The Program for Jewish Civilization introduces students to Judaism's global dimensions, achievements, ethical aspects, and relationships with other peoples and polities. Our endeavor is unique among Jewish academic programs in American universities.
Information
- Founded:
- 2003
Events
14 past eventsSee All
- Jewish-Catholic Relations in L...
Mortara Center for International St...
Wednesday, December 2 at 6:00pm - We Are Not Mizrahi, We Are Ind...
CCAS Boardroom (ICC 241)
Thursday, November 19 at 12:00pm - Sports-World Christianity and ...
CCAS Boardroom (ICC 241)
Tuesday, November 17 at 1:00pm - Human Rights, Antisemitism, an...
Mortara Center for International Af...
Tuesday, November 10 at 6:00pm - Human Rights, Antisemitism, an...
Mortara Center for International Af...
Tuesday, November 10 at 6:00pm - Obama, Israel, and the Middle ...
McShain Lounge Large
Wednesday, October 28 at 12:00pm - Obama, Israel, and the Middle ...
McShain Lounge Large
Wednesday, October 28 at 12:00pm - The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Ja...
ICC 234
Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00pm - BADDIES - Between Image and Text
MSFS COnference Room (7th Floor ICC)
Tuesday, October 13 at 4:00pm - Can Terrorism Ever Be Justified?
McShain Lounge
Wednesday, September 30 at 12:00pm
About the PJC
About the PJC What is unique about the PJC is that we are the only Jewish studies--we prefer the term Jewish civilization-- program in America that is not located in a liberal arts college. Rather, we are situated in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, which is ranked first in the nation on the Masters level and fourth on the undergraduate level. This means that our specialty is policy. The scholars we hire literally change the Jewish world. In the past year alone we watched Ambassador Dennis Ross become a Special Envoy to the Middle East and just last month Professor Michael Oren was named Israeli Ambassador to the United States. The PJC, then, is not just a place where we teach the nation's best and brightest about everything from the Bible to Jewish-American literature, but a program geared to developing the talent that will lead our communities in the coming century. Given that the SFS produces more congresspersons, Foreign Service Officers, and business leaders than nearly any other university in the country; we feel that the growth of our program is inextricably bound to the Jewish future.
Director: Jacques Berlinerblau
Assistant Director: Melissa Weinberg Spence
Program Coordinator: Julia de Araujo
Our Faculty
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
The Herman Allen 'Hal' Israel (C'02) Endowed Lectureship in
Jewish-Catholic Relations this year will be a talk by Deborah E.
Lipstadt entitled 'Jewish-Catholic Relations in Light of the Bishop
Williamson Controversy'. -
Deborah Lipstadt is currently the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and
Holocaust Studies at Emory Univers...ity. She was a consultant to the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and served two terms on the
United States Holocaust Memorial Council. She is also the author of
'Denying the Holocaust: the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,' and
an expert on Jewish-Catholic relations.
RSVP at http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/rsvp/ind
Time:6:00PM Wednesday, December 2nd
Location:Mortara Center for International Studies
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
This talk is based on Dr. Maina Singh's book 'Being Indian, Being
Israeli: Migration, Ethnicity and Gender in the Jewish Homeland'(2009).
Dr. Singh presents a deeply researched analysis, examining for the
first time, all three Jewish communities from India holistically as
'Indian-Israelis'-- with shared histories of migrat...ion, displacement,
acculturation and identity in the Jewish Homeland. Based on extensive
fieldwork and ethnographic research conducted among Indian Jews across
Israel between 2005-8, the book draws upon over 150 interviews and
reflects the author's own deep engagement and familiarity with Israeli
society and the complexities of ethnicity and class that underlie the
cleavages within Israeli Jewish society. - Professor Singh was
Haddasah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence (2008) and Fellow, Schusterman
Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University(Summer 2009). She is
currently Clenenden Scholar-in-Residence in History at American
University
Time:12:00PM Thursday, November 19th
Location:CCAS Boardroom (ICC 241)
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
The infusion of evangelical Christianity in sports comes at a scarcely
examined cost to the religiously diverse communities that support major
league franchises, particularly Jewish (and other religious minority)
populations. Tom Krattenmaker, the author of the new book 'Onward
Christian Athletes,' will explore the ways th...at Jewish concerns and
rights have been too often ignored--indeed, violated--by evangelical
activity in pro sports, and will begin a long-overdue discussion of
measures to ensure a more consistently respectful, pluralistic, and
unifying form of faith in the game.
Time:1:00PM Tuesday, November 17th
Location:CCAS Boardroom (ICC 241)
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
Join us for a lecture with Professor Robert S. Wistrich, Neuberger Chair for Modern European and Jewish History, and Director of The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism- SICSA, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as he discusses the historical and international dimensions of antisemitism. RSVP... HERE: http://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/rsvp/ind
Time:6:00PM Tuesday, November 10th
Location:Mortara Center for International Affairs
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
The American-Israeli special relationship is one of longstanding, but
the coming to office of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has seen friction develop between the two leaders
and their governments. Despite these differences, fundamental
continuities in the relationship remain in place. The pro...blems that
have emerged in the relationship are more a function of differences in
operational style and of assumptions about the ultimate sources of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the means to resolve it.
Time:12:00PM Wednesday, October 28th
Location:McShain Lounge Large
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973)
October 20 @ 7:15, ICC 234
In this riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities, Victor Pivert, a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Slimane, an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assasins from Sl...imane's country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who's returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert's dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who's about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob. Written by Eugene Kim
Time:7:00PM Tuesday, October 20th
Location:ICC 234
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
The American-Israeli special relationship is one of longstanding, but
the coming to office of President Barak Obama and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has seen friction develop between the two leaders
and their governments. Despite these differences, fundamental
continuities in the relationship remain in place. The prob...lems that
have emerged in the relationship are more a function of differences in
operational style and of assumptions about the ultimate sources of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the means to resolve it.
ROBERT
J. LIEBER is Professor of Government and international Affairs and
Executive Committee chair of the Program for Jewish Civilization. He
has previously served as Chair of the Government Department and Interim
Chair of Psychology. He is author or editor of fifteen books on
international relations and U.S. foreign policy. His most recent book
is, The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century
(Cambridge University Press, 2007). He is now working on a book
entitled, Staying Power and the Future of the American Era
Time:12:00PM Wednesday, October 28th
Location:McShain Lounge Large
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
David Stromberg
is a writer, artist and journalist. His publications include three
collections of single-panel cartoons—Saddies, Confusies,
and Desperaddies—and he has written on art and culture for The
Believer, Nextbook, St. Petersburg Times, Jerusalem Post, and Ha’aretz.
His fiction has appeared in the UK’sAmbit. Born in... Ashdod, Israel, to
ex-Soviet parents, Stromberg grew up in urban Los Angeles and currently
resides in Jerusalem.
Baddies looks
aslant at everyday life, unearthing its most hilarious and ridiculous
aspects amidst even our darkest fears and phobias. Inhabited by an
antic and eclectic assortment of odd-ball characters, who star in
chapters such as “Action and Its Doubt,” “The Day and Its Battle,”
“Mystery and Its Carnality,” these captioned cartoons capture a world
forever veering off from the normal, the rational, and the “well
adjusted.”
Time:4:00PM Tuesday, October 13th
Location:MSFS COnference Room (7th Floor ICC)
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) REMINDER: Can Terrorism Ever Be Justified? A lecture by Tamar Meisels. McShain Lounge Large at noon.Tomorrow!
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
REMINDER: What Is Secular Judaism? Tuesday, Sept 22 @ ICC Auditorium. http://events.georgetown.edu/events/inde
events.georgetown.edu
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
Professor Meisels warns against a recent philosophical confusion concerning the definition of “terrorism”, which is predominant in the post 9-11 literature thereon. She calls for a strict and consistent definition of “terrorism” as a particular form of political violence, and for its unequivocal condemnation by liberal...s – left and right. Terrorism is the intentional random murder of defenseless non-combatants, with the intent of instilling fear of mortal danger amidst a civilian population as a strategy designed to advance political ends. Furthermore, she argues that regardless of its “root cause”, terrorism is diametrically opposed to the requirements of liberal morality and can only be defended at the expense of relinquishing the most basic of liberal commitments.
Dr. Tamar Meisels is the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Visiting Professor at the Department of Government. She has received her PHD at Oxford University from the Politics Department. Her research interests are in the fields of Nationalism, Territorial Rights, and Terrorism. She has produced numerous published works on these subjects.
A lecture by Tamar Meisels
Time:12:00PM Wednesday, September 30th
Location:McShain Lounge
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
In 2001 the American Jewish Identification Survey revealed that 44% of 'Jews by Religion' described their outlook as 'secular' or 'somewhat secular.' The statistic is shrouded in controversy, if not confusion. Though it did provide the impetus for the emergence of the Center for Cultural Judaism, all the while buttress...ing the standing of Judaism’s fifth denomination, Secular-Humanistic Judaism. In this presentation we try to understand what a 'secular' outlook might entail and why it may have such an elective affinity with the unique historical and theological dimensions of Judaism. It is argued that there is no contradiction in being 'secular' and 'Jewish' (as some ultra-Orthodox and even Reform groups have maintained) and that such an identity has a major role to play in the Jewish future.
Jacques Berlinerblau is associate professor and director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Berlinerblau holds separate doctorates in ancient Near Eastern Languages and Literatures and theoretical sociology--a formation that permits him to ping pong between antiquity and modernity in his scholarly research. He is the author of 4 books, most recently The Secular Bible Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously and Thumpin' It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics. Berlinerblau’s areas of expertise include secularism, secular Judaism, and the interplay of religion of politics in America—subjects which he has discussed in numerous academic journals, as well as media outlets such as CNN, CBS News, BBC, MacNeil/Lehrer, US News and World Report, and The Economist, among many others. Professor Berlinerblau currently hosts a show, 'Faith Complex,' which explores the intersection of religion, politics, and art and airs weekly on WashingtonPost.com
RSVP: http://tinyurl.com/kl654v
A lecture by Jacques Berlinerblau
Time:6:30PM Tuesday, September 22nd
Location:Georgetown University, ICC Auditorium
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) Ambitious three-hour-plus documentary 'Being Jewish in France' traces Jews' stormy history in the nation, from their warm acceptance as citizens under Napoleon to their current status as quasi-pariahs. Made for French TV, the film mainly concerns the Holocaust and the rampant revisionism that succeeded it. Although ...certain assumptions will puzzle American audiences, it is unlikely that, despite the documentary's copious archival riches and dramatic revelations, many non-Jewish viewers will flock to such a detailed and Gallo-specific chronicle.
The first in our Tuesday Film Series
Time:8:15PM Tuesday, September 29th
Location:ICC Auditorium (116)
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Program-fo
Jewish Tales from Russia, France, and Israel
Location:Mortara Center
Time:6:00PM Wednesday, September 16th
Program for Jewish Civilization (PJC) New Class! INAF-199: Intro to Jewish Civilization. Don't forget to register!
courses.georgetown.edu
An exploration of the fundamental political, cultural, and religious ideas that have served to define Jewish Civilization from biblical times to the present. Special attention is paid to stasis and dynamism ...
