Jan Gross, “After Auschwitz: Anti-Semitism in Poland,” Sunday, November 18th, 4:00 pm at Hillel.
Norman B. Tomlinson ’16 and ’48 Professor of War and Society, and Professor of History at Princeton University, Jan Gross studies modern Europe, focusing on comparative politics, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, Soviet and East European politics, and the Holocaust. After growing up in Poland and attending Warsaw University, he immigrated to the US in 1969 and earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University. Gross’s first book, Polish Society Under German Occupation, appeared in 1979. Neighbors (2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, reconstructs the events that took place in July 1941 in the small Polish town of Jedwabne, where virtually every one of the town’s 1,600 Jewish residents was killed in a single day. Professor Gross’s most recent book Fear is a detailed reconstruction of the Kielce pogrom in 1946 and the Polish reactions to it that attempts to answer a perplexing question: How was anti-Semitism possible in Poland after the war?
- Made possible through a gift from Irma and Norman Braman.
- See the postcard for this event
Dan Miron, “S.Y. Abramovitsh Between Yiddish and Hebrew: Mendele’s Art of ‘Breathing Through Both Nostrils’,” Thursday, November 15th, 7:30pm, Reitz Union, Room 282.
Regarded as the grandfather of modern Yiddish literature and equally a founding father of its nascent Hebrew counterpart, S.Y. Abramovitsh (1836–1917) has been hailed as a towering innovator who propelled both Hebrew and Yiddish literature—artistically, stylistically, and ideationally—into modernity. Dan Miron is the Leonard Kaye Chair for Hebrew and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He also teaches at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is an internationally recognized literary critic. Publications include The Image of the Shtetl, Syracuse UP, 2000.
- Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
- See the postcard for this event
“Imaging the Unimaginable: The Iconicization of Auschwitz,” November 11-12. Sunday, Nov. 11th at the Harn Museum. Monday, Nov. 12th at Hillel.
An international conference that reviews the history of the camp and its future as an archive and museum; the nature of graphic representations from the camp including the actual documents and the problem of ownership; the question of ownership of Auschwitz itself given its significance as a world heritage site; the question of national memory and how deeply contested that is among the various nationalities involved; the ethical issue of aestheticization of photographs and paintings whose value as documents is quite clear, but which may very well speak to us on another level entirely; and finally graphic representations about the camp including post-war documentary and feature film.
Paper proposals of 350-500 words plus cv are due by May 15th, 2007 and should be sent to the conference organizers, Nora Alter and Jack Kugelmass:(nma@ufl.edu and jkugelma@jst.ufl.edu). The Center for Jewish Studies will cover approved costs of transportation, accommodation and food. Participants are required to submit a written version of their papers for group publication by April 2008.
- Made possible through a gift from Irma and Norman Braman.
- See the postcard for this event
- See the poster for this event
- See the original call-for-papers for this event
- Paper given at the conference titled “The Image of Auschwitz in History Politics” here.
“The Auschwitz Album: The Story of a Transport,” opening reception is Sunday, November 4th in the Reitz Union Gallery.
The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a unique document and was donated to Yad Vashem by Lilly Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier. The photos were taken at the end of May or beginning of June 1944, either by Ernst Hofmann or by Bernhard Walter, two SS men whose task was to take ID photos and fingerprints of the inmates (not of the Jews who were sent directly to the gas chambers). The photos show the arrival of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia. Many of them came from the Berehov Ghetto, which itself was a collecting point for Jews from several other small towns.
- See the postcard for this event
- See the poster for this event
- Made possible through a gift from Irma and Norman Braman.
- Learn more about the Auschwitz Album at Yad Vashem.
Simon Rabinovitch, “The Revutsky Riddle: Second Thoughts of a Minister for Jewish Affairs,” Thursday, November 1st, 7:00pm.
Simon Rabinovitch is the Alexander Grass Post-Doctoral Associate for the Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of History. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 2007. He is currently working on a manuscript for publication entitled Alternative to Zion: The Jewish Autonomist Movement in Late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia, which traces the development of the idea of non-territorial autonomy for Russian Jewry between the turn of the twentieth century and the creation of the Soviet Union. His published and forthcoming articles examine Jewish nationalist thought, folkloristics, and ethnography.
- This event is for faculty and graduate students only.
“Exile, Judaism and Literary Criticism: Erich Auerbach, the 50th Anniversary of His Death,” Tuesday, October 23rd.
Reception begins 4 P.M. at Ruth McQuown, Dauer Hall Rm 219
Panel from 4:30—6:30 P.M.
Chair: Judith Page
• Esther Romeyn: Auerbach’s Mimesis and the Contradictions of the Modern
• Dragan Kujundzic: Beyond Comparison: Auerbach’s Comparative Literature as a Diasporic Experience
• Galili Shahar: Mimesis, Judaism and the Politics of Literary Criticism
• William Calin: Auerbach and History
Recital at the Keene Faculty Center (Dauer Hall) beginning 7:00 P.M. Invitation:
Please join pianist Gila Goldstein, Visiting Assistant Professor this fall at UFL, for a short musicale inspired by Dances and Songs. The dance and song forms are the source of creation of musical masterpieces throughout history. These are humanity’s most primeval artistic forms of expression, which the great composers elevated to the highest works of art. Partita by Bach (another title for a suite, meaning chain of old dances), songs by Mendelssohn, songs by Schubert transcribed by Liszt, and short pieces with folk elements of dance and song in them, written in 1943, by the Israeli composer, originally from Munich, Paul Ben-Haim. Pulse and Lyricism rule these forms, and necessary for the musical interpretation of any piece. The essential point about musical interpretation is taking the listener on a magical journey by letting go of one’s emotions. Escape from reality where these dances and songs were born, and soar to heavenly spheres.
- Made possible by the Center for Jewish Studies and Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies.
- See the postcard for this event
- See the postcard for the recital, Figura
- Download conference proceedings.
“Encounter Point” a film, Wednesday, October 17th, 7:00 P.M. in the Reitz Union Auditorium.
Encounter Point is an 85-minute feature documentary film that follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their communities. The film explores what drives them and thousands of other like-minded civilians to overcome anger and grief to work for grassroots solutions. It is a film about the everyday leaders in our midst.
- See the postcard for this event
- This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Dean of Students Office, International Center and Reitz Union Board, UF.
- Learn more about Encounter Point here.
“Europa Europa: Europe in Philosophy, History, Literature, Music and Film.” Monday, September 10th, Dauer Hall Rm 215. First session, 10 A.M. to 12:30 P.M.; second session 2 P.M.-4:30 P.M. followed by a reception; Film screening, Europa Europa, 5:30 P.M. to 7 P.M.
A conference to discuss Europe, and its “alterities” (Jewish, Muslim, Slavic, the other “others,” etc.) Each faculty will present a book with “Europe” in the title, followed by two roundtables (morning and afternoon sessions.) The event will conclude with the screening of Europa Europa, a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, which means Hitler Youth Salomon. It’s based on the 1989 autobiography by Solomon Perel, a Jew who escaped Nazi persecution by masquerading as an Aryan. The movie stars Marco Hofschneider and Julie Delpy, along with the real-life Perel as himself. The film is an international co-production between companies in Germany, France and Poland.
- Organized by Dragan Kujundzic, dragan@ufl.edu.
- See the postcard for this event
- This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies and France-Florida Research Institute.
Monika Flaschka, “Gender as Motivation for Violence: Atrocities Against Women Under the Nazis,” Thursday, June 14th, 7:30 P.M. at Hillel.
Ms. Monika Flaschka is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Kent State University and earned Master’s degrees in anthropology and history from the same university. During her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC., Ms. Flaschka is examining the gender ideology of Nazism and the rhetorical motivation for the rape of Jewish, Roma, Sinti, and Slavic women during the Holocaust.
- Made possible by the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies.
- See the postcard for this event
SHIFT 2007
is June 11–15. Learn more about SHIFT, our Holocaust Educators Workshop at the University of Florida, or register online.
- See the brochure for this event
Etgar Keret, “A Reading by Etgar Keret”. Wednesday, April 18th, 7:30pm, Reitz Union, Room 282.
Etgar Keret was born in Tel Aviv in 1967. He started writing in 1992 and is the most popular writer among Israeli youth today. Keret is the author of The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God, Dad Runs Away with the Circus, and The Nimrod Flip Out just to name a few. Over 40 short movies have been based on his stories, one of which won the American MTV Prize (1998). His movie, Skin Deep, won First Prize at several international film festivals, and was awarded the Israeli Oscar. Keret is at present a lecturer in the film department at Tel Aviv University.
- Made possible by the Futernick Visiting Professorship Endowment.
- See the postcard for this event
Samuel Kassow, “Between History and Catastrophe: Emanuel Ringelblum’s Secret Ghetto Archive”. Thursday, April 12th, Reitz Union, Room 282.
Dr. Kassow, the Charles Northam Professor of Judaic Studies at Trinity College, holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics, and is the author of numerous articles and scholarly talks in English, Russian and Yiddish. He has also lectured and taught in Mexico, Lithuania, Russia and Poland. Professor Kassow is the son of Holocaust survivors and was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. He is currently working on a book, to be published by Indiana University Press, about Emmanuel Ringelblum and the underground archives of the Warsaw ghetto.
- Made possible by the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies.
- See the postcard for this event
Matthew Connelly (Columbia University and Woodrow Wilson Center), “Reproducing the West: The History and Politics of Population Growth and Movement”. Thursday, April 5th, 4:00pm, Smathers Library, Conference Room West, 212.
This paper examines how population projections and policies have served to define cultural difference. In particular, Connelly will consider Muslim minorities in Europe and discuss more generally how fertility and infertility shape identities and differences among people who consider themselves Western.
- Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of History, and the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. - See the brochure for this event
Kenneth D. Wald, “Israel and American Jewish Politics”. Sunday, March 25th, 2:00pm, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL.
Discussions about the strength of the “Jewish lobby” in American foreign policy often assume that American Jewry is united around the importance of Israel. The talk will assess this claim, focusing on sources of cohesion and division among American Jews about the political importance of Israel. The talk will also compare the popular base of support for Israel with the principle critics of America’s Israel policy, the Arab-American community.
Wald is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida, where he has taught since 1983. A specialist on religion in American politics, his most recent books include Religion and Politics in the United States (5th edition, 2006) and The Politics of Cultural Differences (2002). He also edits the Cambridge University Press series, Religion, Politics and Social Theory. At the University of Florida, he has served as director of the Center for Jewish Studies and chair of the Department of Political Science. Wald has held Fulbright fellowships to Israel and Germany, visiting appointments at Harvard, the University of Haifa, and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He is currently working on a book about contemporary Jewish political behavior.
- Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, UF, the Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Volusia/Flagler County.
- See the brochure for this event
“The Ister” a film. Tuesday, March 20th, 1-6:30pm.
There will be a round table discussion immediately following the screening of the film.
‘The Ister’ is a 3000km journey to the heart of Europe, from the mouth of the Danube river at the Black Sea, to its source in the German Black Forest. The film is based on the work of the most influential and controversial philosopher of the 20th century, Martin Heidegger, who swore allegiance to the National Socialists in 1933. By marrying a vast philosophical narrative with an epic voyage up Europe’s greatest waterway, the film invites the viewer to unravel the extraordinary past and future of ‘the West.’
- See the poster for this event.
- Proceedings from the conference “The Ister,” under the title
The Danube: Hoelderlin, Heidegger, ‘the jews,’ and the Destiny of Europe
have been published by Artmargins.
Matt Jacobs, “Imagining a Quagmire”. Wednesday, March 7th.
Matthew Jacobs is Assistant Professor of U.S. and World History at the University of Florida. He teaches courses on U.S. foreign relations, world history, and modern U.S. history. His research focuses on U.S.-Middle East relations since 1945, and he is currently completing a book manuscript under the tentative title Imagining the Middle East. His talk will explore one of the issues – the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – through which U.S. policy makers, academics, members of the media, and business persons have imagined the Middle East since 1945.
- This event is for faculty and graduate students only.
David Rechter, “The Habsburg Empire, 1867-1918: Good for the Jews?”. Evening of Tuesday, March 6th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Dr. David Rechter is the University Research Lecturer in Oriental Studies at Oxford University and the Research Fellow in Modern Jewish History at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He is the author of The Jews of Vienna and the First World War, (2001). Dr. Rechter is currently working on a book about the Jews of Habsburg Bukovina (1774-1914).
- Made possible by The Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
- See the postcard for this event
Ben Ehlers (University of Georgia) and Pawel Kras (University of Lublin), “Politics and Religious Identities in Pre-Modern Europe: Case Studies in Poland and Spain”. Thursday, March 1st, 4:00pm, Smathers Library, Conference Room West, 212.
From the 15th through the 17th centuries, religious minorities throughout Catholic Europe faced increasing pressure to conform and submit to the authority of the Church. Ben Ehlers will discuss the diverging experiences of baptized Jews (conversos) and Muslims (moriscos) in the inquisitorial age in Spain reflected in the conflicting demands placed upon them, as Christian authorities both pressured converts to assimilate and threatened them with expulsion. Pawel Kras will examine the parallel relationship between the inquisition and the Jewish population in Poland.
- Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of History, and the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. - See the brochure for this event
Gil Anidjar (Columbia University), “On the Muslim Question”. Tuesday, February 20th, 4:00pm, Smathers Library, Conference Room West, 212.
Is there a “Muslim question”? Is there an analogy to be made between the Jewish and the Muslim question? Clearly, the analogy has been offered, discussed and even denied in a variety of contexts. Yet pursuing the analogy also seems to buttress the un-interrogated assumption that there are — in the West, and when it comes to Jews and Muslims — two questions. In this talk, Gil Anidjar asks: what if there were only one question?
- Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of History, and the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. - See the brochure for this event
“For the Life of the Flesh Is in the Blood: A Conference on the Significance of Blood in Jewish History & Culture”. An international conference, February 18th-19th at Hillel.
Blood has played a central role in the rituals and representations of Jews and Judaism. From the Passover story and the rituals in the temple in Jerusalem, through the blood libels of medieval and modern times, blood has figured in Jewish practice and in discourses produced by and about Jews. This conference will explore the relationship between Jews and blood from different disciplinary and methodological perspectives.
- Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies through the Alexander Grass Chair.
-
Changes have been made to the scheduling of this event.
Viewnew schedule.
- See the poster for this event. Front; Back
Jeremy Cohen, “Competing for the Blood of the Cross: Mistress Rachel the Martyr of Mainz”. Thursday, February 15th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Jeremy Cohen is the Spiegel Family Foundation Professor of European Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. Over the years, his research and publications have focused on various aspects of the interaction between Judaism and Christianity. He is the author of The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism (1982), Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict: From Late Antiquity to the Reformation (1991), Living Letters of the Law: Ideas of the Jew in Medieval Christianity (1999), and From Witness to Witchcraft: Jews and Judaism in Medieval Christian Thought (1996) among others. His latest book, Christ-Killers: The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to Big Screen, is to be published by Oxford University Press late in 2006.
- Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies through the Alexander Grass Chair and the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
- See the postcard for this event
A.J. Levine, “Jesus and Judaism: Why the Connection (still) Matters”. Thursday, February 1st, 7:30pm, Ustler Hall, UF Women’s Gymnasium.
Amy-Jill Levine is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies and Director of the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion in Nashville, TN. She is a self-described “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt.”
Holding a B.A. from Smith College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and an honorary Doctor of Ministry from the University of Richmond, Dr. Levine has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Dr. Levine’s numerous publications address Christian Origins, Jewish-Christian Relations, and Sexuality, Gender, and the Bible; she has recorded the Introduction to the Old Testament, Great Figures of the Old Testament and Great Figures of the New Testament for the Teaching Company’s Great Lecture series. Her current projects include the fourteen-volume series, The Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (Continuum), The Historical Jesus in Context (Princeton), and The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperSanFrancisco).
- The Jewish Council of North Central Florida Lecture.
- See the postcard for this event
- See the New York Times article
Jack Kugelmass, “Shtetls Without Jews: Early Accounts of Postwar Poland by Emigre Travelers”. Wednesday, January 31st.
Long before the war against Nazism was over military chaplains and embedded journalists were encountering survivors—experiences they related largely through reports, letters and diaries. But the cessation of fighting allowed a good many emigre journalists and cultural activists to travel to Europe to see for themselves what still remained of the Old Country. There they encountered the surviving remnants of European Jewry and the closer they got to the killing fields of eastern Europe the more dramatic their accounts became especially for an émigré readership eager to learn about the fate of former homes and communities. Many published their accounts in the Yiddish and Hebrew press and quite a few collected their reportages for republication as books. Indeed, a few of them appeared in the remarkable 177-volume series published in Argentina, Dos poylishe yidntum. The talk examines the material these visitors produced with special attention to the range of tropes employed within the narratives, suggesting how complex is this early literature about the Shoah and how ambivalent these writers were about the prospects for a renewal of Polish Jewry.
- This event is for faculty and graduate students only.
Tamir Sorek, “Ethnic Solidarity and Israeli Soccer”. Sunday, January 28th, 2:00pm, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL.
The talk considers a case in which Bet Shean allowed Betar to win the 1998 Israel soccer Championship. The analysis considers the importance of ethnic solidarity based on shared origin and social marginality of Jews of Mizrakhi origin among both teams’ fans. Interestingly, soccer has become a means for displaying such solidarity given the fact that the political arena has always been an illegitimate space for expressing it.
Sorek (Ph.D. Hebrew University 2002) is Assistant Professor of Israel Studies at the Center for Jewish Studies and the Sociology Department of the University of Florida. His dissertation Arab Soccer in a Jewish State will be published in March by Cambridge University Press. His first book, Israel Refuseniks was published in France by Agnes Vienot (2003).
- Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, UF, the Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Volusia/Flagler County.
- See the brochure for this event
Olivia Remie Constable (University of Notre Dame), “Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Chess: Gaming and Courtly Culture in Medieval Spain”. Thursday, January 18th, 4:30pm, Smathers Library, Conference Room West, 212.
The Libro de Ajedrez (Book of Chess) is a lavishly illustrated manuscript produced at the court of Alfonso X of Castile in the thirteenth century. It not only contains a fascinating variety of pictures of people playing chess (Muslims, Christians, and Jews; men and women; adults and children), but it also contains allusions to many other facets of medieval courtly life, including contemporary tastes in literature, music, and sport. Constable uses this manuscript to examine social relations between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the medieval court of Castile.
- Sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of History, and the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. - See the brochure for this event