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Jewish and Israel Studies 2014–2015 5775 THE CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES 1 99616.indd 1 11/30/15 9:08 AM FROM THE DIRECTOR THE CROWN FAMILY We Want U (University) ... CENTER FOR and You (Chicago-Area Public) ... JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES and #u (Online Public)! The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Barry Scott Wimpfheimer, director Studies’ mission is an important one: to facilitate Elie Rekhess, associate director, the study of Judaism, Jews, and Israel in all of their Israel studies facets and historical periods with the rigor that Nancy Gelman, program administrator only a premier research institution can provide. The mission engages scholars (both our own faculty and Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg students and visitors) to advance what is known in College of Arts and Sciences these fields by building on existing work and applying Northwestern University the most current and sophisticated methods of research to create new knowledge. Crowe Hall 5-163 That knowledge is communicated to the larger public both through academic forums 1860 Campus Drive (conferences, publications, and websites) and through public lectures. Evanston, Illinois 60208 847-491-2612 The Crown Center strives to build ties with three different communities: the North- 847-467-2062 (fax) western campus community (faculty, students, and visiting researchers), the local community that attends our lectures and conferences, and an online community Visit us on the web: that engages us on our website and via social media. www.jewish-studies.northwestern.edu Our campus community consists of people who are devoted to scholarship about Jewishness, Jews, Judaism, and Israel. The faculty who teach our Jewish studies Contact us: and Israel studies courses rely on the Crown Center to provide research resources, [email protected] conference resources, and an intellectual community within which they can test new Please let us know if you would like to hypotheses and report scholarly results. The students in our graduate cluster rely on be on our mailing list. the center to provide a Jewish studies framework that facilitates research in other primary disciplinary fields. Northwestern undergraduates look to us for more than 40 courses a year and the opportunity to major or minor in Jewish studies. The Chicago-area community enjoys access to our public programming. The Crown Center presents four annual lectures (Crown, Klutznick, Harris, and Vogel) plus additional lectures, panels, and conferences. If you have ideas about speakers we should invite or learning programs we should offer, please share them with us. Our online endeavors are expanding. Over the past few years we have posted audio and video recordings of public lectures on our website. This coming year we will be making a more deliberate attempt to engage the online public through our website On the cover: Israeli Tu BiShvat poster, and social media. In spring 2016 we will offer The Talmud: A Methodological Introduc- circa 1955–1963. 24 x 36 inches. tion as a MOOC (massive open online course). The course is designed for the general Charles Deering McCormick Library public and requires no prior knowledge of Hebrew, Aramaic, or the Talmud; it will of Special Collections, Northwestern present the Talmud as it is taught in universities. With more extensive video and audio University Libraries. offerings planned, we hope to make the Crown Center website one of your favorite places for online learning. © 2015 Northwestern University. All rights reserved. Produced by University Relations. 11-15/1.5M/NL-KP-MM/1928-1 Barry Scott Wimpfheimer Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Law 2 Director, Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies 99616.indd 2 11/25/15 9:14 AM 201415 NEWS AND EVENTS “Film and Politics in Allan and Norma Harris Israeli History” Memorial Lecture Shaul Mitelpunkt, postdoctoral fellow at in Jewish Studies Northwestern, organized “Film and Politics Lawrence Baron (San Diego State in Israeli History,” a panel discussion, on University) delivered “Hollywood and the October 14, 2014. In addition to Mitelpunkt, Holocaust: From Appeasement to Anti- speakers included Orit Bashkin (University Nazism, 1933–1945” on November 3, 2014. of Chicago), Rachel Harris (University of Baron debunked the myth that Hollywood Illinois), and Hamid Naficy (Northwestern). was late to address Nazi anti-Semitism. “Gaza and Beyond” continued on page 4 “Gaza and Beyond: Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab World,” a public program presented on October 23, 2014, addressed the ramifications of the 2014 Gaza war for Israel and the Palestinians, reconcilia- Lawrence Baron tion efforts between Palestinian political factions, the destabilization of the Arab territorial nation-state, the rise of militant Renée and Lester Crown Islam, and the struggle of influential pow- Speaker Series ers in the Middle East. Moderated by North- western’s Elie Rekhess, the panel included Author Gary Shteyngart discussed and Shai Feldman (Brandeis University), Khalil read from his best-selling memoir, Little Shikaki (Brandeis; Palestinian Center for Failure, in a program held October 25, Policy and Survey Research, Ramallah), 2014, on the Evanston campus. His lecture, Abdel Monem Said Aly (Brandeis; Regional “Still Failing: Gary Shteyngart Returns,” Center for Strategic Studies, Cairo; Al-Masry was presented as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Al-Youm), and Nabeel Khoury (Northwest- Gary Shteyngart ern; Chicago Council on Global Affairs). “Gaza and Beyond: Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab World” 3 99616.indd 3 11/25/15 9:14 AM Danny M. Cohen Yoram Peri and Elie Rekhess continued from page 3 “2015 Knesset Elections” On March 5, 2015, Yoram Peri (University of Maryland) and Northwestern’s Elie Rekhess anticipated the Israeli elections in a dia- logue titled “2015 Knesset Elections: A Shift Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick in Israeli Politics?” Peri overviewed Israel’s Lecture in Jewish Civilization political system and the platforms and issues under consideration in the coming Ruth Langer (Boston College) presented election. Rekhess then discussed the “Dealing with ‘Difficult’ Prayers: Jewish Lit- Arab Joint List coalition party and the urgy in an Age of Jewish-Christian Dialogue” background of Israel’s Arab voters. In Lila Corwin Berman on May 28, 2015, in a program cosponsored the ensuing conversation Rekhess and with the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Peri queried each other about the rele- Chicago. Langer focused her presentation Manfred H. Vogel Memorial vance of party platforms, the absence on birkat haminim, an ancient prayer that of contentious topics such as the Israeli- Lecture in Judaic Studies has been understood as anti-Christian for Palestinian conflict, and the potential Lila Corwin Berman (Temple University) much of its history. Langer framed this in for a major power shift. presented “Is It Good to Give? The Amer- the context of recent traditionalist attempts ican Jewish Philanthropic Complex” on to reinstate such prayers in the liturgy April 23, 2015. Berman outlined the ways Train reading and discussion despite their polemical meanings in an in which communal charity collection unprecedented age of religious dialogue. On Yom Hashoah, April 16, 2015, Danny M. and distribution have changed in the past Cohen (Northwestern) read from his newly century and how tax laws have caused published novel, Train. A work of histor- an increase in “donor-advised funds” and ical fiction based on hidden Holocaust affected Jewish giving. Thank you history, Train gives voice to the unheard Thank you to these friends of the victims of Nazism—the Roma, the “At the Crossroads” Crown Center, who have generously disabled, intermarried Jews, homosexuals, supported our programs this year: and political enemies of the Nazi regime. On May 18–19, 2015, Northwestern’s The reading was followed by a discussion Mira Balberg and Barry Wimpfheimer Heather ’92 and Felix Baker and author interview facilitated by cochaired the conference “At the Cross- Nicholas ’64 and Eleanor Chabraja Northwestern’s Phyllis Lassner. roads: New Directions in the Study of Rabbinic Literature.” Held in work- Diana H. and Steven J. Cobb ’65 shop style, with 12 participants and Ludmilla Coven ample time for discussion and conversa- Crown Family Foundation tion, the conference reflected on the Rochelle and Arthur Elstein past, present, and future of the academic Shlomo Levine ’60 field of rabbinics. 4 99616.indd 4 11/25/15 9:14 AM The Golden Age Shtetl wins Jewish book award Other lectures A book by Northwestern professor Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern that demythologizes the popular image of the shtetl won the Jewish Book Council’s 2014 National Jewish November 3, 2014 Book Award for history. Ethan Tucker (Mechon Hadar), “Conver- sions and Courts: Do You Need Someone Petrovsky-Shtern’s The Golden Age Shtetl: A New History of Jewish Life in East Europe Else’s Approval to Become a Jew?” (Princeton University Press) replaces the ramshackle image familiar from Fiddler on the Roof with a richly detailed depiction of a vibrant community. November 19, 2014 Marcin Wodzinsky (University of Wroclaw, Poland), “Hasidism: Key Questions” The word shtetl refers to the small market towns where two-thirds of eastern Europe’s Jews lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. Few books have been written on everyday December 10, 2014 shtetl life in the half-century Petrovsky-Shtern calls “the golden age,” between Shaul Mitelpunkt (Northwestern), “Gazing 1790 and 1840; the stereotypes of the
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