2013-14 Events

Gossett Lecture, April 24, 2014. Marianne Hirsch, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, and Leo Spitzer, Professor of History, Dartmouth College, “Small Acts of Repair: The Unclaimed Legacy of Transnistria.” Funded by an endowment established by Jean and Harold Gossett in memory of Holocaust victims Martha and Paul Feivel Korngold. The lecture and related workshop, “Crafting the Memory of Violence: Reflections on the Work of Literature and Visuality,” was co-sponsored by the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, the Center for Latin-American Studies, Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies, the Program in Human Rights, the Department of Art History, and the Department of English Language and Literature.

Joyce Z. Greenberg Visiting Professorship Lecture, May 8, 2014. Dan Diner, Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Director of the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Leipzig, “Language and Restitution: The German-Israeli Encounter in Luxembourg, 1952.” Funded by an endowment established by Mrs. Joyce Zeger Greenberg.

January 19-21, 2014. “Pines Maimonides: The History of the Translation and Interpretation of The Guide of the Perplexed.” Organized by Profs. Josef Stern and James Robinson; co-sponsored by the Division of Humanities, the Norm Wait Harris Fund of the Center for International Studies, the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the France Chicago Center, the Chicago Center in Beijing, the Pines Society, the University of Chicago Press, the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Philosophy, the Leo Strauss Center, and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. 

February 16, 2014. “Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik as Philosopher.” Organized by Profs. Josef Stern and Arnold Davidson. Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Divinity School and Spertus Institute. 

March 4-6, 2014. "Arab Jewish Texts.” In conjunction with the Neubauer Collegium project, “What are Arab Jewish Texts? Texts and Questions of Context.” Organized by Prof. Orit Bashkin. Co-sponsored by the Neubauer Collegium, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

May 4, 2014. “In Remembrance of Me: Feasting with the Dead in the Ancient Middle East.” Symposium organized by Prof. David Schloen and Dr. Jack Green, Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum in conjunction with the museum exhibition.

Judaism in the Diaspora. Organized by the Student Alliance for Jewish Enrichment (SAJE). Co-sponsored by Student Government.

• November 18, 2013. Glen Weyl, “Simon Kuznets and Jewish Economies.” 
• February 26, 2014. Dean Bell, “Natural Disasters: Jewish Identity in Early Modern Europe.”
• May 14, 2014. Bernard Wasserstein, “The Ambiguity of Virtue: Gertrude Van Tijn & the Fate of the Dutch Jews.”

November 14, 2013. Joanna Weinberg and Piet van Boxel, “Integration or Erasure: Christian Censorship of Hebrew Texts.” Co-sponsored by the Early Modern and Jewish Studies Workshops.

November 20, 2013. Yigal Shevars, Ben Gurion University, “1986: A Turning Point in Israeli Literature and Culture." 

December 2, 2013. Reading and conversation with award-winning author Dror Burstein and English translator Todd Husak-Lowy. Co-sponsored by the Program in Jewish Culture and Society of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

April 17, 2014. Smadar Lavie, “Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers, Bureaucratic Torture, and the Divinities of State and Chance.”

April 25, 2014. “Crafting the Memory of Violence: Reflections on the Work of Literature and Visuality.” Workshop organized by Profs. Josef Stern, Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, and Mario Santana. Co-sponsored by the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, the Center for Latin-American Studies, Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies, the Program in Human Rights, the Department of Art History, and the Department of English Language and Literature.

May 28, 2014. Screening of Yiddish-language film Di Shpilke (The Pin) followed by a question and answer session via Skype with director Naomi Jaye. Co-sponsored by the Department of Germanic Studies and Doc Films.

October 22, 2013. Ariel Porat, “Israel’s Security and the Law.” Primary sponsor: University of Chicago Law School. 

October 26, 2013. The Yellow Ticket — A Multimedia Concert featuring the 1918 Pola Negri silent film accompanied by the performance of an original score by Alicia Svigals. Primary sponsor: Film Studies Center.

January 16, 2014. Rachel Harris, “Witchcraft and Wailing: Female Professions in Israeli Films.” Primary sponsor: Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 

January 25, 2014. Art Spiegelman’s “Wordless” with music by Phillip Johnston. Primary sponsor: UChicago Arts. 

January 29, 2014. David Shyovitz, “Animals in the Garden of Eden: Carnivorousness and Eschatology in Medieval Jewish Thought.” Primary sponsor: Animal Studies Workshop. 

February 18, 2014. Lecture by Jodi Rudoren, Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the New York Times. Primary sponsor: Center for International Studies. 

February 18, 2014. Lecture and presentation of films by Natascha Drubek, “Between Resistance and Compliance: The Ambivalent Bequest of the Theresienstadt “Ghetto” Films.” Primary sponsor: Department of Cinema and Media Studies. 

April 2, 2014. Book talk by John B. Judis, senior editor at The New Republic and author of Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict. Primary sponsor: Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 

April 9–11, 2014. Conference, “God: Theological Accounts and Ethical Possibilities.” Primary sponsor: Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion.