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2010 Events

“Kristallnacht: MYTHS & REALITIES” A talk by Alan E. Steinweis, Monday, November 8, 7:00PM at Hillel.
Professor of History and the Director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. His books include Art, Ideology and Economics in Nazi Germany (1996) and Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany (2006). His latest book is titled Kristallnacht 1938(2009). Professor Steinweis’s talk will throw important new light on the Night of Broken Glass—Germanys pogrom of November 1938 that terrorized its Jews, stunned the world by its brutality, and foreshadowed the Holocaust itself.

  • Made possible by the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies.

Alan Steinweis, 11/7-9/2010.

“Is American Jewry ‘Exceptional’?: Comparing Jewish Emancipation in Europe and America” A talk by David Sorkin, Thursday, November 4, 7:00PM at Hillel.
David Sorkin is Professor of History and the Frances and Laurence Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of The Transformation of German Jewry, 1780-1840 (1987), Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment (1996) The Berlin Haskalah and German Religious Thought (2000), and The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews and Catholics from London to Vienna (2008).

  • Made possible by the Annual Alexander Grass Endowed Lecture in Jewish Studies
  • See the postcard for this event

Herbert Marks and Austin Busch, 9/20-21/2010.

Naomi Seidman, 10/19-21/2010.

Yair Dalal in Concert, Thursday, April 15, 2010 — 7 pm in the Atrium of Ustler Hall, University of Florida.
Yair Dalal is an internationally renowned Israeli composer, violinist, oud player and singer. His music is inspired by an Iraqi-Jewish descent and combines a diverse musical education including classical Arab and European music, as well as Indian music and Jazz. Over the last decade, he has released 11 albums and has also been active in attempts to enhance understanding and communication between Arabs and Jews. In 1994 Dalal performed at the Nobel Peace Prize gala concert in Oslo. He has won several Israeli awards and was nominated in 2000 for a Grammy as part of Jordi Savall’s ensemble and by BBC world music awards in 2003 as best musician from the Middle East. Dalal will be accompanied by the leading percussionist Dror Sinai.

  • Made possible by the Mikki & Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment, and Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere.
  • See the poster: FrontBack

Posen Seminar April 14th at 7:00 pm. This event is not open to the general public.

“Qohelet: Philosophy Through Metaphor” Sunday, March 14, 2010 5:30 pm at Hillel, 2020 W. University Ave.
Robert Alter is Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written widely on the European novel from the eighteenth century to the present, on contemporary American fiction, and on modern Hebrew literature. He has also written extensively on literary aspects of the Bible, including his highly influential, award-winning books, The Art of Biblical Narrative (1981) and The Art of Biblical Poetry(1985). Among his more recent publications are The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel (1999), Canon and Creativity: Modern Writing and the Authority of Scripture (2000), The Five Book of Moses: A Translation with Commentary (2004), The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary (2007), and Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible (2010).

  • Made possible by the Posen Seminar in Jewish Studies
  • See the postcard for this event

Translating the Hebrew Bible: a faculty seminar with Robert Alter, Sunday, March 14, 2010.

10:00 am – 12:00 pm: Translating Biblical Prose; 219 Dauer, for faculty and grad students only.

  • Gen. 20-21:21; Exod. 2:11-25; Deut. 4:9-27; 2 Sam. 12:1-23; Qoh. 1 – see the readings

12:00 – 2:00 pm: Lunch

2:00 – 4:00 pm: Translating Biblical Poetry; 219 Dauer, for faculty and grad students only.

  • Exod. 15; Ps. 23; Ps. 30; Ps. 139; Job 3; Job 7; Prov. 7 – see the readings

“Arab Labor: Screening and Discussion with Sayed Kashua” Thursday March 4, 7:00 PM at Reitz Union Rm 282.
Sayed Kashua, an Arab citizen of Israel, is an author and a satiric columnist who writes mainly in Hebrew. In his writing, Kashua compellingly addresses the complicated dilemmas of identity faced by Israeli Arabs. He won the Prime Minister Prize for a Hebrew Author in 2005, and his two books Dancing Arabsand Let it Be Morning became best sellers in Israel and have been translated into several languages.

A highly-regarded sitcom written by Kashua, Arab Labor ridicules the mutual stereotypes of Arabs and Jews through a satirical presentation of the life of an Arab family in Israel. The series won several prizes in Israel but faced harsh criticism by the Arab-language press some of whose reviewers were unhappy with image of Arabs within it.

  • See the poster for this series event

“Convergences and Conversions: The Merchant of Venice into the 21st Century” a conference.

Monday evening, March 1 in the Ustler Hall Atrium:

7:30: Scenes from The Merchant of Venice, directed by Sidney Homan (English)

Tuesday, March 2 in Ustler Hall Atrium:

10:00-12:00: Introduction by Mary Beth Mader, (University of Memphis), to Sarah Kofman’s essay, “Conversions. The Merchant of Venice Under the Sign of Saturn, followed by public discussion and the Posen Seminar in Secular Judaism.

1:30-3:00 Paper presentations:

R. Allen Shoaf, (English), Maureen Turim, (English, Film and Media Studies), Judith W. Page, (English, Center for Women?s Studies)

3:30-5:30 Roundtable discussion of Janet Adelman’s Blood Relations: Christian and Jew in The Merchant of Venice (2008)

  • Judith Page (English, Center for Women’s Studies), page7@ufl.edu, and Dragan Kujundzic (Center for Jewish Studies), dragan@ufl.edu, conference directors
  • See the poster for this series event
  • The event is sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Cultural Judaism and the Posen Seminar in Secular Judaism

Friday, February 26, 2-4PM, 219 Dauer Hall: Open public workshop seminar on Walter Benjamin with Professor Samuel Weber, based on his latest book, Benjamin’s -abilities (Harvard University Press, 2008), with the Posen Reading Group in Secular Judaism. Invited seminar contributors: John Leavey, English, Scott Nygren, English, Terry Harpold, English. Seminar co-chaired by Dragan Kujundzic, Center for Jewish Studies.

  • The events are sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for Cultural Judaism and the Posen Seminar in Secular Judaism
  • or further information contact Dragan Kujundzic, Center for Jewish Studies dragan@ufl.edu

Samuel Weber, “Guilt, Debt and the Turn Toward the Future: Walter Benjamin and Hermann Levin Goldschmidt (A Foray into Economic Theology)” Thursday, February 25, 2-4pm. CLICK for more information.

Sammy Smooha (Haifa University), “Israel’s Ethnic Democracy in a Comparative Perspective” (Faculty Seminar), Friday, February 19th, 12:00pm. More information TBA

Posen Seminar Febuary 24th at 7:00pm. This event is not open to the general public.

Sammy Smooha (Haifa University), “Is Israel Western?” Thursday, February 18th, 2010, 7:00pm at Hillel.
Sami Smooha is a Professor of Sociology and the Dean of the Social Sciences at Haifa University. He was born in Baghdad in 1941 and immigrated to Israel in 1951. He is a specialist of comparative ethnic relations and has published widely on internal divides in Israeli Society and on Israel in comparative perspective. Since the late 1980’s Smooha has developed the theoretical model of Ethnic Democracy, for analyzing the status of the Arab citizens of Israel. This model has been widely used by experts of ethnic conflicts world wide. Since 1976 Smooha has been managing a series of public opinions among Arab and Jews, which has provided a unique longitudinal perspective on the development of identities and mutual attitudes. In 2008 he received the Israel Prize for Sociology.

  • See the poster for this series event

Meron Benvenisti, “Israel/Palestine : The Meaning of the Geo-Political ‘Status Quo'”. Thursday, February 11th, 7:00pm in Reitz Union room 282.
Meron Benvenisti was Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem from 1971 to 1978 and administered East Jerusalem and its largely Arab neighborhoods. In 1982 he received a Ph.D in Public Administration from Harvard University, and later was a Fellow the The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Between 1991 and 2009 he was writing a column for Haaretz that focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Benvenisti published more than ten books, the most recent is Son of the Cypresses: memories, reflections, and regrets from a political life. (University of California Press, 2007). He is known for his ‘irreversibility’ thesis, which argues that it is too late to separate the West Bank from Israel and therefore a bi-national state is a more likely solution than two states.

  • See the poster for this series event

Meron Benvenisti: “Processes of Fragmentation and Integration in Israel/Palestine” (Faculty Seminar) Friday, February 12th, 12:00pm. More information TBA.

Yossi Chajes, “It’s Good to See the King: The Nature & Function of Kabbalistic Divinity Maps,” Thursday, February 4th, 7:30 PM at Hillel.
Associate Professor of Jewish history, University of Haifa. The Jewish mystical tradition has tended to present its gnosis in objective terms. The ecstasy of the mystic and the grace of God have taken a back-seat to the transmission of theosophical truths regarding the nature of the divine. As Kabbalah developed increasingly sophisticated imaginings of the workings of divinity, Jewish mystics turned increasingly to mapping out the complex systems, creating a kind of cosmological cartography. With the emergence of the Lurianic Kabbalah in the sixteenth century, such maps became all but essential tools for the mystic student and practitioner. In this lecture, we’ll look at a number of examples of these manuscripts and explore their forms & functions. We’ll also see how a Jewish mysticism that pictured God so graphically intersected with Christian concerns in the early modern period.

Posen Seminar January 20th at 7:00pm. This event is not open to the general public.

Keren Weinshall Margel, “Fighting Terror in the Israeli High Court of Justice: Overt and Covert Aspects” Tuesday, January 19th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Keren Weinshall Margel is Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School, and Doctoral Candidate in Political Science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her research centers on terror, national security, and religion, with a comparative focus on the role of the judiciary in these issues. Weinshall Margel has worked for the Law and Constitution Committee of the Israeli Parliament and has drafted administrative and electoral laws for the state. Her talk focuses on original research, co-authored with Menachem Hofnung of Hebrew University in Jersualem. While previous research had suggested that the Israel High Court of Justice rarely intervenes in favor of civil liberties and rights in the context of national security issues, Weinshall will discuss the covert or camouflaged means that the Israel High Court of Justice has developed to protect rights even in cases related to national security.

  • Co-Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, the Near and Middle East Working Group, and the Department of Political Science
  • Funded with the support of the UF Faculty Enhancement Opportunity Award Program
  • See the postcard for this event