Spotlight on our Students
Jennifer Ware, a double major in Jewish studies and religious studies with a minor in history, is the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Scholarship recipient. She is in the final year of her degree program and plans to attend graduate school. Last year, Jennifer took a research seminar course on Zionism and the state of Israel during which she wrote on "Eretz Israel's Silent Holocaust Survivors." Jennifer presented her research, which examined tensions between Zionist pioneer conceptions of ideal bodies and minds and the health realities of Holocaust survivors who made Aliyah in the early post-war period at the 2022 EUReCA showcase and received an Award of Excellence in her division.
Jennifer has also served as Professor Sinnreich's research assistant, supporting research on medical conditions, treatments, and practices in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War. She was also instrumental in helping organize the Lessons and Legacies Southeastern Regional Holocaust Conference, hosted at UT in fall 2021.
Carl Weinstein is the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies graduate assistant and a PhD student of 20th century Germany history. Their research explores Jewish survivors in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp, focusing on how survivors produced, received, and transmitted information and constructed networks of communication that connected Jewish survivors with one another and to the world outside of the DP centers. Carl's research interests include education systems, gender, and memory studies.
In summer 2022, Carl was awarded funding from the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies and the Department of History to study Yiddish through YIVO's Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture, a six-week intensive language program in New York City. Yiddish-language documents are an important aspect of Carl's research on the Holocaust and survivor communities in the postwar period. The YIVO Summer Program was a wonderful opportunity to focus on learning Yiddish, work with the archival collections housed at the Center for Jewish History, and communicate with other students researching aspects of Jewish history, religion, and culture.
Leah Faupel is the Ruben Robinson Scholarship in Judaic Studies recipient. She is from Roswell, Georgia, and is a junior double majoring in Jewish studies and psychology. She is currently serving her second term as the vice president of Shabbat and holidays for Hillel at UT, as well as teaching Sunday and Hebrew School at Temple Beth El in Knoxville. In summer 2022. she was a Goldman Fellow for the American Jewish Committee.
Sarah La Fetra is the Ruben Robinson Scholarship in Judaic Studies recipient. She is a junior in Jewish studies. Outside of school, she is a song leader and teacher at both Heska Amuna Synagogue and Temple Beth El. Sarah is very excited to continue this journey at UT!