Fall 2008 EventsAll events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Email for further information. Select Month:
The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power Ronen Bergman Friday, September 12, 12:00pm Jon M. Huntsman Hall (JMHH) G60, 3730 Walnut St The Consulate General of Israel in Philadelphia and the Middle East Center at Penn Welcomes Ronen Bergman, one of Israel's leading investigative journalists to discuss his new book: The Secret War with Iran Part of the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, and co-sponsored by Penn Hillel. Event is free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary. For more information, please contact academy@philadelphia.mfa.gov.il How Do We See Each Other? Classic and Contemporary Views of Jews, Christians, and Muslims Toward the Other Reuven Firestone Wednesday, September 17, 7:15pm, Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall, 215 South 39th St. Reuven Firestone is Professor of Medieval Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College. An expert in the area of interfaith relations, focusing on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Rabbi Dr. Firestone will deliver a lecture about the development of the relationship between the three major faiths and how it has formed that relationship today. Copies of his most recent book, "An Introduction to Islam for Jews," will be available at a heavily discounted price for those interested. Part of the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, and co-sponsored by Penn Hillel, KESHER, The Christian Association, The Newman Center, PRISM, Greenfield Intercultural Center, and the Office of the Chaplain. Event is free and open to the public. No RSVP necessary. Screening of Nuremberg, The Nazis Facing Their Crimes Christian Delage Wednesday, September 17, 5:00pm, 401 Fisher-Bennett Hall Christian Delage is Visiting Professor of Law at
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. He is a specialist in the films of Charlie Chaplin, World War II history, and films made by both the Nazis and the Allies at the liberation of the concentration camps. He spent five years working on Nuremberg Trial film footage and print archives. He published La verite par l'image de Nuremberg au proces Milosevic, and directed The Nazis Facing Their Crimes, which premiered in New York City in January 2007 at Lincoln Center. He has published other books on film and directed many documentaries. As policy advisor on the conservation and communication of the audiovisual archives when the French National Library was created, he concentrated his research and teaching on the role of image and film in the acquisition of knowledge and the writing of history. He will be a policy advisor on the filming of the Khmer Rouge Trial in 2008. He will teach Law and Film. Anti-Semitism in the Freud Case Histories Freud, Franklin, and Beyond: Wednesday, September 24, 7:30 - 9:30pm, Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall, 215 South 39th St. PRESENTER October The Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Lectures in Talmudic Civil Law: Religion and the State of Israel: Views From Within Jewish Law Suzanne Last Stone Tuesday, October 7, 5:30pm, Silverman 245A, Law School [Lecture I] Suzanne Last Stone is Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University & Reception immediately following lectures. Dietary Laws will be observed This program has been approved for one hour of substantive law credit for Pennsylvania lawyers and may be likewise approved for other jurisdictions. For CLE credit please bring a check made out to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in the amount of $25. Please RSVP to Genevieve Cattanea at 215.898.9425 or gcattane@law.upenn.edu Piety and gender: Toward an outline of the religious practice of medieval Jewish men and women Elisheva Baumgarten Tuesday, October 28, 5:00pm, Ben Franklin Room, Houston Hall Professor Baumgarten will explore the religious and spiritual world of medieval Jewish women in the twelfth and thirteenth century in Northern Europe, comparing and contrasting it to that of Jewish men and of Christian society. Tracing a variety of female devotional activities such as fasting, observance of ritual purity, the giving of charity, prayer customs and other daily rituals, she will suggest the contours and limitation of women's agency and societies' demands and expectations from women. Dr. Elisheva Baumgarten is a senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History and the Gender Studies Graduate Program at Bar Ilan University. She has been the head of the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center for the Study of Women in Judaism at Bar Ilan University since 2006. Baumgarten has published articles that discuss medieval life cycle rituals, midwifery and medicine, as well as children and their education. Her book Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe was published by Princeton University Press in 2004 and won the Koret Award for the best book in Jewish History in 2005. Judah Goldin Semiar: A Mesopotamian Parallel of Qoheleth's Hakkol Hevel Stephen Kim Tuesday, October 28, 6:00pm, 2nd Floor Student Act Center, Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall, 215 South 39th St. Dinner will be served. Please RSVP to stephensbkim@yahoo.com For more information on Judah Golding Seminars: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jwst/JudahGoldinSeminars.htm
Christianity, Idolatry, and the Question of Hebrew Figural Painting in the Middle Ages Katrin Kogman-Appel Monday, November 3, 5:00pm, 301 Williams Hall, 255 S. 36th St KatrinKogman-Appel is Professor in the Department of Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva. Kogman-Appel's credentials include publishing Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain: Biblical Imagery And the Passover Holiday (2006), Jewish Art Between Islam and Christianity: The Decoration of Hebrew Bibles in Spain (2001) as well as contributing to Imaging the Early Medieval Bible, edited by John Williams and published by Penn State Press in 1999. Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, and co-sponsored by Religious Studies and Art History. From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books Arie Kaplan Thursday, November 6, 5:30pm, Rosenwald Gallery, 6th floor Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut St Kaplan argues that Jews built the comic book industry from the ground up, and that the influence of Jewish writers, artists, and editors continues to this day. Join us for a lively presentation - including film and video clips - followed by a book signing by author Arie Kaplan. http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/lifeinboxes.html All events are free and open to the public (please show photo ID at entrance) Sponsored by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series. Yiddish concert Sherm Labovitz, accompanied at the piano by Alexander Botwinik Tuesday, November 11, 12:30pm - 1:30pm, Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall, 215 South 39th St. Admission Free. Pizza and Drinks Served The Synagogue and European Jewish History David Sorkin Tuesday November 11, 5:00pm, Class of 1955 Room, 2nd floor, Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut St A lecture on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. David Sorkin is Professor of History and Frances and Laurence Weinstein Professor of Jewish Studies at the U. of Wisconsin-Madison, and he is this year's Golub Family Fellow at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. He is the author The Transformation of Germany Jewry, 1780-1840 (1987), Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment (1996), The Berlin Haskalah and German Religious Thought (2000) and, most recently, The Religious Enlightenment: Protestants, Jews and Catholics from London to Vienna (2008). Part of the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, and co-sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Department of History. Click here for poster. The Lorraine Beitler Collection of the Dreyfus Affair Presents: The Affair on Screen Thursday, November 13, at 5:00pm, Rosenwald Gallery, 6th floor Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut St View a set of extremely rare early silent short films on the Dreyfus Affair by Georges Melies (1899). A panel discussion with Penn faculty in Cinema Studies and a reception and display from the Beitler Collection will follow. The evening will conclude with a screening of a major motion picture related to the Affair. http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/dreyfus/outreach_exhibitions_events.cfm All events are free and open to the public (please show photo ID at entrance) Sponsored by the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series. The Military as a Jewish Career in Modern Europe Derek J. Penslar Monday, November 17, 5:00pm, College Hall 209 Twelfth Annual Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Lecture In modern times, the military has often been a vehicle for Jewish social mobility. Why would Jews choose a military career? What was a typical career path for a Jewish officer? What were the financial implications of a military career on Jewish marriage, family life, or relations to the community? Dr. Penslar's talk will use the life stories of Jewish officers to throw new light on the relationship between Jews, the military, and the broader society in which they lived. These various lines of inquiry will demonstrate the uninhibited involvement of Jews in military service in those situations where it socially or politically benefited them. This lecture series was established by the Joseph Meyerhoff Memorial Trusts to honor the generosity and service of Eleanor Meyerhoff Katz and the late Herbert D. Katz to Penn's History program and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. This program is sponsored by Jewish Studies Program Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, the History Department, and the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Judah Goldin Seminar: Another Persian Word in Ezra 7:13-26? Spencer L. Allen Tuesday, November 18, 6:00pm, 2nd floor Grad Lounge, Penn Hillel, Steinhart Hall Dinner will be served. Please RSVP to stephensbkim@yahoo.com For more information on Judah Golding Seminars: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jwst/JudahGoldinSeminars.htm Israeli Author, Yehudit Katzir on her book Dearest Anne Yehudit Katzir Monday, November 24, 2:00pm, Moose Room, 3619 Locust Walk Born in Haifa in 1963, Judith Katzir studied literature and cinema at Tel Aviv University. At present, she is an editor at Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House and teaches creative writing. Katzir, a bestselling author in Israel, has published two collections of stories and novellas, two novels and three children`s books. In addition to literary prizes for individual stories, Katzir has received the Book Publishers Association`s Gold and Platinum Book Prizes, the Prime Minister`s Prize twice (1996, 2007) and the French WIZO Prize for Matisse Has the Sun in His Belly (2004). Her work has been translated into many languages. Click here for the poster. Sponsored by Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, and co-sponsored by the Middle East Center. "Refined Jews": Yikhes and Social Status in the (Post)-Soviet Shetl Anna N. Kushkova Monday, November 24, 4:00pm, Cherpack Room, Williams Hall, 5th Floor Anna N. Kushkova has a PhD (History) from European University at St.Petersburg, Ethnology Department, "Petersburg Judaica" Center. Yiches (Yiddish - "high origin") has always been a primary value for Jews. It was a big honor to be a Cohen or a Levite, to have a famous ancestor (a rabbi, a zaddik, an author of a book). Yikhes imposed a number of responsibilities upon its "owner" and offered special possibilities within the communal life; spheres where yikhes was important included religious practices, professional activity, marriage, conflict resolution, acts of charity - to name but the most important. What was happening with the concept of "yikhes" in the course of the XX c., and what is happening at the moment? Which old meanings disappeared, and which new ones emerged? Who may be called "a big yikhes" now? How important is it today? Sponsored by Folklore and Folkline Program, and co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series. The New Face of Holocaust Denial: The Case of Lithuania Dovid Katz Monday, November 24, 7:30pm, Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall, 215 South 39th St. The intellectual and political establishments of the Baltic States, where the proportion of Jews murdered was the highest in Europe during the Holocaust (percentages ranging from the mid to high nineties), frequently deal with their wartime genocide not by coming to terms with history and pursuing reconciliation, but by constructing a new and subtle variety of Holocaust Denial. Professor Katz, a Yiddish professor who has lived in Vilnius, Lithuania for close to a decade, calls this new phenomenon Holocaust Obfuscation. Without denying a single death, Holocaust Obfuscation employs a complex of ruses ranging from blaming the victims to elevating Soviet tyranny (often misrepresented as Soviet-Jewish tyranny) to a purportedly equal genocide. While elements of Holocaust Obfuscation have been evident since the war, it has only now emerged as a state-sponsored policy, ably presented by politicians, academics and journalists. It is being pursued in the European Parliament via resolutions declaring Nazism and Communism equal; these efforts tend to thrive during periods when advantage can be taken of heightened anti-Russian sentiment in Europe. Taking his examples from Lithuania, the speaker will show how the policy plays out domestically, by trivialization and near-dismissal of the Holocaust, redefinition of the concept "genocide" and toleration of new campaigns of local antisemitism. Most recently and shockingly, the state has attempted to prosecute Holocaust survivors who are alive because they joined the anti-Nazi resistance. Professor Katz will also talk about today's small, vibrant and embattled Jewish community in Lithuania. He will also take note of his high regard for the Lithuanian people, particularly the younger generations, who, he feels, are being poorly served by their political leaders on issues relating to truth in history and the multicultural heritage of the country. Dovid Katz was born in Brooklyn, New York in a home steeped in Yiddish culture. His father was the Yiddish poet Menke Katz. He attended yeshiva and Hebrew day schools before becoming the first undergraduate major in Yiddish linguistics at Columbia University. He moved on to the University of London where he completed his doctorate on the origins of the Yiddish language. He founded Yiddish Studies at Oxford University where he led the field for eighteen years, founding and editing the Oxford Yiddish series (in Yiddish) and Winter Studies in Yiddish (in English). After a stint at Yale, he took up the new chair in Yiddish studies at Vilnius University where he cofounded the Center for Stateless Cultures and the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, he has been leading expeditions to seek out and record the last Yiddish speakers in Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and other East European countries. His books include Grammar of the Yiddish Language (1987), Lithuanian Jewish Culture (2004), Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish (revised edition 2007) and Windows to a Lost Jewish Past (2008). Professor Katz has also published three collections of Yiddish fiction and writes a column for a New York Yiddish newspaper. His website is www.dovidkatz.net.
Susan Zeelander Thursday, December 4, 6:00pm, 2nd Floor Library, Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall Dinner will be served. Please RSVP to stephensbkim@yahoo.com For more information on Judah Golding Seminars: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jwst/JudahGoldinSeminars.htm
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