Letter from the Director
		The Carolina Center for Jewish Studies now offers 30 courses in Jewish Studies at UNC, and this fall alone, over 600 undergraduates enrolled in eleven Jewish Studies courses. If student interest continues at this rate, it will mean that more than 3,500 Carolina undergraduates will take a Jewish Studies course at some point during their four years at UNC, making Jewish Studies a part of the undergraduate experience of more than 15% of all UNC students. Classes offered through the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies range from popular lecture courses on the Hebrew Bible, the History of the Holocaust, Early Judaism, and Religion in Modern Israel to seminars on Jews and German culture, the Jewish experience in the American South, and representations of Jews in Eastern European literature. Biblical Hebrew has been offered at UNC for years, and for the first time in the history of the university, Modern Hebrew is now part of the curriculum as well. The Jewish Studies minor already has five students officially enrolled, with many more in the works, and we’re developing an undergraduate major as well. An intensive semester-long Jewish Studies program in Prague is now available, and we are planning other study abroad options, alumni seminars and weekend trips. In October Board member Debra Fox Tenenbaum hosted an event for alumni and friends in Atlanta, and Chancellor Moeser joined us for two similar events, one at the New York, NY home of Board member Steve Nislick and one at the Greensboro, NC home of Board member Ben Cone. Interest on the part of students, faculty and community members in our public events has been enormous. In September, 2003, we launched our public events program with a screening of Shalom Y’all: The Documentary Film, followed by a discussion with director Brian Bain about his portrait of Jewish life in the American South. The 200-seat lecture hall we reserved for the event was not large enough to accommodate the crowds we drew in, and the lecture halls we have reserved for our inaugural lecture series have not been able to accommodate the over 300 people who have turned out for these events. UNC alumna Emily Bingham came to campus in September to speak about her recent book on the trials and tribulations of the Mordecai family confronting the evangelical South in eighteenth and nineteenth-century North Carolina and Virginia. In October, we brought in William Dever, one of the leading archaeologists of his generation, who gave a lecture on the origins of the ancient Israelities. Lawrence Schiffman, one of the world’s authorities on the Dead Sea Scrolls, lectured in November on contemporary controversies about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Next semester, the lecture series will highlight UNC alumnus Stuart Eizenstat, former deputy secretary of the treasury, undersecretary of State and an expert on Holocaust restitution issues. I invite you to join us in these exciting new programs and to become an active participant in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. Please feel free to call or email me with your comments, questions and suggestions. Jonathan M. Hess Director, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, and Professor, Germanic Languages jmhess@email.unc.edu, 919.843.9160