Events

Sephardic Stories – Elizabeth Graver & Michael Frank

Free

For this year’s Al Finci Memorial Lecture two award-winning authors gather to discuss their writing and what drew them to Sephardic stories. Elizabeth Graver’s fifth novel, Kantika (Metropolitan Books/Holt, 2023), is a dazzling multi-generational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring themes of displacement, endurance, family, and home. Inspired by […]

At 4:00 pm
UCLA Faculty Center

And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible – Joel Kaminsky

Free

Since the Hebrew Bible is a sacred text for Jews and Christians many readers naturally assume it cannot contain any humor. This talk will explore several biblical narratives that employ humor to make serious theological points. Becoming aware of such biblical humor can enrich our understanding of these stories and of certain theological ideas the […]

At 2:00 pm
306 Royce Hall

Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism – Magda Teter (Fordham)

Free

In 2017 in Charlottesville, antisemitism and anti-Black racism converged as white supremacists, in a highly choreographed and violent protest against the removal of a statue honoring a Confederate general, carried Confederate flags and chanted “Jews will not replace us.” In this talk, Magda Teter, the author of Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism […]

At 4:00 pm
314 Royce Hall

Encounters with Judeo-Spanish Culture in the MENA & Beyond (12th Annual ucLADINO Conference)

Free

In its twelfth consecutive year, the ucLADINO conference continues to advocate for the preservation of Ladino language and culture in the Judeo-Spanish diaspora. The theme for this year’s ucLADINO conference,  Encounters with Judeo-Spanish Culture in the MENA and Beyond, seeks to highlight the ways in which Judeo-Spanish speakers (including but not limited to Haketia and […]

At 9:00 am

Resurrecting the Jew: Nationalism, Philosemitism, and Poland’s Jewish Revival – Geneviève Zubrzycki

Free

Since the early 2000s, Poland has experienced a remarkable Jewish revival, largely driven by non-Jewish Poles with a passionate new interest in all things Jewish. Klezmer music, Jewish-style restaurants, kosher vodka, and festivals of Jewish culture have become popular, while new museums, memorials, Jewish studies programs, and Holocaust research centers reflect soul-searching about Polish-Jewish relations […]

At 2:00 pm
314 Royce Hall

The Object of Jewish Literature: A Material History – Barbara Mann

Free

With the rise of digital media, the ‘death of the book’ has been widely discussed. But the physical object itself persists. Here, through the lens of materiality and objects, Barbara Mann tells a history of modern Jewish literature, from novels and poetry to graphic novels and artist’s books, offering a new frame for understanding how […]

At 4:00 pm
314 Royce Hall

Künstlers in Paradise – Cathleen Schine

Free

For years Mamie Künstler, ninety-three-years-old, as clever and glamorous as ever, has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City. Like many a twenty-something, he has come to seek his fortune in […]

At 4:00 pm
TOP