OCTOBER 2020
10/29 Thursday 5pm PST
Sephardic Jews in American Politics
Speakers: Professor Devin E. Narr and former US Congresswoman Shelley Berkley
Join us for a special conversation on history, activism, and the importance of voting.
Hosted by Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle
10/29 Thursday 7:30pm EDT
Caught-in-between: Jews, Power, Powerlessness, and Intersectional Movements
Speaker: Rabbi Jill Jacobs
Reflection on the Jewish community’s role in America’s ongoing and mounting struggle with economic inequality.
Presented by Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies as part of the “Jews and the America to Come” talk series. In partnership with T’ruah.
10/29 – 11/19 Thursdays 12:00pm EDT
Mini-Course: Jews and American Mass Media
Speaker: Ayelet Brinn
In exploring the history of Jews and American media, this six-part mini-course will explore the development of American popular culture and media over the 20th and 21st centuries including immigration, race, politics, capitalism, and gender. It also highlights what these various forms of media can tell us about various expressions and understandings of American and Jewish identity.
Sponsored by The Katz Center, University of Pennsylvania
10/29 Thursday 7pm EST
Lessons from RBG: Jews and Religious Freedom in the United States
Speaker: Dr. Ronit Stahl
Dr. Ronit Stahl, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the award-winning first book, Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America (2017), presents insights from her book-in-progress, Troubling Conscience: Religious Freedom and Health Care in Modern America in discussion with James Loeffler, Ida and Nathan Kolodiz Director of Jewish Studies at the University of Virginia.
NOVEMBER 2020
11/2 Monday 1pm EST
Live from the Archives: Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Her Role Models and the Hadassah Archive
Presented by American Jewish Historical Society as part of its “Live from the Archives” series
11/9 Monday 7:30pm EST
American Jews and the Futures of US Support for Israel
The year 2020 has been a transformative one for American society, but what is America becoming? And what role do Jews play in the changes underway?
Presented by the University of Pennsylvania’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies as part of the “Jews and the America to Come” talk series.
11/15 Sunday 5pm EST
Salo Baron: Celebrating 90 Years Of Jewish Studies At Columbia
Speakers: Bernard Cooperman and Jason Lustig
Join us for an afternoon of scholarship as we celebrate Salo Baron’s legacy and impact on Jewish Studies. Hear from Bernard Cooperman on Finding the Future in the Jewish Past: Salo Baron at Columbia and Jason Lustig on Salo Baron’s Legacy and the Shaping of Jewish Studies Into the Twenty-First Century.
Presented by The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University
11/16 Monday 7:30pm EST
@#$%&*! Jews: From the Comics Page to the Graphic Novel
Speaker: Josh Lambert
Discussion on why Jews were crucial figures in the history of comics and graphic novels in the United States since the very beginnings of the form, and they saw comics as an opportunity to reject the stereotypes offered up in anti-Semitic cartoons. How have artists represented Jews and Jewishness in cartoon form, and what do these cartoons teach us about Jews’ experiences?
Sponsored by Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at UConn.
11/17 Tuesday 7:30pm EST
Then and Now: Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement
Speaker: Anthea Butler
Renowned scholar and activist Dr. Anthea Butler brings new perspectives to the much-discussed relationship between Black and Jewish Americans in civil rights movements, past and present.
Presented by Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies as part of the “Jews and the America to Come” talk series. In partnership with the National Museum of American Jewish History.
11/18 Wednesday 1pm
Unkosher: Organized Crime in the Kosher Food Trades
Speaker: Aaron Welt
This talk will compare the role of organized crime in the kosher poultry industry and the trade in Jewish baked goods. Jewish gangsters operated differently in each of these sectors. But their notable influence in the kosher food industry conveys just how important organized crime was in the development of the Jewish ethnic economy over the years of large scale immigration to America.
Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Center at Hunter College
11/19 Thursday 7pm CST
Warhol’s Jewish Geniuses
Speaker: Dr. Richard Meyer
In 1980, Andy Warhol created a series of portraits that memorialized luminaries of modern Jewish culture and provocatively referred to these thinkers, politicians, performers, and writers as his “Jewish geniuses.” Join art historian Dr. Richard Meyer for a live-streamed exploration of these portraits and Warhol’s interest in fame, genius, and Jewishness.
Presented by the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership
11/23 Monday 7:00pm EST
Revisiting Southern Jewish History in 2020
Speakers: Dr. Shari Rabin and historian Dr. Adam Domby
A discussion about southern history in light of current events.
Sponsored by the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture
11/30 Monday 7:30pm EST
Ilan Stavans: What Remains
Speaker: Ilan Stavans
Three of the more than four hundred suitcases discovered in the attic of the now-closed Willard Psychiatric Center were owned by Charles F., an eighty-four-year-old Russian Jewish immigrant arrested at a Brooklyn subway station in 1946 and institutionalized at Willard State Hospital (as it was then known). Combining photography and essay, Ilan Stavans presents a speculative portrait of a Jewish immigrant living out the end of his days in New York’s mid-century mental health system.
Sponsored by Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at UConn
DECEMBER 2020
12/1 Tuesday 1:00pm EST
LIVE FROM THE ARCHIVES: Antisemitism in the United States
During these live interactive sessions you will see documents, photos and objects close up and your questions and insights will engage archivists, historians and specialists who respond to your questions and further the exploration and the conversation.
Presented by the American Jewish Historical Society
12/3 Thursday 6pm EST
“From Left to Right,” a conversation about Lucy Dawidowicz and Polish-Jewish relations
Speaker: Nancy Sinkoff
Presented by Fordham University Jewish Studies dept.
12/15 Tuesday 1pm EST
Live from the Archives: The Civil Rights Movement & The American Jewish Congress
During these live interactive sessions you will see documents, photos and objects close up and your questions and insights will engage archivists, historians and specialists who respond to your questions and further the exploration and the conversation.
Presented by the American Jewish Historical Society
12/1 Tuesday 4pm EST
The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902
Speaker: Scott D. Seligman
In response to a precipitous rise in the price of kosher meat, thousands of Jewish women took to the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side on May 15, 1902. Their stated intention was to shut down every kosher butcher shop until prices came down. What was conceived as a nonviolent effort did not remain so for long.
Presented by the Center for Jewish History