Past Events 2015-2016

“The Foreign Mother Tongue: Writing between Arabic and Hebrew in Israel/Palestine,” Public Lecture with Sayed Kashua

Wednesday, September 30, 2016

Sayed Kashua is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, author, and journalist born in Tira, Israel, known for his books and humorous columns in Hebrew. Kashua is the author of three novels: Dancing Arabs, Let it Be Morning, and Second Person Singular (all published in English by Grove Atlantic)Kashua is winner of the prestigious Berstein Prize. He is the writer and creator of the hit Israeli TV show “Arab Labor,” now in its fourth season. In 2004, Kashua was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize in Literature. His novel Dancing Arabs has been made into a feature film, and premiered in 2014 at the Telluride Film Festival. Kashua also writers a satirical weekly column in Hebrew for the Israeli newspaper ±á˛ąâ€™a°ů±đłŮłú

In this public lecture, Kashua addresses the problems faced by Arabs in Israel, caught between two worlds. He spoke about living in Israel with a dual identity, speaking and writing in the language of the majority, while identifying with the Arab Palestinian minority. Through speaking about his experience, challenges, and fears, Kashua draws a picture of life in modern Israel today.

"The Broken World of Isaac Babel,” Public Lecture with Jonathan Brent

Tuesday, October 27, 2016

's talk “The Broken World of Isaac Babel” discussed Babel’s stories, particularly in his masterpiece Red Cavalry, from the perspective of Babel’s interest in developing a meta-narrative of 91ÖĆƬł§n-Jewish identity. Brent discussed some of the structural, thematic, and linguistic elements in Babel’s stories that demonstrate his continued effort to reconcile these two worlds, which would enable him to envision both a personal and collective future.

“Race and the Terrain of Liberalism in Intensive Jewish Summer Camps in the 1960s and 1970s,” Riv-Ellen Prell

Wednesday, November 11, 2016
 
Over the last 15 years Jewish studies scholars have become interested in the ways that Jewish culture has been transmitted through Israel trips, Yiddish camps, and summer camping as a way to understand competing ideas about identity and nationalism. , Professor of Religious Studies at University of Minnesota, led a seminar in which participants discussed how Jewish summer camps engaged race, racial attitudes, and activism in the era of Civil Rights in the 1960s and early 1970s, and explored a number of frameworks to understand how race was constructed.

"Freedom Seder: American Judaism and Social Justice" Second biannual Embodied Judaism Symposium and Exhibit

Symposium: Thursday, November 12, 2016

In April 1969, on the first anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jewish and African-American activists came together in Washington, D.C. to share a meal in solidarity, an event which came to be known as the Freedom Seder. Based on a text written by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, this event would exert a long-lasting influence on American life, generating considerable controversy while also sparking new forms of political activism and religious practice across the ideological spectrum. The content, context, and legacy of this event formed the focus of this year's Embodied Judaism symposium. The symposium featured leading scholars and practitioners from across North America. Each presented on a different aspect of the Freedom Seder and its legacy and then lead the audience in an embodied experience. Read More.

Mini-Conference on Jews and Jewishness in Britain

Friday, February 12, 2016

In the year 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England, and in 1657, Oliver Cromwell let them back in. What impact did Jews have on British politics, culture, and religion in the years that followed? The Program in Jewish Studies, the , and cosponsors held a mini-conference, Jews and Jewishness in Britain, with , , and , to discuss these and other issues.

"Tevye's Dream, Or How Traditional Marriage Haunts Modern Romance," Public Lecture with Naomi Seidman

Thursday, March 10, 2016

In this public lecture, , Koret Professor of Jewish Culture at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, argued that the usual reading of Sholem Aleichem's Tevye stories and the musical Fiddler on the Roof—as a staging of the triumph of modern romance over traditional marriage—fails to take account of Tevye's dream, which demonstrates the haunting of Jewish modernity by the remembered and invented traditional past.

Seidman’s visit celebrates the Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholars Endowed Fund, honoring the lives of Howard and Sondra Bender, who cherished Jewish culture, celebrated education, and lived life to the fullest. Thank you to the Bender Foundation and the family of Eileen and Richard Greenberg for their generous support! .

Second Annual Hebrew Shmooze-A-Palooza 2016

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

The students of CU-Boulder's Hebrew and Yiddish classes and the Program in Jewish Studies held a musical celebration of the Hebrew and Yiddish classes and community at CU! The night featured interactive musical performances by CU-Boulder students. !

"Emmanuel Levinas on Ethics & the Holocaust," Seminar with Michael Morgan

Thursday, April 14, 2016 as part of a week of events on Religion and Politics: The 2016 CU-DU Jewish Philosophy
 
Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) was one of the leading Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century.  Seeking to rethink the possibility of morality after the Holocaust, Levinas exercised a profound influence on philosophy, religious thought, and Jewish life.  In this seminar, visiting scholar Michael Morgan discussed Levinas's writings on suffering, the Holocaust, and the nature of ethics.
 
 is Chancellor's Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies (Emeritus) at Indiana University. He has also taught at the University of Toronto, Yale University, Princeton University, and Stanford University. His most recent books are Rethinking the Messianic Idea in Judaism (contributor & co-editor, 2014), Fackenheim's Jewish Philosophy: An Introduction (2013), and The Cambridge Introduction to Emmanuel Levinas (2011). Prof. Morgan has also edited books on post-Holocaust religious and philosophical thought, moral and political philosophy, Spinoza, Emil Fackenheim, and Franz Rosenzweig. He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy (2007).
 
This seminar is part of a week of events on Religion and Politics, organized as part of the annual . The Week of Jewish Philosophy is an initiative of the University of Colorado–University of Denver Jewish Philosophy Collaborative, which is supported by a Special Initiatives Grant from the . The program is also supported by the Departments of and .