Ami Pedahzur, “The Culture of Death: Terrorist Organizations and Suicide Bombings.” Thursday, December 2, 7:30 pm Reitz Union, Room 362.
Over the last three decades, suicide terrorism has emerged as a political strategy in different parts of the world. Israel and its allies, the United States in particular, have often been targeted. Pedahzur, a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa and deputy director of its National Security Studies Center, argues that the phenomenon cannot be explained by the prevalence of “holy war” thinking in certain religions. Rather he argues, terrorist organizations follow strategic imperatives in decisions to embrace or repudiate a “culture of death.” One of the prominent figures in the comparative study of political extremism and terrorism, Pedahzur is spending the 2004-2005 academic year at the University of Texas with the Harrington Visiting Faculty Fellowship.
Eilat Negev, The Harry Rich Lecture in Holocaust Studies, “The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz.” Tuesday, November 16, 7:30 pm Computer Science Engineering Building, Room E121.
Based on Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren’s book, In Our Hearts We Were Giants(Carroll & Graf, 2004), The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz is a heart-wrenching and at times almost unbelievable account of a family of Jewish dwarfs from Transylvania –
a family who struggled in life and cheated death. The Lilliput Troupe, seven Jewish dwarf siblings, had their own traveling theatre before WWII, and survived Dr. Mengele’s experiments. Theirs is a true story of survival and hope – the weakest of the weak overcame all odds.
Dr. Benjamin Hary, “The Languages of the Jews” Monday, April 12th, 7:30 p.m., Reitz Union, Room 346
Benjamin Hary of Emory University, holds a Ph.D in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. His research examines the intersection of Judaism with Arab culture and Islam. Dr. Hary has published numerous studies of the nature of Judeo-Arabic, the language of the Jews in Arab lands. His current work explores the literal translations of Jewish sacred religious texts from Hebrew into Judeo-Arabic, demonstrating how the translations influenced and were influenced by Jewish identity and historical memory in Arab lands.
Dr. Michael Walzer “What Can We Learn from the Jewish Political Tradition?” Wednesday, March 17, 7:30 pm Rinker Hall, Room 110.
One of America’s foremost public intellectuals, Michael Walzer has written about a wide variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy: political obligation, just and unjust war, nationalism and ethnicity, economic justice and the welfare state. He has played a part in the revival of a practical, issue focused ethics and in the development of a pluralist approach to political and moral life. He is currently working on the toleration and accommodation of “difference” in all its forms and also on a (collaborative) project on the history of Jewish political thought.
- *co-sponsored by UF Dept of Political Science and Center for Humanities in the Public Sphere
Joshua M. Greene “Justice at Dachau” Tuesday, March 2, 7:30 p.m., Reitz Union, Room 362.
Writer/producer Joshua M. Greene has been described by the New York Times as “a storyteller in film and video” whose books and documentaries have been translated and broadcast in more than twenty countries. His most recent work, “Justice at Dachau” documents the true story of William Denson, the US Army lawyer assigned to prosecute hundreds of Nazi guards, officers and “doctors” who served on the front lines of brutality at Dachau, Mauthausen, Flossenburg, and Buchenwald. Mr. Greene has also produced and directed the award winning documentary film Witness: Voices of the Holocaust (2000) as well as many other films for television broadcast on networks world-wide including PBS and The Disney Channel.
- *co-sponsored by UF College of Law
Dr. Arthur Green, “Judaism in an Environmental Age: A Kabbalah for the Future.” Monday, February 16, 7:00p.m. Emerson Alumni Hall.
Arthur Green, one of the world’s preeminent authorities on Jewish spirituality and Jewish thought, is Dean of Hebrew College’s new transdenominational rabbinical school. Green divides his time between Hebrew College and Brandeis University where he is the Philip W. Lown Professor of Jewish Thought. Green has written several books, including Tormented Master: A Life of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav; Seek My Face, Speak My Name: A Contemporary Jewish Theology; These are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life and most recently, Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow.
- *co-sponsored by the Department of History