Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies Newsletter Volume 1, Fall 2009 Director’s Message INSIDE THIS The past academic year, the third year of the ISSUE: Zelikovitz Centre’s operation, has been an exciting year for the Centre. This year’s public lecture series • Zelikovitz Centre was very well attended. Among the highlights of this and Community year, the Zelikovitz Centre was very pleased to Collaborate on collaborate with the University of Ottawa, as well as a Project focused on number of Carleton academic units to bring Professor Holocaust Jan Gross from Princeton University to speak at Carleton. Professor Gross gave an insightful talk to a Survivor-Student standing room only audience on the topic of the Interaction “Unwelcoming of the Jewish Survivors after the • Student Profile: War: Anti-Semitism After the Holocaust.” Raphael Other highlights included visits from international Szajnfarber scholars such as Rabbi Chaim Tabasky of Bar-Ilan University, who graced the Centre once again with his presence, erudition and wisdom and offered a number of events on • Research campus and in the community. The Centre also welcomed Andreas Pretzel from the Highlights: New Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Technical University in Berlin to speak on Books in Jewish the commemoration of the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. Closer to home, Studies Jeremy Stolow from Concordia University gave a fascinating discussion of the role of texts as cultural artifacts in contemporary Orthodox Judaism. • Renowned In addition to our regular lecture program, we have expanded our programming and Princeton activities into new arenas including the hosting of an Israeli Mini-Film Festival on campus University and a Chanukah party for Carleton students, faculty and staff. Historian Jan The Centre has also become involved in an important project working together with Gross Speaks on the Jewish Federation of Ottawa to film a Holocaust documentary that captures the Antisemitism after interactions between survivors and students in the classroom, a project that has been the Auschwitz subject of recent articles in the Canadian Jewish News, The Jewish Tribune, the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin and Education Forum Magazine. • Focus on The Zelikovitz Centre has continued to foster the expansion of course offerings in Students: Jewish Studies at Carleton. The Centre has maintained its support for Hebrew language Reflections on the courses offered through the Religion program in the College of the Humanities and the Impact of Jewish School of Linguistics and Language Studies, both in the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies Courses at Sciences. The summer intensive course in Hebrew is now in its third year and has been Carleton very popular among students in Jewish Studies. These are exciting times for Jewish Studies at Carleton. The interest from students of • Year in Review diverse background in topics concerning Jewish history, society, culture and religious 2008-2009 practice continues to grow. We hope to continue to expand our offerings in the coming years. -Aviva Freedman Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies Newsletter, Fall 2009 2 Zelikovitz Centre and Jewish Federation of Ottawa Collaborate on Educational Film Documenting Survivor-Student Interaction Carleton University and the diversity in a multicultural and multi- will be created that use survivor Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies religious society. The film aims to narratives, as well as footage from the are working on a special film project document the contributions that interaction in the classroom, to aimed at preserving the stories of survivors have made to Holocaust educate students about the diverse Holocaust survivors for educational education and the significant impact experiences of Jews during the use in schools and universities. that their presentations have had on Holocaust. Filming will be taking place at students and teachers. Carleton University faculty with schools across Canada, to provide a Mr. Les Breiner, active member an expertise in Holocaust Studies will diverse picture of survivors’ stories of the Holocaust Education oversee the development of academic and the reactions of the students who Committee of the Jewish Federation supporting materials and teaching hear them. of Ottawa, originated the idea of aids. What distinguishes this film making the film. He perceived the Currently, the film is in its project from other projects that have urgency of capturing the stories of fundraising stage to secure all of the preserved survivor testimonies is that Canadian survivors on film and in resources needed to proceed with in addition to focusing on the particular of their remarkable filming. Time is of the essence, as it is experiences of survivors themselves, contribution to Holocaust education vital for the Centre to film as many the film also draws attention to and combatting prejudice through survivors as possible. survivors’ role as educators in their their volunteer work across Canada. For more information and to interactions with students. For years, Mr. Breiner gathered support from the view a promotional trailer for the film, Holocaust survivors have played an Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies please go to important part in Canadian public at Carleton University and from the education through their classroom Jewish Federation of Ottawa for the http://www2.carleton.ca/jewishstudies visits. They have taught young project. /living-history-project/ Canadians about the dangers of racial Award-winning filmmaker prejudice and anti-Semitism as well as Francine Zuckerman has been chosen or contact the Zelikovitz Centre for the importance of the values of to direct the film. Once filming has Jewish Studies at (613) 520-2600, ext. tolerance and the recognition of been completed, educational modules 1320. Student Profile: Raphael Szajnfarber not only excelled academically, but he with Rabbi Bulka. He was intrigued was also an active contributor to the by Rabbi Bulka’s ability to simplify Carleton student community. In complex subject matter. Raphael also addition to being a Chancellor’s attended several thought-provoking scholar, Raphael served as SHOUT lectures put on by the Zelikovitz (Students Helping Others Understand Centre. Tolerance) Carleton President in his Raphael is grateful for his In winter 2009, Carleton University third year, as well as Hillel Ottawa experiences at Carleton and his student Raphael Szajnfarber President in his final year of studies. exposure to Jewish Studies. This fall completed his Bachelor of Public In his third year of studies, Raphael will be pursuing a law degree Affairs and Policy Management from Raphael’s interest in Jewish Studies, at McGill University in Montreal. We Carleton’s Arthur Kroeger College. more particularly Jewish philosophy, wish him the best of luck with his During his time at Carleton, Raphael was sparked by some of his courses future endeavours. Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies Newsletter, Fall 2009 3 Research Highlights: New Books in Jewish Studies Michael Dorland, Professor in the understanding of Holocaust survival Jacob Kovalio, Professor in the School of Journalism and and trauma throughout the western Department of History and member of Communication and member of the world. the Zelikovitz Centre research group, has turned his attention in Zelikovitz Centre’s research group, Sander L. Gilman, Director of the recent years to two particular forms of Graduate Program in Psychoanalytic has a new book, Cadaverland: anti-Semitism: anti-Semitism in Studies at Emory University, writes of Inventing a Pathology of Catastrophe societies where Jewish communities Dorland’s book: for Holocaust Survival. The Limits of have never been sizable and anti- “Zionist” anti-Semitism. His book, Medical Knowledge and Historical "… Cadaverland is the most important The Russian Protocols of Zion in Memory in France, which was historical study dealing with the Japan: Yudayaka/Jewish Peril released from Brandeis University medical ramifications of the Propaganda and Debates in the Press in October 2009. Holocaust. Focusing on the 1920s, published in May 2009 by the psychiatric and psychological Dorland’s remarkable study Peter Lang Publishing Group, literature dealing with the impact of explores sixty years of medical analyzes the spread of the infamous the Shoah for the survivors and for attempts in the fields of anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of their families, Dorland sketches the Elders of Zion to Japan in the 1920s. neuropsychiatry and psychoanalysis to difficult, contradictory, often self- His study is significant since it describe the effects of concentration destructive struggle of psychological documents the rapid rise of anti- camp incarceration on Holocaust medicine with the horrors of the Semitism in a society in which survivors. Dorland focuses primarily Shoah. Brilliantly written and ranging historically the presence of Jews had well beyond the confines of post-war on the French case, because it was in been minimal. Professor Kovalio France, this is a book that health care France that the first research began presented his research to the Canadian practitioners as well as all those right after World War II on the effects Society of Jewish Studies at the 2009 dealing with trauma and its historical Congress at Carleton last May. of camp deportations. The medical aftermath MUST read.” discourses that emerged in France had a broader resonance and shaped the Renowned Holocaust Historian Jan Gross Speaks