18th Annual Rothschild Lecture to Feature Pulitzer Prize Winner Dr. Benjamin Nathans
The Tam Institute for Jewish Studies (TIJS) at Emory University will feature Pulitzer Prize-winner Prof. Benjamin Nathans of the University of Pennsylvania as the speaker for this year’s Rabbi Jacob M. Memorial Rothschild Lecture. The lecture, to take place on Wednesday, November 11th at 7:00pm, will address the topic: “Refuseniks and Rights-Defenders: Jews and the Soviet Dissident Movement.” This free, on-campus event will be held in Emory's Carlos Museum, Ackerman Hall (571 South Kilgo Cir NE, Atlanta, GA 30322). To secure a seat, advanced registration is requested, which you may complete here: tinyurl.com/emoryrothschildlecture.
The exodus of Jews from the former Soviet Union transformed the Jewish landscape on three continents and has been called the preeminent case of Jewish human rights activism. It is often identified – and confused – with the Soviet dissident movement and the struggle for rights in Russia. Join Prof. Nathans as he explores what brought the two movements together – and what kept them apart?
Dr. Nathans is the Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. His most recent book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction as well as the Pushkin House (London) Book Prize. His multiple award-winning book Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia has been translated into Hebrew and Russian. Nathans chaired an international committee of scholars hired by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the New York-based museum design firm, to help create the Jewish Museum in Moscow, which opened in 2012. He contributes regularly to the New York Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and other periodicals.
The Rothschild Lecture was established in 2007 to honor the late Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild (1911-1973), the spiritual leader of Atlanta's Hebrew Benevolent Congregation (“The Temple”), and a voice for social change in the city and throughout the South. Each year a guest scholar memorializes Rothschild with a lecture on a topic relevant to his life and work, such as Jewish ethics, Jewish social movements, modern Judaism, or southern Jewish history.
Contact TIJS Communications Coordinator, Brent Buckley, with any questions at brent.buckley@emory.edu.
Co-sponsored by: (in formation)