The Annual Blanche and Irving Laurie Lecture in Jewish Women’s Studies
“Finding God: What Our Foremothers Can Teach Us - An Exploration of Modern Jewish Women’s Spirituality”

Wednesday, June 16th at 7:30 PM
Admission is Free
Photo ID required for entrance

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
One West 4th street (Between Broadway and Mercer)
New York City

Dr. Ellen M. Umansky, a leading scholar and commentator on Judaism and women and modern Jewish history and thought, will speak on her current research on modern Jewish women’s spirituality.

Dr. Umansky received her Master of Arts degree in Religion from Yale University and her doctorate from Columbia University. She has taught at Emory University, Haverford College, Vassar College, Princeton University, Columbia University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is co-editor of Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality: A Sourcebook (Beacon Press, 1992); author of two books on Lily Montagu, founder and leader of the Liberal Jewish movement in England - Lily Montagu and the Advancement of Liberal Judaism: From Vision to Vocation and Lily Montagu: Letters, Addresses, Sermons and Prayers. She has written numerous articles on Jewish theology, women and Judaism, and more broadly on modern Jewish history and thought. Since 1994 she has served as the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She has long been a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion and a member of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Peace Fellowship. Currently she serves as Chair of the panel in Jewish Philosophy and Thought for the Koret Foundation’s annual Jewish Book Award, given under the auspices of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She also serves on the Academic Advisory Boards of the Jewish Women’s Archives in Boston, the Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women at Brandeis University, and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She recently completed a book entitled From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews, to be published by Oxford University Press in November 2004.

This lecture is sponsored by the The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and Women’s Rabbinic Network in honor of Rabbi Sally J. Priesand Visiting Professorship in Jewish Women’s Studies, and is co-sponsored by Lilith Magazine and UJA-Federation of New York’s Task Force on the Jewish Woman.