Professor – Deidre Butler
Associate Professor, Director of the Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies
- Degrees: BA, MA, PhD Concordia University
- Phone: 613-520-2600 x 8106
- Email:听deidre.butler@carleton.ca
- Office: 2A49 Paterson Hall
Biography
Dr. Deidre Butler is Director of the Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies and is the Jewish Studies specialist in the Religion program at 杏吧原创 University. Butler is an award-winning teacher whose teaches in the areas of modern Judaism, gender, sexuality and religion, and religious and philosophical responses to the Holocaust.聽 Butler鈥檚 research operates at the intersections of religion, ethics and feminist thought.聽Her current research program聽targets聽modern Jewish life聽and thought聽as聽its object of聽study and聽develops a sustained聽critique of the ways in which philosophical and cultural narratives聽efface聽and dislocate lived gendered,聽and聽embodied聽experiences.聽Her聽research聽complicates聽and contests聽these distortions by聽marshalling聽a聽range of聽types of聽evidence聽(including original聽ethnographic data, as well as聽theological, philosophical, and artistic responses).
Her聽current research project, in collaboration with Professor Betina Appel Kuzmarov (Law and Legal Studies),聽Troubling Orthopraxy: A Study of Jewish Divorce in Canada is an interdisciplinary ethnographic project that investigates the聽phenomenon of Jewish religious divorce in聽Canada. 聽The project interrogates the problem聽of Get abuse;聽the phenomenon of husbands delaying or refusing to grant their wives Jewish聽religious divorces or delaying or refusing religious divorces in order to extort more favourable terms in a civil divorce.
Professor Butler led the Israel travel course in 2014, 2018 and again will do so for 2020.聽 “This travel course is one of the highlights of my professional career.聽 It is an extraordinary experience for students, but it is also an extraordinary experience for me as a professor.聽 It is such a pleasure to get to know students and share in their joy of learning through travel.”聽 Butler brings her expertise in Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, modern Jewish life, and contemporary Israel to the course.聽
Professor – Pamela J. Walker
Professor, Department of History
- Degrees: B.A. (Concordia), M.A. (York), Ph.D. (Rutgers)
- Phone: 613-520-2600 x 1197
- Email: pamela.walker@carleton.ca
- Office: 417 Paterson Hall
Planned Guest Speakers (2023 indicates confirmed)
2023 Ambassador聽Alan Baker is an Israeli expert in international law and former ambassador of the state of Israel to Canada. He is the director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former partner in the Tel Aviv law firm of Moshe, Bloomfield, Kobo, Baker & Co. He was a military prosecutor and senior legal adviser in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and represented the Ministry of Defense at international conferences, and then joined the Foreign Ministry as legal adviser. He participated in the negotiation and drafting of agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians. In January 2012 he was appointed by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to the three member committee chaired by former Justice Edmund Levy to examine the legal aspects of land ownership in the West Bank. The committee’s report, referred to as Levy Report, was published by the Israeli government in Hebrew in July 2012.
2023 Dr. Dani Kranz is the director of Two Foxes Consulting and senior research fellow at Bergische University Wuppertal, Germany. Trained in anthropology, social psychology and history, her areas of expertise cover migration, ethnicity and law. Within these intersecting fields, she has worked issues of interfamilies and interchildren, citizenship and intergenerational transmission in Israel and Germany. Her latest work concerns the trialectic between Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Germany as well as the perceptions of Israeli Jewish and Palestinian/Arab Muslims migrants and the Middle East Conflict.
2023 Tel Maresha Dig for a Day: Lecture by site leader and participate in dig.聽Currently, Archaeological Seminars is digging at Tel Maresha, in the area of聽Beit Guvrin, ancestral home of King Herod. Vast underground labyrinths聽of man-made rooms are being systematically cleaned and give evidence of聽underground industrial complexes dating from the Hellenistic period.聽Remains of olive oil production, weaving installations, water cisterns and聽baths confirm a high level of material culture. This site offers a wealth of聽discoveries and practical experience for those who want to “dig” but have聽limited time.
2023 Temple Sifting Project Lecture:听 In addition to participating in the sifting project we will hear from one of the project lead archeologists about the site and findings. The Temple Mount Sifting Project is under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University. The project began in 2004 whose aim is the recovery and study of archaeological artifacts contained within debris which was removed from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem without proper archaeological care.
2023 Dr. Arik Rudnitzky serves as Project Manager of Tel Aviv University’s Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation, at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. He holds PhD degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Bar-Ilan University, as well as MA (magna cum laude) and BA degrees in Middle Eastern History from the Faculty of Humanities and an MBA degree from the Faculty of Management, from Tel Aviv University.
Over the past two decades, Dr. Rudnitzky has been studying issues concerning Arab society in Israel. His fields of expertise cover political, national and social developments in the Arab society in Israel, as well as government policies on Arab minority in Israel.
Dr. Gabriel Barkay:听 Temple Mount Sifting Project: Born in Hungary in 1944, and immigrated to Israel in聽1950. After graduating from Hebrew University summa cum laude where he studied archaeology, comparative religion and geography, he graduated summa cum laude聽from Tel Aviv University with a Ph.D in archaeology in 1985.聽He has聽participated on various levels in numerous digs, and discovered the Silver聽Scrolls, two silver amulets that contain the Priestly Benediction (Numbers聽6:24-26), which are the earliest recorded biblical verses ( dated to the聽late-7th century B.C. First Temple period) that mention the name 鈥淵HWH.鈥� This聽makes the amulets the oldest Biblical inscriptions ever found, predating the聽Dead Sea Scrolls by at least 400 years, and the first mentioning the name of the聽LORD.聽More recently, a 2,700-year-old clay seal was unearthed within the ancient City of David. Under Dr. Barkay鈥檚 direction, an archaeological team at the聽, sifted through the dig site鈥檚 debris and discovered the聽now-famous 鈥淏ethlehem Seal鈥� dated to the 7th century B.C.聽Dr. Barkay was the first to translate the seal鈥檚聽significant three line inscription which says 鈥淚n the 7th year, Bethlehem, for the king鈥�.聽He has been the director of the Israel聽Excavation Society Sifting Project since 2004, sifting soil from the Temple聽Mount area. Tens of thousands of finds have revealed human activity on the site聽of the Temple Mount covering fifteen thousand years.聽Previous excavations聽include Megiddo, Lachish, Momshit, and Susa in Iran. He has concentrated on sites in Jerusalem since the 1970s, participating and directing on various聽levels.
Dr. Ren茅e Levine Melammed is a full professor of Jewish History at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem where she heads the women鈥檚 studies program. Her first book,聽Heretics or Daughters of Israel: The Crypto-Jewish Women of Castile聽(1999) received two National Jewish Book Awards. Her second book is聽A Question of Identity: Iberian Conversos in Historical Perspective聽(2004) and her third book,聽An Ode to Salonika: The Ladino verses of Bouena Sarfatty聽was published by the University of Indiana Press in 2013.
Dr. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder is a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University. Her studies focus on marginalization and power relations between minorities and the state in higher education and work (focusing on women).聽She spoke to our students about Bedouin history, land rights, and gender.
Daniel Jonas is born and raised in Jerusalem. He is an observant Jew, with an MA degree in Jewish History at the Hebrew University and serves as the chairperson of ‘Havruta 鈥� Religious Gays’. He first became motivated to volunteer and help his fellow closeted women and men following the murderous attack at the Bar-Noar (gay youth club) in Tel-Aviv in August 2009. He joined Havruta鈥檚 board, first as spokesperson and for the past years as chairperson. He became more involved in local Jerusalemite politics and culture running in the Meretz primaries for the elections to the city council and as the former coordinator of ‘Yeru-Shalem 鈥� the Coalition for an Inclusive Jerusalem’. Until聽recently he worked at ‘Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights’ as spokesperson.聽 He spoke to students about LGBTQ issues in Israel.
Dr. Benny Porat is a senior lecturer on the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the Matz Institute for Jewish Law. After completing his doctorate at the Hebrew University, he was hosted as a post-doctoral fellow by the University of Toronto.聽 He is an expert in distributive justice and Israeli law.聽 Professor Porat spoke to our students about religion and state in Israel in 2014 and 2018.
Dr. Meir Litvak聽聽(PhD Harvard 1991). Associate Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern History; Director of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies and Principal Research Fellow at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University.聽Fields of expertise: Modern Shi鈥榠 and Iranian History and modern Islamic movements.聽 Professor Litvak spoke about his work on Arab and Muslim responses to the Holocaust in聽From Empathy to Denial: Arab Response to the Holocaust,聽co-authored with Esther Webman.
Shulamit S. Magnus is Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History at Oberlin College; she resides in Jerusalem. She is the author of four books and scores of articles and the winner of a National Jewish Book Award and a Hadassah-Brandeis Award for her work on Pauline Wengeroff’s Memoirs of a Grandmother. She publishes frequently on contemporary issues in Israeli political and women’s affairs in Israel and on Israel-Diaspora relations in the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel. She is a founder of women’s group prayer at the Kotel, read Torah at the first such service at the Kotel, and the first-named plaintiff in a case before the Supreme Court of Israel to enforce Jewish women’s already-recognized right to full religious options at the site.
The Association for the Improvement of Women’s Status, LAKIA:聽Desert Embroidery addresses the issue of women’s status in the Bedouin community by focusing on the need for developing alternative sources of income through the creation of a home industry based on traditional skills to restore women鈥檚 contributions to their family鈥檚 earnings and promote gender equality.聽Desert Embroidery develops these skills into contemporary projects which are sold to tourists and other visitors at our Visitor Center.聽The weekly meetings at the Association headquarters provide an opportunity for women to meet, exchange ideas and talk about their lives. At least once a month the women in the project participate in lectures and trips which expand their knowledge in such areas as education, social welfare, economics, health and more.聽The women in the project have gained self-respect and the respect of their families for their economic contribution.聽Some women have opened their own businesses at home.
Neve Shalom:听 Lecture by group leader: Wahat al-Salam 鈥� Neve Shalom (pronounced 鈥渨aa岣t鈥� as-salaam/nevei shalom鈥�) is Arabic and Hebrew for聽Oasis of Peace: an intentional community jointly established by Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. The village is located midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
Ms. Nava Rosen:听 Past conversion teacher in the IDF.聽 Ms. Rosen spoke about her experience as a conversion teacher in the IDF reflecting on her role in the IDF as a religious woman, on issues relating to religion and identity in the IDF.聽 Her husband, also spoke informally about his experiences as an Ethiopian Jew in Israel and in the IDF.
Past Lecturers:
Dr. Paula Fredriksen, the Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University, since 2009 has been Distinguished Visiting Professor of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she also holds two honorary doctorates in theology and religious studies. She has published widely on the social and intellectual history of ancient Christianity, and on pagan-Jewish-Christian relations in the Roman Empire. Author of聽Augustine on Romans聽(1982) and聽From Jesus to Christ聽(1988; 2000), her聽Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,聽won a 1999 National Jewish Book Award. More recently, she has explored the development of Christian anti-Judaism, and Augustine鈥檚 singular response to it, in聽Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism聽(2010); and has investigated the shifting conceptions of God and of humanity in聽Sin: The Early History of an Idea聽(2012). Her latest study,聽Paul: The Pagans鈥� Apostle聽(2017), places Paul鈥檚 Jewish messianic message to gentiles within the wider world of ancient Mediterranean culture.
Dr. Khader Salameh: Khalidi Library, East Jerusalem.聽The Khalidi Library (al-Maktaba al-Khalidiyya) was established in 1899 by Hajj Raghib al-Khalidi, as a public trust (waqf). This was made possible by a sum bequeathed to him by his grandmother, Khadija al-Khalidi, daughter of Musa Effendi al-Khalidi, who was聽Kadiasker聽of Anatolia in 1832. It was based on family holdings of manuscripts and books collected over many generations by聽Muhammad San鈥橝llah, Muhammad Ali, Yusuf Diya Pasha, Musa Shafiq, Ruhi Bey an d聽Yasin al-Khalidi, as well as many others.聽The Library was intended to be open to the public, with the aim of encouraging the spread of learning, and reviving interest in the classics of Islamic learning, as well as modern subjects.