May 8, 2013 • 4:00-5:30 PM
Humanities 1, Room 210

For most Americans, the phrase “Jewish education” summons images of Hebrew School. But, Hebrew School, or even what we might call “formal Jewish education” amounts to only a very small percentage of where and how people learn to be Jewish. The landscape of Jewish learning might include those sites, but it certainly includes a much broader spectrum of settings like worship, film festivals, popular music, literature, home-based rituals (like Passover seders), technology, and encounters with the news. By focusing on the places where and how people learn to be Jewish, a dramatically different image of Jewish education comes into focus. Building on cutting edge research into educational cultures, we will explore the variety of ways in which people learn to be Jewish in the 21st century and ask how this new understanding might inform how we understand what it means to be Jewish.

An alumnus of UC Santa Cruz (Stevenson, 1994) Ari Y. Kelman is the inaugural Jim Joseph Professor of Education and Jewish Studies in the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, where he also serves as an affiliate of the Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Comparative Race and Ethnicity, the American Studies Program, and, by courtesy, a professor of Religious Studies. He is the author of Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio, (University of California Press, 2009) and the editor of a volume of the work of cartoonist Milt Gross (NYU Press, 2009). He is also the co-author of Sacred Strategies (Alban Institute Press, 2010), a study of synagogue transformation efforts in the United States and winner of the 2010 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Jewish Education and Identity. In collaboration with Steven M. Cohen, Ari has authored a number of studies of contemporary American Jewish culture addressing issues from Israel to the internet. Ari recently finished a book entitled Shout to the Lord: Worship and Music in Evangelical America, and is currently writing about Fiddler on the Roof, the Jewish Catalog, Jewish cultural festivals and other extra-scholastic loci in which people learn to be Jewish.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Humanities 1, Room 210
2:00-3:45 PM

The presentation explores the marriage patterns of the Sephardi Jewish communities, paying special attention to when Sephardim began marrying Ashkenazi Jews, thereby giving birth to a new type of Jewish identity, neither fully Ashkenazi nor fully Sephardi, but Argentine. Although initially Sephardim respected the boundaries of their communities of origin, and usually married ‘within’, as the twentieth century progressed and new spaces for interaction of Jews from different origins became available choosing a marriage partner outside of the ‘group’ became more common. The presentation will suggest that loyalties to communities of origin slowly evolved into a stronger sense of belonging to the Argentine nation.

Adriana M. Brodsky, Associate Professor of Latin American History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, obtained her PhD from Duke University in 2004. She is currently finishing a manuscript entitled Becoming Argentine Jews: Sephardim and the Construction of Ethnic and National Identities, 1880-1960, which focuses on the Sephardic communities that settled in Argentina from the end of the 19th century to mid-20th century, and has co-edited with Raanan Rein (Tel Aviv University) a book titled The New Jewish Argentina (Brill, 2012). She has published on Sephardi schools in Argentina, and on Jewish Beauty Contests. Her new project explores the experiences of Argentine Sephardi youth in the 1960s-1970s, which has received support from the Hadassah- Brandeis Institute.

Here is the flashy cover art from an issue of Leviathan published in 2012.

Imagine how hard it would be to publish a respected quarterly magazine with a 100 percent turnover rate every three or four years, and keep it going for four decades.

The students of UC Santa Cruz have pulled off this impressive feat with Leviathan Jewish Journal, which ranks among the longest-running Jewish themed campus publications in the country.

The venerable publication will celebrate its 40^th anniversary this year at a special event at 3 p.m. April 28 that will include a panel of Leviathan editors past and present, as well as the official launch of the Leviathan‘s online archive of all issues going back to 1972, when the publication started in newspaper format. There will also be a festive reception with food and beverages. This anniversary gathering will be part of UCSC’s Alumni Weekend 2013 celebration from April 26-28.

Asked to explain Leviathan‘s longevity, the journal’s faculty advisor, Nathaniel Deutsch, UCSC professor of literature and history, and co-director of the Center for Jewish Studies, replied: “It is the students. They are really good at ensuring this is handed over to the next generation.

Over the years, Leviathan has gone through many changes, transforming itself gradually from a newspaper format to a slick magazine style. Here is a vintage cover of the journal from the late 1970s, featuring original artwork and lettering by UCSC students.

Those classes typically attract about 1,000 students a year.

Deutsch took the faculty advisory role at the request of Leviathan staff member Aaron Giannini (Stevenson ’13, history), currently the magazine’s editor-in-chief, and one of Deutsch’s students.

Giannini was drawn to the magazine after hearing about it in his Hebrew class. He started off as a staff writer, penning a quarterly Jewish-themed advice column called “Dear Abbyraham,” covering such issues as the origins and relevance of Kosher dietary laws, and other, thornier issues involving Israel and Jewish identity.

Staff members who write opinion pieces for Leviathan are speaking from their own points of view, and not representing an editorial position for Leviathan as a whole, he said. “One of the main reasons to join Leviathan is to facilitate conversation. Even if someone doesn’t agree, it is important to be able to have that conversation, not feel like you are being censored.”

Bruce Thompson, a past long-term faculty advisor for Leviathan, has a strong sense of the publication’s history.

He talked about its changes and evolutions from the days it started out as a mimeographed newspaper run by a collective of editors.

The hard-working all-student staff of Leviathan is able to put out a thought-provoking journal every quarter – and they have been doing so for almost 40 years.

Leviathan also moved from newsprint to a slick magazine format, with more expensive production values. Along the way, it accumulated a long list of distinguished alumni, including the American-born Israeli historian Gershem Gorenberg; Tony Mischels, who is the George L. Mosse Associate Professor of American Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Joshua Zimmerman, a specialist in Polish and Italian Jewish history at Yeshiva University.

All the while, Leviathan keeps publishing a new issue every quarter.

“It is really quite a feat,” Thompson said. “I think it’s partly luck and partly a lot of effort because students who take the lead as editors are aware that they are standing on the shoulders of giants.”
 

Article written by Dan White.

Sunday, April 28, 3-4:30 p.m., Stevenson College, Fireside Lounge

Please join former and current staff members of Leviathan in a celebration of the student publication’s 40th anniversary. Leviathan is one of the longest-running university student publications devoted to Jewish themes in the United States. Over the years, its articles and artwork have explored contemporary questions of Jewish identity, the role of Israel, local Jewish issues, and a wide range of cultural and historical topics. Many of it editors, writers, and artists have gone on to distinguished careers in publishing, journalism, education, and other fields.

The event, to be held in the Fireside Lounge of Stevenson College at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, will include a panel discussion with former and current Leviathan staff members, the official launch of the newly created digital archive of past issues of the publication going back to the 1970s, and a festive reception with food and beverages. Co-sponsored by Leviathan, the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Stevenson College. Administrative support provided by the Institute for Humanities Research.

Award-winning documentarian Duki Dror in-residence at UCSC this winter as visiting artist

UCSC’s Film and Digital Media Department will present a free public screening of award-winning Israeli documentarian Duki Dror’s acclaimed film Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions on February 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Media Theater.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Dror, who is spending this winter quarter in residence at UCSC as a visiting artist.

Dror’s most recent work, Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions (2011), illuminates the life of German Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn, one of the most prominent modern architects of the past century.

The story is based on more than 12,000 letters he exchanged with his wife Louise over the course of their lives.

Duki Dror

She thought he was a genius and after the war ended, they married and she helped him to become the busiest architect in Germany.

When the Nazis came to power, Mendelsohn was expelled from the Academy of Arts and their house was confiscated, along with all of their possessions.

The couple left Germany forever and wandered between continents, with Mendelsohn leaving a trail of visionary buildings around the world.

He worked in England, Israel, and eventually the San Francisco Bay Area, where he taught at UC Berkeley.

Among his many achievements, Mendelsohn designed the Einstein Tower observatory, Schocken department stores, and the first modern cinema–Universum Cinema–in Germany; the Mt. Scopus Campus of Hadassah Hospital; and the Weitzman House in Israel.

Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions had its world premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2011 and since then has been screened at countless film festivals worldwide.

Born in Tel Aviv, and educated at UCLA and Columbia College in Chicago, Dror is one of the most prolific documentary filmmakers in Israel. His films have been described as “parables of identity in the 21st century’s merging world…telling powerful stories triggered by cultural, political and ethnic dilemmas.”

Dror’s previous films include: My Fantasia (2000), the story of his father who was a political prisoner in Iraq; Raging Dove (2002), the story of Arab-Israeli world boxing champion Johar Abu-Lashin, which premiered at the SXSW festival, and aired on The Sundance Channel; Mr. Cortisone Happy Days (2004), a jarring documentary about dying of cancer; The Journey of Vaan Nguyen(2005), a feature documentary about the Vietnamese “boat people,” that premiered at the Asian-American Film Festival in San Francisco; and Across The River (2009), which premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

As resident artist at UCSC this quarter, Dror is currently teaching the course “Film 801, A Comparative Study of Israeli Documentaries.”

UCSC’s screening of Duki Dror’s film Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions takes place on February 25, at 7:30 p.m., on campus in the Media Theater. Admission is free and open to the public. This event is co-sponsored by the UCSC Center for Jewish Studies, the Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival, and the Arts Dean’s Arts Excellence Fund. For more information, call (831) 459-3204. WATCH TRAILER
 

Article written by Scott Rappaport.

Monday, February 25, 2013 – 7:30–9:30 PM
Media Theater (M110), Theater Arts Center

Presented by The Arts Division and Film and Digital Media. Co-Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies, Arts Dean’s Arts Excellence Fund, and Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival.

Free and Open to the Public
General Admission Seating, first come, first served
Parking available in Performing Arts Lot ($4)

Watch the Trailer

Synopsis: This film is a cinematic mediation about the untold story of Erich Mendelsohn,  whose life and career were as enigmatic and tragic as the path of the century. He drew sketches on tiny pieces of paper and sent them from the trenches to a young cellist, who was waiting for him in Berlin.  She thought he was a genius and after WWI, she helped him become the busiest architect in Germany.  When she planned to leave him for a communist poet, he built a perfect house for her, entirely planned by him from the lakeview living room, to the silverware and her evening gowns.  When the Nazis came to power, they abandoned the house and left Germany forever.  Erich and Louise Mendelsohn have wandered between continents, between world wars, between success and failure.  The buildings that Erich built around the world, scattered as a trail of their journey, have changed the history of architecture.

Award-winning filmmaker and current Schusterman Visiting Artist, Duki Dror (The Journey of Vaan Nguyen, Raging Dove) has created a spectacular interpretation based on Erich and Louise’s relationship, for one of the most captivating chapters in the development of modern art.

[more info]

Friday, March 8, 2013
Humanities Lecture Hall, 206
9:30-10:40 AM

Reception following lecture.

James E. Young is Professor of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he has taught since 1988, and currently Chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies. He has also taught at New York University as a Dorot Professor of English and Hebrew/Judaic Studies (1984-88), at Bryn Mawr College in the History of Religion, and at the University of Washington, Harvard University, and Princeton University as a visiting professor. He received his B.A. in 1973 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his M.A. in 1976 from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. from the University of California in 1983.

Professor Young is the author of At Memory’s Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture (Yale University Press, 2000), The Texture of Memory (Yale University Press, 1993), which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1994, and Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust (Indiana University Press, 1988), which won a Choice Outstanding Book Award for 1988. He was also the Guest Curator of an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York City, entitled “The Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History” (March – August 1994, with venues in Berlin and Munich, September 1994 – June 1995) and was the editor of The Art of Memory (Prestel Verlag, 1994), the exhibition catalogue for this show.

In 1997, Professor Young was appointed by the Berlin Senate to the five-member Findungskommission for Germany’s national “Memorial to Europe’s Murdered Jews,” dedicated in 2005. He has also consulted with Argentina’s government on its memorial to the desaparacidos, as well as with numerous city agencies on their memorials and museums. Most recently, he was appointed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to the jury for the World Trade Center Site Memorial competition, now under construction.

His articles and reviews have appeared in Critical Inquiry, Representations, New Literary History, Partisan Review, The Yale Journal of Criticism, Annales, SAQ, History and Theory, Harvard Design Magazine, Jewish Social Studies, Contemporary Literature, History and Memory, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Forward, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Prooftexts, The Jewish Quarterly, Tikkun, The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Slate, among dozens of other journals and collected volumes. His books and articles have been published in German, French, Hebrew, Japanese, and Swedish.

Professor Young is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, ACLS Fellowship, NEH Exhibition planning, implementation, and research grants, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Grants, an American Philosophical Society Grant, and a Yad Hanadiv Fellowship at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, among others.

In 2000, he was appointed as Editor-in-Chief of the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, a ten-volume anthology of primary sources, documents, texts, and images, forthcoming with Yale University Press. He is also currently completing an insider’s account of the World Trade Center Memorial process, entitled The Stages of Memory at Ground Zero: A Juror’s Report on the World Trade Center Memorial Process.
 

Photo of World Trade Center Memorial by dgphilli.

2013 APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL HALL OF RESIDENCE
New call for candidates to participate in the International Student Hall of Residence
Rondine Cittadella della Pace

The Association “Rondine Cittadella della Pace” has been active in the promotion of the culture of peace for over 10 years. The main activities of the Association are concentrated in the management of the International Hall of Residence. Here the students, coming from the opposing sides of conflict, live and study side by side in a project of dialogue and peaceful coexistence. They follow undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses at university, take part in the educational activities and return to their home countries to embark on high visibility academic, institutional or industrial careers, furthering the cause of dialogue and reconciliation.

The Association’s mission statement can be summed up as follows: promoting conflict resolution through the humanization of one’s enemy.

The scholarship, offered to Israeli students between 19 and 27, who are interested in attending a University degree or Master course in Italy as part of the experience of the International Student Hall Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Tuscany). The costs (university, food and accommodation) are fully covered by the scholarship. Deadline to apply: February 20, 2013. More information, including the application form, can be found here: http://www.rondine.org/it/application-from.html

Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Humanities Lecture Hall, 206
9:30-10:40 AM

Reception following lecture.

Dora Sorell grew up in the small town of Sighet in Northern Romania between the two World Wars. In May 1944 she was deported to Auschwitz along with most of the town’s 10,000 Jewish inhabitants. She survived the ordeal, but her parents, two of her brothers, and some 40 members of her extended family perished in the gas chambers. Dora returned to Sighet, married her high school sweetheart, and built a career and raised a family before emigrating to the West to be with her surviving brothers. More information about her autobiography, Tell the Children, Letters to Miriam, is can be found on her website: http://www.letterstomygrandchildren.com/index.html
 

Photo of Chimneys of collapsed buildings in Auschwitz II Birkenau by Adam Zivner.

Monday, February 11, 2013
Humanities Lecture Hall, 206
9:30-10:40 AM

Reception to follow.

Michael Thaler is a Professor Emeritus of Pediatric Medicine, UC San Francisco, and a Lecturer in History, UC Santa Cruz.
 

Photo from the Nuremburg Trials by BETTMANN/CORBIS