I was selected as a Fulbright Scholar for the academic year 2022-2023. My project was entitled: "Community Without Commonality: Samenleven and the Jewish Communities of Antwerp." My research concerned the Flemish emphasis on samenleven ("living together") and the overlapping and diverse Jewish communities living in Antwerp, Belgium. 

My research was conducted under the direction of Drs. Vivian Liska and Stijn Oosterlynck at the University of Antwerp. I was a fellow at the Institute for Jewish Studies, the Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change, and the Antwerp Urban Studies Institute. 

In an essay entitled "Being Jewish" (1947), Emmanuel Levinas argued that "[Jewish] theology explicates its facticity." My research explored Levinas's position and its place in the debate between Maurice Blanchot and Jean-Luc Nancy over the meaning of "community." What is the meaning of "community" for the exiled and the diasporic? Is there community among strangers? 

Sometimes referred to as Europe's "last shtetl," Antwerp is the test case for thinking about contemporary Jewish life and community outside of the United States and Israel. 

While I focused primarily on the daily life of Jews in Antwerp, I also spent considerable time navigating the archives of the La Centrale Magazine published by the Royal Society for Jewish Welfare 'De Centrale' and held at the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library – an incredible public history of the evolving landscape of Jewish life and institutions in Antwerp and Europe.