Alanna Cooper

Professor Cooper’s article, co-authored with Law School Professor Sharona Hoffman, “For the sake of Israel, it’s time to retire the word ‘Zionism‘” was included in JTA Telegraphic Agency’s “Essential Jewish Conversations of 2024.” Her article, “A Survey of American Synagogue Stained Glass” – the first history of its kind – has been published in the recent volume of Journal of Religion and the Arts.

Jay Geller

In 2024, Professor Geller published two letters to the editor in the CWRU Observer, including “LTTE: An appeal to reconsider how we think about Jews, Arabs and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” In both cases, he tried to set the record straight concerning misuses of history and false “facts” presented in debating the history of Zionism and Israeli-Palestinian relations. In the summer of 2024, he gave a presentation in Hamburg, Germany, about his new research project, on synagogue architecture in the 1920s and 1930s, which will be published as a scholarly article in 2025. In March 2025, he will be giving a book talk (in German!) at the City Museum of Berlin about his book The Scholems: A Story of the German-Jewish Bourgeoisie from Emancipation to Destruction, also published in German translation.

Nadav Linial

Award-winning Hebrew poet, Professor Linial teaches Hebrew 101 & 102 and runs the “Hebrew Table” at CWRU – monthly meetings in which we explore the works of Israeli writers, poets and artists. Outside of CWRU Linial teaches poetry with Literary Cleveland.

Barbara Mann

Professor Mann teaches modern Hebrew and Jewish literature and co-directs the New Gutenberg Annex Letterpress Studio on campus.  Please contact her directly in you are interested in learning how to set type in Hebrew!

Next June she is directing an NEH Summer Institute, “Between Memory and the Archive: Jewish Print Culture,” which will bring together a diverse cohort of scholars to study and learn about the history of Hebrew type and print

JWST/HSTY 115:
“How Did We Get Here? A Deep Dive into the History of Israel and Palestine”

Professors Jay Geller & Barbara Mann

Wed 5:30 PM – 7:10 PM • 1 credit • 6 meetings

The course provides an introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and encourages students to respectfully and productively engage with each other and faculty about current events in the Middle East. The course is structured around a four-part webinar with Hussein Ibish and David Myers from Fall 2023. Students will view the webinar segments on their own, complete short reading and writing assignments, and come together for class discussion with rotating faculty.

This course fulfills the UGER Perspectives requirements for Understanding Global Perspectives