From "Jews and American National Holidays" to the "History of Jews in New York," Stern College Presents Exciting New Lecture Series Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women will host a series of cutting-edge lectures in Jewish studies on the Beren Campus, delivered by leading academics. Dr. Beth Wenger, professor of history and director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver the inaugural lecture on May 1 at 7 p.m. in Room 1015, 245 Lexington Ave, New York City. Titled “Civics Lessons: Jews and the American Holidays,” the talk will highlight the opportunities celebrations such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day afforded early American Jews to declare their allegiance to the United States and write themselves into the narratives of American history, thereby making themselves and their culture pivotal actors in the creation of the nation. Wenger is the author of History Lessons: The Creation of American Jewish Heritage (Princeton University Press, 2010), The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America (Doubleday, 2007) and New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise, (Yale University Press, 1996), among others. The series is sponsored by a generous grant from the Robert and Susan Weiss Family Foundation. In Fall 2012, Dr. Sid Z. Leiman, professor of Jewish history and literature at Brooklyn College, will teach a course on 18th-century Jewish European intellectual history at Stern College. Stern College will also host an evening symposium on the history of the Jews in New York City during the 19th and 20th centuries, led by a group of distinguished scholars who are completing a three-volume work on the subject, as part of the series. More lectures, symposia and course offerings for coming semesters are in the works, according to Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel, chair of Stern’s Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies and E. Billi Ivry Chair and Professor of Jewish History. “Professor Wenger and Professor Leiman are distinguished and outstanding scholars in their fields and are both well-known for their stimulating and challenging lectures and analyses,” said Kanarfogel. “We are deeply grateful to the Weiss Family Foundation for funding and supporting these exciting initiatives which will undoubtedly contribute a great deal to the intellectual richness throughout the field of Jewish Studies that our students can experience on campus.” To learn more, email Estee Brick estee.brick@yu.edu.