On February 26, at 12:30 pm, Professor Shachar Pinsker of the University of Michigan will present "A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture" for the Center for Judaic Studies Faculty Colloquium series. The talk will be held in Oak Hall, room 236. A complimentary kosher lunch will be served.

This event is free and open to the public! Please RSVP to attend: https://cjspinsker.eventbrite.com

About the Presentation

Professor Pinsker’s talk will explore coffeehouses as a silk road of modern Jewish culture by examining a network of interconnected cafés that were central to the modern Jewish experience in a time of migration and urbanization, from Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin to New York City and Tel Aviv. Drawing on stories, novels, poems, newspaper articles, memoirs, archival documents, photographs, caricatures, and artwork, he will show how Jewish modernity was born in the café, nourished, and sent out into the world by way of print, politics, literature, art, and theater. What was experienced and created in the space of the coffeehouse touched thousands who read, saw, and imbibed a modern culture that redefined what it meant to be a Jew in the world.

About the Speaker

Shachar Pinsker is Associate Professor of Hebrew Literature and Culture at the University of Michigan. He is a specialist in modern Hebrew and Jewish literature and culture, and he is the author of the award-winning book Literary Passports: The Making of Modernism Hebrew Fiction in Europe (Stanford, 2011).

This event is co-sponsored by the Humanities Institute and the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages. If you require an accommodation to participate, please contact Pamela Weathers at 860-486-2271 or pamela.weathers@uconn.edu.