Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

April 24, 2024

The HBI Scholar in Residence program offers distinguished scholars, writers and communal professionals the opportunity to produce significant work in the area of Jewish studies and gender issues while being freed from their regular institutional responsibilities. Scholars in Residence contribute to the life of HBI by immersing in the institute’s weekly activities, participating in HBI conferences and programs, and delivering a public lecture. Since our founding HBI hosted 138 scholars in residence, working on a range of topics. For example, this year’s research areas included disability culture in Israel, fiction about the Jewish American family, emerging travel for Jewish women between 1860 and 1920, queer Niddah, and American Jews and the politics of abortion. 

Dr. Max Strassfeld, 2022 Scholar in Residence, Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law, speaks to HBI’s relevance in today’s climate. 

April 21, 2024

In the years following HBI’s founding, it had an enormous impact. Dr. Sylvia Barack Fishman, HBI’s founding co-director, explains HBI’s academic influence in both building and contributing to the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies. 

April 19, 2024

How did HBI begin? 

The genesis of HBI can be traced to a 1995 report of the Hadassah-sponsored National Commission on American Jewish Women, chaired by Brandeis sociologist Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, who ultimately became the founding director of HBI. Titled Voices for Change: Future Directions for American Jewish Women, the report summarized existing research and concluded that while information on Jewish women’s history, lives and culture existed, there was a need for robust support for future research. Thanks to a generous endowment from Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, HBI (originally known as the International Research Institute on Jewish Women) opened at Brandeis University in 1997. The mission of HBI was later expanded to include gender more generally. 

Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, the founding director, describes the mission, “Fresh ways of thinking about Jews and gender worldwide – producing and promoting scholarly research, artistic projects and public engagement,” as broad and “multidimensional” so that it encourages “every field of inquiry.”

Watch Dr. Shulamit Reinharz, founding director, tell HBI’s origin story. 

April 18, 2024

During these 25 days, we will feature testimonials from people who tell their own HBI stories. Today, we hear from Rachel Barenbaum, 2022 HBI Scholar in Residence, and author of A Bend in the Stars (2019) and Atomic Anna (2022). She reflects on HBI’s influence on her work.

April 17, 2024

Twenty-five years ago, in a small office at Brandeis, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute opened its doors to a single scholar, published one book, and gave out 20 HBI Research Awards. Read more from HBI Director Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe.