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Recent Jewish Studies Events

Spring 2009

We hope you can join us.

JS pdf version-text JS pdf version - image Yiddish Film Series flyer

“The Dybbuk” Film shown with English subtitles
April 23, 7:00 p.m., Thursday, 318 Bailey Hall.
Introduction by Renee Perelmutter, Assistant Professor of Slavic and Jewish Studies, This is a part of the Yiddish Film Series, which is made possible by a Title VI Department of Education
National Resource Center grant and the generous support of the KU Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies students, faculty and staff. Refreshments will be served.
http://www.jewishstudies.ku.edu/~jewishstudies/events.shtml, 864-4664

Mamele (Little Mother)” Film shown with English subtitles"
February 12, 7:00 p.m., Thursday, 318 Bailey Hall.
Introduction by Renee Perelmutter, Assistant Professor of Slavic and Jewish Studies,
This is a part of the Yiddish Film Series, which is made possible by a Title VI Department of Education National Resource Center grant and the generous support of the KU Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies students, faculty and staff. Refreshments will be served.

"The Jewish-Pagan Dialogue"
Feb 16th, Monday, 7:30-9:00 p.m. Hall Center Conference Hall
Azzan Yadin, Associate Professor, The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University
Co-sponsored by the KU Hall Center for the Humanities

“Failure of the Middle East Peace Process”
March 2, Monday, 7:30-9:00 p.m. Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union
Guy Ben-Porat, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Public Policy and Administration in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; currently (2008-2009), the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Visiting Professor at the University of California, Davis.
Sponsored by Israel Education Initiatives Associate, Israel on Campus Coalition

“Israeli Documentary Marathon”
March 8, Sunday, 11:30-4:00 p.m., Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium
Co-Sponsored by the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Greater Kansas City, KU Hebrew Program, and KU Hillel

”Amerikaner Shadkhn (American Matchmaker)” Film shown with English subtitles
March 26, 7:00 p.m., Thursday, 318 Bailey Hall.
Introduction by Renee Perelmutter, Assistant Professor of Slavic and Jewish Studies,
This is a part of the Yiddish Film Series, which is made possible by a Title VI Department of Education National Resource Center grant and the generous support of the KU Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies students, faculty and staff. Refreshments will be served.

KU Jewish Studies faculty lecture series at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, KS. For more information on this program series please call 913-327-8000.

“Leaving the Hasidic Life: Does Dress Make the Jew?”
April 23, Thursday, 7:00 pm, at The Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, KS
Lynn Davidman, Ph.D., Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at KU
This presentation is based on 60 interviews Prof. Davidman conducted with people who left the Hasidic communities and environments in which they had been raised. In particular, she will focus on the processes involved in removing Hasidic identity markers (hair covering/long skirts for women; beards and payos for men) and trying out new ways to present themselves to the world. 

 “Is Forgiveness a One-Person Business?”
March 19, Thursday, 7:00 pm, at The Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, KS
Sergey Dolgopolskii, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at KU
We can probably forget bad things, but can we genuinely forgive them? This session will discuss the role of ethics
in our relationships to others: human, animal, and Divine, by examining a Talmudic text and its analysis by 20th-century
Jewish thinker Emmanuel Levinas. Take this intellectual journey into the issues of Jewish philosophical and Talmudic
thinking after World War II.

“Dybbuks in Jewish Folklore”
February. 19, Thursday, 7:00 pm, at The Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, KS
Renee Perelmutter, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Slavic Languages and Literatures at KU
In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a possessing spirit, usually a soul of a dead person, that wanders restlessly until it finds a living host. The belief in dybbuks was especially prominent in early modern Eastern Europe; the persons possessed were taken to a baal-shem, a Hasidic rabbi who alone could exorcise the dybbuk. This presentation will explore Jewish attitudes towards mental illness and the confl icting concepts of afterlife as they emerge through folk narratives of possession. Excerpts from Ansky's famous film, The Dybbuk, will be shown.
This presentation is the first in a 3-part series, featuring faculty from the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Kansas. Watch for details on these upcoming presentations:

“Dutiful Daughters? Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue and Army Service”
April 6, Monday, 7:30–9:00 p.m. Kansas Room, Kansas Union
Caryn Aviv, Posen Lecturer in Secular Jewish Culture, Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver

 

Fall 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008  7:00-9:00 p.m. Malott Room, Kansas Union
Naomi Sheindel Seidman, Koret Professor of Jewish Culture and Director of
the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union
"The Sexual Politics of the Revival of Hebrew" 
Sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies
pdf of Seidman flyer

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 3:30-5:00pm Hall Center Seminar Room
Sergey Dolgopolski, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
“Reading Self in Rabbinic Literature”
Sponsored by the 'Before 1500 Seminar' of the KU Hall Center for the Humanities.

Monday, October 27, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Alderson Auditorium Kansas Union
Starring: Fabiana Meyuhas, Israeli Actress
Why Didn’t You Come Before The War?
Sponsored by the KU Hebrew Students’ Association, with support from the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Greater K.C., Earl J. & Leaona K. Tranin Special Fund, Program in Jewish Studies, Department of Theater & Film, KU Hillel and KU Student Senate.
pdf of Meyuhas flyer

October 20, 2008, Monday, 5:00pm, 318 Bailey
Monday night at the Kino, Renee Perelmutter will show the film "Seekers of Happiness (Iskateli Schastya)"
Russian with English Subtitles
Refreshments will be served
Hosted by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
pdf of Seekers of Happiness flyer

Thursday, September, 25, 2008 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Lawrence Jewish Community Center
Ruth Behar, Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan
"Journey to Jewish Cuba"
Co-sponsored by the Lawrence Jewish Community Center, Latin American Studies Seminar of the KU Hall Center for the Humanities, Program in Jewish Studies, Latino/a Studies Minor, KU Continuing Education, American Studies Program, Department of English and Department of Anthropology.
pdf of Behar flyer

September 23, 2008 5:00pm 318 Bailey
Assistant Professor Renee Perelmutter will lead discussion after showing the film
Yiddle with His Fiddle
(Yidl mitn Fidl)
Yiddish with English subtitles ~ Refreshments will be served
Hosted by the Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies
pdf of Yidl mitn Fidl flyer

August 19, Tuesday, 5:30pm, 318 Bailey
Tuesday Night at the Kino, New Professor Renee Perelmutter will show the film "Tevye"
Yiddish with English Subtitles
Refreshments will be served
Hosted by the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

pdf of poster

 

Spring of 2008

Lynn Davidman
“Religious Disaffiliation and the Transformation of Bodily Practices.” 
February 12, 2008, 4:00–5:00 P.M., Spencer Art Museum, Central Courtyard
Reception 5:00pm – 6:00pm Spencer Art Museum, Central Courtyard

Lynn Davidman is a sociologist who is Professor of Judaic Studies, American Studies, and Gender Studies at Brown University.  She has published two books and co-edited one.  Her first book, Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism (University of California Press, 1990) won a National Jewish Book Award.  This book has become a classic in the field and is widely taught in sociology of religion and sociology of Jews courses around the world.  In 1994 Yale University Press published her co-edited (with Shelly Tenenbaum) anthology (with all new, invited essays), Feminist Perspectives on Jewish Studies. Her talk at Kansas University is drawn from of her current book in progress, Dancing at Two Weddings: On Leaving Orthodox Judaism.

*Co-sponsored by Jewish Studies at KU, the Department of Religious Studies, the Sociology Department, and the Hall Center for the Humanities, with support from College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Greater Kansas City, and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.


Bruce Rosenstock
“Closing the Circle of German-Jewish Philosophy: Moses Mendelssohn and Franz Rosenzweig”
Wed February 20, 7:30 p.m., Hall Center Conference Hall

Bruce Rosenstock is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of a monograph dealing with the origins of racialized anti-Judaism in Spain (New Men: Conversos. Christian Theology, and Society in Fifteenth-Century Castile) and has just completed a book on the history of German-Jewish philosophy entitled Philosophy and the Jewish Question: Mendelssohn, Rosenzweig, and Beyond. He has published articles on Plato, the Hebrew Bible and modern political theology.

*Co-sponsored by Jewish Studies at KU, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Hall Center for the Humanities, with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Greater Kansas City, and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

Alisa Solomon

“Fiddler's Fortunes: American Culture, Jewish Identity and the Mighty Afterlife of a Musical Comedy”
Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 7:00 pm. Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union. In addition to contributing occasionally to The Nation, The Forward, The New York Times, and other publications, Alisa Solomon was on staff at the Village Voice for 21 years, where she won awards for her reporting on reproductive rights, electoral politics, women's sports, and immigration policy. Solomon's book, Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender, won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. She is the editor of three anthologies: Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (with Tony Kushner); Theater and Social Change (Theater, 31:3); and The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater (with Framji Minwalla). Solomon holds a doctorate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale and is currently an associate professor in the Columbia University School of Journalism.*Co-sponsored by Jewish Studies at KU and the Department of Theater and Film with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Greater Kansas City and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

Dan Katzir
“Company Jasmine”
March 25, 2008, 5:30-7:30 P.M., Spencer Museum of Art
The first film in the annual KU Jewish Film Series, "Company Jasmine" follows a group of women soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces as they prepare to take leadership positions in the army. Producer Dan Katzir will speak after the film *co-sponsored by Hebrew language and Jewish Studies at KU, KU Hillel, and the Lawrence Jewish Community Center, with support from the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Greater Kansas City and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City,


Fall 2007

Jonathan Boyarin, Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"On Familial Ground: Rafael Goldchain's Autobiographical Photographic Project"
http://www.unc.edu/depts/rel_stud/people/facultydocs/bio-boyarin.shtml
Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 7 p.m. in Malott Room, Kansas Union

Shosha Goren, Israeli Actress
“Born In Baghdad” performed in English
http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=2331
Monday, October 29, 2007 at 7 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union  


* This event has been canceled.
Xu Xin, Professor and President of the Chinese Judaic Studies Association and faculty member at Nanjing University
"The Practice of Judaism in China"
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 6 p.m. in 100 Smith Hall

 

Spring 2007

Tuesday, February 13, 7:30 p.m.
Filmmaker Alan Berliner showing and discussing his film, “Nobody’s Business.”  Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union. Part of the KU Jewish Film Series.

Thursday, February 22, 7:15 p.m.
Elissa Sampson of the Lower East Side Conservancy, “Synagogue Hip/Hop Scotch: The Lower East Side Today,” at the Lawrence Jewish Community Center

Wednesday, February 28, 5:00 p.m.
Professor Hindy Najman of the University of Toronto, “Prophetic Ends: Concepts of Revelation in Ancient Judaism,” at the Hall Center for the Humanities.

Thursday, March 8, 7:00 p.m.
Professor Maury Silver of Yeshiva University, “Ordinary Sadists: The Holocaust and Abu Ghraib,” Big Twelve Room at the Kansas Union.

Thursday, April 19, 7:00 p.m.
Professor Walter Zev Feldman, Bar-Ilan University, "Ashkenazic Identity and Ottoman Rule: The Case of Klezmer Music." Part of the KU-CRES Balkan Semester.

Fall 2006

Wednesday, October 4

7:30 p.m., Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union

Dr. Professor David Nirenberg of Johns Hopkins University will speak on “Which is the merchant here? and which the Jew?”: Being Jewish in Shakespeare’s Venice.” Co-sponsored by the Ahmanson-Murphy Distinguished Chair of Medieval History
David Nirenberg, Professor of History and Romance Languages and Literatures, John Hopkins University, is one of the world's leading cultural historians of medieval and early modern Europe.
His published work focuses on social and cultural relations among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean. His first book, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages(Princeton Univ. Press, 1996), explored some of the ways in which violence both facilitated and disrupted the co existence of Muslim and Jewish minorities with the Christian majority in the fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon. In that book he was also interested in comparing the dynamics of French and Iberian Christian attitudes toward non-Christian minorities. He is currently working on two long-term research projects. One is a study of the collapse of religious pluralism in Spain from the massacres of 1391 up to the establishment of the Inquisition, with a particular emphasis on the emergence of genealogical (some would say biological) models of religious identity among Christians and Jews. The second examines changes in medieval ideas about communication, exchange, and social relations through a cultural history of poison from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance.

Co-Sponsors include KU Jewish Studies and the Ahmanson-Murphy Distinguished Chair of Medieval History,

Monday, September 25

5pm, Moore Reading Room, 109 Smith Hall

Professor S. Daniel Breslauer will speak on "Turn, Turn, Turn: Circles and Seasons in Modern Jewish Views of Teshuva (Penitence)."
He will focus on stories about repentance and their significance for both Jews and non-Jews.  The talk suggests that the modern experience of "return" is actually a turning, for the first time, to an unfamiliar tradition and that the test of such a return is how well it integrates the past into the present.

Daniel Breslauer taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas as is a specialist in post- biblical Jewish thought. His major field of research is modern Jewish thought with an emphasis on contemporary Jewish ethics. He has published twelve books, and articles in numerous journals. He has also published studies of Jewish literary works and of Jewish myth. His new book Religions of the Bible is expected to come out in August 2006 from Sloan Publishing. His teaching areas include Hebrew Scriptures, rabbinic, medieval, and modern Jewish thought, American Judaism and Islamic studies. 

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

7:30pm Lawrence Jewish Community Center (LJCC)

Dr. Marci Shore, Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Yale University, will discuss Michael Glowinski’s “The Black Seasons”, which she has translated from the Polish. In The Black Seasons, a prominent Polish intellectual speaks publicly for the first time about his Jewish origins. The book lucidly depicts the ambivalence, complexity, and uncertainty of Jewish life and Polish-Jewish relations, especially during World War II. Co-sponsored with the Center for Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies and the Lawrence Jewish Community Center.
Marci Shore received her M.A. from University of Toronto in 1996 and her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2001. She specializes in eastern and central European cultural and intellectual history. She has taught three different undergraduate lecture courses on modern central and eastern Europe; led undergraduate seminars on Polish-Jewish relations, Jews and cosmopolitanism, and intellectuals and Marxism; and conducted graduate colloquia on modern Polish historiography and the avant-garde movement.  
 
Her research interests include Marxism, revolution, aesthetics, gender, and Polish-Jewish relations; her book manuscript Caviar and Ashes: A Warsaw Generation's Life and Death in Marxism, 1918-1968 is currently under review. Her articles include "Czysto Babski: A Women's Friendship in a Man's Revolution" and "Engineering in the Age of Innocence: A Genealogy of Discourse Inside the Czechoslovak Writers' Union, 1949-1967," in East European Politics and Societies. "Children of the Revolution: Communism, Zionism, and the Berman Brothers" is forthcoming in Jewish Social Studies. In 2004, she began a project on avant-garde movements throughout eastern and central Europe in the 1910s and 1920s.

Co-Sponsors include the Lawrence Jewish Community Center and the following from the University of Kansas: Ahmanson-Murphy Distinguished Chair of Medieval History, The Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, Department of Religious Studies, Department of Sociology, Department of History, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, The Graduate School and The Office of the Provost.