Scenes from Graduation 2018-2019

Madeleine Alexis Bendalin
Madeline Bendaline is currently a Major in Strategic Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. She is also pursuing a double Minor in Jewish Studies and Media Studies. Madeline is this year's recipient of the Jewish Studies Freshman & Sophomore Scholarship, a tuition scholarship that rewards academic merit of freshman and sophomore students pursuing a Jewish Studies major or minor. She is part of the Program in Jewish Studies because she is interested in learning about the history of her ancestors and Jewish culture. In the future, she plans to pursue a career in the Jewish non-profit sector.

Undergraduate

Madeleine Alexis Bendalin
Madeline Bendaline is currently a Major in Strategic Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations. She is also pursuing a double Minor in Jewish Studies and Media Studies. Madeline is one of the undergraduate recipients of the Jewish Studies Global Initiatives Scholarship. This scholarship will support her as she studies abroad in Prague and takes Jewish studies courses this fall. 

Agnus Gregg MacDonald
Agnus MacDonald is currently a Major in Computer Science. He will use his Global Initiatives Scholarship to support his 10-week study abroad trip in Tel-Aviv, Israel this summer. The program will provide information on modern problems in the area including politics and conflict resolution. 
 

Graduate

Tiffany Beebe
Tiffany Beebe is a PhD candidate in Modern European and British History whose research focuses on 20th-century minority populations, immigration/migration, and gender/sexuality. Her dissertation explores German-Jewish refugees from the Third Reich who moved to rural areas of Britain and opened new businesses under a "refugee industrialist" scheme created by the British government and various voluntary organizations. The Jewish Studies Global Initiatives Scholarship will support Tiffany's research in the UK this fall. 

Gregg Drinkwater
As a PhD candidate in History and Jewish Studies, Gregg Drinkwater explores the history of gay and lesbian synagogues in the United States. He will use his Global Initiatives Scholarship to help support his participation in Yiddishkayt’s Helix project, an immersive global seminar focused on the Yiddish language, the history of Yiddish culture, and the Jews of Eastern Europe. In July, Gregg will travel for three weeks through the historic heartland of Yiddish culture in Belarus and Lithuania.

Leah Whitney Woods
Leah Woods is currently an MFA candidate in Dance with a Somatic Emphasis and Performance and Culture. She researches performance practice as catharsis in the wake of collective tragedy and communal trauma. She looks at forms like GaGa technique which were developed in Israel post-Holocaust as liberatory mediums for the expression of pain, healing, and transformation based in the body. Leah will use the ACE Jewish Arts Grant to support her travel to the b12 Festival in Berlin. There, she will continue to explore GaGa technique and post-Holocaust performance practices informed by movement-based research around the arts and collective tragedy in Germany. Leah will also be developing new work at the b12 Festival where she will be studying with cutting edge contemporary artists in the field of dance and performance.

Savannah Ames
Savannah Ames is pursuing a Major in Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences as well as a Minor in History. In partnership with the University Libraries’ Special Collections, Archives and Preservation, PJS annually supports an undergraduate student to conduct research in the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections. By working in the Collections this past year, Savannah believes she has an inside look at the effects the Holocaust had in America and has led her to a better understanding of how the past continues to influence the present.  

Brynn Elizabeth Tully
Brynn Tully is currently a Major in Jewish Studies and the second beneficiary of the Jewish Studies Adopt-A-Student program. She will benefit from tuition assistance and the opportunity to build a relationship with our generous donors, Lori and Steve Berman. Brynn is excited to pursue an education in Jewish Studies because it has opened many doors for her learning, from the Kabbalah to writing skills. She looks forward to the Adopt-A-Student program and to gain both academic and personal mentors.

Abigail Mendel
In addition to her Major in Psychology, Abigail Mendel is also pursuing Minors in Hebrew & Israel Studies and Leadership Studies, and a Certificate in Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies. The Katherine Jacob Lamont Scholarship will support her academic work at CU. Abigail aspires to work as a leader in a non-profit organization in order to help resolve social conflict on a global scale within both Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Her dedication to interdisciplinary studies in the humanities makes her an outstanding recipient for the Lamont scholarship.

Jace Leigh Rosenthal
This year's Undergraduate Baer Scholar, Jace Rosenthal, is currently a triple major in Jewish Studies, Religious Studies, and English. For him, the Program in Jewish Studies has been an incredible source of mentorship, friendship, and academic enrichment. Jace is deeply committed to conducting interdisciplinary, academic research on the study of Jewish cultural and religious experience across time and place. He says that pursuing a degree in Jewish Studies provides him with the opportunity to better himself and his community through academic research and public work. The Barry and Sue Baer Undergraduate Scholarship will support Jace in his academic endeavors. 

Tiffany Beebe
Tiffany Beebe is a PhD candidate in Modern European and British History whose research focuses on 20th-century minority populations, immigration/migration, and gender/sexuality. Her dissertation explores German-Jewish refugees from the Third Reich who moved to rural areas of Britain and opened new businesses under a "refugee industrialist" scheme created by the British government and various voluntary organizations. The Goldberger Study Abroad and Cultural Immersion Graduate Fellowship will support Tiffany as she completes her dissertation research in the UK.

Tiffany Beebe
Tiffany Beebe is a PhD candidate in Modern European and British History whose research focuses on 20th-century minority populations, immigration/migration, and gender/sexuality. Her dissertation explores German-Jewish refugees from the Third Reich who moved to rural areas of Britain and opened new businesses under a "refugee industrialist" scheme created by the British government and various voluntary organizations. The Barry & Sue Baer Graduate Fellowship will support Tiffany's research in the UK this fall. 

Laura Rachel Conway
As an MFA in Filmmaking, Laura Conway focuses on intergenerational trauma and Jewish mythology. She was awarded the Barry & Sue Baer Graduate Fellowship to write and direct a short film investigating Jewish mythology and intergenerational Holocaust trauma. The film will look at children of a Holocaust survivor mother who experience dreams or "post-memories" of the Shoah which they never experienced.

Adi Nester
Adi Nester, pursuing a PhD in German and Jewish Studies, is working on early 20th-century German-Jewish literature and music. She was awarded the Barry & Sue Baer Graduate Fellowship this past Fall 2018 to support her travel to the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, where she presented a paper titled, "In a State of Exile: Stateless Identity in Joseph Roth and Erich Zeisl's Hiob.”

Leah Whitney Woods
Leah Woods is currently an MFA candidate in Dance with a Somatic Emphasis and Performance and Culture. She researches performance practice as catharsis in the wake of collective tragedy and communal trauma. She looks at forms like GaGa technique which were developed in Israel post-Holocaust as liberatory mediums for the expression of pain, healing, and transformation based in the body. Leah will use the ACE Jewish Arts Grant to support her travel to the b12 Festival in Berlin. There, she will continue to explore GaGa technique and post-Holocaust performance practices informed by movement-based research around the arts and collective tragedy in Germany. Leah will also be developing new work at the b12 Festival where she will be studying with cutting edge contemporary artists in the field of dance and performance.

Sally Claire Simpson
Sally Simpson is an MA student in Classics with broad interests in medieval religion and literature, including the experience of religious minorities such as Jews in Western Europe. She was awarded this spring's Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections Graduate Research Fellowship. Her research focused on modern history and archival research through the lens of American activism on behalf of Soviet Jews. She conducted research in the Jerry Kopel Collection and looked into issues of immigration, refugee status.

Jacob Flaws
Jacob Flaws is a PhD candidate in History where his studies focus on the spaces of Treblinka by exploring different witnesses and their sensory perception of the death camp. He will spend this summer in the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections to create a new digital research project. Jacob will focus his summer archival research in the Harry W. Mazal Holocaust Collections, particularly exploring the life of Harry Mazal and creating an exhibit outlining how Mazal created his collection.

Avery Ryder Turner
Avery Ryder Turner is currently pursuing an MFA in Dance. His research focuses on improvisation and movement as practice and research, shaped by the spiritual traditions of the Vajrayana Buddhism. Avery is curious how the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections might offer different pathways to experiential and embodied learning that honors both the visible and invisible experience we are living. His research in the Collections will help inform his MFA research on improvisation and movement.

Tiffany Beebe
Tiffany Beebe is a PhD Candidate in Modern European and British History whose research focuses on 20th-century minority populations, immigration/migration, and gender/sexuality. Her summer research in the PHAJ Collections will focus on “transmigrants,” people who moved through more than one country before finally settling in one spot. She is particularly interested to see if the collections have information about people who moved through Britain on their way to the U.S., which will help inform her dissertation research.