Miriam Udel, associate professor of German studies, and London Evans, director of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies at Emory University, will discuss how to “build good kids” on Monday, Dec. 2, as part of the 12th annual Maurice Amado Foundation Lecture in Jewish Ethics.

“Building Good Kids: How Twentieth-Century Jewish Culture Tried to Save the World One Child at a Time” will take place from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in the Johnson Auditorium in Jacaranda Hall, located near the heart of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St.

Udel will explain how Jewish cultural and educational leaders in the 20th century created various forms of literature for Jewish children with the goal of raising “mensches,” future adults who would act ethically for a “shenere un besere velt,” a more beautiful and better world.

This body of Yiddish children’s literature was disseminated on four different continents and was used to plant ethical ideas in children’s reading material in order to spread this vision of a better world while also captivating young readers, said Jennifer Thompson, CSUN’s Maurice Amado Professor of Applied Jewish Ethics and Civic Engagement and director of the university’s Jewish Studies Program.

“Children’s literature expresses important ethical teachings in an easy-to-grasp and often fun way,” Thompson said. “I’m excited for our students and the community to learn from professor Udel about this body of literature that will be completely new for many of us.”

Udel is the author of “Never Better!: The Modern Jewish Picaresque” and editor and translator of “Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature.” Her academic research focuses on 20th-century Yiddish literature, American Jewish literature, and Jewish children’s literature. She is currently working as a national endowment for the humanities public scholar on a study of Yiddish children’s literature. She is also an ordained member of the orthodox rabbinate.

The Maurice Amado Foundation, which supports the Amado Lecture, also endows a CSUN Jewish Studies Program professorship. Its mission is to promote teaching and scholarship that draws on Sephardic, Ashkenazi and other Jewish traditions.

The CSUN Jewish Studies Program offers a major and minor in Jewish Studies within the College of Humanities, which introduces students to the experiences of Jews across the world through engagement with Jewish thought, history, and values.

For more information or to reserve a seat at the lecture, please email jewish.studies@csun.edu.