NEW DIRECTOR ANNOUNCED

Harvey Teres, associate professor of English at Syracuse University, has been named director of The College of Arts and Sciences’ Judaic Studies Program, effective July 1. The appointment was announced today by Arts and Sciences Dean George M. Langford.

Teres, an expert in Jewish-American literature and literary anthropology, as well as 20th-century American literature and culture, succeeds Ken Frieden, the B.G. Rudolph Chair in Judaic Studies, who has directed the program since 1993.

“It is a great honor to lead the Judaic Studies Program,” says Teres. “I will build on the foundation laid by my friend and predecessor, Ken Frieden, and will seek opportunities that bring distinction to the program and to the college.”

His field of interest is twentieth-century American literature and culture, and he teaches "Postwar Jewish-American Writing" among his courses.  Prof. Teres was born in the Bronx and was raised in Los Angeles.  He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  He is the author of RENEWING THE LEFT: POLITICS, IMAGINATION, AND THE NEW YORK INTELLECTUALS (Oxford, 1996), and the forthcoming THE WORD ON THE STREET: LINKING THE ACADEMY AND THE COMMON READER (U. of Michigan Press). 

http://thecollege.syr.edu/pressrelease/teresnameddirector.htm

ANNUAL TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY
A SUCCESS

A trip to the Lower East Side of New York City is an integral part of JSP 400/ETS 315: The Immigrant Saga, the Lower East Side, and Early Jewish American Writers. The trip brings to life the living experience of those Jewish immigrants who became important American writers. Whose works are read in the course, such as Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Michael Gold, and Henry Roth. During the trip, the class experiences a walking tour of the Lower East Side conducted by Professor Sanford Sternlicht, who was raised there. The tour is informed by Professor Sternlicht’s recollection of his grandmother’s, father, and mother’s immigration and struggle to make a living and a life in America. Seen are settlement houses like the Henry Street Settlement, the University Settlement, and the Educational Alliance; the Seward Library, Seward Park, Hester Street, the Essex Market, and Orchard Street.
Also viewed are the library and the schools of the Lower East Side as well as the Forward Building, once the home of the most important Jewish newspaper in America. On the trip students learn of the experience of other immigrant groups that came to live on the Lower East Side.
Students are also taken to the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street to see how immigrants lived in the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. Finally, the group tours the magnificently restored Eldridge Street Synagogue, the largest one on the Lower East Side.
Professor Sternllicht has been teaching the course for the past nine years. This year’s trip, with excellent weather, and a most engaged group, was an outstanding one.