This program is presented by the SFSU Department of Jewish Studies as part of the Fall 2020 Lectures in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Library. Click here to register (a free Zoom account is required).

What happens when a Jewish Israeli television series appropriates antisemitic tropes about bloodthirsty vampires? Join Prof. Vered Weiss as she explores the 2017 Israeli television series Juda as a platform for social critique, and exposes the productive use of the vampire as a means to address antisemitism and reconsider social boundaries.

Click here to watch the first episode of Juda in Hebrew with English subtitles.

*Content warning: This talk will discuss sex and violence and will contain spoilers for the first season of Juda.*

Vered Weiss is the Israel Institute Teaching Fellow in the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. Weiss holds an M.A. in comparative and world literature from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Kent, Canterbury. Weiss’s areas of interest include Israeli and British literature and culture, myths, Gothic horror, and fantasy.