Author: Pamela Weathers

Funding for the Purchase of Library Resources Available from the Center

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Babbidge LibraryIn an era of shrinking library acquisitions budgets, the Center is pleased to announce that the funds in a number of our specifically designated book endowments are available for the purchase of materials for the UConn library in order to make them available for the teaching and research of Judaic Studies.

We ask that faculty send us the relevant publication information so that we can assemble a list of these requests and purchase them for the Homer Babbidge Library.  Please contact the Center at judaicstudies@uconn.edu. 

Holocaust Expert Dr. Pnina Rosenberg Comes to Connecticut 

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Pnina RosenbergRenowned art historian, Dr. Pnina Rosenberg from The Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), will present two upcoming lectures this September sponsored by UConn Global Affairs, UConn’s Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, the Department of Art and Art History, the University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, and Voices of Hope.  

On September 21, from 7:00-9:00pm, Dr. Rosenberg will present “A Long Day’s Journey into the Dark Past: Artists-Survivors Facing Their Holocaust Memories” at the University of Hartford’s Mortensen Library in the President’s Classroom, 1st floor.

Dr. Rosenberg will also be presenting “Reshaping Haunted Nuremberg: From the City of Nazi Party Rallies to the Street of Human Rights” on September 22 at 5:00pm in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center’s Konover Auditorium. Dr. Rosenberg’s lecture will provide insights about the transformation of the city of Nuremberg, which held special significance in Nazi Germany as the site of monumental Nazi Party rallies.  A set of laws, known as the “Nuremberg Laws” after the place where they were passed at a Nazi Party convention in 1935, became the legal foundation for the persecution of so-called “non-Aryans” and paved the way for the Holocaust.  After Germany’s defeat in 1945, major German political and military functionaries and leaders of the Nazi Party were tried in Nuremberg in several international tribunals collectively known as the Nuremberg Trials.  

In responding to this history, today’s Nuremberg has transformed many of these locations into educational and memorial sites with the intention of promoting human rights culture.  Every other year, the city of Nuremberg bestows “The Nuremberg International Human Rights Award” upon a worthy organization working in the field of human rights.  In 2000, Nuremberg was the first municipality world-wide to receive the UNESCO Award for Human Rights Education.

9/14/16 – Josh Lambert to Present “The Roots of Jewish Humor”

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Josh LambertJosh Lambert, author of award-winning book Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture and academic director of the Yiddish Book Center, will present “The Roots of Jewish Humor” on September 14 at 7:30pm in the Wilde Auditorium at the University of Hartford in an event co-sponsored by UConn’s Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life and the University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies.

Visit the event page on Facebook!

Learn more about Josh Lambert by visiting his website.

Jewish Playwriting Contest Accepting Submissions

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Jewish Plays Project

Submissions of full-length plays on contemporary Jewish themes are due October 15, 2016, for the 2017 Jewish Plays Project. The top 10 finalists will have portions of their plays performed in various cities in front of a panel of judges who will determine the winner. Center Director Jeffrey Shoulson will serve as a judge this spring when finalists compete at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford. To date, 18 Jewish Plays Projects have gone on to production in New York, London, Tel Aviv, and many US cities.

ABOUT THE JEWISH PLAYS PROJECT: The Jewish Plays Project puts bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages. The JPP’s innovative and competitive development vehicle invests emerging artists in their Jewish identity; engages Jewish communities in the vetting, selecting and championing of new voices; and secures mainstream production opportunities for the best new plays.

Visit the Jewish Plays Projects to find out how to submit your work!

Dr. Yonatan Adler to Present on the Jewish “Stone Age” | Sept. 20, 2016

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On September 20, 2016, at 12:30 PM in Student Union Room 304B, Dr. Yonatan Adler (in conversation with Professor Stuart S. Miller) will present “The Jewish ‘Stone Age’ in Roman Palestine.” The event is open to the public and lunch will be served.

Dr. Yonatan Adler is directing the excavation of a 2,000-year-old limestone workshop in a cave in the Galilee, Israel that served as a stone vessel factory during the period of the Second Temple and perhaps later. Was the popularity of stone vessels, which are common in Jewish settlements in Roman Palestine, due to the fact that some Jews believed they could not become impure or because people simply preferred them over pottery made of clay? Dr. Adler’s presentation will be in conversation with the Center’s Academic Director, Prof. Stuart Miller, who has written extensively on this topic.

New Major in Judaic Studies at UConn

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The Center is very pleased to announce that the major in Judaic Studies is now officially part of the UConn curriculum!
 
The Bachelor of Arts in Judaic Studies may be obtained in General Judaic Studies or Classical Judaic Studies.  Both tracks provide the student with a broad, general background in Jewish civilization and familiarize the student with key texts that inform Jewish culture, religion, and history.  The general Judaic Studies major provides a broader perspective and includes a course concentration in the modern period.  The classical track focuses on the pre-modern experience, especially in the biblical and rabbinic periods.
 
Please visit our Undergraduate Program page for program details and download a plan of study form!

Study Abroad in Buenos Aires Through UConn’s Jewish Latin America Program

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Synagogue of the Israeli Congregation, Buenos Aires
Synagogue of the Israeli Congregation, Buenos Aires

Jewish Latin America Program: Study Abroad in Buenos Aires

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to study abroad in Buenos Aires this spring and benefit from an immersive experience in the culture of the region!  Earn up to 16 credits through the University of Connecticut’s Jewish Latin America program based in Buenos Aires, home to Latin America’€™s largest Jewish community and one of the world’€™s most dynamic sites of the Jewish Diaspora. Students will explore and examine the city with a focus on human rights and migration and take courses on Latin American Jewish Literature and History.

 

No previous Spanish language study required. Courses are taught in English and Spanish. 

The deadline to apply is October 15.

Study abroad scholarships are available! Apply by October 1.

 

Want to learn more? Attend an information session!

Thursday, September 8th, 2016
03:00 PM – 04:00 PM
Storrs Campus
Student Union – Room 325

Contact Information: abroad@uconn.edu

Jewish Humor Series to Supplement Course on Funny Jews

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The Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish life at UConn is participating in a series on Jewish humor this Fall as part of a new collaborative project with the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford and in support of a course, "Funny Jews: On Jewish Humor," that is being simultaneously piloted on both campuses and being taught at UConn by Center director, Jeffrey Shoulson, and at UHart by Professor Avinoam Patt. These events are free and open to the public!

Josh Lambert

Josh Lambert, academic director of the Yiddish Book Center and author of award-winning book, Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture, will launch the series on September 14 at the University of Hartford's Wilde Auditorium at 7:30pm with a public talk entitled, "The Roots of Jewish Humor." Visit the event page on Facebook!  View Josh Lambert's website

Jessica Kirson

On October 19, at 7pm, noted stand-up comic Jessica Kirson will perform her comedy show in the Wilde Auditorium as part of the Greenberg Center's annual Lillian Singer Jewish Humor Lecture. To reserve your free tickets, please call the Greenberg Center at (860) 768-5018 or e-mail: mgcjs@hartford.edu. Visit Jessica Kirson's website.

Jesse Appell

The final event of the Jewish Humor Series, which is in part sponsored by the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, will take place on UConn's Storrs campus in Laurel Hall, room 102, on November 16 at 7pm when Fulbright scholar and comedian Jesse Appell will present his unique brand of intercultural comedy which mixes Jewish humor with the traditional art of xiangsheng, a 150-year-old Chinese comedy folk art.

Jesse Appell's blog.

 

“Two Jerusalems: A Ride on the Jerusalem Light Rail” | June 1, 2016

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Find out how the contrasting visions of Jerusalem as a city of its inhabitants and as the Jewish capital play out at the decision-making level in the administration of the city when  Professor Jeremy Pressman presents “Two Jerusalems: A Ride on the Jerusalem Light Rail.”

Wednesday, June 1

7 PM

Mandell JCC

335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford

This event is free and open to the community! It is made possible by the Mandell JCC, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, the UConn Center for Judaic Studies, and B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom.