Department at91社区 and is co-sponsored by 91社区鈥檚 College of JewishStudies.
2026 Rabbi Moses Margolis Lecture
Thursday, October 22nd聽 |聽 7:00 p.m.听聽
AM 189 (Admissions Center)
Dr. Rebecca Kobrin, Russell and Bettina Knap Associate Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University
Based on her just-published book from Harvard University Press, Credit to the Nation: Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Bankers and the Shaping of American Finance, 1873-1930, Kobrin asks, what if the story of Jews and American banking wasn鈥檛 about Wall Street titans鈥攂ut about immigrant families who built commercial banking businesses that helped others thrive? Indeed, many are familiar with the names of famous early-twentieth-century German Jewish bankers such as Jacob Schiff, but far fewer have heard of men like Sender Jarmulowsky, Max Kobre, or Saul Singer. These East European Jewish immigrants helped millions of migrants with a few dollars and a dream buy ship tickets, borrow and save money, and send small sums back home. Millions saw their financial lives shaped by these men whose stories are now in the dustbin of history. In her talk Professor Kobrin shares their stories and explains how they reshaped American banking as well as the businesses of mass migration and real estate development. Signed copies of Kobrin鈥檚 book will be on sale at the event.
Rebecca Kobrin works in the fields of immigration history, urban studies, business history, East European history and American Jewish History, specializing in modern Jewish migration. Her book Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora (Indiana University Press, 2010) was awarded the Jordan Schnitzer prize (2012).听 She is the editor of Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism (Rutgers University Press, 2012), Salo Baron: Using the Past to Shape the Future of Jewish Studies in America (Columbia University Press, 2022) and is co-editor with Adam Teller of Purchasing Power: The Economics of Jewish History (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).听 In 2015, she was awarded Columbia University鈥檚 Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award for her outstanding teaching and graduate student mentoring. She is one of the principal investigators leading the award-winning digital humanities, an award-winning map that visualizes the demographic and spatial changes wrought in New York City between 1850 and 1940.
The talk is sponsoredby the Margolis Family Lecture Fund and the Judaic Studies Department at91社区 and is co-sponsored by 91社区鈥檚 College of JewishStudies.