Center for Jewish Studies records

Collection

Identifier: 05.CJS

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Center for Jewish Studies records is currently comprised of files of event information, news clippings, and the Center's newsletter. At this time, the collection is not a complete representation of the broad impact of the Center.

Dates

Creation: 2013-2024

Conditions Governing Access

Researchers are asked to request materials 24 hours prior to visiting the University Archives.

Biographical / Historical

The Eastern Michigan University Center for Jewish Studies was formally introduced at a ceremony involving Senator Carl Levin on February 23, 2012. Since that time, the Center has grown and developed significantly. The Center for Jewish Studies provides exceptional curricular and travel opportunities for EMU students and offers accessible and engaging programming to enrich both the EMU and Southeast Michigan communities. The center operates with a combination of university and community support.

The EMU Center for Jewish Studies brings a range of excellent programming—some cultural like musical acts or comedians, and others more academic—to the Southeast Michigan Community. All programs, which are free and open to the public, aspire to be timely and relevant to contemporary discussions as well as accessible and engaging for non-academic audiences.

Eastern Michigan University's Interdisciplinary Jewish Studies program offers courses concerned with the history of the Jewish people, a story of survival under extraordinary circumstances. It considers the cultural and intellectual gifts Jews have given the world. It also focuses on the Jewish faith, its richness, its intricacy, its demands, as well as its complex and fascinating relationships with other religions.

This program draws on faculty expertise from throughout university. It engages students in a wide range of co-curricular activities including lectures and study abroad opportunities. EMU's program in Jewish Studies provides a gathering place for EMU's numerous ethnic communities to learn more about Jews and Judaism, a space to build bridges, to open and engage in discourse, to create new understandings between Jews and the many other groups that comprise the diverse culture of southeast Michigan.