Scenes from Graduation 2017-2018

Photographs from 2018 Graduation: (L to R) Prof. Davide Stimilli, Eleanor Landsbaum, Amber Manning, and Jordan Klevdal

On May 10, 2018, the Program in Jewish Studies along with family, friends, faculty and community members celebrated the accomplishments of the Jewish Studies class of 2017–2018. This year, we graduated five Jewish StudiesÌýminorsÌýand awardÌýthree graduate student endorsements. WeÌýalso honored our numerous scholarship, fellowship and award winners andÌýinterns.

All of our students are doing incredible things after graduation or with their awards. Scroll down to learn more!


Minors in Jewish Studies

Adam Finkelman

BS in Strategic Communication, Minor in Business and Jewish Studies.

Eleanor Rullkoetter LandsbaumÌý

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science andÌýCommunication, and minor in Jewish Studies. In Spring 2017, Eleanor presented her Research in Jewish Studies: How, What, Why?Ìýproject titled Beyond Sweet: A Baker's Understanding of Judaism as part of our Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. During her time at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ·, Eleanor was also part of the Jewish Studies Student Advisory Board.ÌýShe is currently working for a local start-up bakery and this Fall 2018Ìýwill begin Law School at the University of Denver.

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Ilana Nell Markowitz

Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, minor in Jewish Studies. This summer, Ilana will begin working with the Boulder Jewish Community Center pre-school, where she will serveÌýas an assistant and summer camp teacher.

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Elana Tovah Weiner

Bachelor of Arts in Music –ÌýPiano Performance, minor in Jewish Studies. Elana will be graduating CU with honors and plans on pursing a career in arts and administration. During her time at CU, she was a member of the Jewish Studies Student Advisory Board and involved in a number of other organizations on campus.ÌýElana plans to attend graduate school to further pursue her musical education and work with the international Jewish community through organizations such as the Joint Distribution Committee.

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Minors in Hebrew and Israel Studies

Ryan Catherine SchaferÌý

Bachelor of Art in Communication, Certification in Elementary Education, minor in Business and Hebrew and Israel Studies. Following graduation, Ryan will spend 10 months teaching English through the MasaÌýIsrael Teaching Fellows program in Israel.

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Graduate Endorsements in Jewish Studies

Jordan Lynn Klevdal

Master of Arts in English, Graduate Certificate in Critical Theory, and Graduate Endorsement in Jewish Studies
Thesis:ÌýThe Mystics of Memory: Jewish Mysticism in W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz

Using the lens of Jewish mysticism, Jordan’sÌýthesis seeks to address the question of how society records and erases histories of trauma and violence by examining the memorial accounts of the trauma of World War II and the devastation of the Holocaust in W.G. Sebald’s novel,ÌýAusterlitz.ÌýJo has been accepted to the PhD program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, joining UNC’s English and Comparative Literatures department to continue her work with memory, literatures of exile, and the conceptualization of nostalgia as an illness.

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Amber Ryan Manning

Master of Arts in English, Graduate Endorsement in Jewish Studies.
Thesis:ÌýOur Precious: Reclamation and the Golem in He, She and It and The Puttermesser Papers

Amber Manning's thesis,ÌýOur Precious: Reclamation and the Golem in He, She and It and The Puttermesser Papers, examines how a reclamation of the golem narrative can be a way to map notions of Jewish futurity and gender. This year, she received the CHA Post-Holocaust American Judaism Fellowship to conduct research in the archives for a digital exhibit and the Barry and Sue Baer Graduate Fellowship that will aid in her visit to Prague to continue research on the golem. Upon her graduation from CU,ÌýAmber will pursue a PhD at Duke University focusing on thing theory and the supernatural contemporary Jewish-American literature.Ìý

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Rebecca Zinner

Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Documentary Media Practices and Graduate Endorsement in Jewish Studies
Thesis: Welcome Home

Rebecca Zinner's thesis is a 15-minute documentary film that offers an insider look at a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip. Welcome Home highlights the mediated nature of the experience and ponders its impact on the political stances of the participants. After graduation, Rebecca will work for Boulder County to create film pieces that highlight the services provided by the county along with the people who benefit form them. She also plans to continue producing independent films and hopes to one day teach in higher-education.


Jewish Studies Scholarship and Fellowship Recipients

2017-2018 Fellowship & Grant Winners

Gregg Drinkwater
Gregg Drinkwater's fellowship will supportÌýhisÌýtravel to Philadelphia to examine records related to Judaism’s Reconstructionist movement, and to interview several key stakeholders involved in Reconstructionist engagements with gay and lesbian Jews in the 1980s. GreggÌýwill also spend time in New York to interview founding members of the city’s gay synagogue, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, as well as gay and lesbian Jews active in other grassroots gay and feminist Jewish groups in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Elana Lev Friedland
Elana Friedland, an MFA candidate in Creative Writing, was awarded a Barry and Sue Baer Graduate Fellowship to support their travel to Massachusetts to attend the TENT: Creative Writing workshop at the Yiddish Book Center. This past fall, Elana received a Baer Fellowship to support their performance piece, Sitting Seven Shivas.Ìý

Amber Manning
Amber Manning received the Baer Fellowship this past Fall 2017Ìýto support her trip to Prague to conduct research on the "Golem of Prague" narrative in. This relates directly to her thesis,ÌýOur Precious: Reclamation and the Golem in He, She and It and The Puttermesser Papers.ÌýCurrently, Amber is working on a digital exhibit comparing the legacies of Rabbi Judah Loew and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.

Jacob Allen Flaws
Jacob Flaws, a doctoral candidate in History, has been awarded a Rabbi Daniel and Ida Goldberger Fellowship and a Global Initiatives Scholarship to travel to Warsaw, Poland to conduct research in the archives at the Jewish Historical Institute, the POLIN Museum, and the Siedlce branch of the Polish National Archives. His dissertation focuses on providing Polish and Jewish spatial perspectives of the Treblinka extermination camp.

Graduate

Elana Lev Friedland
Elana Friedland will use their ACE Jewish Arts Grant toÌýsupport the creation and production of An Evening of Interfaith Cabaret.ÌýThe performance will feature members of various faith traditions in embodied engagements with their faith backgrounds.


Undergraduate

Natania Marie Bloch, Erika Gujila, Jace Leigh Rosenthal, Sarah Elizabeth Schleifer
The ACE Jewish Arts Grant will go toward the publishing and distribution of the 21st Century Jewish Catalog, a collaborative projectÌýedited and compiled by Natania Marie Bloch, Erika Gulija, Jace Leigh Rosenthal, andÌýSarah ElizabethÌýSchleifer.

The 21st Century Jewish Catalog is a contemporary response to the Jewish Catalog series published in the 1970s by Richard Siegel, Michael Strassfeld, and Sharon Strassfeld, and attempts to address new concerns and practices that have arisen within the Jewish-American community since the publication of the original Jewish Catalogs. The catalog will featureÌýinterviews with prominent members of the Denver/Boulder Jewish community, pieces written by Jews in the area, and new ritual practices gathered fromÌýclassmates and community. They hope that the publication of the 21st Century Jewish Catalog will inspire intergenerational conversations about the ever-changing Jewish community and the wider society it inhabits.

Graduate

Jeffrey William Baron
Jeffrey Baron, an MA candidate in Religious Studies, was awarded a Jewish Studies Global Initiatives Scholarship to support his participation in an archeological excavation at Reccopolis in central Spain as part of his thesis research on the Visigoths. While in Spain, he will also conduct research at other architectural sites and archeological museums in Cordoba, Toledo, and Madrid.

Jacob Allen Flaws
With the Global Initiatives Scholarship and the Rabbi Daniel and Ida Goldberger Fellowship, JacobÌýwill travel to and conduct research in Warsaw, Poland over several weeks during the Fall 2018 semester. HeÌýwill be doing research in the archives at the Jewish Historical Institute, the POLIN Museum, and the Siedlce branch of the Polish National Archives. This research will help provide Polish and Jewish spatial perspectives of the Treblinka extermination camp, which is the focus of Jacob's dissertation.

Mark Simon Joseph
Mark Joseph, an MA candidate in Religious Studies, was awarded a Jewish Studies Global Initiatives Scholarship to support his travels to Israel/Palestine, where he will be collecting musical and poetical contributions related to the possibility of coexistence in the region. He will be editing and collating collected pieces into a sound collage and incorporating them into a musical composition.


Undergraduate

Adam Marcus Austin
The Global Iniatives Scholarship was awarded to Adam to aid in his study abroadÌýat Tel Aviv Univeristy. He will attend two months of Ulpan to solidify his Hebrew and take additonal Jewish Studies courses.

Paige Elizabeth Segall
Paige Segall is currently studying at Tel Aviv University and will be there for an additional semester during Fall 2018 with the help of the Global Initiatives Scholarship. During her time inÌýIsrael, Paige isÌýtaking full advantage ofÌýabundance of Jewish Studies courses offered to her.ÌýThis opportunity has allowed her toÌýimmerse herself in the Hebrew languageÌýand first hand learn the history of the Jewish people.

Emily Frazier-Rath
Emily Frazier-Rath, a PhD Candidate in German Studies, will be focusing her first post-dissertation project on the intersections between Jewish and Roma activism in post-war Germany that center on remembering the Holocaust/Porajmos. Her summer research in the PHAJ collections will provide her context for her research from the Holocaust through the postwar Jewish resurgence period to the relative present.

Kelley Ann Walsh
Kelly Walsh, an MFA candidate in Dance, focuses her research on the contributions of Jewish-Appalachians to Appalachian dance and culture and the reasons why Jewish-Appalachian population is declining despite the overall increase of the Jewish population in the United States. Kelley’s research in the PHAJ Collections will provide her with a richer understanding of the post-Holocaust American Jewish experience.Ìý

Jacob Allen Flaws

Jacob will focus his summer archival research in the Harry W. Mazal HolocaustÌýCollections and will focus on producing a project to showcase how the collectionÌýcontains materials on many diverse topics – not solely on the Holocaust – andÌýtherefore holds value for all types of researchers.

Jace Leigh Rosenthal
This year the Katherine Jacob Lamont Scholarship was awarded to Jace Rosenthal. Jace is a pursuing majors in Jewish Studies, English, and Religious Studies.ÌýHe believes that Jewish Studies hasÌýenabled him to engage with topics across a range of disciplines, intersecting with his interests in literary, historical, and cultural methodologies. JaceÌýfeels privilege to be part of a department that uplifts its students, providing significant research and internship opportunities. "The Katherine Jacob Lamont Scholarship reflects the interests of the Jewish Studies program through its focus on interdisciplinary study within the humanities," Jace says.ÌýIn future semesters, heÌýintend to pursue research through the Program in Jewish Studies with support from its associated faculty.

Natania Marie Bloch
Natania Bloch is this year’s Baer Scholar. Natania is pursuing a double major in Jewish Studies and History, with Minors in Biochemistry and Communication, and a certificate in Pre-Health. Natania is committed to exploring the roots of Jewish traditions and norms and tying her interest in Jewish Studies to her future career aspirations in the medical field so that she might become a more successful and well-rounded doctor. In addition to her studies, Natania is also part of the CU V-Day Warriors and the CU Honors Program, and this coming academic year, will be a member of the Jewish Studies Student Advisory Board.

Two students, Jenna Solomon and Marnina Goldberg, were the recipients of the inaugural Jewish Studies Freshman and Sophomore scholarship, a tuition scholarship that rewards academic merit of freshman and sophomore students pursuing a Jewish Studies major or minor.

Ellen Marie Gostling
Ellen was the inaugural recipient of theÌýPost-Holocaust American JudaismÌýCollections Undergraduate ScholarshipÌýthis Spring 2018. SheÌýconducted research in the collections andÌýworked on creating a digital resource and research guideÌýrelated to conversion practices during and after the Holocaust framed by Harry W. Mazal’s own experience. Ellen was interested in the PHAJ Collections because so much of history has been shaped by the conflict of the Holocaust.

2017-2018 Internships in Jewish Studies

Gavriella Ben-Zaken, Sustainable Israeli-Palestine
Andie Capace, Gift of Life
Tom Eldar, Caliber Minds
Danielle Frank, Chef Ann Foundation
Ashley Garg, Boulder Jewish Community Center
Lior Gross, Hazon
Marianna Marquardt, Sustainable Israeli-Palestine
Lana Morgan, Congressman Jared Polis’s Office