Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

10/27/2026

Today, Oct. 27, Israel goes to the polls for the first time since the October 7, 2023 attacks. On November 4, 6-7:30, the Brandeis University community is invited to join in person for a post election discussion with leading experts Shai Feldman and Dahlia Scheindlin, moderated by Shayna Weiss. Interested parties beyond the Brandeis community are invited to join via Zoom. Presented by our colleagues at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and cosponsored by the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and the Brandeis University Department of Politics. Register by Nov. 1.

On October 27, Israel goes to the polls for the first time since the October 7, 2023 attacks. But what happens after the votes are in? What do the results mean for Israelis, Palestinians, and the rest of us?
Join us for a post election discussion with leading experts where we'll talk about the hot-button issues including, US-Israel relations, the war in Gaza, Haredi service in the IDF, and more. All questions welcome.

10/26/2026

It was an honor to co-convene the Brandeis-Bar Ilan Conference on Conflict Related Sexual Violence and the Legacy of October 7 with The Dinah Project (at the Rackman Center - מרכז רקמן, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University) on October 7th. The conference addressed the critical question of how perpetrators of conflict related sexual violence can be held accountable and featured new research that brings the Israeli experience of conflict related sexual violence of Oct. 7, 2023 and as hostages into conversation with responses to other incidents of conflict related sexual violence in Kosovo, Rwanda, and the Ukraine.

Panelists and moderators included: Merav Amir, Nava Ben-Or, Christen Broecker, Jennie Burnet, Flora Cassen, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg, Alice Edwards, Meryl Frank, Rosa Freedman, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Sylvia Neil, Naama Shik, Karin Stögner, Sagit Yehoshua, and Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas.

The Conference opened with the HBI Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights: “Whose Suffering Counts? Sexual Torture, Hostage-Taking and Survivors’ Justice In A Divided World”, delivered by Dr. Alice Edwards, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, 2022-26. Edwards reflected on the major wars and crises she covered, why investigating sexual violence and torture remains so difficult, and what is lost when human rights principles are applied selectively.

Visit HBI for more information: https://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/conferences/crsv-conference/index.html

10/20/2026

HBI Research Associate Dr. Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar is a tenured senior lecturer at Sapir Academic College in Sderot in southern Israel where she teaches courses in research methods, communication, religion, and gender.

Her first book, "Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media", (Rutgers University Press, 2024) explored the tensions between religious values and new technologies among women in Old Order Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, finding that that the women regularly establish valuable social, cultural, and religious capital through countless decisions for use and nonuse of media, and in doing so, challenge the gender hierarchies of each community.

Neriya-Ben Shahar was a Fulbright post-doctoral Fellow and an HBI Scholar in Residence. She also received HBI Research Awards in 2013 and 2020 for her projects about Jewish women rituals, and Ultra-Orthodox women and new media. She is working on her second book.

https://religionnews.com/2026/10/16/how-an-orthodox-jewish-scholar-found-an-unexpected-home-among-the-amish/?fbclid=IwY2xjawU-_oxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWJyaWQRMUhiS0s2YndaSE1VYnRCbURzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEevvhjlwcfTAY2ATtv7tv-hKM8Ix-Xnq2-xFXI3msvcvnnFsv7k7mfrdW3pSU_aem_8_FJRU1Z47ZAuvugCO5GyQ

JERUSALEM (RNS) — 'They know that there is electricity and internet and smartphones and that they could drive, but they choose not to,' scholar Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar said of the Amish. 'When you talk with them, they look at you, they listen to you, they wait before they respond.'

10/20/2026

We're honored to share this upcoming event with world-renowned scholar Eva Illouz, "Antizionism and Antisemitism", co-sponsored by our colleagues at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis along with the Schusterman Center for Judaic & Israel Studies - University of Oklahoma and the Schusterman Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

A French-Israeli sociologist, Eva Illouz will draw from her recent publication "October 8th: The Genealogy of a Virtuous Hatred," in which she asks how the Global Left “deserted, ignored and stigmatized Jews who were shocked and mourning” the events of October 7th, 2023.

Thursday, October 22, 1 PM EST. Registration is not required for this Zoom Webinar: http://tinyurl.com/just-zoom-in

Join us Thursday at noon for a special Zoom Webinar with Eva Illouz, "Antizionism and Antisemitism." Registration is not required for this Zoom Webinar: tinyurl.com/just-zoom-in
Our sixth annual Schusterman Centers collaboration, with the UT Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies and the Brandeis Schusterman Center for Israel Studies.

10/18/2026

Watch this year's powerful HBI Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights: WHOSE SUFFERING COUNTS? SEXUAL TORTURE, HOSTAGE-TAKING AND SURVIVORS’ JUSTICE IN A DIVIDED WORLD, delivered by Dr. Alice Edwards, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, 2022-26, on October 7. Edwards reflected on the major wars and crises she covered, why investigating sexual violence and torture remains so difficult, and what is lost when human rights principles are applied selectively.

The Markowicz Lecture was the keynote address of the Brandeis - Bar Ilan Conference on Conflict Related Sexual Violence and The Legacy of October 7, co-convened by the HBI Project on Gender, Culture, Religion and the Law and The Dinah Project at the Rackman Center - מרכז רקמן, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University.

Watch: https://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/events/past/index.html

10/18/2026

"In conflicts across history, r**e and other forms of sexual violence have been all too common. But investigation, acknowledgement, and remedy for survivors have often been inadequate or entirely lacking. Alice Edwards, an international lawyer who has spent nearly 30 years working to advance women’s rights, refugee rights and human rights, addressed this gap and outlined necessary reforms at (HBI’s) annual Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture on Gender and Human Rights at Brandeis on Oct. 7."

Thank you Bari Walsh and Brandeis University Stories.

📷 Image: Dr. Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, Shulamit Reinharz Director of HBI, introducing Dr. Alice Edwards.

Watch the lecture here: https://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/events/past/index.html

https://www.brandeis.edu/stories/2026/october/diane-markowicz-memorial-lecture.html

In conflicts across history, r**e and other forms of sexual violence have been all too common. But investigation, acknowledgement, and remedy for survivors have often been inadequate or entirely lacking. Alice Edwards, an international lawyer who has spent nearly 30 years working to advance women’...

10/08/2026

After co-convening yesterday's Brandeis - Bar Ilan Conference on Conflict Related Sexual Violence and the Legacy of October 7, a powerful, moving and productive day, HBI Director Lisa Fishbayn Joffe and Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Bar Ilan University, co-founder of the Dinah Project, underscore the ongoing, critical need to move past the question of whether conflict related sexual violence is recognized but, rather, whether the international legal and human rights systems we have today can translate recognition into accountability and justice. Thank you EJewish Philanthropy.

Brandeis University, The Dinah Project, Rackman Center - מרכז רקמן, Bar-Ilan University.

Sexual violence has a long and well-documented history in warfare and in Jewish history specifically, including its use in pogroms against Jews in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century and in atrocities committed against Jewish women during the Holocaust. Despite this long history, when the...

10/07/2026

Last evening, ahead of today’s Brandeis - Bar Ilan Conference on Conflict Related Sexual Violence and the Legacy of October 7, HBI joined with our friends and partners at The Dinah Project, conference panelists who traveled internationally to speak, Brandeis University President Arthur Levine and Brandeis faculty members, and others for an evening of community and action.

The conference kicked off this morning with Dr. Alice Edwards’s presentation of the Diane Markowicz Memorial Lecture, “Whose Suffering Counts? Sexual Torture, Hostage-Taking and Survivors’ Justice in a Divided World”. Dr. Edwards is the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, 2022-26.

Following the lecture, conference moderators and panelists spent the day focused on another critical question, “How can the perpetrators of conflict related sexual violence be held accountable?". Discussions featured new research that brings the Israeli experience of conflict related sexual violence of Oct. 7, 2023 and as hostages into conversation with responses to other incidents of conflict related sexual violence in Kosovo, Rwanda, and the Ukraine.

Also discussed was The Dinah Project's "A Quest for Justice: October 7 and Beyond", a book of findings and recommendations establishing a legal infrastructure for prosecuting the sexual violence crimes, even when specific acts cannot be attributed directly to individual perpetrators. The book is available at no cost to read or download from The Dinah Project's website.

We are honored that Merav Amir, Nava Ben-Or, Christen Broecker, Jennie Burnet, Flora Cassen, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg, Alice Edwards, Meryl Frank, Rosa Freedman, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Sylvia Neil, Naama Shik, Karin Stögner, Sagit Yehoshua, and Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas joined us today at Brandeis University and remotely to share their work.

HBI and Bar-Ilan thank our conference sponsors: The Sylvia Neil and Dan Fischel Endowment, The Brandeis Center for Jewish Studies, and The Sarnat Center for the Study of Anti-Jewishness at Brandeis for their support of these crucial discussions.

Recordings of most of the conference panels and Dr. Alice Edwards’s presentation of the Markowicz Lecture will be available to view soon. Find more information on these important discussions and the women shaping them on HBI’s website https://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/conferences/crsv-conference/index.html