Each year, the Center for Small Town Jewish Life hosts a lecture that showcases the most innovative and compelling Jewish voices in the world today. Endowed by the Lipman Family, this distinguished lecture brings renowned Jewish thinkers to Waterville. It has attracted a variety of important speakers to Colby since 1979, including Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel (1986), Israeli author Etgar Keret (2013), and American write Jonathan Safran Foer. Recent lecturers are listed here:

  • 2022-23 — Jodi Kantor, “A Behind the Scenes Look at Investigative Journalism” (March 2023)
  • 2021-22 — Ariel Levy, “The Jewish Voice” (April 2022)
  • 2018-19 — Masha Gessen, “Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region” (Oct 2018)

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