Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies

2019

“Evolve or Die: Redefining Jewish Literature for the 21st Century” a talk by Myla Goldberg on November 13th, 2019 at 12:30pm in the Judaica Suite at Smathers Library

Bestselling novelist, winner of the Borders New Voices Prize, a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN award, the NYPL Young Lions award, and the Barnes & Noble Discover award, and recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant. Goldberg writes and teaches in Brooklyn, where she lives with her family.

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“The Holocaust, the POLIN Museum, and the Politics of the Past in Poland” a talk by Dariusz Stola on October 29th, 2019 at 5:00pm in the Judaica Suite at Smathers Library

Professor of history at the Institute for Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was director of the POLIN Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw from the time it opened in 2014 up until 2019. His seven books include The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967-1968.

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“Prince of the Press: How One Collector Built History’s Most Enduring and Remarkable Jewish Library” a talk by Kevin Schultz on October 28th, 2020 at 5:30pm in the Judaica Suite at Smathers Library

Assistant professor in the Department of History and the Program in Judaic Studies at Stony Brook University. He specializes in the history of the Jews in Europe in the early modern period, with a particular interest in cultures of knowledge-making, printing, and book collecting.

David Oppenheim (1664–1736), chief rabbi of Prague in the early eighteenth century, assembled a remarkable collection of Jewish books that today testifies to the myriad connections Jews maintained with each other across political borders. His impressive library functioned as a unique source of personal authority that gained him fame throughout Jewish society and beyond. Based on the careful reconstruction of a collection that is still visited by scholars today, Prince of the Press brings together Jewish culture, material commerce, and European politics—all filtered through this extraordinary library.

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies, and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“Lullabies & Liturgies Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic” a concert on Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 7:30pm in the University Auditorium

Blending musical, linguistic, liturgical and folkloric traditions, the concert explores the beauty and surprising ease of creating intercultural harmonies and resonances.

Performers

- Yair Dalal (oud, violin)

- Lenka Lichtenberg (guitar, harmonium)

- Dror Sinai (percussion)

• Made possible through the Libby Frances Brateman Trust, Gary R. Gerson Annual Lecture Series, Mikki & Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Jewish Council of North Central Florida, and the Center for European Studies at UF.
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“Bringing America Together, Taking the Nazis Apart: Hollywood Jews, Moving Making During World War II, and Implicating Film in the Third Reich” A talk by Michael Berkowitz on Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.

Professor of modern Jewish history at University College London and editor of Jewish Historical Studies: Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England (UCL Press). He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin and taught previously at the University of Chicago, Ohio State University, and the University of Judaism (then West Coast branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America). His current long-range projects include the development of a musical based on his photography research, and an exhibition to accompany the Kaunas, European Capital of Culture festivities beginning in 2022.

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. Cosponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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9th Annual Gainesville Jewish Film Festival, March 17—30, 2019 at the Hippodrome State Theatre

 

“The Jewish 1950s: A Symposium of Scholars” March 9–11, 2019 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.

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“A Musical Dialogue” Mira Awad with Guy Mintus in concert, Wednesday, February 27th, 2019 at 7:30pm, University Auditorium

Tel-Aviv based Palestinian-Israeli singer, songwriter, actress, and activist for coexistence, Awad’s songs and performances evoke a stunning fusion of Eastern and Western musical traditions.

Israeli pianist Guy Mentus is a virtuoso performer of traditions ranging from Turkish to Jewish cantorial music.

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“Jews and the Americas” UF Center for Latin American Studies’ 68th Annual Conference on February 24th–26th, 2019 at 5pm, Library East Judaica Suite.

The conference is jointly sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies, the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at the University of Florida.

Funding is also provided by the U.S. Department of Education and the Bacardi Family Endowment.

 

The Rise and Fall of Salonica: The ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’” a talk by Devin Naar, Thuersday, February 14th, 2019 at 5pm, Library East Judaica Suite.

The Mediterranean port city of Salonica was once home to the largest Sephardic Jewish community in the world. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the city’s incorporation into Greece in 1912 provoked a major upheaval for Salonica’s Jews. Professor Naar’s award-winning book, Jewish Salonica, tells the story through the voices of Salonican Jews as they forged a new place for themselves in Greek society. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies and Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he directs the Sephardic Studies Program.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies, and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“EAST WEST STREET: Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, Then and Now” a talk by Philippe Sands, February 5th, 2019 at 5pm, Library East Judaica Suite.

Professor of Law and Director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London, and barrister at Matrix Chambers. He is the author of numerous books including Lawless World (2005), Torture Team (2008), and East West Street: On the Origins of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide (2016). His films include What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy (2015) and his podcasts include Intrigue: The Ratline (2018).

• Made possible by the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.

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“GI JEWS” a film screening and talk with Deborah Dash Moore Thursday, January 31st, 2019 at 4:30pm, Hippodrome Cinema.

• See the postcard for this event

 

“Between Israel and the Caribbean Seaboard: The Worldwide Web of Jewish Moroccan Immigrants” a talk by Aviad Moreno, January 14th, 2019 at 7pm, 4:30pm, Hippodrome Cinema.

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies
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2018

“Muslim Converts or Crypto Jews?: Sabbatean Communities in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic” a talk by Cengiz Sisman, November 26th, 2018 at 5pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite

 

“COJOT: A Docuemtary Film by Boaz Dvir”, a special pre-release screening and discussion presented by Dr. Gayle Zachmann, Thursday, November 15th, 2018 at the Hippodrome Cinema

• Made possible through the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies and the Jewish Council of North Central Florida.
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“We Were, We Are, We Will Be:’ Jewishness in Contemporary Poland”, a talk by Rac hel Rothstein November 8th, 2018

 

“Escaping Nuremberg: How Nazi Perpetrators Fled Justice”, a talk by Gerald Steinacher November 6th, 2018

Gerald Steinacher is the Hyman Rosenberg Professor for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska. He is the author of Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice, which won the Jewish Book Award, and Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust.

 

“The Rights and Obligations of Divorce: Jews and Moroccan Independence” a faculty and grad student workshop by Alma Heckman October 26th, 2018
This chapter explores the Moroccan Communist Party’s (PCM) evolution into a national liberation party in the post-war period. It addresses urban Jewish communal attitudes to the movement for independence and the available marketplace for political ideas and ideologies, including the accelerating popularity of Zionism. As Jews began to leave Morocco for Israel, those Jews who were members of the PCM entrenched themselves in national liberation politics. Included in this chapter is the fatefully violent year of 1952, when union activists spearheaded bloodily suppressed popular protests. This prompted Protectorate officials to exile most of the PCM’s Central Committee’s European leaders as well as notable Moroccan Jewish leaders in an attempt to diffuse the situation. The chapter ends on an optimistic note, with the al-Wifaq (“Entente,” a nationalist group dedicated to Jewish and Muslim cooperation) organization in 1956 celebrating Jewish-Muslim political victories and the future of the Moroccan state. This cautious euphoria, however, was short lived.

 

“Divided Dreams: Moroccan Jews and the Post-Independence Moroccan State” a talk by Alma Heckman October 25th, 2018
The moment of Moroccan independence in 1956 was optimistic for Jews. The Istiqlal (“Independence” in Arabic) government with King Mohammed V at its head appointed a Jewish minister, and the Muslim-Jewish unity group, al-Wifaq (“Accord”), drew the support from all segments of society. Such movements, however, coincided with the 1956 Suez crisis. Following this conflict, pre-existing tensions of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism became increasingly conflated in the Moroccan public sphere, polarizing members of the Jewish community against one another in addition to the Jewish community vis-à-vis the majority Moroccan Muslim society. The ensuing mass migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel would ebb and flow in response to domestic and international events, as well as the intermittent legality of such migration. Many Jews remained, however. Of them, a handful were ardently committed to the Moroccan nationalist cause, and with it, a patriotic rejection of Zionism. These Jews were members of the Moroccan Communist Party (PCM) and were frequently at odds with both the dominant governmental forces as well as the wider Jewish community who, for the most part, supported Israel. This talk addresses Moroccan Jewish leftist attempts to reconcile Jewish and Moroccan identities within an increasingly murky Moroccan political context.

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.

 

“HAZANUT: A concert of Jewish Cantorial Music” annual concert, April 23, 2018 at 7:30pm, University of Florida Auditorium.
Yaakov Lemmer, cantor: International cantor Yaakov “Yanky” Lemmer was born and raised in Borough Park, Brooklyn. He began his singing career as the star soloist of the Young Israel of Bethel Choir, and received a scholarship to the Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University. He’s studied under cantors Joseph Malovany and Bernard Beer, as well as the legendary Noach Schall. He performs regularly at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City.

Shulem Lemmer, cantor: Shulem Lemmer has made a name for himself in the Jewish music world through his captivating voice, flawless pitch and versatility in many genres of music. Growing up in the heart of Boro Park, Brooklyn, Shulem was exposed to cantorial music at a young age while also listening to the current contemporary Jewish music. With this influence, Shulem beautifully combines the two in his performances, becoming renowned as a versatile crossover artist for the two genres.

Frank London, trumpet: Recording jazz and modern Jewish music since the 1980s, London has performed with a wide variety of renowned musicians. He has created works for film and theatre, including the score for a marionette production of The Golem! London has been a member of Les Miserables Brass Band and the Klezmatics, and leads his own group Hasidic New Wave.

Dan Rosengard, keyboard: Dan Rosengard is a pianist and keyboardist, music director, conductor, arranger, composer and producer. One of the busiest musicians in New York City, Dan is perhaps best-known for his stint as a member of the creative team at NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” where he composed and arranged special musical material for the comedy sketches.

• Special thanks to our supporters: Desmond and Nadine Schatz, Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Anonymous, Jesse and Corinne Lipnick, Kenneth D. Colen, Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, Gerson Visiting Professor, Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life, Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment, Dr. Warren Bargad Endowment.

 

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“Poner el cuerpo?: Jewish Women and Revolutionary Struggles in Mexican and Argentine Film” a talk by Stephanie Pridgeon on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 5pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite
Pridgeon is recipient of the “Jews in the Americas” fellowship. This presentation analyzes the films Novia que te vea (Mexico, 1993) and El amigo alem’n(Argentina/Germany, 2012) in their depiction of Jewish women’s roles vis-a-vis 1960s and 1970s revolutionary movements in Latin America and on a global scale. The analysis explores the ways in which citizenship and interpellation are represented visually as the respective films’ protagonists grapple with national hegemony, their Jewish identities, and gender vis-a-vis interpersonal relationships.

 

A talk by Naomi Leite on April 11-12, 2018

 

“Not Like My Grandparents?: Comparing New York’s Jewish Immigrants of 1918 to Today’s American Immigrants” a talk by Tyler Anbinder on Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 5:00pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite
Professor of History, The George Washington University, and author of City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York. Underpinning current debates on immigration is the conviction that today’s immigrants are fundamentally different than those who came to the United States in the past. Americans who support deporting the nation’s illegal immigrants, as well as those who prefer granting them amnesty, tend to believe that contemporary immigrants aren’t much like their own immigrant ancestors. Yet a look at the 400-year history of American immigration shows that today’s immigrants are not fundamentally different than Americans’ foreign-born grandparents, great-grandparents, or even great-great-great grandparents. “Not Like My Grandparents?” will compare eastern European Jewish immigrants living on New York’s Lower East Side a century ago to the city’s immigrant population today, shedding light on how immigrants shaped America in the past and continue to shape it today.

 

“The Revolution in Catholic Thinking on the Jews” a talk by John Connelly on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at 6pm in Pugh Hall Ocora.
Professor of History at the University of California Berkeley. Connelly will discuss the revolution in Catholic thinking about the Jews, shedding some light on the baffling silence of the Catholic Church during the Holocaust, and showcasing how the ancient teachings of the church subscribed to the view that Jews were cursed by God. How did an institution whose wisdom is said to be unchanging undertake one of the most enormous, yet undiscussed, ideological swings in modern history?

Author of From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–1965, John Connelly moves from the speechless Vatican to a small, but mighty group of Catholics who endeavored to find a new language to speak to the Jews in the shadow of the Holocaust.

• The program is sponsored by the Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, the UF Center for Jewish Studies and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
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8th Annual Jewish Film Festival on March 10-25, 2018 at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
Sunday, March 11 at 7pm: The Museum
Monday, March 12 at 7pm: 1945
Tuesday, March 13 at 7pm: Menashe
Wednesday, March 14 at 7pm: The Invisibles
Thursday, March 15 at 7pm West of the Jordan River
Saturday, March 17 at 8:30pm: The Wedding Plan
Sunday, March 18 at 2pm: Israel, Why
Sunday, March 18 at 7pm: HaGiga: The Story of Israeli Cinema
Monday, March 19 at 7pm: Operation Wedding
Tuesday, March 20 at 7pm: The Testament
Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm: A Land Without Borders
Thursday, March 22 at 7pm: Siege
Saturday, March 24 at 8:30pm: Holy Air

• The Gainesville Jewish Film Festival is organized by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, and made possible by: Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies, Anonymous, Bud Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund, Gary R. Gerson Annual Lecture Series, Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies, Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Jewish Student Union, Mikki and Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
  • See the poster for this event

 

“The Untold Story of Nazi Stolen Art” A talk by Charles Dellheim on Thursday, March 1, 2018 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Since the late-1990s, the fate of pillaged Nazi art has become a cause célèbre. Although there is good reason to welcome the long-delayed restitution of works of art the danger of dwelling exclusively on how the Nazis stole Jewish art collections is that doing so has obscured a compelling historical question: How did certain Jews acquire so much art in the first place, and what does this reveal about the relationship between Jews, art, and modernity?

Charles Dellheim is Professor of History at Boston University and was the founding director of the Kilachand Honors College. He earned a Ph.D. at Yale University and has written on diverse aspects of modern history: Victorian attitudes to the past, the relationship between business and culture, as well as Mrs. Thatcher’s capitalist revolution. He is currently completing a book on “Jews, Art, and Modernity”.

• Made possible through the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies and co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“Leonard Cohen: In Words and Music”, a talk by Chantal Ringuet on Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
One of the greatest contemporary poets, songwriters and musicians, Leonard Cohen has produced a body of works which speak to his Jewish origins (the desire to escape a destiny filled with suffering and forgiveness, the ability to reinvent himself beyond exile and loss) while being of his time, that is deeply rooted in North-American culture. Above all, his oeuvre is interspersed with many revolutions that emerge in and through language, be it poetic, fictional, musical or spiritual. This presentation will examine the interrelationship between words and music in Leonard Cohen’s texts.

Chantal Ringuet is a Canadian award-winning author, scholar and translator. She has been a fellow of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York and is currently Research Associate at the HBI, Brandeis University

• Made possible through the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“Retranslating Marc Chagall”, a talk by Chantal Ringuet and Pierre Anctil on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
The two will discuss Mon univers. Autobiographie (Fides, 2017), their newly published (French) translation of Marc Chagall’s Eygens–a series of paintings depicting key elements of the renowned painter’s life, from his birth in Vitebsk in 1887, to his journeys through European capitals such as St. Petersburg, Paris and Moscow, finally returning to his native city in 1922. Engaged with current debates on the nature and role of retranslation, Mon univers. Autobiographie presents the advantage of restoring the original manuscript in all of its uniqueness.

Chantal Ringuet is a Canadian award-winning author, scholar and translator. She is currently Research Associate at the HBI, Brandeis University. Pierre Anctil is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a full professor at the Department of History, University of Ottawa.

• Co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, Center for European Studies, France-Florida Research Institute, and Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
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A talk by Avigail Oren on Tuesday, February 13, 2018

 

A talk by Jonathan Ray on February 5–6, 2018

 

“Jews in the Americas” speaker series from January 9 to August 28, 2018.

• Presented by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica at the University of Florida.

 

“Merchants, Mystics, and Secret Jews: Sephardic Identities in the Age of Discovery”, the annual Alexander Grass Endowed Lecture by Jonathan Ray on Monday, February 5 at 5:00 pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
The history of the Sephardic Diaspora is inextricably linked to the European Age of Discovery. The global networks created by Spanish and Portuguese Jews and Conversos became a hallmark of the early modern period, forming a bridge between the Old World and the New, and between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Prof. Ray will explore three key facets of Sephardic identity during this fascinating yet oft-overlooked chapter in Jewish history.

Jonathan Ray is the Samuel Eig Professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University. Prof. Ray specializes in medieval and early modern Jewish history, focusing on the Sephardic world. His publications include The Sephardic Frontier: The Reconquista and the Jewish Community in Medieval Iberia (2006), The Jew in Medieval Iberia  (2012), and After Expulsion: 1492 and the Making of Sephardic Jewry (2013).

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. Cosponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica. Off-campus parking is available at the Stadium Club, behind 1802 W. University Ave., or in the parking lot across from Library West at 1542 W. University Ave. This parking lot now has a drop-box pay system when the attendant is off-duty.
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“Living in English, Writing in Hebrew” a conversation with author Ruby Namdar on Thursday, February 8, 2018 at 5pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Ruby Namdar was born and raised in Jerusalem to a family of Iranian-Jewish heritage. His first book, Haviv (2000), won The Ministry of Culture’s Award for Best First Publication. His novel The Ruined House (2013) has won the Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award. He currently lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters and teaches Jewish literature, focusing on Biblical and Talmudic narrative.

Mesmerizing and unsettling, The Ruined House unfolds over the course of one year, as Andrew’s world unravels and he is forced to question all his beliefs. Steeped in the tradition of the greatest Jewish American novels, Namdar’s brilliant debut captures the privilege and pedantry of New York intellectual life in the opening years of the twenty-first century. In sumptuous and incantatory prose, Namdar spins a nuanced and provocative tale of materialism, tradition, faith, and the search for meaning in contemporary culture.

• Made possible through the “Bud” Shorstein Professorship.
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2017

Film Screening: El Rey del Once/The Tenth Man, 7:00 PM, Sept 19 2017, Santa Fe College, E-Auditorium, Bldg. E, Free Admission, Discussion with Jack Kugelmass.

“How American Jews Fell in Love with the Secular State”, a talk by Kenneth Wald, Professor Emeritus, Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 6pm in Pugh Hall Ocora

Kenneth D. Wald was the first Samuel R. Shorstein Professor of American Jewish Culture and Society at UF from 2012–2016.

American Jews remain the most pro-Democratic white ethnic group in the United States, a puzzling phenomenon because they exhibit social traits usually associated with conservative and Republican loyalties. In trying to account for this pattern, Wald explores how concerns about the relationship between church and state became a central political priority of the American Jewish community

• Co-sponsored by the Bob Graham Center.
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“Jews and their Neighbors in German-Occupied Poland”, a talk by Jan T. Gross on Sunday, April 2, 2017 at 5pm, the Smathers Library Room 100.
Norman B. Tomlinson,  Professor of War and Society at Princeton University. His books include Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (2001); Fear: Antisemitism in Poland After Auschwitz (2006); and Golden Harvest: Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust (2012).

• Co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

 

7th Annual Jewish Film Festival, March 19 –April 1, 2017 at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
Sunday, March 19 at 7:30pm: Harmonia
Tuesday, March 21 at 7pm: Mr. Gaga
Wednesday, March 22 at 7pm: The People vs. Fritz Bauer
Thursday, March 23 at 7pm: Dimona Twist
Saturday, March 25 at 8:30pm Moos
Sunday, March 26 at 3pm: Forever Pure
Monday, March 27 at 7pm: A Grain Of Truth
Wednesday, March 29 at 7pm: One Week and a Day
Thursday, March 30 at 7pm: AKA Nadia
Saturday, April 1 at 8:30pm: Bogdan’s Journey

• The Gainesville Jewish Film Festival is organized by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Jewsh Council of North Central Florida, and made possible, in part, by: Anonymous, Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund, Gary R. Gerson Annual Lecture Series, Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies, Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Jewish Student Union, Mikki and Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
• See the poster for this event

 

“Reflections on Post-Oslo Israeli and Palestinian History and Memory of 1948” a talk by Avraham Sela on Tuesday, February 28 at 4:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Professor emeritus of International Relations and a senior research fellow at the Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interest focuses on contemporary Middle East politics, society and international relations. He wrote extensively on the history and historiography of the Palestine conflict since the British Mandate, especially on the 1948 War. The Palestine War of 1948 remains a formative event in the Middle East and especially for the immediately concerned Israelis and Palestinians, shaping the contours of their ensued political conflict and perceptions of “self” and “other” which, in turn, kept renovating memory and historiography of that event. Drawing on theoretical approaches to the role of collective memory in conflict resolution, the talk examines how Israeli and Palestinian memories/historical narratives of 1948 surfaced and affected the Oslo process.

• Co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“Playing for Peace” a concert of Jewish and Arab music Wednesday, February 22, 7:30pm in the University Auditorium.
MIRA AWAD: Singer, songwriter, actress and cultural activist. Awad was born in Rameh, a village in the Galilee, to a Palestinian father and Bulgarian mother. She studied at the Rimon School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and currently lives in Tel-Aviv. Awad released two solo albums, and collaborated with various international artists including Noa, Idan Raichel, Andrea Boccelli, and Bobby McFerrin. Awad’s music is a unique fusion of sounds, weaving Arabic and its oriental ornaments with Western harmonies.
YAIR DALAL: Composer, violinist, oud player and singer, Dalal plays an important role in the global world music scene. His family came to Israel from Baghdad and his Iraqi roots are embedded in much of his music. Over the last decade he has released 12 albums representing a fusion of Israeli, Jewish and Middle Eastern music. Dalal also devotes his time to teaching promising young musicians at the Rimon School and preserving the musical heritages of the Jews of Iraq and the Bedouins of the Sinai.

• Admission is free of charge and open to all. For more information: (352) 392-9247
• Made possible through Anonymous, Kenneth D. Colen, the Gary R. Gerson Visiting Professorship in Jewish Studies, the Tree of Life Fund, the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, the Jewish Students Union, and the Arthur and Violette Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment.
• See the poster for this event

 

“A Jewish Gangster as the Russian Superman: The Trickster in Isaac Babel’s Odessa Tales“, a talk by Mark Leiderman Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 4 pm, 210 Pugh Hall.
Professor and Chair of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Colorado-Boulder. He is the author of eight books and more than a hundred articles published in the US, Russia, and Europe. He also edited and co-edited ten volumes of articles on Russian literature and culture. Among his monographs and books are: Russian Postmodernist Fiction: Dialogue with Chaos (1999), Jolly Little Characters: Cult Heroes of the Soviet Childhood(2008), Non-Canonical Classic: Dmitri A. Prigov (2010), and a two-volume critical reader on late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian literature (2014, 2015). He is the 2014 recipient of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages for the outstanding contribution to scholarship.

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“Performing Holocaust Memory in Germany”, a talk by Irit Dekel Monday, February 13, 2017 at 4pm in 005 Keene-Flint Hall, University of Florida campus.
Irit Dekel teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. She has published on memory politics in Germany and Israel, media, and memory tourism. Her book Mediation at the Holocaust Memorial (2013) is a novel approach to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, examining the experience of visitors as they engage with the act of remembrance.

• Made possible by the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“The Mysterious Mr. lomovi?” a documentary film screening Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 2pm at the Harn Museum Auditorium.
Join us for the screening of a documentary film called “The Mysterious Mr. lomovi?” by two Los Angeles based documentary filmmakers Miodrag and Mia ?erti?. The film was made in 2016 and is narrated by Elliot Gould. The film tells the story of Erich lomovi?, a young Jewish art collector in Paris in the 1930s. A protigy of the great modernist art collector Ambroise Vollard, Erich lomovi? was a Jew from Yugoslavia who, in the 1930s, when he was only in his mid-twenties, managed to amass a collection of 600 modern artworks by masters such as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Klee, and many other masterpieces, only to be killed by the Nazis, and his collection stolen by the Communists. Alongside the fascinating issues the film raises about where the art comes from, and where and to whom it belongs, the film provides a springboard for debate about the intertwined history of Jews and modern art, the fate of cultural property looted in wartime, anti-Semitism and post-Cold War identity in the Balkans.

• Made possible by the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of Political Science and the Harn Museum.
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“Why Jews Became Christians in the Modern Era” the annual Alexander Grass Endowed Lecture by Todd M. Endelmanon on Tuesday, Februry 7, 2017 at 5:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Between the French Revolution and World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe and America became Christians. Endelman argues that religious conviction was rarely their motive. Those who left the Jewish fold were driven above all by pragmatic concerns, especially the desire to escape the stigma of Jewishness and its social, occupational, and emotional burdens. Todd M. Endelman is professor emeritus of history and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan. His numerous books include: The Jews of Britain (2002), Broadening Jewish History: Towards a Social History of Ordinary Jews (2002), and most recently, Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation (2015).

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and cosponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“From Papua New Guinea to Nicaragua: The Unprecedented Spread of Judaism in the Globalized World of the Twenty-First” a talk by Tudor Parfitt on Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 3pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Professor Parfitt was appointed Parkes Fellow at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non Jewish Relations in the University of Southampton in 1974 and shortly afterwards took up the lectureship in Modern Hebrew at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. In 1976 he was appointed associate member of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and in 1992 became a senior associate member. He was successively lecturer, senior lecturer, reader and professor (Professor of Modern Jewish Studies) at SOAS. He founded the Centre of Jewish Studies at SOAS and was its director from 1993 to 2006 and from 2010-11. He was also Chair of the Middle East Centre at SOAS for 4 years and Chair of the SOAS Senior Common Room for 15 years. In 2012 he was appointed President Navon Professor of Sephardi and Mizrahi Studies and SIPA Research Professor at FIU. Parfitt has been featured on PBS and frequently is referred to as “the British Indiana Jones”.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and cosponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, JCNCF and Judge Karen Miller.
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“The Cairo Geniza and the Lost Arabic Archives”, a talk by Marina Rustow on Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 5:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Among the many unexpected finds the Cairo Geniza has yielded are hundreds, possibly thousands of medieval documents of state in Arabic script. Among these are decrees, rescripts, petitions, tax receipts and fiscal accounts from period of the Fatimid caliphs in Egypt and Syria (969–1171). Most of these Fatimid state documents were reused for Hebrew-script texts, hence their survival in the discarded manuscript chamber of a medieval Egyptian synagogue. In this talk, Professor Rustow will discuss how these documents illustrate techniques for writing and preserving records by one of the most powerful and dynamic medieval Muslim dynasties and their implications for the large and important community of Jews over whom they ruled.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish History.
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“The Eruv as Metaphor for Jewish Home-making in the Diaspora”, a talk by Leora Auslander on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at 5:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Abstract: When observant Jews leave their homes on the Sabbath, their hands (and pockets) must be empty. This interpretation of the mandate that the seventh day should be devoted to rest obviously poses challenges; among the most basic are that babies, medicine, and books cannot be carried. One response has been to extend the boundaries of “home” to include whole neighborhoods through the construction of an Eruv. Most often delimited by a single wire, supported by found objects—street signs, buildings, trees—high above eye level, they are visible only to those who seek to see them. For those who do know that they are there, however, the Eruv domesticates public space, and makes it, for the period of the Sabbath, Jewish. This talk will demonstrate how Jews, secular and religious, created metaphorical Eruvs—Jewish space and time within the secular—in the cities in which they were at home. Using the cases of Germany, I will argue further that conceptualizing Jewish relationships to Germanness and Frenchness through the Eruv enables us to think in a new way about the very old questions, of assimiliation and acculturation and what it meant, and means, for Jews to be at home, politically, socially, and materially.

Leora Auslander is Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor of Western Civilization at the University of Chicago. Her publications include Cultural Revolutions: Everyday Life and Politics in Britain, North America, and France; Taste and Power: Furnishing Modern France. Most recently she co-edited an issue of the French gender history journal, Clio, entitled Judasme(s). She is currently at work on a book, Home-making: Jewish Parisians and Berliners in the Twentieth Century.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish History.
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2016

“Better Late Than Never: French Feature Films of the 1970–80s Address the Occupation and the Shoah”, a talk by Maureen Turim on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 at the Harn Museum Auditorium.
Exploring the trope of hiding Jews in three French narrative films that address anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Francois Truffaut’s Le Denier Metro (1980), Louis Malle’s Lacombe, Lucien (1974), and Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), Dr. Turim discerns a provocative strategy that is biting in its criticism of collaborationist France. This event is part of the FFRI 2016–2017 series “Confrontation and Aftermath: Remembering Wars in France”,  organized by Dr. Gayle Zachmann and Dr. Alioune Sow.

• Sponsored by the France-Florida Research Institute, the Center For Jewish Studies, and the Harn Museum.

 

• See the poster for this event

 

“What Ifs and the Holocaust: Speculation and Memory”, a talk by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld on Monday, November 14, 2016 at 5pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Professor of History at Fairfield University. His recent books include The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism(2005); Building after Auschwitz: Jewish Architecture and the Memory of the Holocaust (2011); Hi Hitler: How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture (2015); and What Ifs of Jewish History from Abraham to Zionism (2016).

• Made possible by the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
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“Sociability and Emancipation: Imperial Freemasonry and Jewry in the British West Indies (early 19th century)” a talk by Jan Jansen, Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 5.30 pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Jan C. Jansen is a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC. He earned his PhD at the University of Konstanz in 2011 and was a fellow and lecturer at the University of Konstanz as well as a visiting researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and at the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain in Tunis. His main research interests concern the comparative history of the European colonial empires and decolonization with a particular focus on North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic World. He is the author of Erobern und Erinnern: Symbolpolitik,öffentlicher Raum und französischer Kolonialismus in Algerien 1830–1950 (2013) and recently completed Decolonization: A Short History (co-authored with Jürgen Osterhammel, forthcoming with Princeton University Press in 2017). He is currently engaged in a research project on cross-border sociability in the Atlantic World during the age of revolutions (circa 1770s–1850s).

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish History.
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“Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food” a talk by Roger Horowitz, Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at 5.30 pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic products such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher; the contentious debates among rabbis over the incorporation of modern science into Jewish law; how Manischewitz wine became the first kosher product to win over non-Jewish consumers (principally African Americans); the techniques used by Orthodox rabbinical organizations to embed kosher requirements into food manufacturing; and the difficulties encountered by kosher meat and other kosher foods that fell outside the American culinary consensus. Roger Horowitz is an historian of American business, technology, and labor and an expert on the nation’s food. He is the author of Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food (Columbia University Press, 2016), and Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste. Technology, Transformation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). He is the Director of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, and Professor of History at the University of Delaware.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish History.
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“Yiddish on the Battlefields of Spain” a talk by Jack Kugelmass, Wednesday, September 28th at 11:30, at 3312 Turlington Hall in the Center for European Studies conference room. Lunch will be served,

• Co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies.

 

Workshop on Hebrew Culture and Theory, September 24-26, 2016.

 

“How to Win Enemies”, a film by Gabriel Lichtmann Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 7pm, The Wooly (25 SE 2nd Place). This screening is presented by the 12th Gainesville Latino Film Festival. Introduction and Q&A by Dr. Emily Hind.
When a shy young Jewish lawyer obsessed with crime novels turns a chance encounter with a beautiful woman into a date ending in his bed, it all seems too good to be true. But things aren’t always what they seem, for as soon as he wakes up he finds his financial savings, and the beautiful woman, gone. Inspired by his favorite detective novels, he is convinced he was set up and begins to look for clues like one of his gumshoe heroes in his beloved books. As he pieces together the puzzle of the grand theft, he realizes that his closest allies may be his biggest enemies. What began as a love story becomes the caper to end all capers in this sexy crowd-pleasing comedy set against the background of Buenos Aires.

• Co-sponsored by the Latina Women’s League and the Center for Jewish Studies. Made possible through the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
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“The German Doctor”, a film by Luica Puenzo Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 7pm, the Thomas Center (302 NE 6th Avenue). This screening is presented by the 12th Gainesville Latino Film Festival. Introduction and Q&A by Dr. Norman J.W. Goda.
Eva (Natalia Oreiro) and Enzo (Diego Peretti) are preparing to open a cozy lakeside hotel in a remote Patagonia town when the family first encounters the charismatic doctor (a chilling performance by Àlex Brendemühl) along a long desert road. With mother Eva pregnant with twins, and her diminutive 12-year-old daughter (captivating newcomer Florencia Bado) mercilessly teased about her stunted size, the family represents more than a passing interest for the nefarious doctor. Unaware of the danger, they accept him into their home, until a local archivist and photographer (Elena Roger) suspects the town of German immigrants is harboring one of the world’s most infamous war criminals.

• Co-sponsored by the Latina Women’s League and the Center for Jewish Studies. Made possible through the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
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“In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Joseph Zelkowicz”, a talk by Samuel Kassow Monday, May 2, 2016 at 5:30pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of the prize-winning book Who Will Write Our History: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Oyneg Shabes Archive and Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia; and most recently the editor of In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz.

In the Warsaw and Lodz ghettos Jewish journalists, like Joseph Zelkowicz and Peretz Opoczynski, wrote reportage that individualized the ghetto experience and conveyed events in real-time, capturing the emotions, rumors and fears that so affected Jewish life. The lecture will explain why this reportage was so important.

• Made possible through the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies and cosponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“Recording Life in the Warsaw Ghetto: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Secret Archives”, a talk by Samuel Kassow Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 7pm, Congregation B’nai Israel.
Samuel D. Kassow is the Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. This talk is based on his prize-winning book, Who Will Write Our History: Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, which has been translated into eight languages.

• Made possible through the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies. This talk is part of the 2016 Yom Hashoah commemoration and is cosponsored by the JCNCF.
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“Son of Saul: a panel discussion” Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 5:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Set in Auschwitz and focused on the Jewish Sonderkommando who handled the remains of the murdered, László Nemes’s Son of Saul is one of the most unique Holocaust films to appear in recent years. It has won numerous awards including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, and the Academy Award for best foreign language film. Join University of Florida faculty from various disciplines in a panel discussion concerning the film’s context, innovative aspects, meanings, and representation of the Holocaust.

• Made possible through the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“Murder of Neighbors: Comparing Genocide of Tutsis in Rwandad and Polish Jews” a talk by Sidi N’diaye, Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 5pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Postdoctoral researcher at the Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique (ISP) at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense (France) and a research fellow at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he is studying comparative approaches to genocide through murders by neighbors. He is the author of The Violent Past and the Policy of Repentance in Mauritania, 1989-2012(LGDJ, 2013).

• Made possible through Campus Outreach Lecture Program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, the Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund, Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies, and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
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“Colonial Memories: Book Celebration” Monday, April 4 at 5:30pm in Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Tamir Sorek will present Brigitte Weltman-Aron’s Algerian Imprints: Ethical Space in the Work of Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous (Columbia University Press, 2015). Brigitte Weltman-Aron will present Tamir Sorek’s Palestinian Commemoration in Israel: Calendars, Monuments, and Martyrs (Stanford University Press, 2015).

• Cosponsored by the Center for Global Islamic Studies, Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures Studies, and the Center for Jewish Studies.
• See the poster for this event

 

6th Annual Gainesville Jewish Film Festival on March 13-22, 2016 at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
Sunday, March 13 at 7:30 pm: Labyrinth of Lies
Monday, March 14 at 7:00 pm: Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt 
Tuesday, March 15 at 7:00 pm: The Last Mentsch 
Wednesday, March 16 at 7:00 pm: Manpower 
Thursday, March 17 at 7:00 pm: What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy
Saturday, March 19 at 8:30 pm: Natasha
Sunday, March 20 at 4:00 pm: Kol Nidre
Sunday, March 20 at 7:00 pm: (double feature) Women in Sink and Fluchkes
Monday, March 21 at 7:00 pm: Midnight Orchestra
Tuesday, March 22 at 7:00 pm: (double feature) Happy Purim and Srugim

• Sponsored by the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Center for Jewish Studies, Center for European Studies, Jewish Student Union, Norman Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies, Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies, UF Initiative on Global Migration, Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professorship, and Hadassah.
• See the poster for this event

 

“Liminal Jews: The Rehabilitation of Relapsed Converts in Medieval Ashkenaz” a talk by Rachel Furst, Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 4pm, Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Post-doctoral fellow at the Hebrew University and Freie University Berlin, having completed her PhD in Medieval Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Rachel has been a Polonsky Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University, a visiting doctoral fellow at the Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization at New York University (NYU) Law School, and a graduate fellow in Jewish Law and Interdisciplinary Studies at the Yeshiva University Center for Jewish Law / Cordozo Law School. She will examine the legal status of Jewish converts, and returned converts, within the Jewish community in post-Crusade Europe.

• Made possible through the Alexnder Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
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“Boundaries and Transgressions: A Transnational Conference on Jews and Muslims” begins March 8-10, 2016 in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite at the University of Florida.

• See the program for this event

 

“Trouble in The Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel”, a talk by Dov Waxman, Monday, February 15, 2016, 6pm in Pugh Hall Ocora, University of Floirda. Also Tuesday, Feb 16, 7:30pm, 2016, Jacksonville Jewish Center.
Waxman is Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies at Northeastern University, and the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies. He will discuss his new book, Trouble in The Tribe (Princeton University Press), which declares that a major transformation is currently taking place in the American Jewish relationship with Israel. Waxman describes the factors that have replaced solidarity with discord and the consequences of the split within the American Jewish community.

• Made possible through the “Bud” Shorstein Professorship, Bob Graham Center for Public Serfice and the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville.
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“The Harshest Cut: Circumcision in Medieval Christian Art and Thought”, a talk by Sara Lipton, Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 6pm, the Harn Museum of Art.
Although Christian theology retained respect for the original institution, if not the ongoing observance, of circumcision, Christian treatments of the practice grew increasingly negative, construing it as both brutal and, more surprisingly, hypocritical. I argue that this emphasis on the deceitful nature of circumcision reflects not only intensified anti-Judaism, but also concern about the body, the flesh, and the material world — realms with which Jews were polemically associated, but in which urban Christians too were deeply implicated. In this paper, Sara Lipton will examine representations and rhetorical uses of circumcision in a series of little known late medieval Christian sources — manuscript illuminations, sermons, political satire, and poetry.

 

“East & West 3: A Concert of Jewish Cantorial Music” featuring Lior Elmaliah, Yaakov Lemmer, Shai Bachar, Yair Dalal, Frank London, Dror Sinaiis. Wednesday, January 27, 2016 at 7 pm, Congregation B’Nai Israel. $18 general admission and free to University of Florida students.

• Made possible by the JCNCF, Kenneth Colen, Howard Rosenblatt and Eve Ackerman, Desmond & Nadine Schatz, Anonymous, Center for Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund, Gary Gerson Lecture Series, Greenbaum Family Visiting Professor Endowment, and the Morris & Mikki Futernick Visiting Professorship.
• See the poster for this event

 

“The Jews of Mexico: History, Culture and Libraries”, a talk by Enrique Chmelnik Lubinsky, Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 5:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.

 

“The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust”, a talk by Lisa Leff, Wednesday, January 13 at 5:30pm in the Smathers Library Judaica Suite.
Lisa Leff is Associate Professor of History at American University, where she is also affiliated with the Jewish Studies program. She received her PhD in 2000 from the University of Chicago and her BA in 1991 from Oberlin College. She is the author of two books, Sacred Bonds of Solidarity: The Rise of Jewish Internationalism in 19th Century France (Stanford 2006) and The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 2015).

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
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2015

Architect and artist Kenneth Treister will discuss his new book “The Fusion of Architecture & Art: The Judaic Work of Kenneth Triester” on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at 6pm in the Smathers Library East, Rm 100.

• Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, College of Fine Arts, College of Design, Construction and Planning, and the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“Quarantine in the Jewish Ghetto: Confinement and Contagion in Early Europe”, a talk by Joshua Teplitsky on Monday, October 26, 2015 at 5:30pm in the Library East Judaica Suite.
In 1713, plague ravaged the city of Prague. Disease claimed the life of a full third of the city’s denizens. Beyond the immediate impact of natural disaster, human ambitions to contain and cope with the plague yielded a series of measures designed to sanitize the city and limit the spread of contagion. Many of these measures were directed against the Jewish denizens of the city, limiting their already circumscribed settlement, prohibiting their commerce with Christian residents, and casting particular suspicions upon Jews of foreign origins. In this lecture, we explore the place of natural disaster as it exacerbates and heightens concerns over forms of difference—a point as salient as ever in an age of global contagion. We will trace the measures taken that highlighted Jewish difference and isolated Jews from Christians even as we peer through official orders to note moments of cooperation between neighbors of ostensibly opposite faiths.

Joshua Teplitsky is assistant professor of history at Stony Brook University. Prior to coming to Stony Brook he held the Albert and Rachel Lehmann Junior Research Fellowship in Jewish History and Culture at Oxford University. He has published articles in Jewish Social Studies and Jewish History and is currently working on a monograph about the library and life of David Oppenheim of Prague (1664-1736).

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
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“Max Liebermann: Modern Art, Modern Germany, Modern Jew” a talk by Marion Deshmukh, George Mason University. Thursday, October 22 in the Chandler Auditorium, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. Time TBA.
Max Liebermann (1847-1935) is considered Germany’s premier impressionist painter. He both observed and participated in key historic events from Imperial Germany’s founding in 1870-71 to the Nazi dictatorship. His artistic talent, his leadership of alternative artists’ associations, his presidency of the Prussian Academy of Art during the 1920s, his cosmopolitanism, liberalism and Judaism all fostered strong support among his admirers and intense antipathies among his opponents. This illustrated talk will describe his critical cultural importance for Germany for over seven decades

Marion Deshmukh is the Robert T. Hawkes Professor Emeritus of History at George Mason University. She is co-editor of Co-editor of Max Liebermann and International Modernism: An Artist’s Career from Empire to Third Reich (2011) and author of Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany (2015).

• Made possible through the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.
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“The 11th Annual Gainesville Latino Film Festival and the Center for Jewish Studies are pleased to bring you “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Álvaro Brechner. The film will be shown on Thursday, September 17, 7pm at the The Hippodrome State Theatre.
Having fled Poland for South America during WWII, curmudgeonly Jacob Kaplan (award-winning Chilean actor Héctor Noguera) is passing his sunset years in Montevideo with his wife of 50 years, Rebecca (Nidia Telles). With his family lost in the war, he begins to take stock of his own unfulfilled life, and finds himself fed up with the local Jewish community’s disinterest in their heritage. Intent on creating a legacy, Kaplan fancies himself a Nazi hunter, targeting the reclusive German owner of a seafront restaurant (Rolf Becker), whom, based on the flimsiest of evidence, he suspects of being a war criminal. Joining the quixotic quest for justice is Kaplan’s hapless chauffeur Contreras (Nestor Guzzini), a disgraced ex-cop who also has something to prove. A bumbling investigation ensues, with hilarious and surprising results that will leave audiences contemplating nothing less than the meaning of life.

• Made possible through the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Latina Women’s League.
• See the postcard for this event

 

A talk by Ron Schechter on Monday, March 30 at 4 pm in the Library East Judaica Suite.
Ronald Schechter (Ph.D., Harvard, 1993) is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715-1815 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), translator/editor of Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing with Related Documents (Boston and New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004) and co-author (with artist Liz Clarke) of Mendoza the Jew: Boxing, Manliness and Nationalism. A Graphic History (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

Daniel Mendoza (1765-1836), a Sephardic Jew from London, was Britain’s boxing champion from 1790 to 1795. He enjoyed unparalleled fame and earned enormous sums of money for his matches, which drew large crowds and were widely reported in the press. As a “professor of pugilism” who gave lessons and wrote a book on boxing, he helped to popularize a sport that was widely viewed as quintessentially British. Although he was occasionally the object of anti-Jewish, he was widely respected and imitated.

 

“East & West 2: A Concert of Jewish Cantorial Music” annual concert featuring Hagay Batzri, Yaakov Lemmer, Shai Bachar Yair Dalal, Frank London, Dror Sinaiis. Wednesday, March 25 at 7 pm, Congregation B’Nai Israel and Thursday, March 26 at 7 pm, Jacksonville Jewish Center.

• Made possible by the JCNCF, The Shorstein & Levin families of Jacksonville, Nadine & Desmond Schatz, the Center for Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund, the Gary Gerson Lecture Series and the Morris & Mikki Futernick Visiting Professorship.
• See the poster for this event

 

5th Annual Gainesville Jewish Film Festival on March 22-31 at the Hippodrome State Theatre.
Sunday, March 22 at 7:00 pm: 24 Days
Monday, March 23 at 7:00 pm: Make Me A Match & Sacred Sperm(Documentary double feature)
Tuesday, March 24 at 7:00 pm: The Hidden Spring & T.B.A. (Double feature)
Thursday, March 26 at 7:00 pm: There and Here & Farewell, Herr Schwartz(Double feature)
Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 pm: Hit’Abdut
Sunday, March 29, Matinee at 3:00 pm: East and West
Sunday, March 29 at 7:00 pm: Gett
Monday, March 30 at 7:00 pm: A Borrowed Identity
Tuesday, March 31 at 7:00 pm: Friends From France

• Sponsored by the Jewish Council of North Central Florida and the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. Made possible by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, the Gary Gerson Lecture Series, the Jewish Student Union’s Jewish Awareness Month, Hadassah Gainesville Chapter, Florida’s Department of Education Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education, the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies, the Harry Rich Endowment, Samuel R. “Bud” Shorstein Professorship in American Jewish Culture and Society, and Dr. Michael & Phyllis Warren.
• See the poster for this event

 

“Economic trust and Anti-semitic Violence: Jewish Cattle Traders, Nazis and Farmers, 1919–1939” A talk by Stefanie Fischer on Tuesday, March 10 at 5:30 pm in the Library East Judaica Suite.
In 1934, a member of the Nazi-dominated city council of Gunzenhausen complained: “We need the Jews, because I have still not been able to sell my cattle…Christian traders offer only overpriced cows…” The statement reveals much about the relationships between Jews and non-Jews in the German countryside. The Jewish cattle traders had been crucial to the German agro-society and the relationships between Jewish cattle traders and farmers were based on mutual trust. Stefanie Fischer will show how those relationships began to change through anti-Jewish violence and how they finally came to an end in 1939.

Dr. Stefanie Fischer is a lecturer at the Leo Baeck Summer University, Humboldt University, she also holds a PostDoc position at the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam. In her current research project she explores the post-genocidal relationships of Jewish Holocaust survivors to their former German hometowns in the 1950s-60s. Her research interest is Jewish history, the history of trust and economics as well as Holocaust history. In 2012 Fischer earned a PhD from the Center for Research on Anti-semitism, Technical University Berlin. Her recent book on economic trust and Anti-semitic violence was jointly awarded the Fraenkel-Prize for an outstanding work of contemporary history from the Wiener Library in London (2012) as well as with the Irma-Rosenberg Prize (2014).

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“How many Jews’?: Driving the Volkswagen through Space and Time” a talk by Natalie Scholz on Wednesday, February 25 at 5:30 pm in the Judaica Suite, Grand Reading Room, Smathers Library, 2nd Floor
Only a few years after WWII the Volkswagen Beetle became one of the most prominent political symbols of West German society’s economic recovery and its new beginning as a Western and democratic country. This talk tells a different story about what the Volkswagen signified for West Germans between 1947 and 1962. A joke about Jews and a 1960 advertisement will serve as ” uncomfortable” stepping stones toward what is usually overlooked. The Volkswagen allowed Germans to transcend the 1945 divide in a very peculiar way: driving the Volkswagen elevated Germans”above space and time” and, much like a “public secret,” kept ideas of Germany alive that were supposed to be dead and gone.

Natalie Scholz is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Amsterdam. She works on the cultural history of the political in modern Europe (France and Germany) with a focus on symbolic representations and popular imaginations. In her current book project she explores the political meanings of everyday objects in postwar West Germany.

• Made possible through Alexander Grass Eminent Scholar Chair, with assistance from Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, UF Center for Jewish Studies, UF History Department.

 

“The Political Biography of the Democratic Peace: Israeli and American Perspectives” a talk by Piki Ish-Shalom. Monday, February 23, at 12:50 pm in 216 Anderson Hall.
Piki Ish-Shalom is Director of the Leonard Davis for International relations and Associate Professor of International Relations, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

“The Beethoven Frieze: One Man’s Quest to Recover Gustave Klimt’s Monumental Masterpiece” a talk by Sophie Lillie. Saturday, February 22 at 6:00 pm, Harn Gallery Auditorium. This talk is part of the Writing Retribution international conference.
Sophie Lillie is an art historian, independent scholar, and art provenance researcher based in Vienna. Her book Was einmal war (What Once Was, 2003) is the definitive account nearly 150 major Jewish-owned collections plundered in Vienna by the Nazis and claimed after the war by the Austrian government. She has been at the forefront of major art restitution investigations since the 1990s, including the Gurlitt trove, a cache of 1,400 works of art discovered in a Munich apartment in 2013. Her work on the restoration of masterpieces by the Secessionist artist Gustav Klimt includes the Beethoven Frieze (1902), one of Austria’s best known works of art, the fate of which is still in the balance.

• Made possible through the Norman & Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“Writing Retribution: Holocaust Justice and its Meaning” an international conference on February 21-22.

• Made possible through a special gift by Norman and Irma Braman with additional funds from the Harry Rich Endowment at the Center for Jewish Studies, and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica

 

“Whom to Exclude in Order to Belong: Jews and the Catholic Church in Germany and France” a talk by Ari Joskowicz on Monday, February 2 at 4 pm, Keene-Flint Hall, room 005.
Ari Joskowicz is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and European Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of The Modernity of Others: Jewish Anti-Catholicism in Germany and France (Stanford University Press, 2014) and coeditor of Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times(University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming 2015).

One of the most prominent stories of modern Jewish life has focused on Jews’ adoption of liberal middle-class values. This talk deals with an equally powerful, if largely unexplored, aspect of Jewish modernity by illuminating the extent to which French and German Jews made use of the liberal catalog of villains in their attempts to express themselves politically. It shows how Jews used Catholicism and the Catholic Church as a foil that helped them define what it meant to be good citizens and practice a respectable religion.

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“Does the History of Anti-Judaism have anything to do with the Present?” a talk by David Nirenberg on Tuesday, January 20 at 5:30 pm, Library West Judaica Suite.
Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world. What relationship do these uses have to each other? Do past forms of life and thought affect later ones? If so, can we write a history of these forms? And what, if any, hold might this history of past thought have upon ways in which we ourselves can think in the present?

David Nirenberg is Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought at the University of Chicago, Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences, and Founding Director of the University’s Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. His books have focused on how Jewish, Christian, and Islamic societies have interacted with and thought about each other. These include Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (1996), Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (2013); Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism Medieval and Modern (2014), and the forthcoming Aesthetic Theology and its Enemies: Judaism in Christian Painting, Poetry, and Politics (Spring 2015).

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

2014

“Child-like Humility to Spiritual Crisis” a talk by Dr. Nadia Valman. Monday, November 17 at 5:30pm, The Judaica Suite, Grand Reading Room, Smathers Library, 2nd Floor.
Women were central to the emergence and development of the Jewish novel in nineteenth-century England. Anglo-Jewish literature came into being in the early Victorian period in the form of popular didactic fiction, a form to which women writers had greater access. Their novels were conceived to help press the Jewish claim for equal citizenship and to counter the pressure from Protestant missionaries to convert to Christianity. The Jewish woman, moreover, was repeatedly the subject of their writing. Aimed at both Jewish and non-Jewish readers, early Victorian Anglo-Jewish fiction sought to position the Jewess as an ideal type of steadfast piety, a paragon of bourgeois values, steering the Jewish family through adversity towards moral uprightness and national loyalty. Jewish women writers in Victorian England continued to write popular fiction, and their novels were produced against a background of increasing political and social integration and dramatic demographic changes. Again and again they returned to the figure of the Jewess as the conduit of religious or ethical principles even as these principles were challenged and reconfigured. In this lecture, I will trace this thread through the work of three writers whose fiction exemplifies Anglo-Jewry’s shifting concerns, from the domestic writing of Grace Aguilar, who, in responding to the political and religious demands of midnineteenth century England established the model of the idealized Jewess, through to the fin-de-siècle writers Emily Marion Harris and Lily Montagu, whose novels are shaped by class conflict, religious scepticism and feminism.

• Made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event
• See the texts for this event Transitional, Anglicization.

“The Dutch Paradox: History and Memory of the Holocaust in the Netherlands”, a talk by Ido de Haan. Wednesday, October 29 at 5pm, The Judaica Suite, Grand Reading Room, Smathers Library, 2nd Floor.
Ido de Haan teaches at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His books include After the Fall: The Memory of the Jewish Persecution in the Netherlands 1945-1999. He has also written numerous articles on the Holocaust in the Netherlands from Dutch and Jewish perspectives.

• Made possible through the Norman and Irma Braman Chair for Holocaust Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“A Window on Warsaw: Integration and Its Obstacles in Poland after the Holocaust” a talk by Karen Auerbach. Sunday, October 26 at 4 pm, The Judaica Suite, 2nd floor, Grand Reading Room, Smathers Library at the University of Florida.
Assistant professor of history and Stuart E. Eizenstat Fellow in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Auerbach is the author of The House at Ujazdowskie 16: Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust (2013). The integration of surviving Jews and obstacles to this process are rooted in the relationship between state and society in postwar Poland as well as longer-term factors in Polish-Jewish relations before and during World War II. Through a focus on ten Jewish families in an apartment building in postwar Warsaw, this talk explores how these contradictory forces of integration, on one hand, and anti-Semitism and emigration, on the other, coexisted and interacted, shedding light on broader processes of Jewish integration and its obstacles in Germany, France and elsewhere in post-war Europe.

• Made possible by the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“The American Jewish community: Current Pictures, Future Possibilities”, a talk by Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz. Monday, October 20 at 7pm in the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
The Pew Research Center’s 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews has sparked widespread discussion about the current state of the American Jewish community and its future direction. The survey’s results paint a picture of a diverse community, with alternative signs of continuing cohesion, assimilation and division. Given today’s patterns, what might the future look like? Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz, Senior Research Director at The Jewish Federations of North America and an advisor to the Pew Research Center on the study, will present an overview of the survey’s findings on the current state of American Jewry and discuss possible future trajectories of the U.S. Jewish community.

• Made possible through the”Bud” Shorstein Professorship and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“The Kabbalistic Friendships of Giacomo Casanova” a talk by Pawel Maciejko-Milano. Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at 7pm in Smathers Library (Library East) Conference Room 100.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies, Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“East & West: A Concert of Cantorial Music” Thursday, April 3 at 7pm, Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Center.

• Cantors: Yaakov “Yanky” Lemmer and Rabbi Hagay Batzri
• Musicians:
  Shai Bachar, keyboard
  Yair Dalal, oud and violin
  Frank London, trumpet
  Dror Sinai, percussion
• Made possible through a grant from the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, the Mikki and Morris Futernick Endowment, the Gary Gerson Visiting Professorship, the Arthur and Violette Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment of the Center for Jewish Studies, the Jewish Students Union, the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica and Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Center with individual gifts from Ken Colen and Desmond and Nadine Schatz.
• See the poster for this event, front, back.

 

“Trauma, Testimony and History: Life in Jewish DP Camps (1946-50)” a talk by Uta Larkey, Monday, March 31, 2014 in Pugh Hall 120 at 4:00pm.
Uta Larkey is Associate Professor of German and Film Studies, as well as Associate Faculty of Judaic Studies at Goucher College in Baltimore. An expert on Holocaust film and literature, DP camps, and Israeli film, she has co-authored the book Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust: A Jewish Family’s Untold Story (with Rebecca Boehling) with Cambridge University Press in 2011.

• Co-sponsored by German Studies of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, and the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“Fourth Annual Gainesville Jewish Film Festival” March 9-11 and 16-18 at the Hippodrome State Theatre.

• Hunting Elephants, Sunday, March 9 at 7:30pm
• Bethlehem, Monday, March 10 at 7:00pm
• Wild West Hebron, Tuesday, March 11 at 7:00pm
• Mamele, Sunday, March 16 at 4:00pm
• Fill the Void Sunday, March 16 at 7:00pm
• Aftermath, Monday, March 17 at 7:00pm
• Hamashgikhim Tuesday, March 18 at 7:00pm

• Sponsored by the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida and the Hippodrome Theatre. Made possible by the Center for Women’s Studies, the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, the Gary Gerson Lecture Series, the Jewish Student Union’s Jewish Awareness Month, the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and Dr. Michael & Phyllis Warren.
• See the postcard for this event

 

“The Last Great Holocaust Trial: Demjanjuk in Munich” a talk by Lawrence Douglas, Monday, February 10, 2014, 7:00pm at Smathers Library 1A.
Lawrence Douglas is the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College. His work examines the broader representative and historical qualities of Holocaust trials. His scholarly books include The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust (2001). His current work on the trials of Sobibor guard Ivan Demjanjuk in the US, Israel, and Germany situates these proceedings within the larger context of contemporary global Holocaust memory.

• Made possible through the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

2013

“The 9th Annual Gainesville Latino Film Festival and the Center for Jewish Studies are pleased to bring you “Salsa Tel-Aviv directed by Yohanan Weller. The film will be shown on Saturday, October 5, 2pm at the Harn Museum of Art and Sunday, October 6, 2pm at the Alachua Branch Library.
When Vicky and Yoni meet on a plane from Mexico to Tel Aviv, Vicky is dressed as a nun trying to find her estranged salsa-dancing husband. Yoni, a university professor, considers the situation a bit strange and he can’t figure it all out. Still, he helps Vicky get through customs, and the two seem to part ways. But not quite. Somehow, Vicky and Yoni keep running into each other. What could that mean? “Salsa Tel Aviv” is a charming, funny film with a fresh take on foreign workers in Israel.

• Made possible through the Betty & Herman Schram Memorial Fund and the Latina Women’s League.

 

• See the postcard for this event

“The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting Jewish People” a talk by Stuart Eizenstat. 6pm, Monday, September 30, 2013 at the Bob Graham Center.
Former ambassador and author Stuart Eizenstat will present his provocative analysis on how major geopolitical, economic, and security challenges are reshaping the Jewish world and its relationship with the United States. During a decade and a half of public service in three US administrations, Ambassador Eizenstat held a number of key senior positions, including chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981); U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration (1993-2001). Eizenstat’s latest book, The Future of the Jews, traces how shifting global power away from the United States and Europe to the emerging powers in Asia and Latin America poses particular challenges for the Jewish community, and raises particular issues for the relationship between Israel and the U.S.

• Made possible through the “Bud” Shorstein Professorship, the Bob Graham Center and the Department of Political Science.
• See the postcard for this event

“With Us Now, More Then Ever” a talk by Yoram Bilu. 7pm, Monday, September 23, 2013, Smathers Library Conference Room, 1A.
Jewish history is replete with proclaimed and self-proclaimed messiahs. The most striking case in our own time is the messianic fervor that has swept Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism. During the final years of the movement’s seventh and last president, the charismatic Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, many were led to believe that he was the designated Messiah. Following the childless Rebbe’s death in 1994, a schism has emerged within the headless movement with some, especially among Israeli adherents, the “Meshichistn,” denying the death of the Rebbe.

Yoram Bilu is professor emeritus of anthropology and psychology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His research interests include the anthropology of religion (focusing on saint worship, messianism, and religious healing), culture and mental health, the sanctification of space in Israel, and Moroccan Jewish culture. He is the recipient of the Israel Prize in sociology and anthropology for 2013. His most recent book is The Saints’ Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers, and Holy Men in Israel’s Urban Periphery (2010).

• Made possible through the Mikki and Morris Futernick Endowment of the Center for Jewish Studies. Open to the community, the lecture is co-sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.

“Playing for Peace: A Concert of Persian, Arab and Jewish Music”. A live concert featuring Naser Musa, Hamid Saeidi-Santur, Dror Sinai, Yair Dalal Saturday, April 13 at 9:00 pm in the Ustler Hall Atrium and again Sunday, April 14 at 12:30 pm, Jacksonville Jewish Center.

• See the poster for this event: front, back
• The Gainesville concert is made possible through a grant from the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Betty & Herman Schram Memorial Fund, Eileen G. Breier Visiting Fellowship, Arthur& Violette Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment, Mikki & Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Dr. Warren Bargad Endowment, and Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund.
• The Jacksonville concert is made possible through a gift from the Levin and Shorstein Families.
• See the band playing live.

“From Point to Breathturn: Poetic Space in Cixous and Celan” A talk by David Wills Wednesday, April 3, 3-5 pm in Pugh Hall 212.
David Wills is professor of French and English at SUNY-Albany and a fellow of the London Graduate School. His major work, on the originary technicity or prostheticity of the human,is developed in Prothesis (Stanford, 1995), Dorsality (Minnesota, 2008), and in the forthcoming Inanimation. He has also co-authored or co-edited books on Thomas Pynchon, Derrida and film theory, deconstruction and the visual arts, and edited a text on Godard’s Pierrot le fou. He is translator of a number of works by Jacques Derrida, including The Gift of Death and The Animal That Therefore I Am, and Jean-Luc Nancy’s On the Commerce of Thinking.

• Co-sponsored by the France-Florida Research Institute, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and German Foundation Fund.

“Parcere Subiectis: Roman Imperialism, Jewish Apocalypticism, and Universal Justice in the First Century CE” a talk by Megan Williams Tuesday, April 2, 2013 in the Dauer Hall Keene Faculty Center.
Williams is Associate Professor of History at San Francisco State University, where she teaches late antique and early medieval history, and the history of Christianity through the ninth century. She is the author of The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship and Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius and the Library of Caesarea.

• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

“Cultural Intimacy and Its Limits: Central Asia Jews and Their Muslim Neighbors” A talk by Chen Bram Wednesday, March 10, 2013.

“Trading on Identity: Jewish Merchants in the Medieval Islamic World” A talk by Jessica Goldberg (University of Pennsylvania) Monday, March 18, 6 pm at Smathers Library East.
Professor Goldberg’s research focuses on the history of merchants in the Islamic and Italian eastern Mediterranean of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Her recent research interests have led her to study the practical minutiae of how business, manufacturing, and trade worked; and ideas and practices of both religious and secular law; merchants’ ideas of region, regional identity and market spaces. She has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Stanford Humanities Fellows Program, and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and she was a 2012 Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. Goldberg’s book, Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Geniza Merchants and Their Busines World, was recently published by Cambridge University Press.

• Made possible by the Bruce I. Greenberg Endowment in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

“FDR and the Holocaust” a talk by Richard Breitman, American University. Thursday, March 14, 2013, 7:30 pm at Smathers Library Grand Reading Room.
Breitman is the author of The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution, Official Secrets: What the Germans Planned, What the British and Americans Knew and American Refugee Policy and European Jewry, 1933-1945.

• Made possible by the Norman and Irma Braman Chair for Holocaust Studies and co-sponsored by The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

“Judaization, Europeanization, or Germanization: Lódz and the Politics of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Poland” a talk by Winson Chu Monday, February 18, 2013, 7pm at Hillel.
Chu is from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the author of The German Minority in Interwar Poland.

• Made possible by the Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Harry Rich Endowment at the Center for Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

“Hidden Heresies, Obfuscation, Appropriation: What is all the fuss about Maimonides?” A talk by Dr. Daniel Davies (University of Cambridge) Wednesday, February 13, 7-8pm, University of Hillel, Norman H. Lipoff Hall.
Dr. Daniel Davies is a Research Associate at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University. He also teaches at Canterbury Christ Church University. Davies is the author of Method and Metaphysics in Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed, Oxford University Press, 2011.

• Sponsored by the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, the University of Florida Hillel and the Jewish Council of North Central Florida. Light refreshments served.
• See the poster for this event.

“Maimonides: Faith, Doubts, and Secrets” a Symposium at the University of Florida Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 2-4 pm in the History Department Conference Room 005 Keene-Flint Hall.
With speakers Kenneth Seeskin (Northwestern University), Edward C. Halper (University of Georgia), and Daniel Davies (University of Cambridge). Chaired by Nina Caputo (University of Florida). Comments by Yehuda Halper (Tulane University).

• Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Philosophy, the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, and the Department of Religion, University of Florida.
• Pre-circulated papers available on February 4, 2013: www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ncaputo/site/maimonides.html
• See the poster for this event

“Is Judaism Really Monotheistic: A Maimonidean Inquiry” a talk by Kenneth Seeskin Monday, February 11, 2013 at 7:30pm, Smathers Library.
Seeskin is Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University. He specializes in Jewish Philosophy, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion. His work uses classic texts in the history of philosophy to shed light on problems of perennial interest. He has published seven books on Jewish philosophy and ethics, most recently, Jewish Messianic Thoughts in an Age of Despair.

• Made possible by the Bruce I. Greenberg Endowment in Jewish Studies and co-sponsored by The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica.
• See the postcard for this event

“An English Tale: The Legend of Child-Murder in Medieval Norwich” a talk by Miri Rubin Monday, February 4, 2013 at 7pm, Smathers Library East, Room 1A.
Miri Rubin is Professor of Medieval History at Queen Mary University of London and currently serves as Head of the School of History. Educated in Jerusalem and Cambridge, she has held posts at Cambridge and Oxford too, and has spent several visiting periods in the US. Her interests range over aspects of the religious cultures of medieval Europe, with special interest in Jewish-Christian relations. She enjoys inter-disciplinary interaction as well as public dissemination of scholarship.

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

“Frozen Time, Liquid Memories (1942-2012)” a two-part film by Dragan Kujundzic. Part one: “The Racija”; the Danube, Novi Sad, January 1942. Part two: “They Were Children”; Vel d’Hiv, Paris, July 1942. The screening will be followed by the author’s explanation of the project—Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 6pm, the Harn Museum.
The footage filmed by Dragan Kujundzic commemorates the seventy years since the two round-ups of the Jews, one in Novi Sad (today Serbia) in January 1942, and the other in Paris in July 1942. In Serbian and French, with subtitles in English.

• Made possible by the Center for European Studies, Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, English Department, France-Florida Research Institute and Department of Languages, Literature and Cultures.
• See the postcard for this event

2012

“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 Enounters 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 persons 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.

 

• See the postcard for this event

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.

• See the postcard for this event
• Best Film — Tulipanes Latino Art & Film Festival, Michigan USA 2008
• Audience Awards — 13 Festival de Cine de Ourense — España 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.
• See the postcard for this event

An informal talk with Leela Corman, Author, Graphic Illustrator and Dancer. Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 6:15 pm ath 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.

• See the poster for this event
• 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.

• See the postcard for this event
• 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, 5:00PM 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.

• See the postcard 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.

“The Jewish Dimension of the Holocaust in Dire Straits: Current Challenges of Interpretation & Scope,” a talk by Dan Michman Saturday, March 17, 8:00PM 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.

• See the postcard 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.

“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.

• See the postcard for this event
• 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.

• See the postcard for this event
• 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, 7:00PM 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.

• See the postcard for this event
• This event is made possible by the Bruce I. Greenberg Endowment in Jewish Studies.

2011

“Liberty of Conscience: The Inquisition Case of Isaac de Castro Tartas”, a talk by Miriam Bodian, Tuesday, November 15, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Miriam Bodian is Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently a fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. She has published two books and a number of articles dealing with the Portuguese Jews of the early modern world – their issues of identity, the impact of the Reformation on them, and the development of their political thinking. Her work includes Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation: Conversos and Community in Early Modern Amsterdam (1997) and Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World (2007). She is currently working on a book based on Inquisition documents, focusing on the issue of freedom of conscience in Portuguese-Jewish discourse.

• See the postcard for this event
• This event is made possible by the Bruce I. Greenberg Endowment in Jewish Studies.

“The School of the Prophets: Rereading Jewish Texts in Postwar Paris” a talk by Sarah Hammerschlag Wednesday, November 9 at 12 Noon in 210 Pugh Hall, University of Florida. Followed by a roundtable on Sarah Hammerschlag’s The Figural Jew: Politics and Identity in Postwar French Thought with Brigitte Weltman-Aron, Nina Caputo and Carol Murphy.
Sarah Hammerschlag is Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought at Williams College and is the author of The Figural Jew (The University of Chicago Press, 2010). She is currently teaching at Divinity School, University of Chicago. The Figural Jew has been praised by Samuel Moyn as “a brilliant intervention which illuminates the idea of the deracinated Jew in French thought and culture in all its historical depth, philosophical complexity, and current relevance.”

• See the poster for this event
• This event is made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.

“The First Sail: J. Hillis Miller,” a film by Dragan Kujundzic, followed by a discussion with the director and J. Hillis Miller, and a reception, October 25, 6pm at The Harn Museum
Dragan Kujundzic is a Professor in the Center for Jewish Studies, UF.

• See the postcard for this event
• The screening is made possible by The Alexander Grass Endowment, Department of English, France Florida Research Institute, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

“Literature Before and After Auschwitz”, a talk by J. Hillis Miller Monday, October 24, 4pm at Ustler Hall Atrium.
J. Hillis Miller, Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Florida and Member of the American Academy Arts and Sciences, is the author, most recently, of The Conflagration of Community: Literature Before and After Auschwitz (The University of Chicago Press, 2011).

• See the postcard for this event
• The event is co-organized with the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research.

“Jews and Citizenship in French North Africa: The Curious Case of the Algerian Sahara”, a talk by Sarah Stein, Wednesday, October 19th, 7PM at Hillel.
Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Professor of History and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at UCLA. Winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, she is author of Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce (Yale University Press, 2008, paper 2010) and Making Jews Modern: The Yiddish and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires (Indiana University Press, 2004), and co-editor, with Aron Rodrigue, of Jewish Salonica in the Nineteenth Century: The Ladino Memoir of Sa’adi Besalel a-Levi(Stanford University Press, 2011). She is currently working on two book projects, both supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. With Julia Phillips Cohen, she is co-editing The Sephardic Studies Reader, 1730-1950. She is also completing a solo-authored book entitled The Invention of Anachronism: French colonialism, Jews, & the Algerian Sahara.

• See the postcard for this event
• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.

“Nazi Propaganda Toward the Arab World During the Holocaust: Recent Research on Efforts to Extend the Final Solution beyond Europe”, a talk by Jeffrey Herf, Thursday, October 20, 7PM at Hillel.
Jeffrey Herf teaches courses on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust at The University of Maryland. He is the holder of numerous fellowships in the US, Germany, and Israel, and is the author of five books. His most recent is the prize-winning Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (2009), which will soon appear in several translated editions. He is a frequent contributor to The New Republic as well as other forums on contemporary issues.

• See the postcard for this event
• Made possible by the Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies.

“Nora’s Will (Cinco Dias Sin Nora)”, a film screening 7:00 PM, Thursday, September 8th 2011, at the Harn Museum.
A Jewish comedic tale of lost faith and eternal love from one of Mexico’s most talented new filmmakers, writer/director Mariana Chenillo. was named Mexico’s Best Picture of the Year, taking home seven Ariel Awards. Chenillo is the first female director ever to win Mexico’s Best Picture award.

• See the postcard for this event
• Co-sponsored by the Latina Women’s League and the Center for Jewish Studies

Judaica Library Showcase on Wednesday, June 8 from 12:30pm – 1:30pm in Smathers Library, room 1A.< /br>Come and take a tour of the Price Library of Judaica showcase. Tables will highlight the collections’ resources, digital collections, collection strengths, special collections, internships, exhibits and future acquisitions.

A Celebration of Jewish Life and Culture Around the World: An Exhibition for Jewish Heritage Month”, May–June, 3rd Floor Smathers Library West, University of Florida, 2011.

• See the poster for this event

Dan Miron Workshop in Jewish Literature, April 10, 2011. The two phases of Hebrew/Yiddish Modernism: Pre- and post World War I:

• 10:00am–12:00pm in 210 Pugh Hall
  U.N. Gnessin, Mani Leyb, Dovid Bergelson
• 2:00–4:00pm in 210 Pugh Hall
  The Hebrew and Yiddish U.Z. Greenberg of the 1920s.
• 5:30pm Public Lecture at Hillel
  “Hebrew and Yiddish Modernism: Some Comparative Notes”.
• Made possible by the Greenbaum Visiting Professor in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

“Babel/Ashkenaz: East and West in Sacred Jewish Music”. A live concert featuring Dror Sinai (Percussion), Emmanuel Mann (Bass), Frank London (Trumpet), Yair Dalal (Oud & violin) Wednesday, April 6 at 7:00 pm in the Ustler Hall Atrium and again Thursday, April 7 at 7:00 pm, Jacksonville Jewish Center.

• See the poster for this event: front, back
• The Gainesville concert is made possible through a grant from the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, Betty & Herman Schram Memorial Fund, Eileen G. Breier Visiting Fellowship, Arthur& Violette Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment, Mikki & Morris Futernick Visiting Professorship, Dr. Warren Bargad Endowment, and Friends of Jewish Studies Tree of Life Fund.
• The Jacksonville concert is made possible through a gift from the Levin and Shorstein Families.
• Admission is free to both concerts. All are welcome.

“Holocaust Remembrance Night”, Monday, March 28th, 7 pm at the Hippodrome Theatre. There will be a screening of A Film Unfinishedfollowed by a discussion led by Norman Goda, Braman Professor of Holocaust Studies. This event is part of the first “Gainesville Jewish Film Festival” presented by the University of Florida Hillel.

• This event is free and open to the public, made possible by the Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies.

“The Lower East Side Meets Greenwich Village: Jews and the Formation of New York’s Intellectual Scene, 1880-1920”, a talk by Tony Michels Wednesday, March 23, 7 pm at Hillel.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, two distinct intellectual communities formed in nearby neighborhoods in lower Manhattan. On the Lower East Side, Russian-born Jewish intellectuals, utilizing the Yiddish language, emerged as leaders of the immigrant Jewish working-class. In Greenwich Village, American-born bohemians from respectable, affluent backgrounds formed a radical subculture, and discovered their Lower East Side counterparts along the way. Interactions between members of both communities gave rise to a new, cosmopolitan intellectual scene in New York City.

• See the postcard for this event
• Made possible by the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.

“Egypt, Israel and the June 1967 War: A Domestic Explanation”, a talk by Avraham Sela Monday, March 14, 11:45 am-12:45 pm at 216 Anderson Hall.
Avraham Sela is the A. Ephraim and Shirley Diamond Chair in International Relations at the Department of International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

• See the poster for this event
• Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of Political Science

Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica 30th Anniversary Rededication Celebration March 6, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. Smathers Library, Room 1A.
Featuring guest speakers, music and light refreshments RSVP to Lela Johnson at lela@ufl.edu or (352) 273-2505 by February 28

• See the invitation for this event

“Felix Mendelssohn’s Paths to Assimilation”, a talk by Jeff Sposato Thursday, February 17, 7:00 pm at Hillel.
Jeffrey S. Sposato is associate professor of musicology at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. His most recent book, The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-Century Anti-Semitic Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2006), was named a Choice magazine Outstanding Academic Title for 2006 and a Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award finalist. He is currently working on a new book entitled Leipzig After Bach: Musical Life in a German City, 1750–1850.

• Co-sponsored by the School of Music Musicology Colloquium Series, the Center for European Studies and the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event
• Lectures are available for streaming, download, or subscription via iTunes at the following URL: http://ufmusicology.blip.tv/rss/.

Wulf Kansteiner Tuesday, February 15, 2011.

Are There ‘New Jews’ in 21st Century Hollywood Film?”, a talk by David Reznik, Tuesday, February 8, 7 pm.
David Reznik completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida in 2010. His book New Jews: Race, American Jewish Identity, and 21st Century U.S. Film is forthcoming with Paradigm Publishers.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

The Kabbalah Unveiled: A Mini Course On Jewish Mysticism”, January 23–26, 7:00 pm at Hillel.
Yossi Chajes is senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa. His book, Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaismem> (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), was a Koret Jewish History Book Award finalist. Chajes is a classical pianist who performed for many years with his teacher R. Shlomo Carlebach.

23/01/2001: Key Concepts in Kabbalah

24/01/2011: Kabbalah and History

25/01/2011: Magic and Kabbalah

26/01/2011: Sacred Music & Contemporary Israeli Spirituality

• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series.
• See the postcard for this event

2010

“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.

 

• See the postcard for this event

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 — 7pm 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: Front, Back

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.

• See the postcard for this event

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.

• See the postcard for this event

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

2009

“No. 4 Street of Our Lady,” a film by Barbara Bird, Judy Maltz and Richie Sherman. The producer, Judy Maltz will be present for a screening, Thursday November 19th, 7:00pm at Hillel.
Judy Maltz served as a senior correspondent in Jerusalem for Ha’aretz, Israel’s most respected newspaper, and was one of the founding editors of the Ha’aretzEnglish edition. She has reported for the Jerusalem Post and Reuters and has written extensively for the Financial Times of London and other British, American and Israeli newspapers.

With a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, she currently holds an appointment as a senior lecturer in journalism at the College of Communications at Penn State University.

On the eve of World War II, more than 6,000 Jews lived in Sokal, a small town in Eastern Poland, now part of Ukraine. By the end of the war, only about 30 had survived, half of them rescued by Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish-Catholic woman. For close to two years, she hid her Jewish neighbors in her tiny home and cooked and cared for them, right under the noses of German troops camped on her property as well as hostile neighbors. The film draws on excerpts from a diary kept by one of the survivors, Moshe Maltz, whose granddaughter is one of the filmmakers. It also incorporates testimonies from other Jews saved by Halamajowa, her descendants and formers neighbors, as they reconnect on a trip back to Sokal.

• Made possible by the Harry Rich Endowment, and Raymond and Miriam Ehrlich Eminent Scholar Chair.
• See the postcard for this event

Marcel Ophuls, “The Sorrow and the Pity” Monday, November 23, 2009 in 210 Pugh Hall, 4-6pm.
The Sorrow and the Pity (French: Le Chagrin et la pitié) is a two-part documentary film by Marcel Ophüls that concerns the French Resistance and collaboration with the Vichy government and Nazi Germany during World War II. This 1969 film used interviews of a German officer, collaborators, and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature and reasons for collaboration. The reasons include anti-Semitism, anglophobia, fear of Bolsheviks and Soviet invasion, the desire for power, and simple caution.  CONTACT.

“Reading Jewish Literature: An Advanced Workshop with Professor Dan Miron,” Sunday November 1.
Readings from the writings of Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Joseph Perl and Heinrich Heine.

Sessions are
10:00 AM-12:00 PM: 219 Dauer, for faculty and grad students only.
12:00-2:00 PM: Lunch
2:00-4:00 PM: Second Session, 219 Dauer (faculty and grad students only)
5:30 PM: A public lecture by Dan Miron, “The Animal in the Synagogue: Kafka’s Jewish Story” at Hillel.

• Made possible by a grant from the Posen Foundation, with additional funds from the Gary Gerson Lecture Series and the Breier Visiting Fellowship.
• See the postcard for this event

“Tsuker-zis: Jewish Holiday Music,” Frank London, Lorin Sklamberg, and Robert Schwimmer in concert. Wednesday November 4th, 7:30 PM at P.K. Yonge Auditorium.
Trumpeter/composer FRANK LONDON is a member of the Klezmatics, Hasidic New Wave. He’s performed with John Zorn, LL Cool J, They Might Be Giants, David Byrne and many others.

• Made possible by a grant from the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, with additional funds from the Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida.
• See the poster for this event
• PK Yonge map

Anthony Grafton (Princeton University), “Jewish Books and Christian Readers in Early Modern Europe” Monday, November 9th.

• An Alexander Grass Lecture and part of the Faithful Narrative lecture series
• See the poster for the Faithful Narratives lecture series
• See the postcard for this event

Norman J. W. Goda, “Czerniakow’s Playground: The Struggle for Humanity in the Warsaw Ghetto” Thursday, April 16th at 4:00 in Keene-Flint Rm 5.
Goda is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Ohio University. He is a candidate for the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.

• See the poster for this event

Dirk Rupnow, “Annihilating – Preserving – Remembering: The “Aryanization” of Jewish History and Memory during the Holocaust” Monday, April 13th at 4:00pm in Keene-Flint Rm 5.
Rupnow is Associate Professor at the University of Innsbruck. He is a candidate for the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.

• See the poster for this event

Shulamit Volkov, “German Jewry and the Invention of Secularism” Thursday, April 2, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Shulamit Volkov holds the Konrad Adenauer Chair for Comparative European History at Tel Aviv University. She has been a visiting scholar in Munich, Berlin, Oxford, Paris and New York and has won awards from the German Academy. Since 2006 she has been a member of the Israel Academy of Science and the Humanities. Professor Volkov has published books and articles on modern German and German-Jewish history, anti-Semitism and nationalism. She also explored the discourse on deafness in the European age of Enlightenment and recently finished a biography of the German-Jewish politician Walter Rathenau.

• This event is made possible through the Alexander Grass Chair of the Center for Jewish Studies
• See the postcard for this event

Jonathan Judaken, “Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust” Tuesday, March 31, 4:00pm in Keene-Flint Rm 5.
Judaken is Associate Professor and Director Marcus W. ORR Center for the Humanties at the University of Memphis. He is a candidate for the Norman and Irma Braman Chair in Holocaust Studies.

• See the poster for this event

Richard Burt, “Secularization, Sacrilege, and Reversing the Renaissance Image and Text” Wednesday, March 18, 7:00pm.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

“Gail Hareven, Reading from her new novel,” March 4, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Hareven is one of Israel’s leading writers, author of a large body of literary work including novels, plays and short stories. She is the winner of the prestigious Sapir Prize for The Confessions of Noa Weber ? which the jury described as ‘literature of the highest quality?original, romantic, exciting and thought-provoking’ ? and teaches writing and feminist theory in Jerusalem. This is her first book to be translated into English.

• Made possible by The Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies. Made possible by The Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

Robert Kawashima, “‘You Shall Love the Lord Your God’: On the Interpellation of the Ancient Israelite Subject” Wednesday, February 18, 7:00pm.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

Susannah Heschel “Scholars and Converts: European Jews Embrace Islam,” February 16, 7:30pm at Pugh Hall 170.
The Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Her scholarship focuses on Jewish-Christian relations in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of biblical scholarship, and the history of anti-Semitism. Her numerous publications include Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus(University of Chicago Press), which won a National Jewish Book Award and Germany?s Geiger Prize, and most recently The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton University Press). Heschel’s talk at UF will deal with her current research, a study of Jewish scholarship of Islam.

• This event is co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies and is part of the series Faithful Narratives: The Challenge of Religion in History”.
• See the postcard for this event

2008

Todd Hasak-Lowy, “Beaufort: Lebanon, Closure, and the Unending State of Emergency,” Wednesday, December 3, 7:00pm.
This paper focuses on the problem of closure in literary and cinematic narratives about Lebanon as emblematic of Israel’s permanent state of emergency. In particular, Hasak-Lowy analyzes the multiple, contradictory endings of Ron Leshem’s bestselling novel, Beaufort (2005), endings that together undermine the novel’s closure as a self-contained literary work. Moreover, the now-famous “prophetic” qualities of one of these endings in which the narrator suggests that another Lebanon war is inevitable and will occur following the abduction of an Israeli soldier seems to give perfect expression to the open-ended nature of Israel’s ongoing engagement with Lebanon. Hasak-Lowy argues that the ultimately morbid and pessimistic nature of Leshem’s unresolved narrative resonates strongly with dominate views on the Arab-Israeli in post-2000 Israeli society, according to which the country is destined to fight indefinitely, despite the fact that few believe military means are capable of achieving Israeli objectives. Leshem’s novel is contrasted with its film adaptation that advances a more critical portrait of the Israeli military in large part through its more conclusive, less ambivalent ending.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

David Ruderman, “The People and the Book: The Invention of Print and the Transformation of Jewish Culture,” Monday, December 1, 4:00pm at Ustler Hall.
Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff Director of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His many publications include Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe (Yale University Press, 1995; revised paperback, Detroit, 2001), Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key (Princeton University Press, 2000), and Connecting the Covenant: Judaism and the Search for Christian Identity in Eighteenth-Century England, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).

• Made possible by The Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.

 

• See the postcard for this event

“Being Jewish in Philosophy.” Symposium to celebrate sixty years of “Being Jewish” and Time and the Other by Emmanuel Levinas. Invited guest participants: Professor Jonathan Judaken (University of Memphis). Organized by Dragan Kujundzic. Tuesday, November 18th 2008.

Pugh Hall 210, 11:00AM – 1PM

• Symposium and Session Introduction:
• Jonathan Judaken and Galili Shahar, “Emmanuel Levinas, ‘Being Jewish’ and The Time and the Other.” Session chair, Dragan Kujundzic
• Light refreshments will be served.

Pugh Hall 210, 2PM – 4PM

• Afternoon Session Introduction
• “Emmanuel Levinas, ‘The Trace of the Other.'” The Posen Seminar Reading Group Session Chair, Nina Caputo.
• Light refreshments will be served.
• A reception will follow the conference, time and place will be announced.
• Made possible through the Gary Gerson Lecture Series Endowment with additional funds from the Posen Foundation and the France Florida Research Institute at the University of Florida.
• See the postcard for this event
• Texts: Levinas, Being Jewish, The Trace of the Other.

Jonathan Judaken, “Theorizing Anti-Antisemitism,” Monday, November 17th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Jonathan Judaken is the Professor of Modern European Cultural & Intellectual History at the University of Memphis and the author of Jean-Paul Sartre and The Jewish Question: Anti-antisemitism and the Politics of the French Intellectual (Texts and Contexts), University of Nebraska Press, 2007. Judaken reconsiders the origins of the intellectual in France in the context of the Dreyfus affair and Sartre’s interventions in the parallel Franco-French conflicts in the 1930s and during the Vichy regime. He considers what it was possible to say on behalf of Jews and Judaism during the German occupation, Sartre’s contribution after the war to the Vichy syndrome, his positions on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the ways Sartre’s reflections on the Jewish Question served as a template for his shift toward Marxism, his resistance to colonialism, and for the defining of debates about Jews and Judaism in postwar France by both Jewish and non-Jewish intellectuals. Judaken analyzes the texts that Sartre devoted to these issues and argues that “the Jew” constituted a foil Sartre consistently referenced in reflecting on politics in general and on the role of the intellectual in particular.

• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

“An Evening of Yiddish Song: Wolf Krakowski with the Lonesome Brothers and Friends,” Saturday, November 15th, 7:00pm at PK Yonge Auditorium.
Krakowski is the finest practitioner of Yiddish music anywhere. A native Yiddish speaker, for him the world of East European Jewish culture is very much alive and contemporary—something he demonstrates brilliantly in the style of his music and the richness of the lyrics.

• This concert is made possible through generous grants from the Jewish Council of North Central Florida and the Jewish Students Union at the University of Florida and through additional funds from the Kahn Visiting Scholar Endowment of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida.
• See the poster for this event

David Nirenberg, “Sibling Rivalries: Judaism, Christianity, Islam,” Wednesday, November 12th, 7:30pm at Pugh Hall Rm 170.
Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Nirenberg’s highly acclaimed book, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1996), examines the complex interfaith relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in late medieval Spain and southern France. His book The Figure of the Jew: from Ancient Egypt to the Present (provisional title) is forthcoming from Norton, and he is currently working on a study of the collapse of religious pluralism and the emergence of genealogical models of religious identity in Iberia from 1300 to 1500.

• Made possible by the Center for European Studies and the Graham Center for Public Service.
• See the postcard for this event

“Reading Jewish Literature: A Workshop With Dan Miron,” Sunday, October 19th.

• 10:00 – 12:00pm: First Session: Yiddish Monologs
  Sholem Aleichem: Burned Out (A Nisref), Advice (An eyste)
• 12:00 – 2:00PM: Lunch
• 2:00 – 4:00pm: Second Session: Hebrew Dialogues
  Yehudit Hendel (A Story with no Address), Dahlia Ravikovitch (Poems)
• 5:00pm: Dan Miron, Lecture: Who Wants to Listen to Tevye the Dairyman?
  The Tevye-Sholem-Aleichem symbiosis and its ramifications
  an analysis of “Tevye the Dairyman” which would offer answers to questions such as: why does Tevye tell stories which are so embarrasing, even humiliating, to himself? Why does he tell these stories to the persona “Sholem Aleichem,” with whom he establishes a symbiosis of sorts? Why does “Sholem Aleichem” listen to these stories? Why are we, the readers, fascinated by Tevye, a person for whom his relatives and acquaintances have no patience? What is the role of the Tevye figure in the ideological and artistic drama of the modern Jewish cultural project?
• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies, the Posen Foundation and Breier Visiting Fellowship.
• See the postcard for Dan Miron’s lecture
• Sessions one and two are closed to the public and participation is by application only. Dan Miron’s lecture is open to the public.

Todd Hasak-Lowy, “Todd Hasak-Lowy Reads,” Thursday October 16, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Todd Hasak-Lowy holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an Assistant Professor in the Dpartment of African and Asian Languages and Literature at UF.

Captives is a stinging indictment of our age and an equally stinging indictment of our weary indifference to the horrors of our age. It’s also an exploration of how, too often, what we think of as success leaves us emotionally and spiritually barren. Above all, though, Captives is the humane, hilarious, and ultimately touching story of a man in flux. Daniel Bloom enters middle age with a successful screenwriting career, a head full of frightening thoughts, and a wife and son who barely recognize him. It’s our privilege and pleasure as readers to watch as he risks his empty life in order to save it.

• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

Nora Alter, “Acoustic Bridges: Listening to Eisler,” Wednesday, October 15, 7:00pm.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

SHIFT 2008 is June 16–20. Learn more about SHIFT, our Holocaust Educators Workshop at the University of Florida, or register online.

• See the Save the Date for this event

Ferzina Banaji, “Representing the ‘Un-Representable’: Film and the Holocaust,” Thursday, June 19th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Dr. Ferzina Banaji is the 2007-2008 Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. After gaining a postgraduate diploma from the University of Paris, she completed a master’s degree in European literature at Cambridge. Her 2005 doctoral dissertation for Cambridge University dealt with representations of the Holocaust in French documentary films. She has authored several articles and essays, re-examining such films as Night and Fogand The Sorrow and the Pity.

• Made possible by The Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies. Co-sponsored by the Campus Outreach Lecture Program of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, supported by the generosity of Marvin and Rose Lee Pomerantz.
• See the postcard for this event

“Secularization, Judaism and the Political: Posen-Faculty Seminar at the Center for Jewish Studies.” Tuesday, April 15th.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

Ilana Pardes, “Freud, Zipporah, and the Bridegroom of Blood: National Imagination in the Bible,” Friday, April 11th.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

Ilana Pardes, “Agnon’s “Ido & Enam”: The Circulation of the Song of Songs in Israeli Culture.” A reading from The Song of Songs and a consideration of its circulation in Israeli culture. Thursday, April 10th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Ilana Pardes received her PH.D. degree in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley in 1990. She taught at Princeton University in 1990-1992 and as visiting Professor at UC Berkeley in 1996 and in 2006. She is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University, where she has been teaching since 1992. Among her publications: Countertraditions in the Bible: A Feminist Approach (Harvard University Press, 1992), The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible(University of California Press, 2000), New Perspectives on Freud’s Moses and Monotheism (Co-edited with Ruth Ginsburg, Niemeyer, 2006), and Melville’s Bibles (University of California Press, 2008).

• Made possible by The Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies and the Jewish Council of North Central Florida.
• See the postcard for this event

From Generation to Generation: The Growing Split Between Secular and Religious Jews in Israel.” Monday, March 31st, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Professor Etzioni-Halevy has written extensively about Israeli political culture, democratization, as well as Israeli youth. She is the author of numerous books, including The Divided People: Can Israel’s Breakup Be Stopped?, The Elite Connection: Problems and Potential of Democracy, Classes and Elites in Democracy and Democratization, Political Culture in Israel, and Who is the Israeli Student?

• Generously sponsored by the UF International Center, and Hillel at the University of Florida.

“Metamorphosis: Reading Franz Kafka: 125th Anniversary of Kafka’s Birth — A new translation of his stories by Michael Hofmann,” Pamela Gilbert, Chair; Galili Shahar, Introduction; Eric Kligerman, John Leavey, Ralf Remshardt, and Shephard Steiner, Panel. Readings by Michael Hofmann and Ralf Remshardt. Monday, March 31st, 4:00 — 7:00pm at the Friends of Music Room (Music Building, UF campus).
Franz Kafka’s story Metamorphosis is a riddle. Its protagonist, Gregor Samsa, a man and an insect — a body of distortions and wounds — an allegory of strange desires and broken voices, embodies also the question of literature and art.

On the 125th anniversary of Kafka’s birth and the occasion of a new translation of Metamorphosis, and other stories by Michael Hofmann, scholars of German-Jewish studies, history of art, theater and critical theory are gathered to read Kafka and to discuss the story and its legacies.

• A joint event of the Center for Jewish Studies, the English Department and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the UF
• See the postcard for this event

Alice Freifeld, “Catharsis and Backlash: War Crimes Trials of the ‘Small Fry’,” Thursday, March 27th at 7:00pm.
Alice Freifeld is Associate Professor of History. This talk is based on her current research project, a study of Hungarian Jewry in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

C. Paul Vincent, “20,000 Children Shut Out: Congress and the Failure of US Refugee Policy after Kristallnacht,” Monday, March 24th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Author of A Historical Dictionary of Germany’s Weimar Republic, 1918 – 1933(Greenwood Press, 1997); and The Politics of Hunger: The Allied Blockade of Germany, 1915 – 1919 (Ohio University Press, 1985). Currently on sabbatical leave from Keene State College in New Hampshire, Professor Vincent serves on the Board of the New Hampshire Humanities Council and is Coordinator of the Holocaust Studies Council at KSC.

During his tenure as Pinchas and Mark Wisen Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Professor Vincent researched US refugee policy during 1938 – 1940. Focusing in particular on the period following the Kristallnacht pogrom (9 – 10, November 1938), his work demonstrates the degree to which our country’s refugee policy was a reflection of the public’s overall anxieties. In addition to analyzing the role of Congress in preventing 20,000 refugee children from entering the US, he reexamines overall State Department policy through its response to the crisis generated in May – June 1939 by the journey of the M.S. St. Louis.

• Made possible by The Harry Rich Endowment for Holocaust Studies. Co-sponsored by the Campus Outreach Lecture Program of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, supported by the generosity of Marvin and Rose Lee Pomerantz.
• See the postcard for this event

Screening of the film “Children of the Sun” and a talk by the director Ran Tal.” Wednesday, March 5th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Children of the first kibbutzim were born in the early 20th century to youthful parents, full of hope. They were born into a utopia and were educated in an ideological society that aspired to replace the traditional family with a collective one, to subjugate the will of the individual in favor of the common good and a life of equality.

“Children of the Sun” tells the story of the journey in search of a society’s memory and is a collage comprised of over eighty amateur films shot between 1930 and 1970, rare recordings and conversations with families and friends.

• See the postcard for this event
• For more inormation: Ruth Films

“Secularization, Judaism and the Political: Posen-Faculty Seminar at the Center for Jewish Studies.” Tuesday, March 4th.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

“Secularization, Judaism and the Political: Posen-Faculty Seminar at the Center for Jewish Studies.” Monday, February 18th.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

Jonathan Schorsch, “Esperanza Rodriguez: A Mulata Marrana from 17th-Century Mexico City,” Wednesday, February 20th, 7:30pm at Hillel.
Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies in the Religion Department of Columbia University (PhD, History, University of California, Berkeley, 2000). His research has focused on early modern Sephardic history and culture. He is the author of Jews and Blacks in the Early Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 2004) as well as scholarly articles on topics such as contemporary Sephardic autobiography and Jewish ghosts haunting Germans after the Holocaust. His latest book, The Christian Atlantic: Judeoconversos, Afroiberians and Amerindians in the Seventeenth-Century Iberian World (Brill, 2008) is due out later this year.

Esperanza Rodriguez, born in Seville toward the end of the sixteenth-century, was the daughter of a Judeoconverso father and an African slave mother. In the Judeoconverso household where she herself served as a slave, the young Esperanza learned about crypto-Jewish beliefs and practices. She later moved to the New World, eventually settling in Mexico City. There, she circulated among the city’s crypto-Jews, many of them her relatives. When the inquisitional authorities cracked down on alleged Marranos in the early 1640s, Esperanza found herself incarcerated, along with her three daughters. She suffered several years’ imprisonment for her adopted religion. This lecture explores Esperanza’s experiences within the Mexico City crypto-Jewish community and the significance of her newfound religion and kin network. The riveting, troubled life of this vibrant and ambitious woman of color is set amid the context of colonial Iberian theo-politics, in order to evoke the manifold meanings “Jewishness” held for many Blacks oppressed by the Atlantic slave system.

• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

Brigitte Weltman-Aron, “The Figure of the Jew in North Africa: Memmi, Derrida, Cixous.” Thursday, February 14th, 7:00pm.
Brigitte Weltman-Aron is an associate professor of French in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. She received a PhD in French from the University of Southern California in 1991, and her two main areas of specialization are the Enlightenment and 20th-century Francophone studies.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

Naomi Seidman, “Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference & the Politics of Translation,” Thursday, February 7th, 7:30pm in ReitzRm 282.
Naomi Seidman is Koret Professor of Jewish Culture and Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies Core Doctoral Faculty Member at the Graduate Thelogical Union. Her latest book Faithful Renderings reads translation history through the lens of Jewish-Christian difference and, conversely, views Jewish-Christian difference as an effect of translation. Subjecting translation to a theological-political analysis, Seidman asks how the charged Jewish-Christian relationship—and more particularly the dependence of Christianity on the texts and translations of a rival religion has haunted the theory and practice of translation in the West.

• Made possible by The Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies.
• See the postcard for this event

Ruth Behar, “Searching for Jewish Cuba: Perils and Pleasures of Diasporic Ethnography.” Tuesday, January 29th, 4:00pm in the 2nd floor atrium of Ustler Hall.
Dr. Ruth Behar, professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, was born in Havana, Cuba and grew up in New York. She is the author of Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story and The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart and editor of Bridges to Cubaand co-editor of Women Writing Culture. Behar is also a poet and emerging filmmaker, with her film “Adio Kerida” Behar has been the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation award as well as a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship. Latina Magazine named her one of the 50 Latinas who made history in the twentieth century.

Ruth Behar’s newest book, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba(Rutgers University Press, 2007) is an account of her journey back to Cuba in search of the Jewish community that might have been hers had her family stayed after the revolution.

• Co-sponsored by the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, and the Department of Anthropology
• See the postcard for this event

Michal Ben-Horin, “The 1948 War: Collective Memories, Music and the Challenge of Narration,” Thursday, January 17th, 7:00pm.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

2007

Jan Gross, “After Auschwitz: Anti-Semitism in Poland,” Sunday, November 18th, 4:00pm 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

2006

Motti Inbari, “The Disengagement as a Religious Dilemma.” Sunday, December 10th, 2:00pm, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL.
Jewish existence is encapsulated in two opposing rabbinical perceptions-Exile and Redemption. Although Zionism represents to some degree the fulfillment of end-of-time prophesies, the state of Israel does not obey religious law which creates a dilemma for religious authorities: Is Israel a continuation of Exile or the beginning of Redemption? If the state of Israel is the first step in Redemption, how can it give back lands even as part of a peace settlement?

Motti Inbari (Ph.D. Hebrew University ) is the Schusterman Visiting Israel Scholar, Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. He is currently revising his dissertation King, Sanhedrin and Temple: Contemporary Movements Seeking to Establish a “Torah State” and Rebuild the Third Temple 1984-2004. Inbari is the co-editor of “Who Is a Jew” in Our Days? Discussions on Jewish Identity (Tel Aviv: 2005) and The War of Gog and Magog: Messianism and Apocalypse in the Past and in Modern Times (Tel Aviv: 2001).

• 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

August 27th, September 10th, October 22nd, and November 5th
“Let’s Talk About It!” 2006.
Please join us for a reading and discussion series like no other. Led by UF English professor Andrew Gordon, Let’s Talk About It! Jewish Literature will feature lively discussion of five books on the common theme of A Mind of Her Own: Fathers and Daughters in a Changing World.

Daniel Boyarin, “Literary Fat Rabbis: The Rabbis & the Syriac Connection.” Thursday, November 1st, 7:30pm, at Hillel.
Daniel Boyarin is the Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture for the Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley. Professor Boyarin is the author of Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (1997), Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism (1999), and Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity (2004).

• The Alexander Grass Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies
• See the postcard for this event

Mitchell Hart, “The Pathological Circle: Zionism and the ‘Health’ of European Jewry.” Sunday, October 29th, 2:00pm, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL.
European Zionists relied heavily on language and imagery drawn from medicine. Many early Zionists, such as Leo Pinsker and Max Nordau, were in fact physicians, and many others had at least studied medicine at university. Their analyses of Jewish life in the Diaspora was often cast as a prognosis of a sick and dying patient, with Zionism cast as the cure. Moreover, the Land of Israel itself was described in terms of health and disease, and Zionism represented as a cure for current ailments. Thus, for Zionists in the pre-State period, Jews and Palestine were diseased and degenerate, in need of revitalization and regeneration that could only come through the nationalism. In presenting their case Zionists reproduced much of the antisemitic language and imagery about Jews circulating at the time. An exploration of the connections between Zionism, health, and medicine thus offers an opportunity to illuminate a key component of early Zionist thought, and examine some of the profound continuities and discontinuites between Jewish and European thought during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Hart is Associate Professor of History and holds the Alexander Grass Eminent Scholar Chair in Jewish Studies. He is the author of Social Science and the Politics of Modern Jewish Identity, (Stanford U. Press, 2000), and the forthcoming book, The Healthy Jew: The Symbiosis of Judaism and Modern Medicine (Cambridge University Press).

• Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, UF, the Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Volusia/Flagler County.

Motti Inbari, “Gush Emunim’s Rabbinic Responses to the Disengagement”, Wednesday, October 25th.
In August 2005, Israel vacated the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip – mainly in Gush Katif – as well as four settlements in northern Samaria. This action, known as the “Disengagement,” constituted a profound crisis for a significant section of the Israeli population that is most closely identified with religious Zionism and with the settlement movement in the Territories. The crisis was not only on the national level, as the state destroyed communities that it had established and nurtured for decades, but also on the community level, as thousands of people were removed from their homes. The Disengagement also caused a religious crisis, testing the very foundation of the beliefs that had guided the political and religious behavior of this section of the population.

The talk addresses the theological dilemmas raised by Israel’s withdrawal plan and reveals a widening fault line within the dominant school of Mercaz Harav Yeshiva–one of the most important educational institutions of modern religious Zionism–regarding the question of the status and religious significance of a Zionist state in light of a volatile reality. The talk examines how a group of Zionist rabbis in response to profound disillusionment with the behavior of the state, moved towards a religious radicalization as a way of coping with their feelings of religious and messianic failure.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

“‘Who?’ or ‘What?’—Jacques Derrida” A conference to celebrate the legacy of Jacques Derrida, October 9-11, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Galili Shahar, “The Language of Allegory: Yiddish in the Thought of Rosenzweig, Kafka, & Freud.” Thursday, October 5th, 7:30pm, at Hillel.
Galili Shahar joins UF’s Department of German and Slavic Studies in January. He had been a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is spending the coming Fall semester in Berlin on an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Free University. Shahar is the author of Verkleidungen der Auklarung: Narrenspiele und Weltanschauung in der Goethezeit (2005). His forthcoming works include Denkspiele im deutsch-judischen Diskurs der Moderne and Kafka’s Wound.

• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies
• See the postcard for this event

Gwynn Kessler, “Before I Formed You in the Belly, I Knew You: Jacob & Esau in the Womb.” Thursday, September 28th, 7:30pm, at Hillel.
Gwynn Kessler received a Ph.D. in Rabbinics, with a specialization in Midrash from the Jewish Theological Seminary (May 2001). Her dissertation, The God Of Small Things: The Fetus and Its Development in Palestinian Aggadic Literature, is under review for publication. Her current research uses feminist and queer theories to interpret (and critique) rabbinic constructions of gender and the body.

Gwynn Kessler is Assistant Professor of Religion and has a Ph.D. in Jewish Theological Seminary. Her current research uses feminist and queer theories to interpret (and critique) rabbinic constructions of gender and the body. In addition to teaching courses on rabbinic literature, gender and the Hebrew Bible, and Introduction to Judaism, she teaches a course on GLBTQ Jews and Judaism and a course on biblical and rabbinic constructions of God’s gender.

• Made possible by the Gary Gerson Lecture Series in Jewish Studies
• See the postcard for this event

Sharon DiFino, “After Glikl: Jewish Women Writers in Germany and the Netherlands from the 18th Century to WWII”, Thursday, September 21st.
Professor Difino will discuss her book project on European Jewish Intellectual Life which focuses mainly on Jewish women writers and activists in Berlin and Amsterdam from the late 18th century up until WWII.

Sharon M. DiFino is an Associate Professor of Germanic Studies in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. Her research interests include language acquisition and pedagogy as well as cultural and literary history of Germany and the Netherlands.

• This event is for faculty and graduate students only.

Summer Holocaust Institute for Florida Teachers, June 12th-16th, University of Florida.
The Summer Holocaust Institute for Florida Teachers (SHIFT) is designed to enable classroom teachers to effectively incorporate the Holocaust into their teaching. SHIFT will: Provide participants with a background on the history of the Holocaust as well as its aftermath; help teachers present sensitive and potentially disturbing material to students; familiarize teachers with the vast number of resource materials (books, films, Web sites, etc.) available on the Holocaust; Instruct teachers on designing and implementing curriculum and lesson plans that place the Holocaust in the context of tolerance, multiculturalism, morality and civic education; show teachers how to make the Holocaust relevant to the lives of their students.

Dr. Simone Schweber, “Fundamental Funnels: How Christians & Jews Teach the Holocaust,” Thursay, June 15th at 7:30pm, Hillel.*
Schweber is a Goodman Professor of Education and Jewish Studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is currently a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. She is studying how fundamentalist religious schools teach about the Holocaust and what students in them believe. In particular, she is comparing how the Holocaust is taught in the U.S. in both an evangelical Christian School and an ultra-orthodox Jewish yeshivah, examining how each construct the history of the Holocaust and the role that religion plays in such teaching. Simone Schweber holds a Ph.D in Education from Stanford University, and is the author of Making Sense of the Holocaust: Lessons from Classroom Practice, (Teacher College Press, 2004) which studies teaching and learning about the Holocaust in public high school classrooms.

• * co-sponsored by the UF Summer Holocaust Institute for Florida Teachers & the Center for Jewish Studies together with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Nina Caputo, “The Barcelona Disputation: An Event of No Significance?”, Sunday, April 23rd, 2:00pm, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL.
Nina Caputo is Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. Dr. Caputo recieved a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She recently completed a monograph titled “At the Threshold of Redemption: Time and Community in medievel Jewish Aragon.” Dr. Caputo’s work focuses on Medieval Jewish cultural and intellectual history.

• * co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, UF, the Jewish Federation of Volusia/Flagler County and an anonymous donor
• click to see the postcard for this event

Peter Hayes, “German Corporate Complicity in the Holocaust: From Aryanization to Auschwitz” Thursday, April 6th, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Room 282.
Peter Hayes is the Theodore Z. Weiss Professor of Holocaust Studies at Northwestern University. He specializes in the history of Germany in the 20th century, particularly the Nazi period. He is the author or editor of seven books, including From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich (2004)and a prize-winning study of the IG Farben corporation in the Nazi era. He is currently working on two other books: Profits and Persecution: German Big Business and the Holocaust and The Failure of a Generation: German Elites and National Socialism. A recipient of the WCAS Distinguished Teaching Award and the Northwestern Alumni Association’s Excellence in Education Award, he has also held fellowships from the DAAD, the ACLS, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. He is a member of the Academic Board of the German Society for Business History and of the Academic Committee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

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Samuel Weber,”Parting With–Mediality In the Early Work of Walter Benjamin”, Thursday, March 23rd, 2:00pm, 219 Dauer.
Professor Weber is one of the foremost contemporary thinkers in the field of mass-media, philosophy and psychoanalysis. He teaches in the German Department at Northwestern University where he holds the title of Avalon Foundation Professor of Humanities.

• *sponsored by Department of English, France-Florida Research Institute, Center for Jewish Studies, Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies

Eric Meyers,”Excavations at the Ancient Synagogue Site of Nabratein in Israel: New Evidence for the Chronology and Typology of the Synagogue” Thursday, March 23rd, 7:30pm Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.*
Dr. Meyers is the Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor of Judaic Studies and the director of the graduate program in religion at Duke University. He has authored or co-authored nine books, edited many others and published widely in the fields of Hebrew Bible, biblical archaeology and Second Temple Judaism.

• *co-sponsored by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.

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Benjamin Frommer,”People’s Courts and Popular Justice: The Punishment of “Nazis, Traitors and Their Accomplices” In Postwar Czechoslovakia” Wednesday, March 8th, 3:00pm 215 Dauer Hall.
Benjamin Frommer (Professor of History, Northwestern University) specializes in the history of East-Central Europe, with a focus on the periods of Nazi and Communist rule. He is primarily interested in collaboration and resistance under repressive regimes, the use of courts for political ends, the consequences of ethnic cleansing, and the development of modern nationalism. Frommer is the author of National Cleansing: Retribution against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

• *co-sponsored by the Center for European Studies & the Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies.

Steven Zipperstein, “On Leaving ‘Darkest Russia’: Recollecting Jewish Mass Migration at the Turn of the 20th Century” Inaugural Grass Chair Annual Distinguished Lecture, Thursday, March 2nd, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Room 282.
Steven Zipperstein is a Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture & History at Stanford University. He is the author and editor of six books, and he writes often for newspapers including New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere. His books have won many awards, including the National Jewish Book Award, and the Smilen Prize. He has won the Judah L. Magnes Gold Medal from the American Friends of the Hebrew University, and for seven years he served as Chair of the Koret Jewish Book Awards.

• click to see the postcard for this event

Tony Michels,”New York’s Jewish Revolution: the Rise of Yiddish Socialism in America” Thursday February 16th, 7:30pm Reitz Union, Room 282.
Tony Michels is the George L. Mosse Associate Professor of American Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also the author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York in which he examines the defining role of the Yiddish socialist movement in the American Jewish experience.

• click to see the poster for this event

Gwynn Kessler, “Famous Fetuses in Rabbinic Narratives: Where Does Jewishness Begin?” Sunday February 12, 2:00pm Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach.
Gwynn Kessler received a Ph.D. in Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is currently completing a monograph titled Conceiving Israel: The Fetus in Rabbinic Narratives. Dr. Kessler’s research uses feminist and queer theory to interpret rabbinic constructions of gender and the body.

Long before ultrasound imaging enabled people to visualize the fetus developing in the womb, the rabbis of antiquity used their imagination to peer into women’s bellies. What they saw was a living, thinking, sometimes speaking, (little) person who was created and cared for by God. Tracing the motif of the fetus as it develops in rabbinic traditions from 3rd through 10th century C.E., and focusing specifically on what the rabbis said about biblical heroes in the womb, the talk suggests that the rabbis located the beginning of Jewishness already in the mother’s womb.

• *co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, UF, the Jewish Federation of Volusia/Flagler County and an anonymous donor
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Noah Isenberg,”Fishke Out of Water: Edgar G. Ulmer’s Cycle of Yiddish Films” Thursday January 19th, 6:30pm The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art.
Noah Isenberg is chair of humanities at the New School and, during the fall of 2005, a visiting associate professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Between Redemption and Doom: The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism (Nebraska).

• *co-sponsored by Germanic & Slavic Studies, The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, and the Center for Jewish Studies
• click to see the poster for this event

2005

Jack Kugelmass, “Poland 1946: First Encounters With Survivors” Sunday Dec 11, 2:00pm 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

 

• click to see the postcard for this event

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).

• click to see the poster for this event

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
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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

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2004

Ami Pedahzur, “The Culture of Death: Terrorist Organizations and Suicide Bombings.” Thursday, December 2, 7:30pm 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, 7:30pm 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, 7:30p.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 numberous 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, 7:30pm 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, 7:30p.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

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2003

Oded Balaban- “Integration and Isolation: Two Kinds of Peace in the Middle East” Wednesday, November 19, 7:30 p.m., Reitz Union, Room 282.
Oded Balaban is Associate Professor of Philosophy and director of the Honors Program at Haifa University in Israel. He specializes in the theory of knowledge and writes about the presuppositions of thought in various fields. He is the author of four books, numerous articles and chapters, and contributes to Israeli public debate through public lectures and columns in newspapers. A native of Argentina, he immigrated to Israel in 1967. This event is sponsored by the Morris and Miriam Futernick Professorship in Jewish Studies.

Kay Shelemay, “Hearing Silent Voices: Women in the Syrian Jewish Musical Tradition.” Thursday, October 9, 7:30 PM, Emerson Alumni Hall.
Shelemy is the G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music at Harvard University. An ethnomusicologist with specializations in musics of Africa, the Middle East, and urban United States, she received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Michigan. A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and past President of the Society for Ethnomusicology, she is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Recent publications include Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remembrance Among Syrian Jews (1998) and Soundscapes: Exploring Music in a Changing World (2001).

• *co-sponsored by the Center for World Music.

Frederic Raphael, “The Benefits of Doubt.” Thursday, October 2, 7:30p.m., Florida Musuem of Natural History, Powell Hall.
Frederic Raphael is the author of more than 20 novels, countless essays and translations, and scripts for television, the stage, and cinema. His screenplays include Darling, Far from the Madding Crowd, Two for the Road, and Eyes Wide Shut. American born, he moved to England with his family at the age of seven. His latest book, A Spoilt Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood, recounts his youth in England and the impact of his Jewishness on his status in British society. Raphael was educated at Charterhouse and St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Dr. Menachem Hofnung, “The Middle East After the Israeli Elections.” Thursday, April 3, 7:30 p.m. Reitz Union, Room 282.
Dr. Hofnung is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Hofnung has done extensive research on constitutional politics, campaign finance and national security in Israel. He is the author of Democracy, Law and National Security in Israel (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.).

Max Kozloff, “Jewish Photography of 20th Century New York.” Thursday, March 6, 6:00 p.m. Harn Musuem.
Kozloff, an acclaimed art critic and former executive of Artforum, has published widely on twentieth-century art and photography. His work, New York: Capital of Photography, examines how photographers imbued by a Jewish sensibility chronicled New York throughout the 20th century.

Dr. Don Seeman, “AIDS, Blood, and the Nation: Ethiopians, Israelis and Palestinians.” Thursday, February 27, 7:30p.m. Reitz Union, Room 282.
Dr. Seeman is Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his PhD in anthropology at Harvard in 1997 and was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow 1997-1998. His research interests include Medical Anthropology. Etihiopian-Israelis, Anthropological Approaches to Hebrew Bible, Judaism and Hasidism, and Violence and Extremism in Israel.

Dr. Ruth Kluger. “Landscapes of Memory: ‘Reading and Discussion from her book Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered.” Thursday, January 16, 7:30p.m. Reitz Union, 282.
Dr. Kluger is Professor Emerita at University of California-Irvine and was the first woman to chair the German Department at Princeton University. She is a frequent visiting scholar and instructor in Germany. Kluger is the author of Still Alive, which chronicles her journey and remembrances of the Holocaust.Still Alive has been hailed as a literary classic that changed the way Germans consider the Holocaust.

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2002

Mr. Sandi DuBowski, Discussion following showing of the film Trembling Before G_d. Wednesday, November 6, 7:30 p.m., New Engineering Bldg, Room 100.
Mr. Dubowski is Director/Producer of Trembling Before G_d, an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. Built around intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian, the film portrays a group of people who face a profound dilemma – how to reconcile their passionate love of Judaism and the Divine with the drastic Biblical prohibitions that forbid homosexuality.

Michael Galchinsky, “Jews and Human Rights: The Limits of Cosmopolitanism.” Monday, October 14, 12:00 noon Dauer Hall, Room 219.
Professor Galchinsky is from the Department of English at Georgia State University.

Judith Page, Ph.D. “Reinventing Shylock: Romanticism and the Representation of Shakespeare’s Jews.” Thursday, October 10, 7:30p.m., Reitz Union, Room 282.
Dr. Page, from the English Department here at UF, received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and taught at Millsaps College before coming here in 2000. She has received a Skirball Fellowship at the Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University for the Spring 2003 where she will lecture and continue work on her upcoming book entitled Imperfect Sympathies: British Romanticism, Jews, and Judaism.

Joel Migdal, “What Went Right and What Went Wrong in the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process.”
Dr. Migdal is the Robert F. Phillip Professor of International Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Program at the University of Washington. He was the founding chair of the International Studies Program there, one of the first such programs in the country. He specializes in the field of comparative politics and the Middle East. His latest books are “Palestinians: The Making of a People” (The Free Press); “Rules and Rights in the Middle East: Democracy, Law, and Society” (U. of Washington Press); and “State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World” (Cambridge Univ.Press).

• The Arthur & Violette Kahn Lecture