INSIDE THIS ISSUE… Brandeis University Center for German 2010-2011 and European Studies
RESEARCH WORKSHOPS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS…...... 2-3
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONVERSATIONS AND LECTURES…………..…4-5
CULTURAL EVENTS...... 6-7
JEWISH-GERMAN CGES DIALOGUE……………...8 in review
Update on the Eurocrisis: What is it really? Who done it and why? What might it mean to us?
CGES director emeritus George Ross, have so much trouble doing the right ad personam Chaire Jean Monnet at things. Ross did not mince words, the Université de Montréal and accusing European officials of having Morris Hillquit, Professor Emeritus knowingly ignored that “the Greeks in Labor and Social Thought at were cooking their books for years” Brandeis University returned to update and holding German Chancellor students and faculty in European Merkel’s slow response in part Studies about the situation in Europe. responsible for the severity of the Ross began with a historical overview, crisis. Asked whether a “proper focusing on the relationship between default” was an option for Greece, the financial crisis in the US and the Ross pointed to the country’s crisis gripping the EU and threatening symbolic significance for European the global economy. He explained why Brussels and the EU are even more difficult to understand than Wall (Eurocrisis - continued on page 3) Street, and why the Europeans seem to
Brandeis Students “do Deutsch”
To highlight the importance of the German language, CGES participated again in the campusweek activities co-sponsored by the German Embassy in Washington D.C. An entire ‘army’ of volunteers mounted daily activities on campus with music, discussion, and art celebrating the German language.
(do Deutsch - continued on page 3)
2 Research Workshops and Panel Discussions
EVENT Euro in Crisis? Tuesday, April 12, 2011 HIGHLIGHTS:
When Lucas Papademos, himself. Instead, he joined to a significant ‘haircut’. former Vice-President of the the other finance experts to Moderator Chandler My Perestroika European Central Bank, agreed provide an overview of the Rosenberger, Assistant Monday, April 11, 2011 to join Jeffry Frieden, Euro crisis and to attempt to Professor of International and Harvard University Professor translate the complex web of Global Studies and Sociology What was it like growing up in the Department of challenges and options at Brandeis University fielded in the cold war? What do Government and Catherine Europe faced. While questions from a mixed people who grew up in the Mann, Barbara and Richard Papademos continued to be audience of economics Soviet Union or East and M. Rosenberg Professor of moderately optimistic that a students and those worried West Germany remember of Global Finance at Brandeis simple debt restructuring about the impact of the crisis their childhood? What University’s International would be sufficient, on the American recovery. remains? Robin Hessman Business School to discuss the Professor Mann compared The event was co-sponsored explored these questions in Euro crisis in early April of the European situation to by The Rosenberg Institute of her documentary My 2011, he did not let on that he what had happened in South Global Finance and The Perestroika, a film that might soon be in charge of America in the 1980s and International and Global includes interviews with a steering the Greek economy 90s and saw little alternative Studies Program. number of young Russians who take an unflinching look at their years under communist rule. Hessman’s work was discussed by Babi Yar in History and Memory graduate student Feruza Aripova, and Professors Wednesday, October 5, 2011 Irina Dubinina and Sabine von Mering, who each contributed their own Babi Yar is a ravine in Holocaust and Genocide primarily to censorship in memories of the time before Kiev, Ukraine, where the Studies; Gennady Estraikh, the Soviet Union, “before and after Perestroika and the largest mass murder of associate professor of 1961, Babi Yar simply fall of the Berlin wall. Soviet Jews during World Yiddish Studies at New York couldn't enter the domain of War II took place from University; Alice public knowledge,” Estraikh Geopolitics of Energy Sept. 29 to 30, 1941. In Nakhimovsky, professor of explained. Unlike most addition to commemorating Russian and Jewish Studies at mass murders during the Tuesday, April 12, 2011 the 70th anniversary of the Colgate University; and Olga Holocaust, young men were massacre, this symposium Litvak, who holds the Leffell not separated from women, Klaus Barbknecht, Executive Board Member, was organized to bring Chair in Modern Jewish children and elders. together scholars to “begin History at Clark University. The lectures were Verbundnetz Gas, returned to a conversation” about the On the massacre itself, interspersed with student Brandeis for a stimulating luncheon conversation with event and to honor the Berkhoff said that the Jews performances, including victims' memory, existence would have had little doubt poems "1 (Untitled)" by business students and faculty and suffering. For the Jews, that they were about to be Ilya Ehrenburg, read by at the Brandeis International Business School. Participants Babi Yar became a symbol killed. “The Germans David Benger '14 and of "the reawakening of demanded [the Jews'] Daniel Shpolyansky '14, discussed recent Jewish identities and documents and burned them and "Babi Yar" by Yevgeni developments in the European energy sector, collective mourning" before their own eyes,” he Yevtushenko, read by (ChaeRan Freeze) and for explained. "The shooting Karina Gaft '14 and Nera focusing on emergency the Soviet intelligentsia, a began at 10 in the morning Lerner '12. Sponsored by management, and considered "rejection of anti-Semitism and lasted until 5 or 6 pm,” the Tauber Institute for the implications of the and protest against Soviet and continued again the European Jewry, the Sarnat German government’s repression.” following morning. Center for the Study of decision to phase out nuclear Speakers included According to Berkhoff, Anti-Jewishness, the power. Co-sponsored by: Freeze; Karel C. Berkhoff, killings at the site continued Brandeis-Genesis Institute Perlmutter Institute for Global Business Leadership senior researcher at the until late October. Due for Russian Jewry, and the NIOD Institute for War, Brandeis Russian Club. and the Brandeis International Business School.
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Workshop on
Europe, Energy, and Eurocrisis: What now? the Environment Friday, October 28, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
(Eurocrisis - from page 1) Many young Europeans in the audience This 3-week graduate felt encouraged by Ross’ talk. “He knows workshop with Klaus unity and also emphasized that many a lot about the history of the EU, and so Barbknecht, Executive Greeks are suffering tremendously as a he can put things in perspective” on Board Member, Verbundnetz consequence of the current situation. student remarked. Gas, grew out of Barbknecht’s initial visit to Brandeis in 2010. In this workshop, students learned about the international gas ‘do Deutsch’ – Info Panel Series markets and their role in November 14-18, 2011 addressing environmental concerns. Co-sponsors: Perlmutter Institute for Global (do Deutsch - from page 1) Business Leadership and the Brandeis International Student Panels presented German food, enjoyed participating in a quiz about Business School. videos, impromptu German lessons, and Germany that included such questions as shared information about study and “Who is Angela Merkel or “What do German Jewish research in Germany in the Shapiro ‘Kinder’ and ‘Garten’ originally mean?” in Aspirations in Music and Campus Center and Usdan Student the hope of winning one of the popular “do th th Center every day of the week. Many Deutsch”-T-Shirts. Culture in 19 and 20 Century Germany
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Michael Leavitt, President,
American Society of Jewish
Music, introduced a multi- panel symposium devoted to the question of how German
Jews navigated music and culture in the 19th and 20th century. The first panel focused on German Jewish
Synagogue Music. Speakers included Dr. Mark L.
Kligman, Dr. Tina Frühauf,
Dr. Michael Zank. The second panel was devoted to
Jewish Music in the 20th
Century. Speakers included
Eugene Sheppard, Dr.
Pamela Potter, and Dr.
Anthony Polonsky. Co- sponsored by The American
Society of Jewish Music, the
Jewish Music Forum,
Brandeis University’s Tauber
Institute for the Study of
European Jewry, and
Brandeis Library and
Technology Services.
4 Interdisciplinary Conversations and Lectures
EVENT From Chernobyl to Fukishima: HIGHLIGHTS: Nuclear Energy and Its Alternatives
Thursday, April 28, 2011 TXT BCK? On the Art of Text Messaging On the 25th anniversary Schindler, then Director of have so far neglected in of the Chernobyl nuclear the Fraunhofer Institut favor of nuclear power. Thursday,March 31, 2011 disaster, CGES in Cambridge, MA Dr. Schindler focused his experimented for the first was able to join talk on ways in which Professor Lutz Koepnick time with the option of the panel in person. New England could tackled a very timely videoconferencing a Lehmann outlined how benefit from advances in question in his lecture: panelist from Germany. Europe can dramatically technology developed by Does the age of electronic The result was a reduce its carbon footprint German and European networks, global stimulating conversation by coordinating efficiency partners. Both panelists transactions, and rapid across the “pond” that measures and investment in saw a great future for transportation technologies allowed participants to alternative energy across alternative energy not cause people to suffer from hear first-hand from Dr. the continent. In reference only as a way to promote too much speed in their Harry Lehmann from to the recent nuclear sustainability but also to lives? Contrary to the Umweltbundesamt catastrophe in Japan, stimulate the economy expectation, Koepnick [federal environmental Lehmann also highlighted through innovation. discovered the potential of office—an organization the enormous untapped Presented in cooperation electronic writing and text comparable to the EPA] resources in alternative with the Goethe Institut messaging to reframe the in Bonn. Dr. Roland energy that the Japanese Boston. speed of our present, and develop a viable art of slowness. Koepnick also highlighted the role of writing in the Humanities Photography and Climate Change in general as a means to probe the different speeds, Monday, September 19, 2011 itineraries, and visions of progress that define our contemporary moment. Ulrike Heine from the Range Future. Her research ism and art and commercial Co-sponsored by the Research Group focuses on projects originating photography. European Cultural Studies Transnational Media Events in the fields of photojournal- Program. at the Justus-Liebig-
Universitaet Gießen/
Germany represents a new European
interdisciplinary generation Perspectives on
of scholars. In her talk, Renewable Energy Heine explored how
photographs are used to Tuesday, April 12, 2011 communicate different
aspects of climate change. Juergen Eschment, Head Heine, who completed her of Corporate Development studies in art history and & Strategy for GASAG cultural studies in Leipzig AG, talked to students in and St. Petersburg/Russia, the International Business is currently working on her School about the current Ph.D. on the topic of development and realities of Photography and Climate renewable energy in Change as a visiting fellow
at Boston University's
Frederick S. Pardee Center (Renewables - continued on page 5) for the Study of the Longer-
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(Renewables - from page 4)
Germany and Europe, and he The Legend of the Berlin Wall - provided a global perspective on its future. Eschment’s As Presented by a Mole gave an overview of subsidy mechanisms and their Wednesday, April 13, 2011 implications for the energy industry, energy intensive industries and society, as It was a very special treat for CGES Brandeis to host well as an outlook of where author Slavenka Drakulić in April of 2011. In her renewables might go and highly comical collection of short stories—The Legend what other measures might of the Berlin Wall - As Presented by a Mole—Drakulić influence new energy satirized the experience of GDR bureaucracy resorting to thinking. This event was co- fabled animals and bringing their problems to light in a sponsored by Net Impact, a way reminiscent of the movie Ratatouille. This event Brandeis graduate student was co-sponsored by the Brandeis Program in European club. Cultural Studies.
Climate Change
Luncheon Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Earth Day Panel Architecture, Life,
CGES invited faculty in Environmental Studies, Discussion: and Death students organized in Philosophy, Ethics & the Arts, A Conversation with Nina ‘Students for Environmental Sustainability Across Disciplines Libeskind and Shulamit Reinharz Action’ (SEA), as well as other interested community Thursday, April 14, 2011 Tuesday,April 5, 2011 members for a conversation about how we can best At a CGES co-sponsored panel in When architect Daniel Libeskind promote knowledge about celebration of Earth Day, CGES Director unfortunately fell ill and was unable to climate change at Brandeis. Professor Sabine von Mering, come to Brandeis, his wife and partner at SEA brought a guest Philosophy Professor Kate Moran, and Daniel Libeskind Studio, Nina Libeskind, speaker who highlighted the Marci McPhee, Associate Director of the decided to take his place. Gretchen experience of people living International Center for Ethics, Justice, Schneider, Associate Editor of the in areas of heavy and Public Life, discussed the ways in magazine Architecture Boston delivered mountaintop removal, which their disciplines had been introductory remarks about Daniel bringing home the notion transformed in recent years by attempts to Libeskind’s works and influence on world that climate change is address issues of sustainability. architecture. Then, Ms. Libeskind. having real-life Professor von Mering referred to a speaking from her own perspective about consequences for new course she was in the process of her husband’s work, mesmerized her communities everywhere. creating, entitled “Human/Nature— audience. Faculty described various European Perspectives on Climate During the conversation, Nina international research Change”. In it she aims to address how Libeskind spoke about the influence of projects they are involved Germans and Europeans have tackled Daniel Libeskind’s early life experiences in, and also expressed climate change and how/why their on his commitments, vision and work. frustration at the lack of approach differs from what is happening Some of Daniel Libeskind’s buildings media interest and the in the US. She explained that as a major include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, amount of misinformation. supporter of Green politics, alternative Germany, the extension to the Denver Art CGES Director von Mering energy, and energy efficiency Germany Museum in the United States, the Grand promised to continue to has not only found economic success, but Canal Theatre in Dublin, and the Wohl promote conversation about also garnered international praise Centre at the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat- climate change on campus especially from young people in search of Gan, Israel. This event was co-sponsored and explore cooperation a sustainable future. The issue has also by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute’s with German and European seen prominent reflection in German Project on Families, Children and the universities. literature, film, and culture. Holocaust, and Boston Association of Architects.
6 Cultural Events
EVENT Rehearsal in HIGHLIGHTS: Theresienstadt,
1944 BEAMS concert Saturday, April 30, 2011 Thursday, April 14, 2011 The Brandeis-Electro- Acoustic-Music-Studio Boston Lyric Opera commissioned concert this year included the the one-act opera The After-Image Phoenix ensemble from Basel, from Brandeis alumnus Richard Switzerland. The concert won Beaudoin (now Lecturer in the the IBM Innovation Award for department of music at Harvard the best performance event at University) to complement its the Boston CyberArts Festival February 2011 production of Victor 2011. Co-sponsored with the Ullmann’s opera The Emperor of Arts Council, The Poses Atlantis, or Death Quits, (originally Awards, the Theodore and Jane written in Theresianstadt in 1944, but Norman Fund, Parsons Audio, only performed for the first time in and the Computer Music Amsterdam in 1975). CGES Studio at Boston University. sponsored a panel discussion with the
composer and the director, including Jewish Film 2011
excerpts performed by the singers. March 5-13, 2011
CGES was proud to again Photo by Jeffery Dunn for Boston Lyric Opera, 2011 sponsor parts of the Jewish Film
festival with North Americna
premiere screenings of Cabaret
Berlin: The Wild Scene
[Cabaret Berlin: La Scène
Author Sauvage] and Mahler on the
Couch [Mahler auf der Couch].
reading with Co-sponsored by the National
Center for Jewish Film, the
Martin Goethe Institut Boston, the
Consulate General of France and
Walser the Tauber Institute for the
Study of European Jewry.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 The Comedian Harmonists - Popular Music, and the Transference of Race at the Introduced by Brandeis alum end of Weimar Germany Susanne Klingenstein, German author Martin Walser Friday, January 28, 2011 addressed a packed Faculty CGES was proud to host Club Lounge in German. The Stephan Pennington, Assistant author also read from his most Professor of Music at Tufts recent book. Several attendees University with his work on the commented on the joy of German-Jewish a cappella group hearing “such impeccable The Comedian Harmonists. German”. This event was co- Pennington highlighted the way sponsored by the Goethe in which Harry Frommermann Institut Boston, Center for transformed the work of the European Studies at Harvard American quintet The Revelers University, and the German and how race played a role in Consulate General. both the American and the German context. Co-sponsored by the Department of Music.
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The 2011 Chocolate Cake Lecture: On Kafka "Stefan George and Tuesday,April 5, 2011 Lyric Modernism" Monday, November 7, 2011 Professor Vivian Liska from the Kafka’s texts. In doing so she turned their University of Antwerp, Belgium came to attention to the detective work required of Professor Christophe Fricker Brandeis to discuss her new book about anyone trying to understand Kafka’s intricate from Rutgers University, also Kafka. With the help of a very careful prose. Liska also highlighted the difficulties an award-winning German close reading, Liska actively engaged faced by those who attempt to translate Kafka’s poet, highlighted the role of students in reading short excerpts from works. sound and rhythm and form in George’s concept of lyric poetry—a contrast to more free-form conventions or The Art of Klezmer and Yiddish Song received modernism. Presented in cooperation with Wednesday, November 16, 2011 the Dean of Arts and Sciences, European Cultural Studies, and Comparative The fall CGES highlight was a concert, Jewish Music" projects, are probably the Literature. lecture, and dance featuring world- most famous Klezmer musicians in the "Kebab Connection" renowned Klezmer experts Hankus world. Co-sponsored in cooperation with Netsky and Michael Alpert, virtuoso the Brandeis program in Yiddish and Thursday, March 31, 2011 klezmer clarinetist Zoe Christiansen, as Eastern European Studies and the well as several members of the Klezmer Department of Music, The Tauber As part of the "Shakespeare in Conservatory Band, and students from Institute for the Study of European Jewry, World Cinema Film Series" the New England Conservatory. Michael the Brandeis Department of Near Eastern CGES sponsored a discussion Alpert, a founding member of the and Judaic Studies, the National Center or “Kebab Connection” with klezmer super-group, Brave Old World for Jewish Film at Brandeis University, film expert Lutz Koepnick. and Hankus Netsky, founder and director The Goethe Institut Boston, The Yiddish Co-sponsored by: The of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Committee of Boston Workmen's Circle, Department of German, Music Director for Itzhak Perlman's and The German Embassy in Washington, Russian and Asian Languages "In the Fiddler's House" and "Soul of D.C. and Literature, the European
Cultural Studies program, and the Mandel Center for the
Humanities.
Grant Recipient Seminar Film series “WWII in World Cinema” Monday, October 3, 2011 Monday, October 17 and This year we invited our grant Thursday, December 8, recipients to showcase their experience in the context of the In recognition of the 60th CGES Welcome reception, anniversary of Pearl Harbor which we held on the day of CGES co-sponsored a series of German Unification in the international films about World beautiful new Reading Room War II. Including Japanese film on the top level of the Mandel Caterpillar about the seriously Center for the Humanities. We wounded soldier Kurokawa were fortunate to have MdB who returns home after the war Harald Leibrecht with us on deeply traumatized and the this occasion, the new controversial blockbuster film coordinator for transatlantic Der Untergang. relations in the German Foreign Office.
8 Jewish-German Dialogue
EVENT Life and Loss in the HIGHLIGHTS: Shadow of the Holocaust: Holocaust Remembrance Jewish-German Dialogue with Author Uta Larkey Day Commemoration
Thursday, October 27, 2011 Monday, May 2, 2011 In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, CGES and Professor Uta Larkey read and left divided between dimension to the the Holocaust Remembrance from her new book, Life and Germany, the United States, understanding of life in Committee together with other Loss In the Shadow of the and Palestine. The family's Germany during these dark local Jewish-German Dialogue Holocaust: A Jewish unique eight-way years. Cosponsored by the groups presented a screening of Family's Untold Story. correspondence across two Hadassah-Brandeis Institute the film Defiance, hosted by (2011; Cambridge University generations brings into sharp and the Jewish-German Leora Tec, whose mother focus the dilemma of Jews Dialogue groups of the wrote the book on which the who faced the painful Boston area. film is based. Co-sponsored by decision of when and if they the International Center for should leave Nazi Germany. Ethics, Justice, and Public Life. The book captures the family members' fluctuating The failed prosecution emotions of hope, of Holocaust perpetrators resignation, and despair, as in Austria well as the day-to-day Tuesday, September 20, 2011 concerns, experiences, and Press) The book is based on dynamics of family life Dr. Winfried R. Garscha correspondence between despite increasing (PhD, University of Vienna), members of a Jewish family persecution and impending co-director of the Austrian before, during, and after the deportation. Headed by two Research Centre for Post-War Holocaust. Larkey and her sisters who were among the Trials and archivist at the co-author Rebecca Boehling first female business owners Documentation Center of reveal how the Kaufmann- in Essen, the family was far Austrian Resistance, discussed Steinberg family was pulled from conventional, and their his research into the question apart under the Nazi regime story contributes a new why Austria had failed to prosecute Nazis successfully. His work is published in Screening of Strafverfolgung und ver- The Vilna Ghetto Theater: weigerte Gerechtigkeit: Polen, Yiddish Poetry Set to Music Nathan the Wise Deutschland und Österreich in Vergleich (Graz, 2011). (1941-1943) with Coolidge Corner, Goethe, NCJF Kristallnacht Thursday, September 8, 2011 Commemoration Sunday, September 11, 2011 Wednesday, November 9, 2011 On Sept 6, 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Vilna (then the occupied Republic of Poland--today What better way to commemorate In Commemoration of the 1938 Vilnius, Lithuania) where they killed about 40,000 Jews the victims of September 11, 2001 “Kristallnacht,” CGES screened to forcing them to work 10-hour shifts on starvation than with Gotthold Ephraim “About Face,” a feature-length diets. In January 1942, a theater opened in the Vilna Lessing’s passionate plea for documentary that tells the story Ghetto. Though some were initially hesitant to embrace tolerance in Nathan the Wise. of thousands of young Jewish the undertaking, the theater performances were a huge Manfred Noa’s 1922 silent film immigrants who fled Germany success with ghetto inmates, who were enduring great version was thought to have been and Austria in the early days of hardships. For a few hours, these performances offered lost until it was rediscovered in Hitler’s regime, only to perform the relief of laughter and tears. In commemoration of the 1996 in a Russian archive. CGES an “about face” and return to ghetto's establishment 70 years ago, this event presented worked with the Goethe Institut Europe as American and British moving and witty excerpts from four revue shows Boston, and the National Center soldiers to confront their composed by gifted composers and lyricists. With for Jewish Film to bring this oppressors in WWII. Co- Sophie Michaux (voice), Eugenia Gerstein (piano), unusual film to an enthusiastic sponsored by the Otto and Fran and lecturer Susanne Klingenstein. Boston audience. Walter Foundation.