Lectures/Events
Current Events (Spring 2012)
Communicating Awe: Media Memory and Holocaust Commemoration
Please join students and faculty for a talk by Dr. Oren Meyers (Department of Communication, University of Haifa; Lipinsky and Schusterman visiting Prof., Jewish Studies Program, San Diego State University), titled "Communicating Awe: Media Memory and Holocaust Commemoration."
This talk is part of SDSU's School of Communication colloquium series,and takes place on February 8th, 2012 from 2-3pm in COMM 209.
No RSVP required.
View the 2/8 flyer (.pdf)
Israel in the 21st Century: New Hopes, New Challenges Three Master Lectures March 15; March 22; March 27, 2012
All lectures are free and open to the public and will be held at:
Temple Solel
3575 Manchester Ave
Cardiff by the Sea, CA
www.templesolel.net
Israel's Ultra-Orthodox: A Rising Power?
 Dr. Nahshon Perez
Thursday, March 15th 7:00p.m.
Temple Solel
Dr. Nahshon Perezis Visiting Professor at the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University. He has held fellowships at UCLA, the University of Montreal and the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium where he was a Hoover fellow. Perez earned his PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research includes articles dealing with topics such as preferential treatment in the Israeli society granted to veterans of national service and the Israeli Defense Force and the debate surrounding the Law of Return.
Revolution, Repression and Reconciliation: The Arab Awakening and the Prospects for Peace
 Dr. Daniel C. Kurtzer
Thursday March 22 7:00p.m.
Temple Solel
Dr. Daniel C. Kurtzer is S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University. During a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, he served as the US Ambassador to Israel and to Egypt. Kurtzer has held a number of senior policy and diplomatic positions, including political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research. He was instrumental in formulating and executing American policy in the Middle East peace process. Kurtzer received a B.A. from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. in comparative politics from Columbia University and has received distinguished service awards from the President, the Secretary of State and the United States Intelligence Community.
A Nation in Uniform? Civil-Military Relations in Israel
 Dr. Oren Meyers
Tuesday March 27 7:00p.m.
Temple Solel
Dr. Oren Meyers is the Lipinsky Schusterman Visitng Israeli Scholar at San Diego State University and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication, at the University of Haifa. Dr. Meyers's reserach interests focus on Israeli collective memory, popular culture and Israeli journalism. Dr. Meyers' recent publications include "Memory in Journalism and the Memory of Journalism: Israeli Journalists and the Constructed Legacy of Haolam Hazeh," Journal of Communication, 2007; "The Engine's in the Front, But its Heart's in the Same Place: Advertising, Nostalgia and the Construction of Commodities as Realms of Memory," The Journal of Popular Culture, 2009; "Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism," Journal of Communication, 2009 (with Eyal Zandberg & Motti Neiger). His appointment at SDSU is made possible by generous grants from the Lipinsky Visiting Israeli Fund and the Israel Scholars Fund from the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
WORDS OF A PEOPLE: YIDDISH, SPOKEN AND SUNG
On April 3rd at 7pm in SDSU's Rhapsody Hall (Music Bldg.), the Jewish Studies Program under the guidance of artist-in-residence Yale Strom will present WORDS OF A PEOPLE: YIDDISH, SPOKEN AND SUNG.
This program will feature world renowned poet Jerome Rothenberg (UCSD) reciting his poems in both Yiddish and in English. Rothenberg's poems have been translated into many languages and appear in many major poetry anthologies throughout the world.
This will be followed by the San Diego premiere of Yale Strom's sextet "THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING", which commemorates the April 19th 1943 Jewish resistance. Led by Mordecai Anelewicz, Jews within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland rose up during World War II. These brave fighters opposed Nazi deportation of the remaining ghetto population to the Treblinka extermination camp. The most significant portion of the rebellion took place from April 19 until May 16, 1943, and ended when the poorly armed and supplied resistance was crushed by German troops. This performance will commemorate the 69th anniversary of the largest single revolt by the Jews during the Holocaust. Strom's sextet will include his original Yiddish lyrics and will be performed by Issac Allen (violin), Yuan Zhang (cello), Jeff Pekarek (bass), Richard Tibbits (flute),elickman (clarinet) and Elizabeth Schwartz (vocals).
 Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known poet with over eighty books of poetry and several assemblages of traditional and avant-garde poetry such as Technicians of the Sacred, Poems for the Millennium, and A Big Jewish Book. He has performed his poetry internationally, accompanied by musicians such as Bertram Turetzky, Charlie Morrow, Pauline Oliveros, George Lewis, and Frank London & the Klezmatics.
Richard Tibbitts is a native of San Diego who began his musical training on piano, and then switched to flute, studying under Frederick Baker of the SD Symphony. He received his bachelor's degree in music performance from Cal-State Fullerton, and his master's degree from the University of Michigan. The following year he was the recipient of an exchange scholarship between Michigan and the University of Tübingen, Germany.ever since.
Robert Zelickman, clarinetist, is a Lecturer of Music at UC San Diego where he has taught since 1983.In addition to teaching clarinet and performing contemporary music, Robert conducts the UCSD Wind Ensemble. He is a member of Orchestra Nova San Diego and has performed with the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera. Robert is also well known throughout California as the co-director of the Second Avenue Klezmer Ensemble. Zelickman earned his BA at UCLA and a MFA at Cal Arts. Isaac Allen, Violin -Isaac Allen is a prize-winner in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the Las Cruces Symphony Guild's Young Artist Competition. As a member of the Euruke Chamber Players, Isaac has performed regularly on the stages of Alice Tully and Merkin concert halls at Lincoln Center, New York and in Washington D.C. Currently he is a member of the The Hausmann Quartet. They are the resident string quartet at SDSU (2010-2012) During 2010-2012 the Hausmann quartet will have a concurrent affiliation sponsored by the La Jolla Music Society.
 Yuan Zhang, Cello - Yuan Zhang began to study music at the age of three and the cello at four at the Hebei Performing Arts Academy in China. After winning the first prize in the second Chinese National Cello Competition, he was invited to study at the Chinese Music Conservatory in Beijing at the age of twelve. Currently he is a member of the Hausmann String Quartet
Jeff Pekarek was the youngest contracted member of the San Diego Symphony when he joined the contrabass section at age seventeen. He performed with the orchestra from 1975-79, and during the summer pops concerts backed up such luminaries as Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, and Sergio Mendez. He is the principal arranger for filmmaker and composer Yale Strom. This collaboration has included many audio recordings, several documentary films, two ballets, a string quartet, and the orchestral work 'Aliyot', first performed by the St. Louis Symphony. His lengthy discography includes albums by The Peter Pupping Quartet (Peter Pupping Band), The Electrocarpathians, Keltik Kharma, and Kick Up The Dust.
Elizabeth Schwartz has become celebrated for her uniquely dusky timbre. Her soulful interpretations have drawn numerous comparisons to both Edith Piaf and Romanian singer Maria Tanase. New York City's landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue created its first women-only event in order for Schwartz to sing there. She performs regularly across North America and Central, Eastern and Northern Europe in venues ranging from jazz clubs to synagogues to concert halls, and is proud to have concertized in the two largest synagogues in the world (Budapest and Strasbourg). Noted collaborators include Yale Strom , Alicia Svigals, Mark Dresser, Marty Ehrlich, Salman Ahmad, Samir Chatterjee, Hungarian supergroup Muzsikas, Tsimble maestro Kalman Balogh, Romanian panflutist Damian Draghici, the virtuosic members of Hot Pstromi, and many others.
Past Events
The Palestinian Bid for Statehood at the UN: Breakthrough or Setback for Palestinian Nationalism and Peace?
October 3, 2011
4:15 pm
San Diego State University
Adams Humanities, Room 2108
Palestinian-Israeli conflict has dragged on for more than half a century. The Oslo peace process, initiated with such high hopes in 1993, lurched to a halt, particularly in the last two years when direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations broke off.
Now, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is trying an entirely new approach. On September 23, 2011, he applied to the UN Security Council for Palestine to be admitted as the 194th UN member state.
The panel of scholars will discuss the pros, cons, and impact of this approach. Is it a breakthrough or a setback for peace? Will the UN Security Council approve the application? How will that change facts on the ground and on the peace process? If the Security Council rejects the application, what impact will that have on Palestinian hopes for a state and on peace efforts?
Come hear from and discuss the ramifications of this effort with scholars who are experts in the field.
View the flyer (.pdf)
Music and Resistance with Yale Strom & the Hausmann Quartet
Wednesday, October 26th at 7:00 pm
Rhapsody Hall, Music Building
SDSU Campus
This Event is Free and Open to the Public
Directions and campus map
Music and Resistance is the West Coast premier of Yale Strom's original composition "In The Memory Of..."
 This work is based on a lost cantor's music book which Strom found in an abandoned synagogue in Carei, Romania. The majority (2,200) of this Jewish community was deported to Auschwitz in May 1944, and only 400 returned. Strom took from the cantor's book musical themes that were sung on the Sabbath and holidays and wove them into a moving tribute to the cantor and his congregants who sang these melodies -even in the ghetto- before they were forced to board the cattle cars.
This will be a unique evening of music played during some of the darkest days during the Holocaust. Sung by Jews and Roma, this is the music that uplifted their morale, gave them momentary hope and said to their Nazi aggressors that the human spirit is not so easily defeated.
The Hausmann Quartet
 Since the Hausmann Quartet's formation in the summer of 2004 at LyricaFest in New Jersey, they have been acquiring a reputation as one of the great young quartets performing today. Praised for their charismatic playing and "marvelously rich tone", the quartet made their debut on the Lyrica Boston Chamber Music series and was soon named Lyrica Boston's Young Artists in Residence. The Hausmann Quartet joins San Diego State University as the 2010-2012 Joseph Fisch/Joyce Axelrod Resident String Quartet. Previously, the Hausmann Quartet were recipients of the Morrison Fellowship Award in residence with the Alexander String Quartet at the International Center for the Arts, San Francisco State University. Most recently they held a fellowship appointment at the La Jolla Music Society's 2010 SummerFest. During 2010-2012 the Hausmann quartet will have a concurrent affiliation sponsored by the La Jolla Music Society as part of the organization's ongoing commitment to community engagement and outreach.
Hot Pstromi
 Hot Pstromi bandleader and founder Yale Strom is a pioneer among revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Rom communities. This unique research formed the foundation for Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi. Hot Pstromi's sound - a fusion of traditional klezmer, new Jewish music, Gypsy, khasidic, world beat and Balkan music noted for long improvisational breaks - is unique and celebrated.
This concert is made possible by a grant from the Doris Lipinsky Fund for the Performing Arts at SDSU and is co-sponsored by the Daniel Pearl Foundation
THE 24TH ANNUAL ROBERT SIEGEL MEMORIAL LECTURE AT THE SAN DIEGO JEWISH BOOK FAIR YOM LIMMUD
 Sunday NOVEMBER 13th, 11:30 AM
Dr. James Kugel Author of In the Valley of the Shadow: On the Foundations of Religious Belief James Kugel shouldn't be here. More than a decade ago, the author and Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature at Harvard University was diagnosed with an aggressive, and often fatal, type of cancer. But he turned this supposed "death sentence" into an opportunity to reaffirm life… not just his own life, but your life, our lives, and filter this affirmation through the phenomenon of religious beliefs.
JAMES KUGEL was born in New York. From 1982-2003 he was Starr Professor of Hebrew Literature  at Harvard University. He retired from Harvard to become Director of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar Ilan University in Israel, where he has also served as chairman of the Department of Bible. A specialist in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Kugel is the author of some sixty research articles and eleven books, including The Idea of Biblical Poetry, In Potiphar's House, On Being a Jew, and The Bible As It Was (this last the winner of the Grawemeyer Prize in Religion in 2001). His books are The God of Old (Free Press, 2003), The Ladder of Jacob (Princeton, 2006), and How to Read the Bible (Free Press, 2007), awarded the National Jewish Book Award for the best book of 2007.
At the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS
4126 Executive Drive - La Jolla, California 92037
For additional information: 858.457.3030 www.lfjcc.org
Israel in the 21st Century
Congregation Beth Israel 7:00 PM on the following dates
Feb. 28, Al and Norman Cooper Lecture in American Jewish Politics
American-Israeli Relations since Obama and Netanyahu
 Steven Spiegel UCLA,
Professor Steven L. Spiegel teaches Political Science at UCLA, serves as Director of the Center for Middle East Development at UCLA, he also provides assistance to Middle East programs at the statewide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation of the University of California, San Diego and studies American foreign policy in the Middle East. He has authored or co-authored over 100 books, articles and papers. Professor Spiegel has also written a major international relations textbook, World Politics in a New Era. Dr. Spiegel helps produce cutting edge ideas for promoting Middle East regional security and cooperation, for this work, he received the Karpf Peace Prize in 1995, awarded to the UCLA professor for the faculty member who did the most for world peace in the previous two years.
March 7, Anti-Israeli Sentiment at American Universities Samuel Edelman, Executive Director, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Professor Samuel Edelman is the Executive Director for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the co-Director or the California State Center of Excellence in Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance Education. Professor Samuel Edelman has also acted as the Dean of College of Arts and Sciences at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, is a professor of Communication Studies at CSU Chico and has also been a lecturer at Lehrhause Judaica and Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Haifa. Professor Edelman has been teaching and lecturing for 33 years, and has done has produced 5 documentaries and written extensively on anti-Semitism, Jewish rhetoric, Israeli public address, the Arab- Israeli conflict, and issues concerning genocide.
March 7, Anti-Israeli Sentiment at American Universities
 Samuel Edelman, Executive Director, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Professor Samuel Edelman is the Executive Director for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the co-Director or the California State Center of Excellence in Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance Education. Professor Samuel Edelman has also acted as the Dean of College of Arts and Sciences at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, is a professor of Communication Studies at CSU Chico and has also been a lecturer at Lehrhause Judaica and Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Haifa. Professor Edelman has been teaching and lecturing for 33 years, and has done has produced 5 documentaries and written extensively on anti-Semitism, Jewish rhetoric, Israeli public address, the Arab- Israeli conflict, and issues concerning genocide.
March 14, The Shaping of the Israeli Memory of the Holocaust
 Oren Meyers, Visiting Israeli Professor, SDSU, University of Haifa.
Dr. Meyers is the Lipinsky Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor for the Jewish Studies Program at SDSU and a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication, University of Haifa. Dr. Meyers’s research interests focus on journalistic practices and values, Israeli collective memory, popular culture and the security discourse in Israeli society. Dr. Meyers' recent publications include "Memory in Journalism and the Memory of Journalism: Israeli Journalists and the Constructed Legacy of Haolam Hazeh," Journal of Communication, 2007; "The Engine's in the Front, But its Heart's in the Same Place: Advertising, Nostalgia and the Construction of Commodities as Realms of Memory," The Journal of Popular Culture, 2009; "Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism," Journal of Communication, 2009 (with Eyal Zandberg & Motti Neiger); "Expanding the Scope of Paradigmatic Research in Journalism Studies: The Case of Early Mainstream Israeli Journalism and Its Discontents," Journalism (forthcoming); and "Communicating Critique: Towards a Conceptualization of Journalistic Criticism," Communication, Culture and Critique.
March 21, The New Middle East: Recent Uprisings and their Impact on the Region
“The Economic Roots of the Revolutions”
Hisham Foad, Dept. of Economics, SDSU
“Why Egypt Overthrew Mubarek”
Kurt Werthmuller, Dept. of history, Azusa Pacific University
“The Israeli Media’s Response to the Revolutions”
Oren Meyers, SDSU Visiting Professor, University of Haifa
View the flyer for the March 21st event (.pdf)
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25th Anniversary Lecture Series of the Jewish Studies Program, SDSU
CANCELLED March 1 “The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust,”
Marek Halter (Co-Sponsored by the Baron Fund for Ethics Education and the Initiative for Moral Courage)
March 23 “Cantata for the Victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire”
Yale Strom and Elizabeth Schwartz, SDSU. 7:00 PM, Rhapsody Hall, Music Building, SDSU. Introduction by Susan Cayleff, SDSU. Co-Sponsored by the Dorris Lipinsky Endowment, European, History, and Women’s Studies Departments of SDSU).
Yale Strom’s "Triangle Shirtwaist Fire" is a composition for instruments and voices to commemorate the lives of the Jewish and Italian immigrants (through music and song) who lived in the Lower East Side and tragically died on March 25th 1911 in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Until 9/11 the worst single calamity in terms of the number of death NYC history. The composition will include motifs from well known Yiddish and Italian folks songs and narration from diaries and letters written by these immigrants, culminating with the speech by social activist, labor organizer and socialist Rose Schneiderman gave at the memorial meeting on April 2, 1911, to an audience consisting largely of members of the Women's Trade Union League.
Yale Strom is a pioneer among klezmer revivalists and an internationally known author ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, musician, and photographer.
May 4, “Fresh Looks at the 1948 Arab-Israeli War”
 Dr. Benny Morris. Ben Gurion University
Co-sponsored with Hansen Institute and Judaic Studies Program of UCSD.
7:00 PM Nasatir Hall 100, SDSU Campus
Benny Morris is a professor at Ben Gurion University teaching in the History of the Middle East department. He was a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post for 12 years. Professor Morris has authored many works including The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem (1988), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004), 1948 and After (1994), Righteous Victims (1999), Making Israel (2008), 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (2008), and One State, Two States (2009).
View the May 4th event flyer (.pdf)
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April 10-11 Western Jewish Studies Association Conference
Courtyard Marriot, 2435 Jefferson Street, Old Town, San Diego
Luncheon: $25, 12 PM, April 10
Keynote Address: “ 12:30 PM, April 10.
Jewish Itineraries of Decolonization: An Archival Journey
 Sarah Abrevaya Stein, UCLA.
Professor Sarah Stein teaches the Jewish, Europe, Middle East, Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies, Cultural and Comparative History. She won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for 2010 for her book Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce and has authored Making Jews Modern: the Yiddish and Ladino Press in the Russian and Ottoman Empires which was awarded the Salo Wittmayer Baron Prize for Best First Book in Jewish Studies for 2003. Professor Sarah Stein is now working on three book projects Mediterranean Fever: Classifying Jews in a Century of Decolonization, The Sephardic Studies Reader: 1730-1950, An Ottoman Rebel: Sa’adi Besalel ha-Levi, and Jewish Salonica in the Nineteenth Century.
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“Cantata In Memory of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire,”
(See March 23rd description)
Yale Strom and Elizabeth Schwartz,
April 10, 7:00 PM Beth Israel Synagogue, Heritage Park, Old Town.
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North County Lecture Series Featuring 2010/11 Lipinsky Schusterman Visiting Israeli Scholar Dr. Oren Meyers
San Diego State University's Jewish Studies Program is pleased to announce a special series of lectures for residents of San Diego's North County featuring Lipinsky Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor at SDSU, Dr. Oren Meyers.
All lectures are free to the public. This Series is made possible by a generous grant from the Leichtag Family Foundation.
Please mark your calendars and join us for this exciting, informative series. We look forward to seeing you at this unique and important community event.
 Dr. Oren Meyers is the Lipinsky Schusterman Visitng Israeli Scholar at San Diego State University and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Haifa, Israel. Dr. Meyers's reserach interests focus on Israeli collective memory, popular culture and Israeli journalism. Dr. Meyers' recent publications include "Memory in Journalism and the Memory of Journalism: Israeli Journalists and the Constructed Legacy of Haolam Hazeh," Journal of Communication, 2007; "The Engine's in the Front, But its Heart's in the Same Place: Advertising, Nostalgia and the Construction of Commodities as Realms of Memory," The Journal of Popular Culture, 2009; "Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism," Journal of Communication, 2009 (with Eyal Zandberg & Motti Neiger). His appointment at SDSU is made possible by generous grants from the Lipinsky Visiting Israeli Fund and the Israel Scholars Fund from the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
The Shaping of the Israeli Memory of the Holocaust
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
6:00pm
Encinitas Community Library
540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas CA 92024
Israeli Media- Past and Present
Sunday, April 17th, 2011
1:00pm
San Diego County Library, Vista Branch
700 Eucalyptus Ave, Vista CA
The Shaping of the Israeli Memory of the Holocaust
Wednesday, April 20th 2011
4:15 pm
California State University, San Marcos
Grand Salon of the Campus Field House in the Student Union
CSU San Marcos Campus
Co-sponsored by the History Department and Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society
Professional and Personal Reflection on the Journalism of Nechemia Meyers
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
6:00pm
San Diego County Library, San Marcos Branch
2 Civic Center Drive, San Marcos CA
October 4, 7pm Preview and Panel Discussion of PBS Series: God in America
Professors Lawrence Baron, Khaleel Mohammed, and Rebecca Moore, SDSU Sponsors: The Anti-Defamation League; SDSU Jewish Studies and Religious Studies 201 Arts and Letters Building 201, SDSU
October 13, 3pm 25th Anniversary of Jewish Studies Program Lectures, "From Frank Sinatra to Anne Frank: the Holocaust in Hollywood Film, 1944-1959"
Professor Lawrence Baron, SDSU. 301 Geology, Mathematics, and Computer Science Building, SDSU. (Across bridge and right turn from Parking Structure on S.E. corner after I-8 Exit onto College)
View the flyer (.doc)
October 17, 1pm 25th Anniversary of Jewish Studies Program at SDSU "Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community of America's Edge"
Ava Kahn, University of California, Berkeley; Ellen Eisenberg, Willamette University Sponsors: College of Liberal Arts, Jewish Studies Program West Commons 220 , SDSU Campus (Paid Parking in Lot W).
Read more information about the book
View the flyer (.doc)
October 28, 7pm Common Chords Concert: The Shared Roots of Islamic and Jewish Music
Salman Ahmad, Fred Benedetti, Samir Chatterjee, Elizabeth Schwartz, Yale Strom Sponsors: President’s Fund, Jewish Studies Program, Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Daniel Pearl Foundation Music Month. Smith Recital Hall, 101 Music Building, SDSU Campus. ($10 per ticket, but free for SDSU faculty and students).
View the flyer (pdf)
November 7, 12pm "Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav and Franz Kafka"
Rodger Kamenetz in Conversation with Gabriel Sanders Sponsored by Tablet Magazine, A New Read on Jewish Life, SDSU Jewish Studies Program, Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037
More information
November 17, 3pm 25th Anniversary of the SDSU Jewish Studies Program "What are Jewish Girls and Boys Made Of?: Gender in Books for Jewish Adolescents"
June Cummins-Lewis, SDSU. 301 Geology, Mathematics, and Computer Science Building, SDSU. (Across bridge and right turn from Parking Structure on S.E. corner after I-8 Exit onto College)
Where was first century Nazareth?
NEW INSIGHTS FROM ARCHAEOLOGY
 A Lecture by Dr. Richard Freund
Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and Greenberg Professor of Jewish History, University of Hartford
Wednesday May 5th, 4pm
Geology, Mathematics, Computer Science (GMCS) Building, Room 314 (Map)
This Lecture is free and open to the public
Dr. Richard A. Freund is Director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and Greenberg Professor of Jewish History at the University of Hartford. He has directed six archaeological projects in Israel and three projects in Europe on behalf of the University including: Bethsaida, Qumran, the Cave of Letters,  Nazareth, Yavne, Har Karkom (Mount Sinai) as well as archaeological projects in Burgos and Cadiz, Spain and at the extermination camp at Sobibor, Poland. He is the author of six books on archaeology and two books on Jewish ethics and over one hundred scholarly articles. and has appeared in many television documentaries, most recently the History Channel's God vs. Satan: The Final Battle, CNN's After Jesus: The First Christians and NOVA's Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land based on his book, Secrets of the Cave of Letters. He has a Ph.D. and MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary and is an ordained rabbi.
 Irène Némirovsky: Questions of Jewish Identity in France, Before and After the Holocaust
A Lecture by Dr. Susan Rubin Suleiman, C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France, Harvard University
Friday April 30th 10:00am
Auditorium at Aztec Athletics Center
Susan Rubin Suleiman was born in Budapest and emigrated to the U.S. as a child with her parents. She obtained her B.A. from Barnard College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has been on the Harvard faculty since 1981, where she is currently the C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature. She served as Chair of the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures from 1997-2000 and 2003-2004, and as Head of the French section and Director of Graduate Studies in French from 2001 to 2005.
Suleiman is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on contemporary literature and culture, published in the U.S. and abroad, and has also published poetry and autobiographical works. Her books include Authoritarian Fictions: The Ideological Novel as a Literary Genre (1983); Subversive Intent: Gender, Politics, and the Avant-Garde (1990), Risking Who One Is: Encounters with Contemporary Art and Literature (1994), and the memoir Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook (1996). Edited volumes include Exile and Creativity: Signposts, Travelers, Outsiders, Backward Glances (1998) and the anthology Contemporary Jewish Writing in Hungary (co-edited with Eva Forgács, 2003). Her latest book is Crises of Memory and the Second World War (Harvard University Press, 2006).
 Suleiman has won many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, and several NEH Fellowships. In September 2005, she spent a month as an invited Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, and in 2005-06 she was a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute. In May 2006, she was named a Walter Channing Cabot Fellow by Harvard University, in recognition of her scholarly achievement. In 1990, she received the Radcliffe Medal for Distinguished Achievement, and in 1992 she was decorated by the French Government as an Officer of the Order of Academic Palms (Palmes Académiques). She served as an elected member of the Executive Council of the Modern Language Association from 1993 to 1996, and as Vice-President and President of the American Comparative Literature Association from 1995 to 1999.
This Lecture is Free and Open to the Public
This Lecture is Sponsored By: Jewish Studies Program History Department European Studies Dept. Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies-University Programs, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Souls on Fire: Music of Golden Age Spain
Tuesday April 13th 7:00pm
Smith Recital Hall Music Bldg.
SDSU
Three cultures inhabited Spain in the 12th-15th centuries, each making an indelible impression on the region’s art and music. They lived in harmony until the expulsion of the Jews and Gypsies in 1492. Join us for a musical exploration of Spanish, Ladino & Arabic culture that will take you on a sonic journey through the passion of Flamenco, the poetry of Sephardic and the rhythm of the Moorish. A world-class ensemble-each renowned in their own right-will combine the traditional sounds from Spain’s Golden Age.
An Evening With:
Lakshmi Basile – Flamenco Dancer
Jeff Pekarek – Contrabass
Elizabeth Schwartz – Ladino/Arabic Vocals
Yale Strom – Violin
Adam Delmonte – Flamenco Guitar
Marco – Percussion
Jesus MontoyaFlamenco Vocals
General Admission: $8.00 SDSU Students, Staff & Faculty: free with id
 Israel in the 21st Century: New Hopes, New Challenges
A Series of Four Master Lectures February-March 2010
More information...
Will Israel Survive?
Dr. Mitchell Bard is the Executive Director of the nonprofit American- Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE)
Tuesday February 23rd at 3pm
Hepner Hall 221, SDSU Campus
View the flyer (.pdf)
Nabucco, Israel and Babylon
The Impact of Exile on the Birth of Judaism and Christianity
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 7:00pm
Speakers
Dr. Nicolas Reveles, Geisel Director of Education and Outreach, San Diego Opera
Dr. Risa Levitt-Kohn, Director of the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University
Location
San Diego Natural History Museum
Charmaine & Maurice Kaplan Theater
Balboa Park - 1788 El Prado, San Diego CA 92101
Beyond the Fiscal and Political Debate: The Moral Dimension of Health Care
Elliot Dorff
Rector Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University
Ethics Committee. Clinton’s Health Care Task Force, 1993
California State Ethics Advisory Committee on Stem Cell Research
President, Academy for Jewish, Children, and Muslim Studies
Author, Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Medical Ethics
TIME: 4:00 PM
DATE: November 10, 2009
LOCATION: Hepner Hall, Rm. 130 San Diego State University
View flyer (.pdf)
Please join us for a wonderful evening of music with three of the world’s leading clarinetists performing traditional and new music along with lots of inspiring improvisation.
Wednesday November 4th 2009 @ 7:00 pm
Rhapsody Hall, SDSU Music Building
Guest Artists:
Leo Chelyapov won first place in the Shostakovich Competition in Moscow at the age of twelve. In the US, he has appeared on several TV shows including Beverly Hills 90210, and Late Night with David Letterman.
Gary Gould has lectured at universities and colleges for over ten years has led a clinic called "Gary Gould and Friends: A Klezmer Experience "introducing local music pros to the art of klezmer for the Orange CountyMusicians Union Bash.
Robert Zelickman is a Lecturer of Music at UC San Diego where he has taught since 1983. He conducts the UCSD Wind Ensemble and lectures on The Symphony and Jewish Music. He is a member of Orchestra Nova San Diego and has performed with the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera.
Appearing in concert with acclaimed klezmer ethnographer and Jewish Studies Artist-in-Residence Yale Strom and members of his band Hot Pstromi
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
View Flyer (.pdf)
24TH ANNUAL ROBERT SIEGEL MEMORIAL LECTURE
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8 @ 7:30 P.M at the
Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
4126 Executive Drive - La Jolla
 Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
"A Code of Jewish Ethics Volume 2: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself"
One of the most popular speakers at book fairs in the U.S., Rabbi Telushkin, scholar, screenwriter and author of fifteen books, has completed the second of his three volume series distilling the ethical content of Jewish tradition and encouraging discussion on how to apply long-held teachings to daily life. “Love your Neighbor As Yourself” provides a much-needed guide for interpersonal relationships in these strife-torn times. As inspiring a speaker as he is an author, Telushkin truly delivers a book to live by for people of all faiths.
Book Signing Follows
Admission: $14:00/JCC Member: $17:00/Non-Member
Purchase tickets online
THE JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM AT SDSU IS PROUD TO BE A CO-SPONSOR OF
THE CLOSING EVENING AUTHOR LECTURE AT THE SAN DIEGO JEWISH BOOK FAIR
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12 @ 7:30 P.M.
 AMOS OZ
"Rhyming Life & Death: A Novel"
Lifelong Zionist and world-renowned Israeli author Amos Oz returns to San Diego with two new books. If you’ve never read Oz, or if you want to sample the range of his talent, The Amos Oz Reader is a great introduction with excerpts from his novels and his nonfiction centering around four themes: kibbutz, Jerusalem, the promised land, and autobiography. And if you’re an Oz fan, you’ll really enjoy his latest novel in which a prominent Israeli writer (The Author) mocks his own celebrity status while inventing erotic and hilarious lives for the people around him. This deceptively mischievous adventure involves us in the creative process and shares profound insights on literature and language, life and death.
Book Signing Follows
Admission: $14:00/JCC Member: $17:00/Non-Member
More information and tickets
Sunday, February 22, 2009, afternoon
A Concert & Lecture by Yale Strom in conjunction with the current exhibition: "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America" FROM MINSK TO MANHATTAN: JEWISH MUSIC IN THE JEWISH IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
New Americans Museum
2825 Dewey Rd. Suite 102 San Diego CA 92106 619 255-8908 http://www.newamericansmuseum.org/
The event will take place next door at the Command Center
Sunday, March 15 2009, 4:00 P.M.
A PORTABLE GOD: THE ORIGIN OF JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
Speaker: Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn
Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Judaism at San Diego State University, will explore Judaism and Christianity as sister religions and trace their lineage back to the common parent of the ancient Israelite religion. Last year Dr. Kohn was Curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. She is the chair of the Department of Judaic Studies. Her book is entitled A Portable God, and will be available for sale after the lecture. Admission is free.
At Temple Adat Shalom
15905 Pomerado Rd. Poway, CA 92064
Phone: (858) 451-1200
Email: info@adatshalom.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 10:30am
The Destiny of Ethiopian Jews Living in Israel
Professor Uri Ben-Eliezer, University of Haifa
Winn Room, Coronado Library
2009 Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series
presented by The Agency for Jewish Education and Coronado Friends of AJE
For more info call: (858-268-9200)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 7:30 P.M.
COMMON CHORDS III, THE NEXT GENERATION
At the 10th Annual Jewish Music Festival
A Celebration of Jewish and Muslim Music - Yale Strom & Salman Ahmad
At the La Jolla JCC.
Purchase Tickets at: http://www.sdcjc.org
View Flyer (.pdf)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 10:30am
"Strangers in the Holy Land: New Immigrants in Israeli Society"
Professor Adriana Kemp, Tel Aviv University
Winn Room, Coronado Library
2009 Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series
presented by The Agency for Jewish Education and Coronado Friends of AJE
For more info call: (858-268-9200)
Sunday, April 12, 2009, 4:00 P.M.
HOW A JEW BECOMES BLACK IN A JEWISH LAND
The Al & Norma Cooper Lecture on Modern Jewish Politics
Speaker: Dr. Uri Ben Eliezer
Dr. Uri Ben Eliezer, Senior Lecturer in the department of Sociology, Haifa University, and Scholar in Residence at SDSU, will speak about the difficulties absorbing Ethiopian Jews in Democratic Israel. He and his wife Dr. Adrianna Kemp, have written many articles on the plight of newcomers to the State of Israel. Having lectured in several prestigious American universities, Dr. Eliezers command of English is excellent. Admission is free.
At Temple Adat Shalom
15905 Pomerado Rd. Poway, CA 92064
Phone: (858) 451-1200
Email: info@adatshalom.com
Sunday, May 10th, 2009, 1:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Israel in the 21st Century: New Hopes, New Challenges
SDSU- Exercise and Nutritional Sciences Building (ENS) Room 280
(map)
DEFINETLY NOT YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S KLEZMER
BEAT BOX AND NEW JEWISH MUSIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND BEYOND
Josh Dolgin, aka "SoCalled" in Concert at SDSU
Canadian rapper and producer, SOCALLED is known for his eclectic mix of hip hop, klezmer and other styles. He has performed with such artists as David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness!, rapper C-Rayz Walz, Chilly Gonzales, funk trombonist Fred Wesley, and Sophie Solomon. Josh will present a program of klezmer tunes and Yiddish songs deconstructed using electronics, a beat box and voice. This is definitely not the klezmer music of the 19th century, but of the 21st and beyond! Joining this exciting and innovative artist will be JSP Artist In Residence Yale Strom and members of his band.
Co-Sponsored by Hillel of SDSU
WED NOV. 5th, Rhapsody Hall, Music Bldg SDSU
Doors open 6:45 pm, Concert at 7:00pm
Students/Staff/Faculty with RedID: FREE
General Public $5.00 at the door
Seating is Limited
View Dolgin flyer (.pdf)
23RD ANNUAL ROBERT SIEGEL MEMORIAL LECTURE
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 9th at 3:30 P.M.
Aaron Cohen, Brotherhood of Warriors: Behind Enemy Lines with a Commando in One of the Worlds Most Elite Counterterrorism Units
Eighteen year-old Aaron Cohen left his privileged life in Beverly Hills to join Israel's most elite security force. After fifteen months of grueling training designed to make him a warrior, he became an expert in urban counter-terror warfare. He participated in over 200 life-or-death missions as part of a controversial "black ops" unit that abducted terrorist leaders from the Palestinian-controlled West Bank.
Cohen shares his fly-on-the-wall view of a top-secret shadowy world that redefines strength, danger and security.
Book Signing Follows
Free Admission at the San Diego Jewish Community Center
SDSU's Jewish Studies Program Presents: An Author Evening Lecture At the San Diego Jewish Book Fair
Tuesday November 11 at 7:30 P.M.
Daniel C. Kurtzer and Scott B. Lasensky Authors of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East
Daniel Kurtzer, former US ambassador to both Israel and Egypt, and Middle East expert and widely published author and commentator Scott Lasensky share ten core lessons to guide the effort of future American peace negotiators in the Middle East. After nine months of groundbreaking consultations with dozens of statesmen, political leaders and civilians who have defined the Arab-Israeli peace process in recent years, Kurtzer and Lasensky reveal what works and what does not in this distinctive diplomatic arena.
Book Signing Follows
Admission: $14.00 JCC Member/$17.00 Non-Member, Students and Seniors: $1 off
This Event will be held at the Lawrence Family JCC, JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
COMMON CHORDS Workshop & Concert
Smith Recital Hall
View Flyer(.pdf)
This special event will feature the Pakistani rock star Salman Ahmad (guitar)of Junoon, South Asias most popular rock band, and internationally renowned Indian tabla player Samir Chatterjee in concert with acclaimed klezmer ethnographer and Jewish Studies Artist-in-Residence Yale Strom (and members of his band Hot Pstromi). This workshop and concert celebrate the common roots of Muslim and Jewish music. Salman Ahmad formed his band Junoon (They just played at the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo.) in the early 1990's. Since then, Junoon has become a phenomenon on the South Asian music scene and beyond. Ahmad has combined Sufi poetry, Qawaali singing and improvisation with rock music and has used his popularity to promote humanitarian efforts throughout the world. As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, one of his main goals is to foster mutual respect and understanding between Muslims and Jews by bringing these two groups of people together in concert settings. Through his dialogue, poetry and music, he demonstrates the many mutual "common chords" (especially music) these two ancient civilizations share. Yale Strom and Ahmad first performed together in February 2007 at Queens College in NYC as part of a large exhibit called "The Grandeur of Islamic Art in Image and Object." After the concert, they realized how effective their jamming together, a Jew and a Muslim, on stage was for the audience. They decided then to continue having these musical dialogues across the country, hoping to demonstrate and foster positive and constructive conversations between people from all walks of life. These great artists and friends now bring this spiritual and musical energy to San Diego State. Check back soon for more details.
Sunday, April 13, 2008 2:00pm
The AL and Norma Cooper Lecture
Israel and Palestine: Two States for Two People
Lecturer: Dr. Liora Lukitz
This is a fascinating topic which will acquaint the audience with the current situation as well as offering insights on the possible paths that negotiations may follow. Dr. Lukitz is a Fellow at the Iraq Study Group at the Truman Institute, Hebrew University at Jerusalem. She received her doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was a research fellow at Harvard. She currently is the visiting scholar-in-residence at the Department of Judaic Studies at SDSU.
Cost: Free.
At Temple Adat Shalom
15905 Pomerado Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Phone: (858) 451-1200
Email: info@adatshalom.com
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:30am
The Formation of Iraq: Seeds of Conflict
Liora Lukitz, Ph.D., Hebrew University
Winn Room, Coronado Library
For more information, phone Noah Hadas at 858-268-9200
Suggested donations: $6/session.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 10:30am
Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series
Presented by The Agency for Jewish Education and Coronado Friends of AJE
Sydney Taylor: "All-of-a-Kind Family" and the Jewish American Dream
Professor June Cummins, SDSU
Winn Room, Coronado Library
For more information, phone Noah Hadas at 858-268-9200
Suggested donations: $6/session.
Sunday November 4, 2007 2:00pm
The 22nd Annual Robert Siegel Memorial Lecture
Risa Levitt-Kohn and Rebecca Moore discuss their new book:
A Portable God: The Origin of Judaism and Christianity at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair:
Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center,
JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS
4126 Executive Drive La Jolla, CA 92037
858.457.3030
www.lfjcc.org
This event is free and open to the public
Monday, November 12, 2007; 6:30 PM or 8 PM
Mystery and Mysticism at Qumran
By Esther Chazon, Ph.D., Director of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. At the San Diego Natural History Museum.
The Qumran community, the holy congregation of elect "Sons of Light," held that God revealed the deeper, hidden meaning of the Torah and Prophets to its teachers and members through a process of divinely inspired exegesis. The Qumran community's transcendent experience and intricate knowledge of the heavenly realm uncover an early link in the chain of tradition that developed into classical Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah.
Dr. Chazon serves as the Director of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. She is a lecturer at The Hebrew University in the areas of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Literature of the Second Temple Period, Development of Jewish Liturgy. She earned her Ph.D. at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her publications include, "A Liturgical Document from Qumran and Its Implications: "Words of the Luminaries" (4QDibHam)"; "Is Divrei ha-me'orot a Sectarian Prayer?" in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research (Magnes Press, 1992).
Tickets for Museum Members $20; Nonmembers $25. tickets@sdnhm.org or call 619.255.0203
www.sdscrolls.org
Sponsored by Jewish Studies Program, San Diego State University
Monday December 3, 2007, 7:00pm
"Ebony and Ivory: The Interaction between Jews and African American Jazz Musicians in the first half of the 20th Century."
A lecture and musical performance with A. Spencer Barefield acclaimed jazz guitarist, composer, and producer and Jewish Studies Artist-in-Residence Yale Strom. At SDSU Music Bldg room 113.
This presentation will feature the music of African American and Jewish American composers and musicians exploring the rich cultural interaction of these two ethnic groups.The concert would include works by performers & composers such as Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Leonard Bernstein. Artie Shaw and others. Discussion would explore the cultures and the origin of musical elements such as harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, in the creation of this new 20th century art form. In addition the lecture/demo will look at the social tensions related to segregation and integration between African Americans and Jews both in the music and social worlds in the first half of the 20th century.
For further information and reservations contact jsprogram@projects.sdsu.edu or call 619-594-8695. Co sponsored by SDSU's Aficana Studies Department and the Anthropology Department. Seating is limited.
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