Presented by Spertus Institute and JPro Chicago, Connect & Learn is an online, community-building, professional development series.
Connect & Learn workshops offer participants around the world a chance to join Spertus students and alumni for lively sessions on topics key to Jewish professional life today.
Build skills you can apply immediately to your life and work. Become part of a network of learners and Jewish community leaders.
Sessions are online, live, interactive, and collaborative.
Each session includes time to connect, network, meet new colleagues, and strengthen relationships. Sessions are free of charge thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.
Programs take place via Zoom. Ticket holders will receive login instructions by email 24 hours in advance.
Interreligious Encounters: Jewish Education in Modern Iran
Tuesday, November 6, 2025
12:30 to 1:30 PM CST
In 1947, most Jewish students in Iran were attending Jewish-run schools. However, by 1977, shortly before the Islamic Revolution, more than half of all Jewish children in Iran were attending non-Jewish schools. What accounts for this shift? This talk will explore the themes of upward mobility, interreligious encounters, and assimilation through the lens of Jewish education in modern Iran. The talk will examine several Jewish-operated schools in Iran and address the eventual preference of many Jewish parents to send their children to non-Jewish schools. We will conclude by thinking about how this history has implications for the state of Jewish education in the United States today.
Spertus faculty member Dr. Daniella Farah leads this session.
Dr. Daniella Farah, Assistant Director of Jewish Studies, brings over 13 years of experience in teaching, advising, administration, and research in the higher education sphere. With a PhD in Jewish History from Stanford University, her research has focused on interreligious encounters, national belonging, and Jewish identity formation in the modern Middle East, particularly in Iran and Turkey. After earning her doctorate, she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at Rice University and a Visiting Assistant Professor of History & Jewish Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Connect & Learn is presented in partnership with JPro Chicago.
This series is presented under the auspices of Spertus Institute’s Center for Jewish Leadership, supported in part by a generous grant from the Crown Family.
This program is Spertus Institute’s 2025 Horwitz Family Presentation on Jewish History, generously endowed by the Horwitz Charitable Fund.
If you can, we encourage you to make a gift to support this free program and others like it!