Jack Kugelmass, “Poland 1946: First Encounters With Survivors” Sunday Dec 11, 2:00 pm Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach.
Jack Kugelmass is Melton Legislative Professor and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. His books include The Miracle of Intervale Avenue: The Story of a Jewish Congregation in the South Bronx and From A Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry. He is currently working on a book of translations from Yiddish journalists writing about post-war Poland.
- *co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, UF, the Jewish Federation of Volusia/Flagler County and an anonymous donor
James Shapiro, “The Jew’s Daughter” Thursday, October 20, 7:30pm at Hillel.
James Shepiro recieved a B.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago. After teaching at Darmouth College amd Goucher College, he joined the faculty at Columbia University in 1985, where he is Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He is the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991), Shakespeare and the Jews(1996), and Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World’s Most Famous Passion Play (2000) which New York Times Book Review selected as one of the “notable books” of 2000. He has also been awarded the Hoffman Prize for Distinguished Scholarship on Marlowe and the Bainton Prize for best book on sixteenth-century literature. His most recent book A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599–has just been published by HarperCollins.
- The Jewish Council of North Central Florida Lecture.
Leah Hochman, “Reading Faces, Reading Souls: Jews, Lavater and Physiognomy in Modern Europe” Thursday Sept 29, 7:30pm, Turlington Room 2319.
leah Hochman is Assistant Professor of Religion and Jewish studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville. After completing her doctorate in religion and literature at Boston University, she began researching the correlations between philosophical aesthetics and the debate on the emancipation of the Jews as a DAAD Fellow at the Moses Mendelssohn Zentrum in Potsdam, Germany. Her current project deals with the concepts of the ugly and ugliness in 18th- and 19th-century European thought and their relationship to social policy making in the late Enlightenment. She has been a Dubnow-Einstein Fellow (Einstein Forum, Potsdam and Simon-Dubnow Institute, Leipzig) and a Skirball Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Oxford University, UK).
Dr. Gad Barzilai, “Communities, Law, and Politics of Rights: Israel and other Nation States Revisited.” Wednesday April 6, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Room 282.
Gad Barzilai is Visiting Professor of Political Science and Law at University of Washington in the Comparative Law and Society Studies Center and the Jackson School of International Studies. He is a tenured Professor at Tel Aviv University, where he teaches both in the department of political science and the law school, and is the co-director of the inter- disciplinary law, politics, and society program. His recent prize-winning book Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities, centers on legal cultures and non- ruling communities (minorities)
Dr. Hasia Diner, “Out of the Kitchen and Into History: Food, Migration, and American Jewish History,” Thursday March 24, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Rm 282.
Hasia Diner is the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor in American Jewish History at New York University, in the Department of History and the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. One of the leading specialists in the history of American Jews, Professor Diner is also an accomplished historian of Irish Americans, African Americans and Italian Americans and has written about many of these groups in comparative context.
- The Jewish Council of North Central Florida Lecture.
Dr. Jack Kugelmass, “Poland 1946: Impressions From Journeys” Tuesday, March 29, 7:30 p.m.
Jack Kugelmass has been named the Melton Professor of Jewish Studies and the director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. Prior to that appointment, he has been the Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies and Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University. As an anthropologist, Kugelmass has written on such diverse topics as the public culture of American Jews and Jewish humor in the United States. His recent books include Key Texts in American Jewish Cultureand From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry. He is currently completing a book on American Jews and sports.
At the end of World War II, Jewish communities throughout the world were concerned not only with the plight of European Jewish refugees but also with what still remained of the Old Country. Representatives of various organizations, journalists and community activists traveled through parts of Poland during the initial post-war years and published their accounts in the Yiddish press and subsequently as books. The lecture examines how the conventions of the travelog influenced what should be considered one of the early genres of Shoah literature, and how journalists mediated the emerging narrative about the Shoah for a broad Jewish public.
- *sponsored by the Seymour Marco Family Foundation
- click to see the postcard for this event
Dr. Stephen Whitfield, “The Southern Jewish Experience.” Thursday March 10, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Room 282.
Stephen Whitfield holds the Max Richter Chair in American Civilization at Brandeis University. A specialist in twentieth-century American politics and culture, he is also one of the leading scholars of the culture and politics of American Jews. He has written about the Americanization of the Holocaust, Black-Jewish relations, Jews in the American South, and American Jews in the creative arts. His eight books include American Space, Jewish Time; Voices of Jacob, Hands of Esau: Jews in American Life and Thought; and In Search of American Jewish Culture.
Dr. Avraham Balaban, “Mourning a Father Lost.” Thursday Feb 17, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Room 282.
Avraham Balaban is a professor of modern Hebrew literature at the University of Florida where he has taught since 1989. A student of Hebrew fiction of the second half of the twentieth century, he has published books on the Israeli writers Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, and Amalia Kahana-Carmon, among others. At the University of Florida, he teaches courses on subjects such as women in Hebrew literature, modern Hebrew poetry, and post-modernist trends in contemporary Israeli fiction. He will read from his memoir about life on the kibbutz.
- *co-sponsored by the Department of History.
With the liberation of Europe Jews throughout the world were eager for information about the situation of surviving Jews. As the largest Jewish community in pre-war Europe Poland was of particular concern and dozens of journalists traveled thee to write about the prospects for Jewish renewal. The articles they published largely in the Yiddish press are among the earliest accounts we have of the Holocaust and its aftermath.
Dr. Howard Rothman, “Tunes Through The Times: Does Anyone Know How To Describe Jewish Music?” Sunday, February 13, 7:30 p.m.
Howard Rothman is a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and a member of the University of Florida’s Institute for the Advanced Study of the Communication Processes as well as an affiliate of the Center for Jewish Studies. A specialist in the acoustic aspects of speech and singing voice, he has published articles on synagogue music and the cantorial voice. He teaches a course on Jewish Music at UF.
Music is mentioned in the early chapters of Genesis and flourished in Temple times. After the destruction of the Temple, the Rabbis forbade the use of music and the Jews were dispersed throughout the world. Wherever they lived, Jews adapted to the culture and customs of the societies in which they lived. This suggests that there is no homogeneous Jewish music. But, is there? During this evening, we’ll explore some of these issues and listen to examples of different kinds of Jewish music.
- *sponsored by the Ansbacher Family Foundation
- click to see the postcard for this event