“Remapping Death and Survival: Flight, Displacement and International Aid for Jewish Refugees During the Holocaust”, a talk by Atina Grossmann, Thursday, October 18, 2012 at the Thomas Center, Spanish Court at 7 pm.
Professor of History at Cooper Union University in New York will be discussing her recent book, Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Germany 1945-1949. The work follows the trail of her family and other German Jews as they fled the Nazis into Russia and the Near East, and then regrouped in displaced person camps in Germany after the war. Close Encounters won the George L. Mosse Prize and the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History and was selected as one of the best books of the year by the HSKultListServ in German social and cultural history. She is a noted scholar of women’s and gender studies, German and modern European history and author of Reforming Sex: The German Movement for Birth Control and Abortion Reform, 1920-1950.
- The talk is sponsored by the Center for European Studies together with the Center for Jewish Studies and additional support from the City of Gainesville.
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The 8th Annual Gainesville Latino Film Festival and the Center for Jewish Studies are pleased to bring you El Brindis/To Life directed by Shai Agosin. The film will be shown on Saturday, October 6, 2012, from 2-4 pm at the Harn Museum of Art.
In this lighthearted tale about family, memory and love, Emilia a young photographer, struggles to find meaning in her life. Though she lives a lonely life in Mexico, she reluctantly travels to Chile to visit her octogenarian estranged father Isidoro who is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. There she must deal with her extended paternal family, her unexplored Jewish roots, and her overall feelings of loneliness and resentment. While Isidoro is trying to make up for lost time with Emilia, she is learning that her roots run deeper than she had ever imagined when she meets Rabbi David. Together they learn to practice life’s most “simple yet difficult” task: how to enjoy it. Dealing with each of the trio?s personal crises, love pangs, and leaps of faith, To Life reminds us that even though life can be bittersweet, each moment is a priceless gift.
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- Best Film — Tulipanes Latino Art & Film Festival, Michigan USA 2008
- Audience Awards — 13 Festival de Cine de Ourense — Espana 2008
“Israeli Secularism: the Future of an Illusion” conference, October 13-14, 2012
- Made possible through a grant from the Posen Foundation with additional support from the Benjamin Greenbaum Family Visiting Professor Endowment and the Gary R. Gerson Visiting Professorship at the Center for Jewish Studies.
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An informal talk with Leela Corman, Author, Graphic Illustrator and Dancer. Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 6:15 pm at the Architecture and Fine Arts Library, University of Florida.
Leela will discuss her new graphic novel UNTERZAKHN, which has received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. This is a mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths.
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- This event is free and open to the public. Book sale and signing will follow the program.
“Jewish Jacksonville: 250 Years of Florida Jewish History” April 23–June 15 at Smathers Library gallery, 2nd floor. Opening Reception, Wednesday April 25, 2012 5:00–7:00pm at Smathers Library 1A. Special quest, Marcia Jo Zerivitz.
Featuring manuscripts, photographs, newsletters and other ephemera from the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, Jewish Jacksonville tells the story of the Jewish community of Jacksonville, Florida in the 19th and 20th century.
Marcia Jo Zerivitz is the Founding Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Florida and has been a leader in the organized Florida Jewish community for 50 years. Ms. Zerivitz initiated the legislation for both a Florida Jewish History Month in 2003 and a Jewish American Heritage Month in 2006 to increase awareness of the contributions by Jews to the state and nation.
- View the online exhibition
“Shylock in the Pawnshop: Anti-Semitic Portrayals of Pawnbrokers in 19th-Century America” a talk by Wendy Woloson Wednesday, April 4, 7:00pm, at Smathers Library.
Wendy Woloson is an independent scholar and consulting historian living in Philadelphia, PA. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century material culture, consumption, and secondary markets in the United States. Her most recent book is In Hock: Pawning in America from Independence through the Great Depression(University of Chicago Press), and she is currently at work on a new book about the history of novelty goods.
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- Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair In Jewish History.
“The Missing Pieces: The Holocaust on Soviet Screens” a talk by Olga Gershenson Sunday, March 18, 5:00 PM at the Harn.
Associate Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Gesher: Russian Theater in Israel(2005) and is currently writing a book about the unknown, forgotten, or banned Holocaust films in the Soviet Union. Her talk is part of the Center for Jewish Studies international conference, Rewriting the Jewish History of the Holocaust, March 17-19, 2012.
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- Made possible through a special gift by Norman and Irma Braman with additional funds from the Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Harry Rich Endowment at the Center for Jewish Studies.
“The Jewish Dimension of the Holocaust in Dire Straits: Current Challenges of Interpretation & Scope,” a talk by Dan Michman Saturday, March 17, 8:00 PM at Hillel.
Professor Michman is Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. He is also Professor of Modern Jewish History and Chair of the Arnold and Leona Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University. He has published numerous books and articles in a variety of languages on the history of the Holocaust, and on approaches to understanding its many aspects.
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- Made possible through a special gift by Norman and Irma Braman with additional funds from the Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Harry Rich Endowment at the Center for Jewish Studies.
“Rewriting the Jewish History of the Holocaust” conference March 17–19, 2012 at Hillel.
- See the poster for this event
- Made possible through a special gift by Norman and Irma Braman with additional funds from the Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Harry Rich Endowment at the Center for Jewish Studies.
“Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogrom as Prelude to the Holocaust”, a talk by Jeffrey Kopstein Thursday, February 16, 7:00pm at Hillel.
Jeffrey Kopstein is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto and Acting Director of its Centre for Jewish Studies. He is the author and editor of three books and forty articles on Central and East European politics and history. He is the recipient of multiple awards and has held fellowships at Harvard University’s Centre for European Studies, Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and the University of Munich as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. Professor Kopstein is currently co-authoring a book on pogrom violence at the beginning of World War II.
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- Made possible by the Raymond and Miriam Ehrlich Eminent Scholar Chair in Political Science and the Center for European Studies.
“Israel & Palestine: Fear of the Future” a talk by Amira Hass Monday, February 13, 2012 at 6:00pm in MacKay Auditorium at Pugh Hall.
Amira Hass is a prominent Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz. She is particularly recognized for her reporting on Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, where she has also lived for a number of years. Her reportage of events, and her voicing of opinions that run counter to both official Israeli and Palestinian positions has exposed Hass to verbal attacks, and opposition from both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities. Among her books Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege (Owl Books, 2000) and Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land (2003). Hass is the recipient of several prestigious international press awards, including the World Press Freedom Hero award from the International Press Institute and the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
- Co-sponsored by: UF International Center, Bob Graham Center for Public Service, Center For Jewish Studies, Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, UF College of Journalism and Communication, Students for Justice in Palestine and The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica Endowment Fund.
“Sacred Trash: the Lost and Found World of the Cairo Genizah” a reading and discussion with Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 7pm, Hillel.
Described by the literary critic Harold Bloom as “a small masterpiece,” Sacred Trash tells the exciting story of the greatest discovery of Jewish manuscripts ever made. Its authors are award winning biographer and critic Adina Hoffman and acclaimed poet and translator Peter Cole. Hoffman and Cole are regular visiting fellows at Yale University, Wesleyan University and Middlebury College.
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- This event is made possible by the Isser and Rae Price Library Endowment Fund, the Jewish Council of North Central Florida and the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies. Image courtesy of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.
“The Myth of Crypto-Jewish Conversos”, a talk by Norman Roth on Tuesday, January 24, 7:00 PM at Hillel.
Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is the author of five books including Jews, Visigoths & Muslims in Medieval Spain: Cooperation & Conflict, Conversos, Inquisition, & the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Daily Life of the Jews in the Middle Ages and editor of the encyclopedia Medieval Jewish Civilization.
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- This event is made possible by the Bruce I. Greenberg Endowment in Jewish Studies.