Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies

“HAZANUT: A concert of Jewish Cantorial Music” annual concert, April 23, 2018 at 7:30pm, University of Florida Auditorium.
Yaakov Lemmer, cantor: International cantor Yaakov Yanky Lemmer was born and raised in Borough Park, Brooklyn. He began his singing career as the star soloist of the Young Israel of Bethel Choir, and received a scholarship to the Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University. He has studied under cantors Joseph Malovany and Bernard Beer, as well as the legendary Noach Schall. He performs regularly at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City.

Shulem Lemmer, cantor: Shulem Lemmer has made a name for himself in the Jewish music world through his captivating voice, flawless pitch and versatility in many genres of music. Growing up in the heart of Boro Park, Brooklyn, Shulem was exposed to cantorial music at a young age while also listening to the current contemporary Jewish music. With this influence, Shulem beautifully combines the two in his performances, becoming renowned as a versatile crossover artist for the two genres.

Frank London, trumpet: Recording jazz and modern Jewish music since the 1980s, London has performed with a wide variety of renowned musicians. He has created works for film and theatre, including the score for a marionette production of The Golem! London has been a member of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmatics, and leads his own group Hasidic New Wave.

Dan Rosengard, keyboard: Dan Rosengard is a pianist and keyboardist, music director, conductor, arranger, composer and producer. One of the busiest musicians in New York City, Dan is perhaps best-known for his stint as a member of the creative team at NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where he composed and arranged special musical material for the comedy sketches.

• Special thanks to our supporters: Desmond and Nadine Schatz, Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Anonymous, Jesse and Corinne Lipnick, Kenneth D. Colen, Samuel R. Bud Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, Gerson Visiting Professor, Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life, Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment, Dr. Warren Bargad Endowment.

• See the poster for this event

“Poner el cuerpo?: Jewish Women and Revolutionary Struggles in Mexican and Argentine Film” a talk by Stephanie Pridgeon on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 5pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite
Pridgeon is recipient of the Jews in the Americas fellowship. This presentation analyzes the films Novia que te vea (Mexico, 1993) and El amigo aleman(Argentina/Germany, 2012) in their depiction of Jewish women’s roles vis-a-vis 1960s and 1970s revolutionary movements in Latin America and on a global scale. The analysis explores the ways in which citizenship and interpellation are represented visually as the respective films’ protagonists grapple with national hegemony, their Jewish identities, and gender vis-a-vis interpersonal relationships.

A talk by Naomi Leite on April 11-12, 2018

Not Like My Grandparents?: Comparing New York’s Jewish Immigrants of 1918 to Today’s American Immigrants” a talk by Tyler Anbinder on Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 5:00pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite
Professor of History, The George Washington University, and author of City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York. Underpinning current debates on immigration is the conviction that today’s immigrants are fundamentally different than those who came to the United States in the past. Americans who support deporting the nation’s illegal immigrants, as well as those who prefer granting them amnesty, tend to believe that contemporary immigrants aren’t much like their own immigrant ancestors. Yet a look at the 400-year history of American immigration shows that today’s immigrants are not fundamentally different than Americans foreign-born grandparents, great-grandparents, or even great-great-great grandparents. Not Like My Grandparents? will compare eastern European Jewish immigrants living on New York’s Lower East Side a century ago to the city’s immigrant population today, shedding light on how immigrants shaped America in the past and continue to shape it today.

“The Revolution in Catholic Thinking on the Jews” a talk by John Connelly on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at 6pm in Pugh Hall Ocora.
Professor of History at the University of California Berkeley. Connelly will discuss the revolution in Catholic thinking about the Jews, shedding some light on the baffling silence of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust, and showcasing how the ancient teachings of the church subscribed to the view that Jews were cursed by God. How did an institution whose wisdom is said to be unchanging undertake one of the most enormous, yet undiscussed, ideological swings in modern history?

Author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933-1965, John Connelly moves from the speechless Vatican to a small, but mighty group of Catholics who endeavored to find a new language to speak to the Jews in the shadow of the Holocaust.

• The program is sponsored by the Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, the UF Center for Jewish Studies and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
• See the postcard for this event

8th Annual Jewish Film Festival on March 10-25, 2018 at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
Sunday, March 11 at 7pm: The Museum
Monday, March 12 at 7pm: 1945
Tuesday, March 13 at 7pm: Menashe
Wednesday, March 14 at 7pm: The Invisibles
Thursday, March 15 at 7pm West of the Jordan River
Saturday, March 17 at 8:30pm: The Wedding Plan
Sunday, March 18 at 2pm: Israel, Why
Sunday, March 18 at 7pm: HaGiga: The Story of Israeli Cinema
Monday, March 19 at 7pm: Operation Wedding
Tuesday, March 20 at 7pm: The Testament
Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm: A Land Without Borders
Thursday, March 22 at 7pm: Siege
Saturday, March 24 at 8:30pm: Holy Air

• The Gainesville Jewish Film Festival is organized by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, and made possible by: Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies, Anonymous, Bud Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund, Gary R. Gerson Annual Lecture Series, Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies, Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Jewish Student Union, Mikki and Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
• See the poster for this event

“The Untold Story of Nazi Stolen Art” A talk by Charles Dellheim on Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Since the late-1990s, the fate of pillaged Nazi art has become a cause c�l�bre. Although there is good reason to welcome the long-delayed restitution of works of art the danger of dwelling exclusively on how the Nazis stole Jewish art collections is that doing so has obscured a compelling historical question: How did certain Jews acquire so much art in the first place and what does this reveal about the relationship between Jews, art, and modernity?

Charles Dellheim is Professor of History at Boston University and was the founding director of the Kilachand Honors College. He earned a Ph.D. at Yale University and has written on diverse aspects of modern history: Victorian attitudes to the past, the relationship between business and culture, as well as Mrs. Thatcher’s capitalist revolution. He is currently completing a book on Jews, Art, and Modernity.

• Made possible through the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies and co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

“Leonard Cohen: In Words and Music”, a talk by Chantal Ringuet on Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
One of the greatest contemporary poets, songwriters and musicians, Leonard Cohen has produced a body of works which speak to his Jewish origins the desire to escape a destiny filled with suffering and forgiveness, the ability to reinvent himself beyond exile and loss while being of his time, that is deeply rooted in North-American culture. Above all, his oeuvre is interspersed with many revolutions that emerge in and through language, be it poetic, fictional, musical or spiritual. This presentation will examine the interrelationship between words and music in Leonard Cohen’s texts.

Chantal Ringuet is a Canadian award-winning author, scholar and translator. She has been a fellow of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York and is currently Research Associate at the HBI, Brandeis University

• Made possible through the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

“Retranslating Marc Chagall”, a talk by Chantal Ringuet and Pierre Anctil on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
The two will discuss Mon univers. Autobiographie (Fides, 2017), their newly published (French) translation of Marc Chagall’s Eygens–a series of paintings depicting key elements of the renowned painter’s life, from his birth in Vitebsk in 1887, to his journeys through European capitals such as St. Petersburg, Paris and Moscow, finally returning to his native city in 1922. Engaged with current debates on the nature and role of retranslation, Mon univers. Autobiographie presents the advantage of restoring the original manuscript in all of its uniqueness.

Chantal Ringuet is a Canadian award-winning author, scholar and translator. She is currently Research Associate at the HBI, Brandeis University. Pierre Anctil is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a full professor at the Department of History, University of Ottawa.

• Co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, Center for European Studies, France-Florida Research Institute, and Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

A talk by Avigail Oren on Tuesday, February 13, 2018

A talk by Jonathan Ray on February 5-6, 2018

“Jews in the Americas” speaker series from January 9 to August 28, 2018.

• Presented by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at the University of Florida.
• See the program for these events

“Merchants, Mystics, and Secret Jews: Sephardic Identities in the Age of Discovery”, the annual Alexander Grass Endowed Lecture by Jonathan Ray on Monday, February 5 at 5:00 pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
The history of the Sephardic Diaspora is inextricably linked to the European Age of Discovery. The global networks created by Spanish and Portuguese Jews and Conversos became a hallmark of the early modern period, forming a bridge between the Old World and the New, and between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Prof. Ray will explore three key facets of Sephardic identity during this fascinating yet oft-overlooked chapter in Jewish history.

Jonathan Ray is the Samuel Eig Professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University. Prof. Ray specializes in medieval and early modern Jewish history, focusing on the Sephardic world. His publications includeThe Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia(2006),The Jew in Medieval Iberia(2012), and After Expulsion: 1492 and the Making of Sephardic Jewry(2013).

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. Cosponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica. Off-campus parking is available at the Stadium Club, behind 1802 W. University Ave., or in the parking lot across from Library West at 1542 W. University Ave. This parking lot now has a drop-box pay system when the attendant is off-duty.
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“Living in English, Writing in Hebrew” a conversation with author Ruby Namdar on Thursday, February 8, 2018 at 5pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Ruby Namdar was born and raised in Jerusalem to a family of Iranian-Jewish heritage. His first book, Haviv (2000), won The Ministry of Culture’s Award for Best First Publication. His novel The Ruined House (2013) has won the Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award. He currently lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters and teaches Jewish literature, focusing on Biblical and Talmudic narrative.

Mesmerizing and unsettling, The Ruined House unfolds over the course of one year, as Andrew’s world unravels and he is forced to question all his beliefs. Steeped in the tradition of the greatest Jewish American novels, Namdar’s brilliant debut captures the privilege and pedantry of New York intellectual life in the opening years of the twenty-first century. In sumptuous and incantatory prose, Namdar spins a nuanced and provocative tale of materialism, tradition, faith, and the search for meaning in contemporary culture.

• Made possible through the “Bud” Shorstein Professorship.
• See the postcard for this event