The central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle.

The House of Fragile Things, Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award Winner of the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award (History)

In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews—pillars of an embattled community—invested their fortunes in France’s cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country’s army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps.

In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt—the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers—McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of “invading” France’s cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind—many ultimately donated to the French state—were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.

James McAuley is a Global Opinions contributing columnist and former Paris correspondent for The Washington Post. He holds a PhD in French history from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

James McAuley: Jewish Art Collectors and the Fall of France

Tracing medieval women’s Biblical culture and how it differed from… the Bible.

Bib­li­cal Women and Jew­ish Dai­ly Life in the Mid­dle Ages, winner of the 2022 JBC Award for Women’s Studies.

Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten holds the Prof. Yitzhak Becker Chair for Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She teaches in the Department of Jewish History and the Department of History. She is a social historian who specializes in the history of the Jews in medieval Germany and Northern France. Baumgarten has published three monographs, a dozen edited volumes, and many articles. She has held fellowships from the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as EHESS in Paris. She is an awardee of the Michael Bruno Memorial Award (2016) for outstanding Israeli researchers and of a European Research Council’s Consolidator’s Grant (2016-2022).

Elisheva Baumgarten: Mind the Gap

Jay Michaelson brings to life the charlatan and heretical Jewish leader Jacob Frank.

The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jew­ish Mes­sian­ism to Eso­teric Myth - Winner, National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.


Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson is an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and a visiting scholar at the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.  His most recent book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Antinomianism to Esoteric Myth, was published by Oxford University Press and won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship.

Dr. Michaelson’s scholarly work on Jewish mysticism and messianism has been published in journals including Theology and Sexuality, Modern Judaism, and Shofar, and anthologized in volumes including Queer Religion, Imagining the Jewish God, and Jews and the Law. 

Outside the academy, Dr. Michaelson is the author of nine books, including Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism and God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, a Lambda Literary Award finalist. He directs the Hazon Jewish Meditation Retreat, and is authorized to teach in a Sri Lankan Buddhist lineage.  He lives outside of New York City.

Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson: Jewish Mysticism Upside Down & Inside Out

Rabbi Zoë Klein roots her new creations in the millennial tradition of Jewish Storytelling.

Rabbi Zoë Klein serves Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, California where she brings her unique blend of innovation and tradition. At Temple Isaiah since 2000, she has served as Associate Rabbi, Senior Rabbi and Director of Adult Education and Engagement. 

A Connecticut native, Rabbi Klein holds a degree in Psychology from Brandeis University, and a Masters in Hebrew Literature and Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem. She pursued the rabbinate out of a passion for ancient texts, mythology, liturgy, and poetry. 

Rabbi Klein is the author of the novel Drawing in the Dust (Gallery Books, 2009) of which Publishers Weekly wrote, “Insight into the world of biblical excavation in Israel raises Rabbi Klein’s debut novel from a Jewish Da Vinci Code to an emotionally rich story of personal and historical discovery.” Drawing in the Dust has been published in five countries. 

Rabbi Klein is also the author of the children’s story The Goblins of Knottingham: A History of Challah (Apples & Honey, 2017) and the collection of short stories, Candle, Feather, Wooden Spoon (CCAR Press, 2023). Rabbi Klein’s writing is included in The Women’s Torah Commentary, Teen Texts, Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation, The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic and more. Her poems and prayers are used in houses of prayer around the world.

Rabbi Zoë Klein: Brand New Stories from a Thousand Years Ago

Rabbi Barbara Symons challenges Reform Judaism to engage with often-neglected Prophetic books.

Rabbi Barbara Symons: Is Prophetic Judaism Listening to the Prophets?

Dr. David Mendelsson, Senior Lecturer in Israel Studies and Modern Jewish History at HUC-JIR’s Taube campus in Jerusalem, is an educator, historian, and author who sheds light on his experiences since October 7th as a father, mentor, and Israeli. Witnessing everything from shifts in both the literal and learning landscapes to moments inspired by Jewish peoplehood, Dr. Mendelsson offers perspective and wisdom on Israel today.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with David Mendelsson

Author Joseph Skloot reveals the revolutionary power of early printed Hebrew books.

Joseph A. Skloot, Ph.D. is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion/New York. He is a historian of Jewish culture and religious thought in the early modern and modern periods. He received his Ph.D. in Jewish History from Columbia University, his rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR, and his A.B. from Princeton University. His writings have appeared in Modern Judaism, the CCAR Journal, and several anthologies.

Joseph Skloot: The Secret Lives of Books

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste about her experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.

Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste is Director of the Israel Rabbinical Program at HUC-JIR’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. She was ordained after completing the Israel Rabbinical Program in 2009, and returned to HUC-JIR following her time as Director of the International School for Peoplehood Studies at Beit-Hatefutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish People, where she instilled an active connection to the Jewish people among Jews throughout the world and led public discourse on Jewish Peoplehood and identity in the 21st-century. She led a series of programs that supported Beit-Hatefutsoth’s cultural, community, and educational activities in Israel and around the world. 

Prior to her work with Beit-Hatefutsoth, Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste served as Head of the Education Department of Beit Daniel, the Center for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv, where she worked to promote a national, social, liberal, Jewish agenda, among state schools and in educational, cultural, and community frameworks, alongside fellow rabbis. Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste speaks in a variety of forums and events and is an expert on major issues in the new Jewish world.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste

Author Rabbi Michael Strassfeld encourages us to reorganize our thinking about—and reengage our lives with—Judaism.

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld has served the Jewish community for over five decades, in numerous capacities, including as an educator, writer, editor, rabbi, and community leader.

He is the author of Judaism Disrupted, which is being published on the 50th anniversary of his breakthrough best-seller that sold over 300,000 copies, The Jewish Catalog. 

Rabbi Strassfeld, the son of a Modern Orthodox rabbi,  was ordained as a rabbi over 30 years ago by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He served as rabbi for a decade at Congregation Ansche Chesed and for 14 years as Rabbi for The Society for the Advancement of Judaism.

For nearly 20 years he was the leader of High Holiday services at Congregation Ansche Chesed. He also was their director of programming and development for four years, and their executive director for three years.

He served as a member of the faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality for 15 years, the executive director of the Jewish Counter culture Oral History Project for three years, and the founding chairperson of the National Havurah Committee for three years. He also was a founding vice-president of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, a board member of Beyond Shelter, a coalition of Manhattan synagogues concerned with homelessness, and a founding chairperson of Learning, a young adult education brochure of seven Manhattan synagogues.

He has had articles published by Tikkun Magazine, Shma, Hadassah, CLAL, Response Magazine, and other publications. He also edited the Second and Third Jewish Catalogs (1975,1979), authored The Jewish Holidays (1985), co-authored A Night of Questions: A Passover Haggadah (1999), and authored A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice (2002). He recorded Songs to Open the Heart: Contemplative Niggunim (2003). He also edits a free weekly newsletter about Judaism, available on his website michaelstrassfeld.com.

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld: Disrupting Judaism

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Michal Muszkat-Barkan, Ph.D. about her experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.

Michal Muszkat-Barkan, Ph.D., is a Professor of Jewish Education in the Parallel Track. She is the Director of the Department of Education and Professional Development at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem. Her fields of research include teachers’ professional development, teacher ideologies, multicultural teacher training, and pluralism in Jewish education.

She heads the Rikma M.A. program specializing in Community and Pluralistic Jewish Education, in collaboration with the Melton Center for Jewish Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She spearheaded and is the academic head of the Teachers’ Lounge, in memory of Shira Banki, a professional development program for Arab and Jewish teachers.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with Michal Muszkat-Barkan

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Michael Marmur about his experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.

Michael Marmur is Associate Professor of Jewish Theology at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem. Until July 2018 he served as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at HUC-JIR, having previously been Dean of the Jerusalem campus. After some 20 years in administrative capacities, he now concentrates his energies on teaching and writing. 

Born and raised in England, Rabbi Marmur completed a B.A. Degree in Modern History at the University of Oxford before moving to Israel in 1984. While studying for an M.A. in Ancient Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he completed his studies in the Israel Rabbinic Program of HUC-JIR in Jerusalem, and was ordained in 1992. For six years following his ordination, he worked as rabbi and teacher at the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa. He has been an employee of HUC-JIR since 1997. 

Michael Marmur served for three years as Chair of the Board of Rabbis for Human Rights, and is still a member of its Board. He has lectured and taught courses in several countries around the world.

HUC Connect: Inside Israel with Michael Marmur

The College Commons Podcast, passionate perspectives from Judaism's leading thinkers, is produced by Hebrew Union College, America's first Jewish institution of higher learning.

James McAuley: Jewish Art Collectors and the Fall of France

College Commons

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