An On-Going Conversation Among Jewish Intellectuals
Mifgash developed as a result of a community of Jewish intellectuals within and outside the academy assembling to discuss issues of shared concern affecting out own lives and the Jewish future. The following questions were among those that emerged from the conversations.
1. Jews in the academy. What is the relationship of Jews and Judaism to emerging multicultural and pluralistic university settings? How do Jewish students and teachers understand their relationship to the academy? In what ways do institutions of higher education acknowledge and de/legitimate Jewish identification?
2. Campus milieu: What is the impact of being Jewish on academics' intellectual pursuits? What is the relationship of Jews, Judaism, and Jewish studies to 'oppositional discourses' in gender studies, minority studies, literary theory, film studies, and other multi-disciplinary or anti-discipline areas of inquiry?
3. Intra-Jwish concerns: How do intra-Jewish issues, such as difference in gender, modes of observance, and degrees of alienation, affect dialogue among Jewish academics?
4. Jewish learning: How can Mifgash most effectively function as an adult Jewish learning setting with impact on our personal and professional lives? In what ways can Mifgash support the pojects of Jewish academics interested in studying Judaism or Jewish life for their professional enrichment? What barriers do Jewish adults including academics find to Jewish learning?
5. Jews and social responsibility: Do Jews working in the academy conceive of our scholarship as pertinent to the direction of North American culture? What relationship exists between Jewish values and broader social concerns?
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MIFGASH is moderated by Alan A. Block. E-mail to blocka@uwstout.edu