Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
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Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
@katzcenterupenn.bsky.social
The University of Pennsylvania's research center for the study of Jewish civilization —linking scholars to scholars, researchers to resources, and ideas to the wider world.
In her seminar last week, Katz Center fellow Tamar Hess examined contemporary Israeli "national religious" poetry. Enjoy these highlights!
November 11, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Enjoy these highlights from the annual SIMS-Katz Distinguished Fellow's Lecture in Jewish Manuscript Studies. Professor Javier del Barco (Complutense University of Madrid) analyzed the unique features of two medieval Hebrew biblical manuscripts.
November 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Check out this this conversation with Author Steven Ujifusa tomorrow, November 5. Katz Center director Steve Weitzman will join our colleagues at PennNYC to moderate. www.penn.nyc/s/1587/gid2/...
November 4, 2025 at 7:53 PM
In advance of tomorrow's lecture, in Sephardic Bible bookcraft, Professor Javier del Barco drew participants into an archaeological survey of Penn Libraries’ MS Codex 1052, Hebrew Bible manuscript possibly produced in Modena, Italy, around 1480. Learn more below
www.library.upenn.edu/.../sephardi...
November 3, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Enjoy these highlight's from Wednesday's seminar, Diversity, Ethnicity, and Belonging: American Jewry Transformed led by fellow Gal Levy.
October 31, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The Katz Center is delighted to congratulate 2024–25 fellow Ahuvia Goren on winning an Ephraim Urbach grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture!
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Check out these highlight's from Wednesday's seminar, The Israeli Organ: Embodiment and Emotion in the Wake of October 7 featuring fellow Orian Zakai.
October 24, 2025 at 7:03 PM
This #fellowtuesday we're spotlighting 2025–26 fellow Joshua Shanes. As part of this year's theme New Frontiers in Contemporary Jewish Life, Shanes's research focuses on the Evangelicalization of Orthodoxy. Click below to read more about Joshua Shanes!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/who-we-are/j...
October 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
There are 3 weeks left to apply to the Katz Center's 2026–27 fellowship, War and Peace in Jewish Thought and History. Click below to learn more!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...
October 20, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Tuesday, October 21 at 5:15 pm, join our colleagues at the Penn Jewish Studies Department for a book talk with 2015–16 Katz Center fellow John M. Efron. Efron will discuss his new book, All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat.
jwst.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...
October 16, 2025 at 6:12 PM
There are 4 weeks left to apply to the Katz Center's 2026–27 fellowship, War and Peace in Jewish Thought and History. Click below to learn more!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...
October 13, 2025 at 3:36 PM
There are 5 weeks left to apply to the Katz Center's 2026–27 fellowship, War and Peace in Jewish Thought and History. Click below to learn more!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...
October 6, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Check out a few highlights from this week's seminar: fellow Marjorie Feld led the talk, From the Roots: A History of the Sustainable Jewish Farming Movement.
October 3, 2025 at 4:49 PM
We're thrilled to share that 2024–25 fellow Wendy Zierler's new book, Going Out with Knots was just published today by University of Nebraska Press.
www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/.../going-ou...
October 1, 2025 at 5:33 PM
This #fellowtuesday we're spotlighting 2025–26 fellow Hannah Mayne. As part of this year's theme New Frontiers in Contemporary Jewish Life, Mayne's research focuses on transgressive piety: emerging practices of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women.
katz.sas.upenn.edu/who-we-are/h...
September 30, 2025 at 6:32 PM
There are 6 weeks left to apply to the Katz Center's 2026–27 fellowship, War and Peace in Jewish Thought and History. Click below to learn more!
katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...
September 29, 2025 at 2:16 PM
With an eye toward this year’s fellowship theme of New Frontiers in Contemporary Jewish Life, check out this "Collections Spotlight."
katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/bl...
September 26, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Enjoy these highlights from Wednesday's seminar, Torah u'Maga: The Religio-political Theology of Contemporary Orthodoxy with fellow Joshua Shanes.
September 19, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Check out these highlights from the opening seminar of the 2025-2026 fellowship year, New Frontiers in Contemporary Jewish Life: Cultural Expansions, Encounters, and Experiments. Short-term fellow Michal Kravel-Tovi led introduced a discussion on Thinking from the Frontier. #FellowFriday
September 12, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Unrest in the Roman Empire: A Discursive History is now open access. Download the whole book, including Katz Center associate director Natalie Dohrmann's contribution, for free here: www.campus.de/buecher-camp...
September 10, 2025 at 5:52 PM
This #fellowtuesday the Katz Center spotlights incoming 2025–26 fellow Tamar Hess. As part of this year's theme, Hess's research focuses on contradictions in contemporary Israeli religious Zionist literature.
katz.sas.upenn.edu/who-we-are/t...
September 9, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Applications are open for the 2026–27 international fellowship program, a year focused on war and peace in Jewish history, thought, and culture. Deadline to apply is November 10, 2025. Apply below!

katz.sas.upenn.edu/scholarly-pr...
August 27, 2025 at 2:47 PM
This #fellowtuesday the Katz Center spotlights incoming fellow Peter Decherney. As part of this year's theme, New Frontiers in Contemporary Jewish Life, his research will focus on amplifying the stories of African Jewish communities through photography and film.
katz.sas.upenn.edu/who-we-are/p...
August 12, 2025 at 6:02 PM
We're delighted to congratulate Penn professor and former Katz Center fellow Simcha Gross on winning the 2024 Salo Baron Prize for the best first book in Jewish studies for Babylonian Jews and Sasanian Imperialism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge University Press).

aajr.org/funding/baro...
August 4, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Read the Jewish Quarterly Review 115.3 for:
-Early Jewish head coverings
-The Talmud & the Aramaic incantation bowls
-Israel Naraja
-The Palestinian vocalization signs
-Yosef Yerushalmi & Walter Benjamin
-James Baldwin & Louis Finkelstein

Learn more and read two free essays!👇
tinyurl.com/ynu6htzd
August 1, 2025 at 4:15 PM