UM Frankel Center for Judaic Studies

10/20/2026

In the recent AJS Podcast episode titled "The Reconstructionist Movement", guest scholars Jenna Weissman Joselit, Deborah Dash Moore, and Deborah Waxman offer an illuminating exploration of the movement’s origins, defining ideas, and continuing influence.

Podcast Episode · Adventures in Jewish Studies Podcast · October 8 · 38m

10/06/2026

The 2025-26 Frankel Institute Annual is available to read online, featuring essays by every fellow from the "Jews & Media" cohort. Each perspective highlights a different intersection of Media studies with studies of Jews, Jewishness, and Judaism.

https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/b5644w07v?locale=en

09/17/2026

Read the Frankely Speaking Fall 2026 Newsletter online now!

The Frankely Speaking newsletter keeps alumni, supporters, and community members up to date on the Center. The newsletter offers coverage of Frankel Center events, faculty honors, fellowship announcements, alumni bulletins, and information on U-M Judaic Studies students.

09/10/2026

The University of Michigan Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies is accepting applications for the 2027-28 “Rethinking Jewish Peoplehood: Towards a New Archive” theme year, led by Head Fellow Rebecca Wollenberg (University of Michigan). Applications are due on November 2, 2026.

To learn more and apply, please visit https://lsa.umich.edu/judaic/institute/applications

05/01/2026

Please join the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies in congratulating our Graduate Student Award winners!

This year’s Marshall Weinberg prize, given annually to an outstanding graduate student who is engaged in writing a dissertation, was awarded to Martin Amesquita.

Denisa Glacova has been awarded the Marshall Weinberg Dissertation Writing Semester Fellowship for the Fall 2026 semester. This Fellowship includes tuition, stipend, and grad care for one semester.

Congratulations to our two recipients of the Michael S. Bernstein Dissertation Award: Morgan Carlton and Marina Mayorski.

04/17/2026

04/15/2026

Join us for two FREE film screenings in Rackham Amphitheater at 6:30 PM:

Sabbath Queen Film Screening & Panel Discussion on Monday, April 20

My One and Only Film Screening & Panel Discussion on Tuesday, April 21

Let us know you’re coming: https://myumi.ch/79GqE

This spring, the University of Michigan’s Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies is hosting a symposium on Judaism and Film. This global celebration of Jewish cinema is inspired by the new Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film, edited by Olga Gershenson, co-head fellow for the 2025-26 Frankel Institute “Jews and Media” theme year.

The event reimagines Jewish film as a vibrant, multilayered phenomenon, stretching beyond Hollywood and Europe to encompass India, Ethiopia, Turkey, Mexico and beyond.

The story: https://www.thejewishnews.com/culture/arts/u-m-frankel-institute-symposium-explores-global-jewish-cinema/article_bd41f8e2-baf6-4a22-8b50-3edd5c4529eb.html

02/19/2026

Mazel Tov to Professor Mostafa Hussein, whose new book, "Hebrew Orientalism," has been named a finalist for the 75th National Jewish Book Awards!

02/05/2026

A recent public lecture by Frankel Institute Fellow Anna Narinskaya on the life and work of incarcerated director Zhenya Berkovich was featured in this great article from The Michigan Daily!

CREES hosted Anna Narinskaya on Zhenya Berkovich, Russian director and playwright sentenced to prison in 2024 for “justifying terrorism.”