Michael Rothberg
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במרכז at the center 2017-18 NEWSLETTER Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies 25 Digital version: cjs.ucla.edu 25version: Digital JEWISH STUDIES IN THE 2017-18 NEWSLETTER VOLUME NEWSLETTER VOLUME 2017-18 PUBLIC SPHERE OCTOBER 24, 2017 INAUGURAL LEVE AWARD NEW LOWELL MILKEN FAMILY MUSIC programs 4 & OPEN HOUSE CELEBRATION 6 BUCHALTER GIFT expands scholarships 22 FROM THE DIRECTOR: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT As I reflect on nearly eight the Breed Street Shul, collaborating with the Boyle Heights Arts years directing UCLA’s Alan D. Conservancy, Boyle Heights Historical Society, the Garment Leve Center for Jewish Studies, Workers Center, Libros Schmibros, Los Angeles Jewish Historical Society, Yiddishkayt, the UCLA Labor Center, and the Workman’s many thoughts come to mind. Circle (Arbeter Ring)—all with the goal of developing new models I am grateful to have had the for public engagement with Jewish studies. opportunity to meet and work with so many extraordinary Funded in part by the UC Humanities Research Council, all three events in East LA involved participation by current residents of Photo: David Wu David Photo: people–from faculty, staff, and the neighborhoods and sought to illuminate historical parallels students to community partners, religious leaders, between Jews and the struggles facing other immigrant groups. philanthropists, elected officials, and members of the The resonance with current events is, of course, unmistakable, general public. It has been inspiring. I am proud of the hence the theme of this year’s at the Center, Jewish Studies in efforts we have made to become a truly world-class the Public Sphere. We look forward to screening we are in it, a center dedicated to the study of all aspects of Jewish new documentary film about refugees in Houston, Texas, by culture, history, religion, and civilization. UCLA alumnus Dr. Yehuda Sharim on October 26. The year will culminate with a major symposium on May 6 called As a center located at one of the leading public universities in Primo Levi for the Public, which examines the significance of the U.S. in one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, I Levi’s life and work, with a particular focus on how it speaks to feel that the Leve Center has a special mission to engage broadly contemporary, public issues. Cosponsored by the Primo Levi with the diversity within our own community as well as with the Center in New York City, the symposium will involve a broad range diversity beyond our community. As such, we are committed not of scholars, including literary critics, philosophers, artists, and only to first-rate academic scholarship, but also to a core set of political commentators. democratic values that inform our mission to educate the next generation of leaders and to address the many complex issues of I am also pleased to announce that the Mapping Jewish LA the day with historical perspective, cross-cultural understanding, project continues to grow and add new digital exhibitions, which reasoned nuance, and moral clarity. can be seen at: www.MappingJewishLA.org, including upcoming exhibitions about the Fairfax neighborhood and composer Walter Through our programmatic and outreach efforts, the Leve Center Arlen. Professor Sarah A. Stein’s Sephardic Archive Initiative is has engaged thoughtfully with contemporary issues, ranging building an interactive digital platform and continuing to reach from the local to the global. We study the past because it shapes out to local Sephardic communities in a concerted collecting the texture of the present and helps us imagine a more just effort. This major initiative has garnered additional support from future. the Maurice Amado Foundation and UC Humanities Research Our exhibition, From Brooklyn Avenue to Cesar Chavez: Jewish Council. Histories in Multiethnic Boyle Heights, will remain up at the I hope to see you at our Inaugural Leve Award Celebration and Breed Street Shul through the end of November. If you haven’t Open House. We will honor Rabbi Elliot Dorff as the first recipient already, I very much hope you will be able to see it. Organized of the Leve Award for his exemplary leadership and service around the interlocking themes of education, religious building bridges across and beyond the Jewish community. The institutions, political activism, language, and arts, the exhibition Leve Award ceremony will take place on October 24 at 4pm in 314 traces the history of Boyle Heights over more than 100 years, Royce Hall. situating Jewish culture within one of Los Angeles’ most diverse neighborhoods. I'm excited to welcome you to the 2017-18 academic year, and look forward to introducing the next director of the Leve Center This past May, the exhibition’s timeline was featured at City Hall before the end of the year. as part of the Los Angeles City Council’s first ceremony marking Jewish History month. It was an honor to be invited by the Todd Samuel Presner Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles to participate and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director, address the Mayor and Council Members alongside our Chief UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies Curator, Caroline Luce. This past year, Dr. Luce organized three Professor, Germanic Languages and Comparative Literature events in East Los Angeles including the exhibition’s opening at Chair, Digital Humanities Program 2 LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL CELEBRATES JEWISH HISTORY MONTH Caroline Luce and Todd Presner hold up a Los Angeles City Council proclamation honoring the Leve Center following ceremonies marking Jewish Heritage Month in May 2017. Also pictured (l. to r.): Advisory board members Laura Leve Cohen and Alan D. Leve; Councilmembers Paul Koretz, David Ryu, Gil Cedillo, and Bob Blumenfield; and UCLA Assistant Vice Chancellor Keith Parker. LEVE CENTER ADVISORY BOARD HONORARY & EMERITI BOARD AL FINCI, chair LUIS LAINER RABBI DANIEL BOUSKILA HAROLD WILLIAMS* LARRY COHEN STEPHEN O. LESSER JERRY MONKARSH ELAINE WOLF LAURA LEVE COHEN ALAN D. LEVE RITA SPIEGEL CHIC WOLK MILT HYMAN ELAINE LINDHEIM KERRI STEINBERG RABBI DAVID WOLPE JAMES KEIR E. RANDOL SCHOENBERG ANDREW VITERBI ZEV YAROSLAVSKY LORI KEIR *Deceased COVER IMAGES Photos: David Wu The opening of the Leve Center's exhibition, Language, Culture, and Lugar (Place): 1 From Brooklyn Ave. to Cesar Chavez, at the 4 Writing Boyle Heights held at the Boyle Breed Street Shul on June 4, 2017, featured Heights Arts Conservancy on January 29, several musical performances including by the 2017, featured a poetry slam. Readings 1 rock fusion band Ollin, based in Boyle Heights. by L.A. Poet Laureate Gloria Alvarez and other local poets were interspersed with 2 Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev historical pieces by two Yiddish writers Yaroslavsky with Alan D. Leve and Todd S. and a Japanese American writer from the Presner at the Leve Center’s Grand Opening neighborhood. 2 Celebration in November 2017, where Yaroslavsky was the keynote speaker. Leve Center Student Leadership Council (Photo: Reed Hutchinson) 5 2016-17 (l. to r.): Tess Williams, Aizian Yuan, Elizabeth Ho, Jessica Behmanesh, The UCLA Klezmer Ensemble played its first Darian Ouliguian, Hannah Berookhim, and 5 4 3 3 public performance for an enthusiastic audience Ryan Davidson (not pictured, Tal Boussi). at the Breed Street Shul exhibit opening. at the editors Mary Enid Pinkerson במרכז Vivian Holenbeck center design 3 Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies David Wu LOWELL MILKEN FAMILY FOUNDATION: $1.5 MILLION GIFT TO ADVANCE AMERICAN JEWISH MUSIC The conference American “Our goal is to advance cutting-edge research, artistic Culture and the Jewish creativity, and interdisciplinary collaboration,” Milken Experience in Music said. “The Milken Archive is a living project, and I believe (November 5-7) is the The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music is uniquely inaugural program of the positioned to further both our mission and our impact Lowell Milken Fund for on current and future generations.” American Jewish Music, “This gift substantially advances our commitment to recently established with the field of Jewish music,” said Judith Smith, Dean of the a $1.5 million gift from music school. “Bringing together academic scholarship the Lowell Milken Family with performances and community events, the gift Foundation to The UCLA embraces and leverages the unique advantages of the Lowell Milken (right) with composer Herman Berlinski Herb Alpert School of Music. in 2000. Berlinski's masterpiece, “Avodat Shabbat,” was school’s three departments: ethnomusicology, music, recorded by the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. (Courtesy Under the direction of and musicology.” Milken Archive) Professor Mark Kligman, Milken graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1973 who holds the school’s Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music, the and is among UCLA’s most generous supporters. His fund will enable the school to build on the work of the Milken Archive of many contributions include a transformative $10 million Jewish Music, a collection of recordings, scores, and historical materials gift in 2011 to the law school, which established the that document the Jewish experience in America over the past 350 years. Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy. The “There has never been a concerted effort to significantly research or study largest single gift in the law school’s history, it enabled American Jewish music,” Kligman said. “With the establishment of this the school to surpass a $100 million fundraising fund, Jewish music—and its history and development—will be given the goal well ahead of the original five-year schedule. The attention it deserves as an integral part of the American music experience.” donation was followed by another $5 million gift in 2014. To help advance the mission of the fund, Kligman has added two members In 2016, UCLA was honored again when Milken donated to his team.