Host
Karen Spira
Karen Spira is the assistant director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. She holds a PhD and MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis, focusing on Israel Studies. She also holds an MA in religion from the University of Georgia and a dual BA in English and religious studies from the University of Arizona. In July 2022, she successfully defended her dissertation, "Disadvantaged and Orphaned Jewish Children in Palestine, 1881-1939," which examines the development of child welfare systems in the Yishuv. She has taught courses on Jewish and Israeli history at Brandeis and as a community educator in a variety of settings throughout the Greater Boston area and New York.