Sillins Foundation grant will support courses, lectures and scholarships at New Paltz

SUNY New Paltz students will benefit from a generous grant provided by the Robert Sillins Family Foundation to support programming situated at the intersection of gender studies and Judaism.

The grant of $15,000 establishes a Gender & Judaism course for the spring 2017 semester, a supplemental public panel discussion and two new scholarships.

The Gender & Judaism course, led by Rabbi Rena Blumenthal, explores how gender has defined Jewish civilization from the biblical era to the present, and how the contemporary feminist movement has brought changes to the conditions and practices of modern day Jewish life.

Blumenthal’s background as a woman rabbi working in higher education makes her an ideal fit for leading students’ exploration of these subjects. She comes to New Paltz after more than a decade as assistant director of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at Vassar College, where she also served as an advisor to Jewish students.

In addition to this course, the Sillins Foundation grant will fund a panel presentation, entitled “Jewish and Queer,” featuring three prominent scholars working in this emerging interdisciplinary space:

• Award-winning author Lesléa Newman, who is perhaps best known for the children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies;
• Educator and writer Joy Ladin, who has given frequent lectures, interviews and other public addresses on transgender issues, including her 2016 TEDx Talk, “Ain’t I a Woman?”;
• Legal affairs journalist Jay Michaelson, a columnist for The Daily Beast and assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, whose 2011 book God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality was a Lambda Literary Award finalist.

The “Jewish & Queer” panel will be held on Monday, April 3, at 7 p.m. in Lecture Center 104, and will be free and open to all community members. It is sponsored by the Robert Sillins Foundation, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Jewish Studies program, the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality program and the Department of History.

The grant also creates two scholarships for students of financial need who are active participants in the Gender & Judaism course.

The scholarships will support experiential learning for their recipients, enhancing students’ understanding of Jewish life through internships at institutions like the Jewish Museum or the Holocaust Museum, study abroad trips to Jewish communities abroad, and dedicated, independent research projects.

Through their contribution, the Sillins Foundation is supporting an already robust suite of Jewish Studies courses and events available at SUNY New Paltz, including the long-standing Louis and Resnick Distinguished Lectureship Series held each fall semester.