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September
October
Lecture: "New Halakhic Frontiers:
An Analysis of the Shira Chadasha Movement"
Rabbi Daniel Sperber
Monday, October 15, 2012, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Shotel Dubin Auditorium, Steinhardt Hall, Penn Hillel
Come hear Bar Ilan Professor Rabbi Daniel Sperber, one of the foremost academics of Jewish Law and an Israel Prize Winner, address some of the key Jewish legal sources regarding women's participation in prayer services as well as the role of the Shira Chadasha Movement in our Jewish communities.
Dessert refreshments will be served
Rabbi Daniel Sperber is the Milan Roven Professor of Talmudic Research and former Dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar Ilan University. In 1992 he received the Israel Prize, Israel's highest honor, for Jewish studies. Rabbi Sperber is the author of Minhagei Yisrael, a seven-volume work on the origins and history of Jewish customs. He has also authored several commentaries on contemporary halakha.
Co-Sponsored by: Shira Chadasha at Penn, the Orthodox Community at Penn,
and Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
Lecture: "The Beginnings of Midrash: Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls"
James Kugel, Bar Ilan University
Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 5:00 p.m., Class of '55 (room 241), Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut Street
James Kugel, Professor of Bible Emeritus at Harvard University and Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is one of the
world's foremost scholars of Biblical and early post-Biblical literature. He is the author of numerous books, including The Idea of Biblical Poetry (1981),
The Bible As It Was (1997) and How to Read the Bible (2007). His works on early Biblical interpretation have literally transformed the field. He is also a legendary lecturer. While at Harvard, his introductory course, "The Bible and its Early Interpreters" had more students than
Economics 101.
Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program Kutchin Seminar Series, and the Departments of Religious Studies and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations.
Panel Discussion: "Religion & Politics: Faith, Democracy, and American Public Life"
Wednesday, October 17, 2012, 6:30 p.m., National Museum of American Jewish History,
Independence Mall
Free for NMAJH members and Penn students & faculty with valid ID
$8 Non-members
For tickets: http://nmajh.org/publicprograms/#religion&politics
Presented in partnership with
THE JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Since the founding of the Republic, Americans have
struggled with the relationship between religion and
public life, a complex issue particularly apparent in
this fraught presidential election year. A
distinguished panel moderated by Jane Eisner,
Editor-In-Chief of The Jewish Daily Forward, will
tackle this timely subject, exploring the
intersections between religion and politics in
American life. Light reception to follow.
Panelists include:
--John J. DiIulio, Frederic Fox Leadership
Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society,
Faculty Director & Co-Chair of the Director's Advisory Group, Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, University of
Pennsylvania; Former Director, White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
--E.J. Dionne, Jr., Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institution; Opinion Writer, The Washington Post; Professor,
Georgetown University.
--Sarah Barringer Gordon, Arlin M. Adams Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History, University
of Pennsylvania
This program is part of an ongoing program series presented by Penn’s Jewish Studies Program and the Museum
that seeks to explore and draw between key themes of the American Jewish experience and broader dimensions of
American history and culture.
Supported by the Arlene and Stanley Ginsburg Foundation.
Sponsored by University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society
Lecture and Conversation: "Judaism in the City of Brotherly Love"
Bruce Nielsen, Judaica Public Services Librarian and Archivist from Penn’s Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
Wednesday, October 24th, 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., Stouffer College House, Mayer Hall Seminar Room, 3817 Spruce Street
The history of Judaism in Philadelphia can be traced back as early as colonial America, and the Jewish community continues to thrive. Many of Philadelphia’s iconic restaurants, neighborhoods, and even historical sites can be linked to the history of the Jewish population in the city, and in the modern day, Philadelphia has one of the highest populations of Jewish residents among metropolitan areas in the United States. Come hear Bruce Nielsen talk about how Judaism has shaped and continues to shape the culture of our city today.
Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program's Bassini Internship Program and the Stouffer College House Philadelphia Speaker Series (organized by Laura Doherty)
November
Yiddish Sing-along
Thursday, November 1, 2012,
12:00-1:30, Penn
Hillel, 2nd floor auditorium, Steinhardt Hall, 215 S. 39th Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Come sing with us!
Kumt ale zingen mit undz!
Free Pizza
Cosponsored by the University of Pennsylvania’s Jewish Studies Program,
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Penn Hillel.
Screening of Footnote with Panel Discussion
Thursday, November 1, 2012, 7:30 p.m.,
200 College Hall, 3450 Woodland Walk
Footnote (103 min, 2011, Israel)
Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are father and son as well as rival professors in Talmudic Studies. When both men learn that Eliezer will be lauded for his work, their complicated relationship reaches a new peak.
Footnote is the opening film at the New Middle East Cinema festival running November 1 to 4, 2012, on Penn’s campus. Recently released, acclaimed feature films in different Middle East countries will be presented and discussed. It is sponsored by the Cinema Studies Program, the Jewish Studies Program, the Middle East Center, and the Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations department at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival.
27th Annual Joseph Alexander Colloquium
Lecture: Anne Frank: From Diary to Book"
Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers University)
Thursday, November 8, 2012, 5:00 p.m., Benjamin Franklin Room, Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street
Before Anne Frank’s diary became one of the world’s most widely read books, it was a private manuscript. The book that millions of readers know as The Diary of a Young Girl has a complicated history of writing, rewriting, and editing by several hands. Since its first publication in the original Dutch in 1947, it has appeared in dozens of translations and hundreds of editions. Each edition presents the diary anew, with different introductions, explanatory material, and cover art. At the same time, Anne Frank’s original diary notebook, in its plaid notebook, has become a treasured icon, commemorated in museum exhibitions, films, even architecture. Exploring these many transformations of the diary shed light on how Anne Frank’s life and work have become fixtures of public culture throughout the world.
Jeffrey Shandler is Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His books include Jews, God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America (NYU Press, 2009), Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture (University of California Press, 2005), Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust (Yale University Press, 2002), and While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 1999), among other titles. His most recent book is Anne Frank Unbound: Media, Imagination, Memory (coedited, with Barbara-Krishenblatt-Gimblett, Indiana University Press, 2012). Currently he serves as President of the Association for Jewish Studies.
Cosponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures and the Jewish Studies Program, in commemoration of Kristallnacht.
Screening of Oma & Bella with Director Alexa Karolinksi
RESCHEDULED AFTER HURRICANE SANDY
Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 7:00 p.m.,Ibrahim Theater of the International House,
3701 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104
Oma & Bella (76 min, 2012, Germany) is an intimate glimpse into the world of Regina Karolinski (Oma) and Bella Katz, two friends who live together in Berlin. Having survived the Holocaust and then stayed in Germany after the war, it is through the food they cook together that they remember their childhoods, maintain a bond to each other and answer questions of heritage, memory and identity. As the film follows them through their daily lives, a portrait emerges of two women with a light sense of humor, vivid stories, and a deep fondness for good food. Created by Oma's granddaughter Alexa, the film captures their ongoing struggle to retain a part of their past while remaining very much engaged in the present.
Q&A with the Director after the show.
Cosponsored by the Department of Germanic Studies, the Jewish Studies Program, and Cinema Studies at Penn, and by Temple University's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History.
Sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Jewish Studies Program, the Cinema Studies Program, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program at Penn, and by Temple University's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History.
