What does Jewish law say about the obligations of parents, children, husbands, and wives? How do Jewish rituals help maintain families? How have kinship bonds evolved from the Hebrew Bible to the present? Join us at the 2022 Greenfield Summer Institute as historians, social scientists, and scholars of religion gather to explore the changing nature of Jewish families and their interactions with the larger societies they inhabit. Speakers will discuss such wide-ranging subjects as race and diversity in the family context; dating, marriage, and sex in the Orthodox world; the portrayal of Jewish families in film and television; and one extended Jewish family’s role in defeating Nazi forces in North Africa during World War II. With topics ranging from the Israelite cult of dead kin to the “myth” of the Jewish wedding, this year’s Greenfield will offer a richer understanding of the phrase le-Dor va-Dor—from generation to generation.

For more information, visit https://cjs.wisc.edu/greenfield/

About the Greenfield Summer Institute:
As the premiere outreach event of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Greenfield Summer Institute demonstrates our commitment to lifelong learning and testifies to the vision, legacy, and generosity of Center founders Laurence Weinstein and George Mosse. The Greenfield Summer Institute was the brainchild of Larry Greenfield, a member of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies Board of Visitors, who first proposed the idea of an adult summer institute in the mid-1990s. The first Greenfield Summer Institute in 2000 brought together people from the Madison community and beyond to participate in a unique blend of continuing education, entertainment, and fellowship. Now underwritten by the generosity of Larry and Ros Greenfield, the Institute showcases the research of UW–Madison faculty and acclaimed Jewish studies scholars from around the country.
Each year the Institute’s lectures center around a theme. In addition to lectures that explore the year’s theme in depth, the Institute also features concerts, dinners, and other opportunities to socialize.