Eyes on the Future: Jewish Studies Program Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The University of Virginia’s Jewish Studies Program celebrated its 25^th anniversary with a weekend of events that brought alumni scholars, creative writers and other graduates together with current students, faculty and supporters of the interdisciplinary program.

The three-day celebration included a Nov. 1 gala dinner where past and current leaders of the program and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences reflected on the early challenges of building a Jewish Studies Program at UVA and announced a new $25 million fundraising campaign to support new professorships, graduate fellowships and new programming designed to assure its continued growth.

“This rich diversity of people, united by our common interest in Jewish history, Judaism, Jewish literature, culture, and music, this is what makes the Jewish Studies program such an exciting place to be,” program director and associate professor of religious studies Jennifer Geddes said at the Nov. 1 dinner. “The last few years have been, as you all know, a difficult time for those working in Jewish Studies. But I have to say that despite this, and perhaps in part because of this, the program has become more vibrant and exciting over the last two years. It has grown in the number of faculty and students engaged in it and in the reach of the program beyond the University.”

A model of 'thriving interdisciplinarity'

UVA’s Jewish Studies Program debuted in 2000 under the tenure of former Arts & Sciences Dean Melvyn Leffler, who was seeking to encourage more interdisciplinary programs and initiatives within the College. Speaking at the gala dinner, Leffler said he was “extremely aware” that most of the country’s world-class universities had well-regarded Jewish Studies programs.

“If we at UVA aspired to be among those great universities, then I felt the University of Virginia really needed a Jewish Studies program,” said Leffler, Edward Stettinius Professor of History, Emeritus. “I felt that such a program would provide a wonderful opportunity for our Jewish students to explore their identity and their historical roots. But at the very same time, I also was convinced that such a program could attract students of different faiths, and as a result of that, we would be able to nurture and encourage intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, which I felt was lacking in the College and at the University.”

Two decades later, the program faced a significant turning point in 2023 when Geddes began her appointment as director. In the previous five years, the program had lost seven core members of its faculty, primarily to retirement, including five who had served as directors and two who had helped to establish the program. With the support of Christa Acampora, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Buckner Clay Professor of Philosophy, the program has been re-energized in the last three years.

The Jewish Studies Program now features 36 affiliated faculty, from numerous academic department across Arts & Sciences, as well as from UVA’s School of Law, School of Nursing and School of Education. Its recently developed undergraduate fellows program now includes 26 students who meet monthly with faculty for dinners and other discussions. Its graduate fellows program has developed into one of the most robust interdisciplinary communities of graduate students on Grounds, Geddes said, and the program has raised its profile by expanding its public programming through live streams and its YouTube channel’s library of recorded panel discussions and other events.

Noting the “thriving interdisciplinarity” of UVA’s Jewish Studies Program, Acampora praised the program at the gala dinner for its modeling of viewpoint diversity and for serving as one of the University’s most creative programs in building and sustaining academic communities across an array of departments and disciplines.

“Jewish Studies has been the most generous in terms of its application of talent and expertise when we truly needed it the most at the University,” Acampora said, citing the program’s numerous events sponsored, not only on Grounds but at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. as well, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other topics. “In recent years, Jewish Studies has created numerous opportunities for students, faculty and community members to engage in difficult conversations, modeling the kind of dialogue that's so rare right now and yet so greatly needed for our democracy. Thus, anyone who is committed to viewpoint diversity should be eager to invest in Jewish Studies. It enriches the whole community through its educational and cultural programming and its contributions to discovery and creative activity.”

In addition to establishing three new professorships to expand its curriculum in Holocaust Studies, American Jewish life, modern Hebrew literature, Israel studies, Yiddish studies, and/or other topics, the new fundraising campaign aims to support graduate fellowships, summer internships for undergraduate students, faculty research and other initiatives.

The anniversary gala dinner was preceded on Oct. 31 with a Shabbat service and a welcome dinner in the Rotunda. Other events included a textual reasoning workshop with Peter Ochs, UVA’s Bronfman Professor Emeritus of Modern Judaic Studies, and UVA alumnus professor Emily Filler; a conversation with Jewish studies scholars who were once UVA undergraduates; and an alumni poetry and fiction reading at the UVA Bookstore.

Vanessa Ochs, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, a core member of the Jewish Studies Program since its inception, took a moment in her remarks at the gala dinner to thank all her colleagues for their efforts to build and establish the program.

“We have been able to nurture a space where the gifts of Judaism, the gifts of Jewish tradition and Jewish study have become available to every single student at the University of Virginia,” Ochs said. “Every single student, and yes, it has created a safe space for Jewish students and Jewish faculty. And I cannot discount how important that is.”