Erasing Babi Yar, Again
BY REBECCA GOLBERT | MARCH 22, 2022
Babi Yar is the single most symbolic site of the Holocaust in Ukraine and across the former Soviet Union; it captures the predominant way in which the Germans and their allies massacred Jews on Soviet and Ukrainian soil, what priest and author Patrick Desbois has called “the Holocaust by bullets”. In the fall of 1941, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Jews were rounded up in Kiev (now Kyiv) and marched to the Lukyanovka Jewish cemetery, which borders the enormous ravine on the outskirts of the city. On September 29 and 30, 1941, close to 34,000 Jews were massacred by bullets in the ravine of Babi Yar. The Germans continued to round-up Jews and execute them at Babi Yar. However, they also used the ravine to execute Roma, Russian and Ukrainian civilians, and Soviet POWs of all nationalities. More than 100,000 victims are believed to have perished at Babi Yar between 1941 and 1943; approximately 50,000 of those victims were Jews.
BDS? Never heard of it.
BY RON E. HASSNER | MARCH 21, 2022
The massive international response to the crisis in Ukraine should have shocked BDS activists to the core. Twenty-plus years into its efforts to single-out Israel and sever its cultural, economic, and academic ties with the rest of the world, BDS has nothing to show for its efforts. Not a single company, bank, or university has joined the effort. Those who have attempted even a semblance of a boycott (like Ben & Jerry’s recent refusal to sell ice cream in the West Bank), faced immediate backlash, hurried to distance themselves from BDS, and eventually walked back their boycotts. Most US states now have anti-BDS laws on their books, as does Congress. As I show below, even on the most politically active campus in the U.S., students are unfamiliar with BDS, are skeptical about the effectiveness of sanctions, and vehemently reject academic boycotts.
Opinion | Putin Is Prepared to Destroy Ukraine. Is the West Willing to Stop Him?
BY GEORGE BRESLAURER | MARCH 14, 2022
A tragic war has been inflicted on Ukraine by a leader in Moscow who appears willing to destroy that country and his alleged Slavic “brethren,” in order to get his way. Adding to the tragedy is that it was avoidable.
Why I’m in mourning for hope + democracy in Ukraine
BY REBECCA GOLBERT | FEBRUARY 24, 2022
This has been the worst month of my 50 years of life. My mom died suddenly and unexpectedly a few weeks ago, my cousin’s 26-year-old son took his own life last week, and now Russia has invaded Ukraine.
I know these may seem like unrelated events — personal, tangential, global — but they are inextricably interwoven in my brain and sit heavily in my heart. The loss of my mom is permanent, I can’t get her back. So too, for my cousin, her siblings, her children, nieces and nephews; the rupture is too great to repair, and the loss of hope reflected in a young person’s suicide is a crushing burden.
For Ukraine and Ukrainians, who have seen war, conflict and occupation in the last century, and whose land is pocked with burial grounds and mass graves from World War II and the Holocaust, the Russian invasion is a stunning development after 30 years of independence, democracy and relative peace.
BY NICHOLAS SHAFER | FEBRUARY 24, 2022
Diplomacy is, at least in a democracy, about representing the people. Across the U.S. foreign affairs workforce, there is a crisis of representation– as of 2020, the Senior Foreign Service was 80% white, with only 6.2% Black or African American officers, 7.6% Asian-American officers, and 7% Hispanic officers. Furthermore, the highest echelons of the Foreign Service continue to be dominated by graduates from a handful of elite universities ; a recent investigation found that Foreign Service Officers with Ivy League degrees were significantly more likely to be promoted at every stage of their careers than their counterparts from less-esteemed schools.
Former Student of the Tel Aviv – Berkeley Executive LL.M. Program Appointed as First Muslim Justice to Israeli Supreme Court
BY TOI STAFF | FEBRUARY 21, 2022
Last week, Khaled Kabub was appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court, making him the first Muslim to serve in this role. Justice Kabub is an alum of the Tel Aviv – Berkeley Executive LL.M. Program, a long-standing program of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, in partnership with Tel Aviv University. Each year, the program brings dozens of Israeli lawyers, judges, and policymakers to study at Berkeley Law and complete their LL.M. (masters) degree. The Helen Diller Institute extends its congratulations to Justice Kabub for his historic appointment.
California Can Learn Much From Israel on How To Conserve Water, Manage Drought Better
BY RON E. HASSNER | JUNE 20, 2021
We can no longer pretend to be surprised by global warming. California experienced droughts in 11 of the last 15 years. The question is not whether another drought is looming.
The question is: Why aren’t we better prepared?
Alumni Spotlight: Nick Shafer – John Gardner Public Service Fellow, Middle East Bureau, USAID
Nick Shafer, Class of ’19, an alumni of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies’ Undergraduate Fellowship, graduated from UC Berkeley with a double B.A. in Anthropology and Arabic Language and Minors in Public Policy and Global Studies. In 2019, he studied at the Qasid Arabic Institute in Amman, Jordan as a Boren Scholar. Shafer then founded Global Community College Transfers, a non-profit dedicated to
increasing transfer student representation in
scholarships and fellowships.
A Long Conflict between Israel, Palestinians? No one wins, scholar says
BY EDWARD LEMPINEN | MAY 13, 2021
After years of relative calm, a sudden blitz of violence has raised worries of a new, protracted conflict in the Middle East.
What happens next? Predicting the course of armed conflict is always difficult, says Ron Hassner, a Middle East expert at UC Berkeley, but neither side has much to gain by such a conflict, and both have much to lose.
Spotlight: Talia Harris, Undergraduate Fellow, ’22
I have really loved the intimate conversations that fellows often have with professors during our fellowship. The Institute regularly sponsors visiting professors from Israel from a variety of academic fields. It is really interesting to hear about ideas I wouldn’t normally encounter in my political science classes
Jewish program at UC Berkeley gets $10m from Diller Foundation
BY MAYA MIRSKY | FEB 9, 2021
The Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley announced Tuesday it has received a $10 million gift from the S.F.-based Helen Diller Foundation to coincide with the institute’s 10-year anniversary.
UC Berkeley Jewish Law and Israel Studies Institute Receives $10M Gift from Helen Diller Foundation
BY ERIN BEN-MOCHE | FEB 9, 2021
To kick off the 10th anniversary of UC Berkeley’s Jewish Law and Israel Studies Institute, the university announced on Feb. 9 that a $10 million endowment gift has been given by the Helen Diller Foundation.
The institute, now recognized as the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, will ensure a lasting legacy for its Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies. Housed at Berkeley Law, the institute engages students, faculty and the broader community in Israel Studies, and Jewish law, thought and identity.
Berkeley Law Institute Receives $10 Million Gift and a New Name
BY KAREN SLOAN | Feb 9, 2021
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law has landed a $10 million donation that will bolster the work of its 10-year-old Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies.
$10 million gift from Helen Diller Foundation marks new name for Berkeley institute at 10 year
The University of California, Berkeley announced a $10 million endowment gift from the Helen Diller Foundation that will ensure a lasting legacy for its Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies. In recognition of this gift, the institute will now be known as the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley.
Alumni Spotlight: Daniella Wenger – Fulbright Scholar, MPhil Candidate, University of Cambridge
The Alumni Spotlight highlights former Undergraduate Fellows of the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies who are agents of change in their communities and careers.
New podcast looks at Israel and Jewish identity in ‘Age of Covid’
| JUNE 25, 2020
Interested in how a plague of locusts impacted Jews and Arabs in Palestine under Ottoman rule in 1915? Or how Haredi communities in Israel today have chafed against government edicts during the Covid-19 pandemic? Or why massive, expensive fortified barriers, like the U.S.-Mexico border wall and the West Bank barrier in Israel, continue to proliferate all over the world?
Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies Releases Podcast Series on Israel and Jewish Identity in the Age of COVID
In reaction to UC Berkeley’s closure and shelter-in-place policies, the Berkeley Institute rapidly shifted online and launched a live podcast series. The public release of the full recorded Spring 2020 season comes right in time for summer!
Berkeley, CA – May 2020 – The Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies released its Podcast Series on Israel and Jewish Identity in the Age of COVID.
The 14-episode series includes interviews with experts on topics related to Israel and the novel coronavirus through different lenses – political developments, economic impacts, technology and surveillance, trauma and resilience – as well as lessons from Jewish tradition and the virus’ impact on Jewish communal life. The full season is available online here.
UC Berkeley Establishes First Faculty Chair in Israel Studies
Joining a select group of universities in the world with an endowed faculty chair in Israel Studies, the University of California, Berkeley today (May 2, 2019) announced the creation of the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies. The chair is the university’s first in the field and will endow courses, research and programs of the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies.
The chair, made possible by a $5 million grant from the Helen Diller Foundation, will be held by Ron Hassner, the Berkeley institute’s faculty co-director and an international relations expert on the relationship between religion and conflict.
News from 2016
Visiting scholars and academic study antidote to anti-Israel line at U.C. Berkeley
(J. Weekly Editorial)
After years of battling calls for the destruction of Zionism, Israel’s friends at U.C. Berkeley learned they cannot out-shout the BDS crowd. They can, however, out-educate them.
The Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at Cal has pulled off a remarkable feat since its founding in 2011. Through its Israel Studies program, the institute has brought world-class scholarship to the study of Israel, and in so doing, mellowed the climate on what had been one of the most hostile of campuses vis-à-vis Israel.
Making strides: Israel studies flourishing at Cal
(Dan Pine, J. Staff)
As a U.C. Berkeley freshman, Jackson Block looked in vain for a course about Israeli high-tech innovation. Rather than wait for one to turn up in the catalog, he went ahead and created the class himself.
That kind of enterprising spirit is built into the Israel Studies fellowship, where Block had free rein to design a syllabus, book guest lecturers and co-teach a class on his subject of interest. Now a senior majoring in business, Block has co-taught “Innovation & Entrepreneurship: The Case of Israel” every year since.
Israeli Solar Outfit Seeks to Be ‘Superpower of Goodness‘
(Dan Pine, J.Weekly)
After moving to Israel’s blazing Arava Desert, Yosef Abramowitz felt the heat and wondered why Israel did not lead the world in solar energy.
He didn’t wait for an answer and launched Energiya, a solar power company that has built moneymaking solar fields in Israel and Africa. Today Abramowitz, who formerly enjoyed a career in the nonprofit sector, has a message for others aspiring to green up the planet: Profit is not a dirty word. (Read More)
Israeli Scholar Says Country Needs a Miracle – And Hope
(Arno Rosenfeld, J.Weekly Correspondent)
Avishay Braverman, an economist, scholar and former senior Israeli politician, brought a message of guarded optimism about Israel’s future to a packed lecture hall at Berkeley Law on Feb. 25.
Braverman highlighted pressing challenges facing the Jewish state, including economic inequality, a stalling technology sector, shifting demographics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Read More)
Mothers fea
r having babies at hospital once hailed for promoting Israeli, Palestinian coexistence
(Shaina Shealy, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, 2016)
News from 2015
Professor Shira Offer is visiting from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University. Her article is titled “The Costs of Thinking About Work and Family: Mental Labor, Work–Family Spillover, and Gender Inequality Among Parents in Dual-Earner Families.” Read the full article here.
Ex-Israeli ambassador tackles Mideast chaos in Berkeley talk
(Maya Mirsky, J. Weekly, 11/5/2015)
There were questions on Syria, questions on Palestine, questions on Israel-U.S. relations. But one question posed to former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Itamar Rabinovich got a big laugh: How does one become an ambassador? (Read More)
Visiting Professor Ori Aronson wins the annual Shneur Zalman Cheshin Prize for Academic Excellence in Law
In this picture, Professor Aronson receives his prize from the Hebrew University Law Faculty dean, Yuval Shani, and Bar Ilan University Law Faculty dean, Shahar Lifshitz. (Read More)
Berkeley Law Highlights “Reflections on the Legacy of Nuremberg” Conference
(5/13/15 Andrew Cohen)
In the wake of the Holocaust, prosecutors at the 1945 Nuremberg Trials faced a daunting task—trying to seek justice for an unfathomable scale of criminal behavior. Commemorating Nuremberg’s 70th anniversary, a recent Berkeley Law conference shed light on its legacy and influence on subsequent human rights tribunals. (…)
(5/7/2015)
A current law student at Boalt, Judah Marans, speaks about his grandfather and about his personal journey at UC Berkeley at the City of Berkeley’s 13th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. This story is titled “Grandchild’s Story.”
(Sue Fishkoff, 5/5/2015)
What might be the single most important film about Nazi crimes was commissioned in 1946 by the U.S. War Department — which then turned around and suppressed it, making sure it was never seen by American audiences (…)
J.Weekly 
article on event with Daniel Dahan, “Provence’s Chief Rabbi: Stay in France and fight”
(Dan Pine, J.Weekly Staff, 4/16/2015)
Inside a packed U.C. Berkeley lecture hall, Rabbi Daniel Dahan rattled off every obscene anti-Semitic act committed on French soil, from the famed Dreyfus affair in the 19th century to the massacre at a kosher supermarket in Paris three months ago (…)
News from 2014
(Dept. of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies)
Visiting Professors bring new perspectives and areas of expertise to TDPS, enriching both our curriculum and relationships with other universities. During 2013-2014, TDPS has welcomed the presence of Dr. Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor in Comparative Literature/Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. A tenured senior lecturer of Theater and Performance Studies at the Department of Comparative Literature in Bar Ilan University in Israel, she is teaching courses for both TDPS and Comparative Literature that have been quite popular with students.(…)
(Carly Nairn , 9/11/2014)
Long before 1971, when Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse on Shattuck Avenue, or even 1966, when Alfred Peet opened his first coffee shop in the North Berkeley neighborhood, gourmet ghettos existed throughout the world. Just as Saul’s, the lone Jewish deli on Shattuck, gives more than lip service to the California palate, the gourmet ghettos of Europe, Asia and North Africa were influenced by the customs, cuisines and agriculture of their surroundings. The result is an incredible diversity — from the kreplach and cabbage soup of Eastern Europe to the couscous and chickpea mélanges of the Mediterranean (…)
4/16/15: J.Weekly article on event with Daniel Dahan, “Provence’s Chief Rabbi: Stay in France and fight”
4/16/2015: J.Weekly article on event with Daniel Dahan, “Provence’s Chief Rabbi: Stay in France and fight”
J.Weekly article on event with Daniel Dahan, “Provence’s Chief Rabbi: Stay in France and fight”
(The Jewish News of Northern California, 4-16-2015)
Inside a packed U.C. Berkeley lecture hall, Rabbi Daniel Dahan rattled off every obscene anti-Semitic act committed on French soil, from the famed Dreyfus affair in the 19th century to the massacre at a kosher supermarket in Paris three months ago. Then he stated the obvious. “[French] Jews are afraid,” said the chief rabbi of the Aix-en-Provence region of France. “Seven thousand Jews made aliyah from France in the last year. But if you make aliyah because you’re afraid, that’s very bad.”
(Berkeley Law, 3-5-2014)
Research fellow Miri Lavi-Neeman understands first-hand the challenges in developing Berkeley Law’s Israeli and Palestinian Waterways conference. “There are so many critically important and complex issues,” she said of the March 11 event. “You could easily have a week-long conference on this topic.” Lavi-Neeman directs Israel studies research for the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, which is hosting the one-day conference. Working with Executive Director Rebecca Golbert and Faculty Director Kenneth Bamberger, she assembled a diverse group of international and U.S. experts to tackle concerns relating to water and the environment in the Middle East.
3/2014: Visiting Professor Sharon Aronson-Lehavi Brings New Perspectives to TDPS
3/2014: Visiting Professor Sharon Aronson-Lehavi Brings New Perspectives to TDPS
Visiting Professor Sharon Aronson-Lehavi Brings New Perspectives to TDPS
(Theater, Dance, and Performance studies: University of California, Berkeley, 3-2014)
Visiting Professors bring new perspectives and areas of expertise to TDPS, enriching both our curriculum and relationships with other universities. During 2013-2014, TDPS has welcomed the presence of Dr. Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor in Comparative Literature/Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. A tenured senior lecturer of Theater and Performance Studies at the Department of Comparative Literature in Bar Ilan University in Israel, she is teaching courses for both TDPS and Comparative Literature that have been quite popular with students.