• The Persecution and Exile of Jewish Musicians in Facist Italy
    A review of Italian Jewish Musicians and Composers under Fascism–Let Our Music Be Played(Palgrave, Macmillan 2021), edited by Alessandro Carrieri and Annalisa Capristo—"a long-overdue comprehensive overview of how Mussolini’s anti-Semitic legislation aimed to abruptly put an end to the careers of Italian and foreign Jewish musicians (composers, singers, instrumentalists) living in Italy." Alessandro Carrieri is an independent scholar and was a presenter at the ASU Jewish Studies 2012 conference "Reimagining Erwin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann & the German-Jewish-Czech World."

  • Is There a Czech Balm in Gilead?
    Jewish Studies affiliate faculty member, Lincoln Professor of Ethics & Religion, Martin Matustik considers how human greatness and cataclysms equally propel history. When the history is written of the development of medications used to combat HIV, Ebola, SARS, MERS, and, with hope, COVID-19, it will lead back to laboratories and the pioneering work of a Czech biochemist, Antonín Holý (d. 2012) and what became known as “Holý’s molecules.” Remdesivir, discovered at Gilead Sciences by Holý‘s student, is currently among the most promising medicines for COVID-19.

  • Can the coronavirus make society more ethical?
    Director of ASU Jewish Studies, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson receently participated in this online philosophy confab, where economists and philosophers say ethical questions should be at center of coronavirus conversation, urge government intervention in rental market. read Professor Tirosh-Samuelson's paper [PDF]

  • Caring for Creation: Ancient Wisdom in Time of Crisis
    Director of ASU Jewish Studies, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson considers how the COVID-19 crisis compels us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world and notes how an ethic of creation care can inform future action on global climate change. She concludes by highlighting how local efforts can create a healthier world.