CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES AT QUEENS COLLEGE THE ARTHUR AND CAROLE ANDERMAN CULTURE & ARTS FALL 2017 GUIDE 1 CULTURE & ARTS FALL 2017 GUIDE SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER CONTENTS September 13 November 6 Director’s Letter 3 Wednesday, 7:15 pm Monday, 2:15 pm Rosenthal Library, Room 230 Rosenthal Library, President’s Review of Center’s 2016–17 Conference Room #2 (fifth floor) JEWISH LECTURE SERIES/ Culture & Arts Programming 4 BOOK TALK JEWISH LECTURE SERIES/ Distinguished Professor BOOK TALK Memorial Tribute 12 Samuel Heilman, will discuss his Dr. Vera B. Moreen latest book, Who Will Lead Us? Judeo-Persian Epic Literature Jewish Lecture Series 13 The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties and Persian Miniature Paintings in America. Judeo-Persian Slide Lecture 14 November 12 Sunday, 2 pm Jewish Book Talk Series 15 OCTOBER Goldstein Theatre An Annual Commemoration of Annual Kristallnacht October 30 Kristallnacht and Recommitment Commemoration 16 Monday, 12:15 pm to Combating Anti-Semitism Rosenthal Library and Hatred Music & Theater President’s Conference Room #2 Performance Series 17 (fifth floor) Keynote Speaker Noah Isenberg, Professor of Culture and Media Faculty Speakers Bureau 18 JEWISH LECTURE SERIES/ at the New School’s Eugene Lang BOOK TALK College of Liberal Arts Achievements & Distinctions 19 Professor Abi Doukhan “Casablanca, the Refugee Biblical Portraits of Exile: Question, and the Fateful About the Center 25 A Philosophical Reading Summer of 1938” (film clips included) Friends of the Center 28 DECEMBER New Member Benefits 29 December 14 Important Reasons to Give 30 Thursday, 7 pm LeFrak Concert Hall Parking & Transportation 31 MUSIC AND THEATRE SERIES A Chanukah Celebration Featuring Ricky Pen and Her Band Once again we would like to thank Mark Podwal for making available his beautiful art that graces our cover: Hebrew Zodiac by Mark Podwal from REIMAGINED: 45 Years of Jewish Art by Mark Podwal. 2 A Letter from performances, book talks, and film off campus. In particular, we wish screenings—almost all of which are to thank President Félix V. Matos the Director free and open to the public—the Rodríguez and Provost Elizabeth Center for Jewish Studies strives to F. Hendrey for their keen interest The Year in Review be a bridge between the college and and active participation in many of the wider community, making the our events. We also acknowledge insights of leading scholars, writers, the dedication and hard work of Arnold Franklin and artists available and accessible the Jewish Studies Advisory Board Director to general audiences and specialists and the members of its executive alike. Located in one of the most committee: Bernie Spear, Pearl diverse neighborhoods in the U.S., Halegua, Arthur Anderman, and Dear Friends, the Center for Jewish Studies is in Gary Sazer. It’s hard to a unique position to showcase the We thank you, too, for your believe that the breadth and diversity of the Jewish support, and hope that you will take a fall semester experience itself. few moments to fill out the enclosed and the Jewish The Center also encourages envelope and renew as a Friend of the holidays are once the academic study of Jews and Center for Jewish Studies, or join us again upon us, Judaism through its support of the as a new member. and as you begin interdisciplinary Jewish Studies Very best wishes for a happy and to make plans for the upcoming year, Program at Queens College. With healthy new year. it’s my pleasure to invite you to the faculty drawn from departments many exciting programs taking place across the university, the Program at the Queens College Center for offers students the opportunity to Above clockwise: pursue both a major and a minor in A lively book signing following a lecture with Jewish Studies. author Devin Naar. Our mission is to promote learned Jewish Studies, and enrolls hundreds Students in the audience at the Tizmoret performance. conversation and informed debate of undergraduates in over thirty courses each year. Professor Arnold Franklin and Rabbi Moshe on the broadest range of topics Tessone, Director of the Sephardic Community concerning Jews and Judaism. The Center depends on the support Program, Yeshiva University Through conferences, lectures, of many individuals, both on and Photos: Leo Correa 3 Review of Center’s 2016–17 Culture & Arts Programming Diane Spielmann Associate Director From the start of our fall programming to its finish in the spring, innovation and creativity are Ashkenazim to a focus on Sephardim, also a trained cantor, turned to music. the hallmarks of which he mentioned is even more Accompanied on piano by Cantor our programming. diverse than those of Ashkenazi Eric Freeman of the Belz School With new heritage. of Music at Yeshiva University, beginnings each And indeed it was borne out in both delivered a truly spiritual fall season as the his PowerPoint presentation with a experience in music. From the ancient academic year breakdown of Spanish/Portuguese Avino Malkanu to a selection from unfolds, so too the coming of the to northern Africa to the Levant contemporary Jerusalem, the audience Jewish holidays. and the Russo-Asian population. was indeed “One” in the spirit of the We opened our season with a With further breakdowns of each evening. spectacular multifold presentation region, indeed the Sephardi numbers In our next program Devin given by Rabbi Moshe Tessone, were exponentially beyond those Naar, a historian from Washington Director of the Sephardic Community from Ashkenaz. Thereafter came University, presented a dynamic talk Program and a distinguished faculty the poignant segment leading to based on his groundbreaking new member at Yeshiva University. The “spirituality,” in which he emphasized book, Jewish Salonica: Between event was sponsored by Elsi Levy and that “All Jews are One!” Referring the Ottoman Empire and Modern the Levy Family. Rabbi Tessone’s to the Talmud, Rabbi Tessone spoke Greece. Prof. Naar captivated his talk, “The Jewish New Year: Spiritual of allegory in understanding how the audience, beginning with his own Inspiration for the High Holidays and community becomes one, especially memories from childhood. He had Beyond,” began with a demographic during the holiday period. And what internalized the stories from his summary of world Jewry from would be a spiritual experience paternal grandfather, who was born without music? Hence Rabbi Tessone, in Salonica speaking Judeo-Spanish, and whose father was a revered rabbi there. Simultaneously, young Devin also learned from his family that the once-thriving Jewish community ended in death and destruction during the Holocaust, which included his ancestors. From that moment on he was determined to not only find vestiges of his own family, but also to make known the history of Jewish Salonica to celebrate the once- thriving Jewish community. 4 In pursuing his childhood Thanks to Our Friends. inclinations, Prof. Naar became an expert in Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew Your Support is Our Future. as he searched the world over for the scattered archives in a number Our latest grant from the U.S. Department of Education has helped us through these difficult economic times. No doubt, however, you continue to of repositories, which led to the read in the Jewish press and elsewhere that like all institutions—for profit publication of his book. Throughout and not-for-profit—CUNY and Queens College were seriously impacted the lecture he passionately included by the recent great recession and very fragile recovery. We are carefully amazing facts and figures to an addressing these challenges to ensure our long-term health, but we rely audience that was riveted to his on your steadfast support to enable us to continue to offer so many free every word. As he concluded, Prof. programs and to play such a pivotal role in the world of Jewish Studies. Few institutions of higher education in the United States can offer such Naar stated that it was not his desire a broad range of courses in Jewish Studies, taught by such a learned and to write about the destruction, but vibrant faculty, with such talented and engaged students, on a campus to celebrate and make known the where diversity and respect are so twinned. We thank you for your past legacy of Jewish life during the time support and hope you will take a few moments to fill out the enclosed between the Ottoman Empire and envelope and join us as a new member or renew as a Friend of the Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College. modern Greece, and that he did! Today, Prof. Naar is recognized as Join us and experience the reasons why we are excited and proud. one of the top scholars in his field. With the holidays over, we reopened our programming as we do each year, with the Annual Leon address good and evil throughout the and Morris Levy Memorial Lecture ages, with “dignity of difference” endowed by the Levy Family. This as we relate to “a people,” or “a year we began with noted Rabbi nation,” all of which is a part of Hayyim Angel, national scholar of “humanity.” With much food for the Institute for Jewish Ideas and thought, the bottom line is “the basics Ideals, who serves as the rabbinic are the basics,” realizing that within scholar at Congregation Kehilath the human sphere there is nothing Jeshurun in New York. He has new under the sun, “simultaneously published over 120 scholarly articles, particularistic and universalistic” for and is the author or editor of 14 all time! books. For this lecture Rabbi Angel From the Bible to the Middle presented “The Chosen People in an Ages with Elisheva Carlebach, the Above: Arthur Anderman, Center for Jewish Age of Political Correctness.” Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Studies Executive Board Chair Emeritus and If you think the topic only covered Jewish History, Culture, and Society his wife, Carole Anderman, attending the today’s political correctness, think at Columbia University.