Jewish Studies

Engaged Jewish Studies

Engaged Jewish Studies takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of recent projects, field experiences, and post-graduate destinations for Jewish studies majors.

RISE at Oberlin
Research. Internships. Study Away. Experiential Learning.

Ways Jewish Studies Majors Rise

Research

  • The Promise of Protection: The Revolutionary Leadership of Rose Schneiderman and Clara Lemlich in Creating a New Jewish Identity
  • A Covenantal Theology of Protest: The Jewish Tradition of Moral Confrontation with God
  • Muscle Judaism: The German Origins of Modern Israeli Masculinity
  • Women’s Experience through Art at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
  • Schoenberg and Jewish/biblical themes (Moses und Aron)
  • The Rebbe and the Guru: Relationality and Devotional Practices
  • Reaching the Limit Case: Disassembling Form and Language to Reprepresent Deep Memories of Holocaust Traumas In Works by Gerhard Richter and Zbigniew Libera.
  • The Age of the Bas Mitzvah: Debating Hebrew Pronunciation in mid-20th-Century American Judaism
  • Teshuva: Repentance and Return How Anti-Zionist Jews are Reimagining Holidays and Inhabiting Biblical Narratives to Envision Their Olam Ha’Ba

Internships

  • Tikkun Magagine
  • Herbert May Archaeological Internship

  • Jewish Women's Archive

  • Steiner Summer Program at the Yiddish Book Center

Study Away

  • Hebrew University

  • CET in Prague

  • DIS in Copenhagen

  • University College London

Experiential Learning

  • The Herbert-Johnson House (J-house) is the residential program house for Jewish studies, where cultural and social programs are held
  • “Varieties of Jewish Ritual Practice: A Bagel Brunch Chat” with Rabbis Megan Doherty (Hillel), Rabbi Shlomo Elkan (Chabad), and Professor Shari Rabin
  • "A Reading and Conversation with Molly Antopol, Award-Winning Author of the UnAmericans"
  • “Jews as Race or Religion: Understanding Trump’s Executive Order,” a Jewish studies teach-in with Professors Matt Berkman, Josh Freedman, and Shari Rabin
  • “Reading, Talk, and Master Class with Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathan Englander
  • Haskell Lecture Series: “Radical Rhetoric: Poetics and Meaning in the Book of Job” with Edward Greenstein (Bar-Ilan University)
  • Herbert G. May Lectureship: speakers Amy Jill Levine (Vanderbilt University) and Marc Brettler
  • Yiddish poets and the Hebron Riots, lecture by Professor Amelia Glaser, University of California, San Diego
  • Freedom Seder led by Koach B. Frazier, St. Louis, Mo.
  • “Borders Spilling Over,” an artist’s talk and performance art show by Harel Max
  • Lecture and professional development conversation with Sandra Fox, podcaster, public historian, and author of The Jews of Summer
  • Lecture and ethnography workshop with Rachel Feldman, author of Messianic Judaism in the Digital Age

First Destinations of Recent Jewish Studies Majors

  • Graduate Schools:
    • PhD in philosophy, Graduate Center CUNY
    • MSEd in education culture and society, University of Pennsylvania
    • Jewish Theological Seminary of America
    • MA in anthropology, University of Michigan
    • Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, N.Y.
    • LABA fellow in Jewish culture at the 14th Street Y, N.Y
  • Positions:
    • Teach for America, Charlotte, N.C.
    • Elementary and high school teacher, Washington, DC
    • National pedicab general manager, Washington, DC
    • Contributing writer for Fortune Magazine
    • Policy work in Israel
    • Director of college counseling, Sage Ridge School, Nevada
    • Program coordinator, Millstein Center for Public Policy