Michigan State University College of Arts & Letters C-730 Wells Hall 619 Red Cedar Road East Lansing, MI 48824 Telephone: 517-432-3493 Fax: 517-355-4507 Web: jsp.msu.edu E-mail: [email protected] Kenneth Waltzer, Director Spring Semester 2013 Michael Serling, Chair, Advisory Board Bill Bilstad, Newsletter Editor Focus on Israel MSU Jewish Studies has an active schedule The 8th Annual MSU Israeli Film Festival brate the opening of the Irwin T. and in spring 2013, a good deal of it focused on on Sunday-Monday, March 17-18, will Shirley Holtzman Israeli Literature Collec- Israel. Currently, the state that holds the show outstanding recent Israeli films that tion in the MSU Libraries, and is supported largest concentration of Jews in the world have won the Ophir (Israeli’s Academy by a gift from Ritta Rosenberg is going through elections and perhaps, in Award) or other awards. In addition, we This semester, MSU Jewish Studies will the next six months, facing huge existential will also be hosting a second evening with also co-host with James Madison College questions. filmmaker Judith Manassen-Ramon. historian David E. Fishman of the Jewish A debate in the blogosphere asks wheth- The major event of the spring will be Theological Seminary on Wednesday, Feb- er Israel is shifting dramatically to the right our ambitious Symposium on Hebrew and ruary 20, for our annual Yiddishkeit lecture. and the election will be another turning Israeli Literature, April 9-10, 2013. Guest Professor Fishman’s lecture will be on “The point in Israeli history or Israelis are simply speakers will include outstanding Israeli Dynamics of Jewish Life in 1930s Vilna.” reflecting their pessimism about the peace novelist Meir Shalev and the well-known Finally, our 21st annual Rabin Lecture on process while still embracing support for a University of California-Berkeley scholar the Holocaust will be delivered on April 18 two-state solution. Robert Alter. The symposium will also by historian Barbara Epstein of the Universi- Natalia Mozgovaya, the young talented bring to MSU six scholars from Israel, New ty of California-Santa Cruz, who will speak chief of Haaretz’ Washington Bureau will York, California, Florida, and Michigan to on “The Minsk Ghetto: Jews and Byelorus- visit Thursday, January 31 to speak about explore issues in Meir Shalev’s work, in the sians as Allies in Resistance.” Additional “The Israeli Elections and Israeli-American revival of modern Hebrew as Israel’s na- Holocaust-related programming will in- Relations.” Following the results, who will tional language, and in the depiction of war clude the April 4 showing of a film-in- Bibi Netanyahu enlist in a coalition govern- and violence in Israeli cultural products. progress April 4 by filmmaker Mitchell ment and what will be Israel-United States Meir Shalev will offer the opening talk Lieber, called Rumbula’s Echo, about the relations? Tuesday, April 9. Robert Alter will close Holocaust in Latvia, and the presentation in We are playing host this semester to a the symposium on Wednesday, April 10, the Lenore Marwill Jewish Film Festival at Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artist at MSU, speaking on “Hebrew Poetry Rewriting the Berman Performing Arts Center at the Guy Meirson, who will speak Wednesday, Job.” Jewish Community Center in West Bloom- February 13, on “The Israeli Soldier in Con- Flyers for the Festival and the Symposi- field on April 7, Yom Hashoah Day, of the temporary Israeli Films.” Guy Meirson will um are inside. Special thanks to Professor film Kinderblock 66, with Ken Waltzer. also be a special guest speaker at the 8th Marc Bernstein who has chaired the com- Annual MSU Israeli Film Festival Sunday, mittee planning this event and to Deborah ~Ken Waltzer, Professor and Director March 17, 2013, and at the Symposium on Margolis, our Jewish Studies librarian. The Hebrew and Israeli Literature on April 10. Symposium is meant to highlight and cele- 21st David and Sarah Rabin Lecture of the Holocaust MSU Symposium on Hebrew and Israeli Literature “The Minsk Ghetto: Jews and Byelorussians Resistance” Tuesday and Wednesday, April 9-10 Thursday, April 18, 7:00-9:00 pm MSU Main Library 4th floor and Wells Hall B-342 Lincoln Room, Kellogg Center, MSU Sponsored by MSU Jewish Barbara Epstein is an historian and Studies Program and MSU student of social movements at the Libraries. The Symposium University of California-Santa Cruz. celebrates the Irwin T. & Why in the Minsk Ghetto did Jews Shirley Holtzman Israeli and Byelorussians cooperate in re- Literature Collection, and sistance to the Nazi rule? Why did featured guests include Is- this not happen in the ghettoes of raeli novelist Meir Shalev Lodz, Warsaw, Riga, and Kovno? (left) and American scholar Robert Alter (right). Recent and Upcoming Events Thursday, April 4 Spring 2013 Holocaust Commemoration Programming Thursday, January 17 Film Rumbula’s Echo, directed by Mitchell Lieber “Hawks v. Doves, Left v. Right: What’s on the This is a work-in-progress Agenda of the Israeli Elections?” screening of a new Holocaust David Mendelsson, Hebrew University of Jeru- documentary. Director Mitch- salem ell Lieber will answer ques- A British-born Israeli historian, David Mendels- tions about the little-known son teaches the making of the modern Israeli Holocaust in Latvia and the state and society at Hebrew University and in massacre of 25,000 Jews in the Rumbula Forest, outside Riga, Israel Studies at Hebrew Union College. in late November-early December 1941. 4:30 pm, James Madison Library, Case Hall, 3rd Floor 7:00-9:00 pm, Wells Hall B-119 Thursday, January 31 Sunday, April 7 7th Annual Michael & Elaine Serling Lecture on Modern Israel Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival “The Israeli Elections and Israeli-American Relations” Film Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald (2012), directed Natasha Mozgovaya, chief U.S. correspondent for Haaretz by Rob Cohen Born in the former Soviet Union, emigrated The movie tells the story of rescue in- with her Russian journalist parents to Israel side the concentration camp by the in 1990, Natasha Mozgovaya has written Communist-led international clandes- for Russian newspapers in Israel, worked tine resistance, and highlights the role for Yedioth Ahronoth, and has headed of the blockelder of Kinderblock 66, Haaretz’ Washington bureau since 2008. Antonin Kalina. Kenneth Waltzer will present the film. 4:00 pm, Spartan Club Room, Case Hall, 5:00 pm, Berman Center, Jewish Community Center, 3rd Floor West Bloomfield, MI Wednesday, February 13 Wednesday, April 10 “The Israeli Soldier in Contemporary Israeli Films” MSU Symposium on Hebrew and Israeli Literature: Panels Guy Meirson, Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artist at MSU Guy Meirson is an Israeli screenwriter and 10:20 am Meir Shalev’s Oeuvre writer who was won numerous awards in Meir Shalev [author and writer], Robert Alter [UC Berkeley], Israel and elsewhere. His film, Rock the Cas- Rachel Harris [U. Illionois Urbana], Marc Bernstein [MSU] bah, recently contended for an Israeli acade- my award (2012) in the Best Feature Film 1:30 pm Revival of Hebrew as a National Language category. Miryam Segal [CUNY Queens], Arieh Saposnik [UCLA], 7:00 pm, Wells Hall B-117 Yaakov Herskowitz [U-M] 3:30 pm War and Violence in Israeli Culture Wednesday, February 20 Ranen Omer-Sherman, [U Miami], Daniel Statman [Haifa Uni- “Between Determination and Despair: The Dynamics of versity], Guy Meirson, [Sam Spiegel Film School, Tel Aviv]. Jewish Life in 1930s Vilna” Wells Hall B-342 David E. Fishman, Jewish Theological Seminary David E. Fishman is professor of Modern Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Thursday, April 18 Seminary, and is also director of Project Ju- 21st David and Sarah Rabin Lecture of the Holocaust daica. Dr. Fishman’s books include Russia’s “The Minsk Ghetto: Jews and Byelorussians as Allies in Resistance” First Modern Jews and The Rise of Modern Barbara Epstein, University of California-Santa Cruz Yiddish Culture. In her most recent book, The Minsk Ghetto: 1941-1943: Jewish 5:00 pm, James Madison Library, Case Hall, Resistance and Soviet Internationalism 3rd Floor (2008), Barbara Epstein explores the little- known but significant cooperation among Jews and Byelorussians in and around Minsk Sunday-Monday, March 17-18 and what difference it made for targeted 8th Annual Israeli Film Festival Jewish victims under Nazi rule. 7:00-9:00 pm Lincoln Room, Kellogg Center See attached flyer for complete schedule. All films are free and open to the public. 147 Comm Arts, MSU Guy Meirson, Summer Study Abroad Programs in Israel: Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artist June 9-26 & June 27-July 29 MSU Jewish Studies is pleased to be hosting a Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artist this semester, supported by a grant from MSU’s Study Abroad Risk and Security Committee has ap- the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. proved study abroad in Israel. The Nature, Culture, and Envi- Guy Meirson is an Israeli ronmental Issues in a Green Israel program will go from June screenwriter and writer who has 9-26. The MSU Jewish Studies Summer Program at Hebrew won numerous awards in Israel University will go from June 27-July 29. Registration is re- and elsewhere, and whose film, quired by March 1. Applications for Levy Scholarships (found Rock the Casbah, recently con- on the Jewish Studies website) are due also by March 1. tended for an Israeli academy MSU’s Jewish Studies Summer Program at the Hebrew award (2012) in the Best Feature University in Jerusalem offers 8 credits in the Arts and Hu- Film category and is an official manities or Social Sciences. The Summer Program is sited at selection of the Panorama section the Rothberg International School. in the current Berlin Film Festival Professor Yael Aronoff, the Serling and Friends Associate 2013.