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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261001T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261001T153000
DTSTAMP:20260928T190656Z
CREATED:20260902T222241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260928T190656Z
UID:10999-1790863200-1790868600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Zionism in Translation: Encounters in the German-Hebrew Archive
DESCRIPTION:Zionism in Translation concerns exchanges—primarily of letters but also drafts\, reviews\, and other ephemera—sent to or from Jerusalem in the decades around 1948. All were written in German and Hebrew by a fascinating range of literary figures\, including Hannah Arendt\, Gershom Scholem\, Yehuda Amichai\, Ludwig Strauss\, Erich Auerbach\, Walter Benjamin\, Leah Goldberg\, Peter Szondi\, Paul Celan\, and Tuvia Ruebner. The writers discussed in the book contend with the genocidal violence that brought the rich historical relation between German and Hebrew to a seeming end. They also grapple\, in different ways\, with the new reality in Israel/Palestine in the wake of the founding of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba. The bilingual conversation that crosses over between German and Hebrew in these letters thus centers around the question of Jewish fate in the twentieth century and is immersed in negotiations about Jewish nationalism\, the Zionist movement\, and the possibilities of Jewish poetry. In the space between German and Hebrew\, Rokem argues\, the protagonists of her story voice ambivalences and hesitancies not found elsewhere. \nNa’ama Rokem is Associate Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago\, where she has directed the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies and chaired the department of Comparative Literature. Her first book\, Prosaic Conditions: Heinrich Heine and the Spaces of Zionist Literature was published by Northwestern University Press in 2013. \nThursday\, October 1\, 2025 • 306 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nNa’ama Rokem (University of Chicago)\nModerator: William Schniedewind (UCLA)\nZionism in Translation: Encounters in the German-Hebrew Archive\nSady & Ludwig Kahn Book Talk in German Jewish Studies
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/zionism-in-translation-encounters-in-the-german-hebrew-archive/
LOCATION:UCLA Royce Hall\, Room 306\, 10745 Dickson Court\, Los Angeles\, CA\, 90095\, United States
CATEGORIES:Sady and Ludwig Kahn Program in German Jewish Studies
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ORGANIZER;CN="UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies":MAILTO:levecenter@humnet.ucla.edu
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260929T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260929T160000
DTSTAMP:20260729T203445Z
CREATED:20260715T214124Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260729T203445Z
UID:8836-1790697600-1790697600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies Open House Celebration (2026-2027)
DESCRIPTION:Tuesday\, September 29\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 4 PM\nUCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies Open House Celebration \nShare a bite with the Leve Center faculty\, staff\, students\, and community friends. Learn about our diverse projects\, programs\, and courses. \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/ucla-alan-d-leve-center-for-jewish-studies-open-house-celebration-2026-2027/
LOCATION:UCLA Royce Hall\, Room 314\, 10745 Dickson Court\, Los Angeles\, CA\, 90095\, United States
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ORGANIZER;CN="UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies":MAILTO:levecenter@humnet.ucla.edu
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260603T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260603T153000
DTSTAMP:20260512T162328Z
CREATED:20260512T162328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T162328Z
UID:8807-1780495200-1780500600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jews and Godfearers: Sardis and Aphrodisias\, 400 CE - Seth Schwartz
DESCRIPTION:The phenomenon of “Godfearing”—adoption by gentiles\, usually supposed to have been pagan—of Jewish practices including support for local Jewish communities and attendance in synagogues—has loomed larger in scholarship than it does in the sources. But the phenomenon surely existed. Some ancient writers suggest that in the first century most diaspora jewish communities had a “fringe” of gentile sympathizers who functioned for Jewish communities as protectors and mediators with local governments. Godfearing comes to the fore again in major texts of the early fifth century CE. How much of the traditional picture can be salvaged? (Spoiler: some) How continuous was fifth-century Godfearing with first-century Godfearing? (Second spoiler: not very). \nSeth Schwartz is the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Classical Jewish Civilization in the Departments of History and Classics at Columbia University\, where he also chairs the Graduate Program in Classical Studies. He received his PhD in History at Columbia in 1985. Before returning to Columbia in 2009\, Schwartz taught at Cornell\, the University of Rhode Island and the Jewish Theological Seminary\, had research fellowships at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem\, the Harvard Society of Fellows and King’s College Cambridge. He wrote Consuls of the Later Roman Empire (Atlanta: Scholars Press\, 1987)(with Roger Bagnall\, Alan Cameron and Klaas Worp)\, Josephus and Judaean Politics (Leiden: Brill\, 1990)\, Imperialism and Jewish Society\, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton: Princeton University Press\, 2001)\, Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism (Princeton: Princeton University Press\, 2010)\, and The Ancient Jews From Alexander to Muhammad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press\, 2014). The Jews of Asia Minor\, 215 BCE to 500 CE: Text and Materiality\, will be published by University of Chicago Press in November. \n  \nWednesday\, June 3\, 2026 • 306 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nJews and Godfearers: Sardis and Aphrodisias\, 400 CE \nSeth Schwartz (Columbia University)\nModerator: Carol Bakhos (UCLA) \nEtta and Milton Leve Scholar in Residence Seminar \nRSVP to Jews and Godfearers
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/jews-and-godfearers-sardis-and-aphrodisias-400-ce/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Etta and Milton Leve Scholar-in-Residence
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260602T170000
DTSTAMP:20260512T162001Z
CREATED:20260512T162001Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T162001Z
UID:8803-1780416000-1780419600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Happy Jews in the Roman Diaspora? The Case of Asia Minor (Anatolia) - Seth Schwartz
DESCRIPTION:A dominant trend in scholarship about Jews in the Roman Imperial diaspora emphasizes the Jews’ achievement of a successful balance between integration and separation\, and regards this happy equilibrium as essentially stable for centuries. I will argue that this view rests on a fundamental misreading of the sources. Asia Minor (modern Turkey) provided the richest evidence for the dominant view but when disentangled tells a story of conflict\, instability and\, above all\, poverty. This rather gloomy picture changed for the better only in the fourth century CE\, before a steady decline starting in the fifth. \nSeth Schwartz is the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Classical Jewish Civilization in the Departments of History and Classics at Columbia University\, where he also chairs the Graduate Program in Classical Studies. He received his PhD in History at Columbia in 1985. Before returning to Columbia in 2009\, Schwartz taught at Cornell\, the University of Rhode Island and the Jewish Theological Seminary\, had research fellowships at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem\, the Harvard Society of Fellows and King’s College Cambridge. He wrote Consuls of the Later Roman Empire (Atlanta: Scholars Press\, 1987)(with Roger Bagnall\, Alan Cameron and Klaas Worp)\, Josephus and Judaean Politics (Leiden: Brill\, 1990)\, Imperialism and Jewish Society\, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton: Princeton University Press\, 2001)\, Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism (Princeton: Princeton University Press\, 2010)\, and The Ancient Jews From Alexander to Muhammad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press\, 2014). The Jews of Asia Minor\, 215 BCE to 500 CE: Text and Materiality\, will be published by University of Chicago Press in November. \nTuesday\, June 2\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 4 PM\nHappy Jews in the Roman Diaspora? The Case of Asia Minor (Anatolia)\nSeth Schwartz (Columbia University)\nModerator: Catherine Bonesho (UCLA) \nEtta and Milton Leve Scholar in Residence Lecture \nRSVP to Happy Jews in the Roman Diaspora
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/happy-jews-in-the-roman-diaspora-the-case-of-asia-minor-anatolia/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Etta and Milton Leve Scholar-in-Residence
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260528T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260528T200000
DTSTAMP:20260414T164316Z
CREATED:20260414T164316Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260414T164316Z
UID:8768-1779989400-1779998400@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Past\, Present\, and Future of Jews and the Labor Movement in Los Angeles
DESCRIPTION:What drew Jewish immigrants to the labor movement? How did unions become distinctly “Jewish” spaces – and what happened when they changed? Join historians\, organizers\, and community leaders for a panel on Jewish labor activism in Los Angeles: from the open-shop battles of the early 20th century to today. \nThursday\, May 28\, 2026 • UCLA Labor Center • 5:30 PM\n675 S Park View Street\, Los Angeles\, CA 90057 \nThe Past\, Present\, and Future of Jews and the Labor Movement in Los Angeles \nRabbi Aryeh Cohen (Professor\, American Jewish University)\nMaya Barron-Jones (UFCW Local 770)\nJackie Goldberg (retired educator and elected official)\nLeora Swerdlow (Associate\, Schwartz\, Steinsapir\, Dohrmann & Sommers LLP) \nModerated by Brian Dolber (Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies\, California State University\, San Marcos) \nSponsored by\nThe UCLA Labor Center\nThe UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies\nJewish Partnership for Los Angeles\nThe Jewish Labor Committee\nLA Voice\nUFCW Local 770\nUNITE HERE Local 11 \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/the-past-present-and-future-of-jews-and-the-labor-movement-in-los-angeles/
LOCATION:CA
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260519T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260519T163000
DTSTAMP:20260504T220829Z
CREATED:20260504T220829Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260504T220829Z
UID:8792-1779181200-1779208200@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:14th Annual ucLADINO conference: The Ladino Diaspora and Community Resilience: Memory and Adaptation
DESCRIPTION:In its fourteenth consecutive year\, the ucLADINO conference supports and celebrates the growing preservation of Ladino language and culture in the Judeo-Spanish diaspora. The theme for this year’s ucLADINO conference centers around Ladino and community resilience\, exploring the ways that Ladino language preserves cultural memory yet continually adapts and reacts to change. What is the role of language transmission amidst migration and cultural ruptures? How has Ladino practice adapted to a range of spaces\, from the domestic sphere and local community centers to towns\, cities\, nations\, archives\, and digital networks? \nCLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR UCLADINO CONFERENCE \n14th Annual ucLADINO Conference \nThe Ladino Diaspora and Community Resilience:  \nMemory and Adaptation \nMay 19\, 2026\, The University of California\, Los Angeles \nSchedule\nIntroductions  9:00 – 9:10 AM PST \nPanel 1 | Ladino and Jewish Texts 9:10 – 10:10 AM PST \nPanel 2 | Ladino Theater\, Literature\, and the Press 10:20 – 11:20 AM PST \nKeynote | Edwin Seroussi 11:30 – 12:20 PM PST \nLadino Song Scandals: The 2026 Edition \nBreak  12:20 – 1:20 PM PST \nPanel 3 | Creation: Heritage and Cultural Dialogue 1:20 – 1:50 PM PST \nFeatured Roundtable | Notebooks of Sonic Memory 2:00 – 3:00 PM PST \nPanel 4 | Intergenerational Language Transmission 3:10 – 4:10 PM PST \nClosing Remarks 4:15 – 4:30 PM PST \nPanel 1 | Ladino and Jewish Texts\nModerated by Dr. Bryan Kirschen\, Binghamton University \n  \nDate/Time: Tuesday\, May 19th\, 2026\, 9:10 – 10:10 AM PST \n  \nJavier Leibiusky | CERMOM (INALCO) \nCustoms and Traditions in the Commentary on Pirkei Avot from the Meam Loez (Isaac Magriso\, Constantinople\, 1753) \n  \nJavier Leibiusky (b. 1975\, Buenos Aires) grew up in Israel and has lived in Paris since 2007. He is a researcher at INALCO\, holding a PhD in Languages\, Literatures\, and Societies of the World. His work focuses on Judeo-Spanish language and culture\, and he teaches Modern and Biblical Hebrew. Alongside academia\, he writes fiction\, publishing short story collections in Argentina and France\, including Llueven Uñas\, La Conspiration des Riobambas\, and Acoustic Stories. He recently released his first novel\, Howmme. \n  \nMarcel Israel | Independent Scholar \nSephardic Jews of the Balkans during the Ottoman Empire\, in some documents in Ladino\, found in the Cairo Genizah \nDr. Marcel Israel\, Ph.D.\, trained in Industrial Controls and Telecommunications. A Sephardic Jew\, born in Plovdiv\, Bulgaria\, living alternately in Madrid/ Spain\, and Sofia/ Bulgaria. Speaks Ladino as a native language. Former President of the Central Religious Council of the Jewish Communities in Bulgaria and currently a Board member of Religions for Peace Europe based in Berlin. For about 40 years\, an independent scholar in Jewish History and (Ladino) Linguistics\, presenting multiple scientific contributions at conferences\, seminars\, or webinars in different countries in Europe\, the USA\, and South America.  \n  \nEsther Rute | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev \nLadino in Responsa: An Inheritance Dispute between Amsterdam and the Ottoman Sephardic Diaspora \n  \nEsther Rute is a PhD candidate at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She holds two M.A. degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem\, in Jewish History and Spanish Studies\, and a B.A. in Arabic and Hebrew Philology from the Complutense University of Madrid. Her research focuses on Sephardic rabbinic literature in Judeo-Spanish in the Ottoman world\, with particular attention to legal culture\, converso identity\, and transcultural dynamics between Western European and Ottoman Jewish communities in the early modern period. She works with rabbinic sources in Ladino and Hebrew. \n  \nDavid M. Bunis | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem \nPierre Baudin d’Allauch (b. c1838): A Little-known French Friend of the Ottoman Jews and his Writings in Judezmo \n  \nDavid M. Bunis is professor emeritus at the Center for Jewish Languages and the Department of Hebrew Language\, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of A Lexicon of Judezmo Language (in Hebrew\, Jerusalem\, 1999)\, Voices from Jewish Salonika (Jerusalem-Salonika\, 1999)\, and numerous articles on the Judezmo (Ladino\, Judeo-Spanish) language and its literature and on Jewish languages as a field of scholarly inquiry; editor of Languages and Literatures of Sephardic and Oriental Jews (2009); co-editor of Rabbinical Literature in Yiddish and Ladino (2025); Massorot\, devoted to Jewish language traditions\, and Caminos de leche y miel: Jubilee Volume in Honor of Michael Studemund-Halévy (2018). In 2006 he received the Yitzhak Ben-Zvi Prize\, and in 2013\, the EMET Prize. \n  \nPanel 2 | Ladino Theater\, Literature\, and the Press\nNegotiating Identity  \nModerated by Madeline Hudalla\, PhD Candidate\, UCLA \n  \nDate/Time: Tuesday\, May 19th\, 2026\, 10:20 – 11:20 AM PST \n  \nLilian L. Cano | University of Texas at San Antonio \nLadino\, Cultural Memory\, and Diasporic Resilience in Vida propia \n  \nLilian L. Cano is Professor of Practice in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Ph.D. candidate in English. Her research centers on Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)\, Sephardic Jewish studies\, and the relationship between language and identity in literature. Her work examines how code-switching\, narrative voice\, and cultural memory shape identity in Sephardic and Spanish-language novels. She has presented at national and international conferences and is committed to the study and preservation of Ladino as a language of diaspora and cultural expression. \n  \nSarit Cofman-Simhon | Emunah College of Fine Arts and Design \nLate Ottoman Judezmo Theatre: A National Biography \n  \nDr. Sarit Cofman-Simhon is a theatre researcher interested in performative practices in diverse Jewish languages and historical periods\, on which she has published extensively. Sarit is based at Emunah Academic College of Fine Arts and Design\, Jerusalem\, where she is Head of Theatre Department. Her book From Language to Performance: Jewish Tongues on the Israeli Stage was published in 2023 in Hebrew. Her next book explores diverse performative phenomena in Jewish culture. \n  \nSanja Trifunović | University of Vienna \nJudeo-Spanish Aspects of Karagöz Shadow Theatre: Memory and Adaptation in the Post-Ottoman Era \n  \nSanja Trifunović is a linguist and orientalist\, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna. She also attends online classes on endangered Jewish languages at the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages. She holds an MA in Philological Sciences from the Faculty of Philology\, University of Belgrade\, where she also obtained an MA/BA in Modern and Ottoman Turkish Language and Literature\, Arabic and English. Her research interests include anthropological linguistics\, language typology\, endangered Jewish languages\, Sephardic studies\, folklore\, music\, theatre and film. She has participated in several international conferences on Jewish Sephardic studies\, including the last two ucLADINO conferences. \n  \nLydia Vlasidou | York University \nNegotiating Belonging in the Judeo-Spanish Press of Early 20th Century New York \n  \nLydia Vlasidou is a PhD student in History at York University\, Toronto and she holds an MA in Arab and Hebrew Cultures from the University of Granada. Her research focuses on Sephardic identity formation in the late Ottoman and early modern Greek periods\, as well as the Sephardic diasporic experience\, questions of integration and relationships between diaspora communities and the homeland at a personal as well as institutional level. She has worked as a historical researcher with institutions including the Spanish National Research Council\, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Holocaust Museum of Greece. \n  \nKeynote\n  \nDate/Time: Tuesday\, May 19th\, 2026\, 11:30 AM – 12:20 PM PST \n  \nEdwin Seroussi | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem  \nLadino Song Scandals: The 2026 Edition \n  \nEdwin Seroussi is the Emanuel Alexandre Professor Emeritus of Musicology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem\, Chair of the Academic Committee of the Jewish Music Research Centre\, Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth College\, and Jewish Sound Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on Jewish musical cultures of the Mediterranean and Middle East and their interactions with Islamic cultures\, Judeo-Spanish song and music in Israel. Besides his academic activities he is active in the music scene of Israel and abroad in diverse capacities as producer\, advisor\, member of the board of musical institutions and representative to the International Music Council (UNESCO). He has been awarded several prestigious prizes\, among them the Israel Prize in the field of musicology for 2018. \n  \nPanel 3 | Creation: Heritage and Cultural Dialogue\nVirtual Gallery and Artist Talk \n  \nModerated by Courtney Blue\, PhD Candidate\, UCLA \n  \nDate/Time: Tuesday\, May 19\, 2026\, 1:20 – 1:50 PM PST \n  \nBecky Behar | Brandeis University \nTu Ke Bivas: An Illustrated Talk \n  \nBecky Behar is a Colombian-born\, Boston-area photo-based artist. Her staged photographs explore motherhood\, domesticity\, and generational ties\, with recent work focused on Sephardic identity and rituals. Blending autobiography and fiction\, she draws on Dutch painting\, using light\, shadow\, and symbolic still lifes to examine memory\, faith\, and inherited gesture. Behar has exhibited nationally and internationally\, including at the Museum of Fine Arts\, Boston\, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe\, Lilith\, and Jewish Boston. She received the 2025 Isaac Anolic Jewish Book Arts Award and is a Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center. \n  \nOfer Ronen | Musician \nMorenika Nos Llaman: A musician’s perspective on Ladino and Jewish musical culture in Spain today \n  \nOfer Ronen is a guitarist\, composer\, and music researcher based in Barcelona. Trained in classical and flamenco guitar\, he studied musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and worked for six years at the Jewish Music Research Centre under Prof. Edwin Seroussi. He later specialised in flamenco in Seville\, completing a musical performance master’s degree in Barcelona. His work explores the intersection of flamenco\, Middle Eastern\, Jewish\, and Mediterranean musical traditions\, including Ladino repertoire\, integrating performance and research. Ronen has performed internationally across Europe\, Israel\, and North America\, focusing on cultural dialogue and hybrid musical identities. \n  \nFeatured Roundtable | Notebooks of Sonic Memory\n  \nModerated by Dr. Vanessa Paloma Elbaz\, University of Cambridge \n  \nDate/Time: Tuesday\, May 19\, 2026\, 2:00 – 3:00 PM PST \n  \nVanessa Paloma Elbaz | University of Cambridge \nThe Judeo-Spanish Cancionero as Embodied Transmission of Becoming-Memory \nVanessa Paloma Elbaz is a Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse and the University of Cambridge’s music faculty. A previous Senior Fulbright scholar\, Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow and Posen fellow among others\, she is the chair of the International Council for Music and Dance’s Mediterranean Music Study Group. She was the general editor for a special issue on Judeo-Spanish Songbooks forthcoming by Presses de l’INALCO\, an edited volume by the British Academy on Sound and Memory in the Western Mediterranean and her monograph on Judeo-Spanish women’s songs from Northern Morocco is forthcoming from Brill. Her work is often featured in the international media such as BBC\, New York Times\, Al Jazeera\, France 24 and others. She founded KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive in 2012 and launched a multilingual online exhibit with one interview from its collection http://yalalla.org.uk. \n  \nJudith Cohen | York University \nMy ethnomusicologist self examines the Ladino songs in my performer self’s song notebook \nJudith Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist\, medievalist and singer\, working with Sephardic music\, music among Portuguese and Brazilian Crypto-Jews\, and related diaspora traditions in the Balkans\, French Canada\, Spain\, Portugal l\, BraIl and others. She also works as a storyteller\, embedding her research and travels into her stories to reach and interact with non-academic audiences. \n  \nPam Sezgin | University of North Georgia \nThe Besso Songbook: A Late Ottoman Sephardic Musical Legacy \nDr. Pam Sezgin is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Georgia (USA).  Her research is in political anthropology and ethnomusicology regarding Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire (19th and 20th centuries). \n  \nRenato Kamhi | Violinist\, PhD Sorbonne Université \nThe Flory Jagoda Songbook: Memories of Sarajevo\, elements of a collective memory \nOriginally from Sarajevo\, Bosnia and Herzegovina\, Renato Kamhi has been immersed in Judeo-Spanish music since childhood. He holds a doctorate from Sorbonne University on the role of the diaspora in the revitalization of the Judeo-Spanish musical repertoire in the former Yugoslavia. Violinist\, Renato Kamhi holds two master’s degrees (violin and teaching) and teaches at a music conservatory in the Paris region. A founding member of the piano trio ARK\, he performs with the ensemble in France and across Europe.  \nPanel 4 | Intergenerational Language Transmission and Sustainability\nModerated by Dr. Rachel Baron-Bloch\, UC Irvine \n  \nDate/Time: Tuesday\, May 19th\, 2026\, 3:10 – 4:10 PM PST \n  \nDerya Agis | Ankara University \nJudeo‑Spanish Culinary Diplomacy Through an Ecolinguistic Lens \n  \nDerya Agis is an academic researcher and anthropologist specializing in the intersections of language\, culture\, and the environment. Her work frequently explores Cognitive Metaphor Theory\, Ecolinguistics\, and Critical Discourse Analysis\, with a particular focus on how these frameworks apply to both historical and contemporary political narratives. She has a deep research interest in Italian-American and Sephardic studies\, specifically examining linguistic heritage and the role of culinary diplomacy in literature. Her scholarly contributions include investigating botanical and sensory history\, notably the 19th-century scientific and literary perspectives on environmental health. Agis is also an active member of the academic community\, contributing to international networks such as H-Envirohealth\, where she explores the intersecting histories of health and medicine. Her recent publications include work on environmental justice and eco-cognizance. Beyond her core research\, she is dedicated to curriculum development and is currently expanding her expertise in Renaissance culture and the Italian language. She holds a B.A. and Ph.D. from Ankara University on Italian Language and Culture\, an M.A. in Linguistics from Hacettepe University\, and an M.S. in Anthropology from METU.  \nFabiola Varela-García | University of Wisconsin Eau Claire \nThe Diaspora of the Spanish Language in Eurasia: Memory and Maintenance of Sephardic Spanish in Istanbul \n  \nFabiola Varela-García is a Full Professor at UW-Eau Claire with a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Specializing in Sociolinguistics and Spanish Phonetics\, she has conducted research on Andalusian\, Guatemalan indigenous languages\, and 18th-century Isleño Spanish of Louisiana. Today\, she is presenting on behalf of herself and her mentees: Bricyn Barziza\, who graduates this May with a degree in Education and Spanish\, and Léa Guilmineau\, now a Master’s student in Germany. Their UWEC ORSP-funded study analyzes Judeo-Spanish dating back to the 16th century\, which is still spoken today in Istanbul\, utilizing digital archives to establish a foundation for fresh research and the preservation of this historical linguistic heritage. \n  \nJacob Ceki Hazan | Lund University \nWho Still Carries Ladino in İzmir? \n  \nJacob Ceki Hazan was born and raised in İzmir\, Turkey\, within the city’s Sephardic Jewish community. Like many in his generation\, he did not grow up speaking Ladino but absorbed it through earlier generations of his family. He is currently completing an MA in Jewish Studies at Lund University in Sweden\, where his research explores the İzmir Jewish community and how its heritage is preserved and presented. He runs avierto.net\, a Turkish-language Jewish Studies platform\, and izmirjcc.org\, the İzmir Jewish Community’s website. He is now based in Baltimore\, Maryland. \nCarlos Yebra López | California State University\, Fullerton \nA Star Is Born: Estreyika and the Radical Possibilities of a Ladino Chatbot \n  \nCarlos Yebra Lopez is a scholar of Hispanic linguistics whose work focuses on Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) language\, culture\, and its contemporary revitalization. He is an Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics at California State University\, Fullerton\, and the author of Ladino on the Internet: Sepharad 4 (Routledge\, 2024)\, the first critical and systematic account in English of the online revitalization of Ladino. He is the Principal Investigator behind Estreyika\, the first Ladino chatbot.
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/14th-annual-ucladino-conference-the-ladino-diaspora-and-community-resilience-memory-and-adaptation/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:ucLADINO
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260517T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260517T183000
DTSTAMP:20260304T230143Z
CREATED:20260304T230143Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260304T230143Z
UID:8737-1779026400-1779042600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:EVENT CANCELLED - Occupied City Film Screening
DESCRIPTION:This event has been cancelled. \n  \nSunday\, May 17\, 2026 • James Bridges Theater • 2 PM\nOccupied City\nThe Barbara Roisman Cooper and Martin Cooper Jewish Film Series \n  \n 
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/occupied-city-film-screening/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:The Barbara Roisman Cooper and Martin Cooper Jewish Film Series
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260512T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260512T153000
DTSTAMP:20260325T174637Z
CREATED:20260325T174637Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T174637Z
UID:8753-1778594400-1778599800@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Middle Eastern and North African Jews and the Birth of Modern Fashion: A Hidden History - Julia P. Cohen
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, historian Julia Phillips Cohen discusses the unknown role that Jews from the eastern and southern Mediterranean played in the shaping of modern couture. Following two fashion houses run by an interconnected network of North African and Middle Eastern Jews in fin-de-siècle Paris\, the talk reveals the participation of these firms in a global web of makers\, suppliers\, and designers stretching from Algiers and Constantinople to Cairo\, Tabriz and Kyoto. \nJulia Phillips Cohen is an Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her publications include the books Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era (New York: Oxford University Press\, 2014) and Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History\, 1700-1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press\, 2014)\, co-authored and edited with Sarah Abrevaya Stein\, as well as articles in the American Historical Review\, International Journal of Middle East Studies\, Journal of Modern History\, Jewish Social Studies and Jewish Quarterly Review. She is currently at work\, together with Devi Mays\, on a book exploring a forgotten network of North African and Middle Eastern Jews in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe. \nTuesday\, May 12\, 2026 • 306 Royce Hall • 2 PM \nMiddle Eastern and North African Jews and the Birth of Modern Fashion: A Hidden History \nJulia P. Cohen (Vanderbilt)\nModerator: Aomar Boum (UCLA) \nAl Finci Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies\nCosponsored by the Maurice Amado Program in Sephardic Studies \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/julia-cohen-devi-mays-2026/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Al Finci Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260507T173000
DTSTAMP:20260325T174128Z
CREATED:20260325T174128Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260325T174128Z
UID:8749-1778169600-1778175000@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Biblical Monotheism: Exclusive or Inclusive? - Benjamin Sommer
DESCRIPTION:This lecture will examine the discussion of pluralism in the field of comparative theology in light of a core question in the history of Israelite religion. It will create a dialogue between the work of historians of religion such as Yehezkel Kaufmann and theologians such as John Hick\, with some reference to the Egyptologist Jan Assmann\, moving from a close reading of passages in Deuteronomy\, Psalms\, and Isaiah to much broader theological issues. \nBenjamin Sommer is Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His books\, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition (2015)\, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (2009)\, and A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40-66 (1998)\, received multiple prizes in the United States and Israel. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz described Sommer as “an iconoclast but a traditionalist-he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today.” He is the subject of one of the documentaries in the On the Threshold series of films on contemporary Christian\, Jewish\, and Muslim theologians. The film is available on You Tube (https://youtu.be/HkucTib3fMk). \nThursday\, May 7\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 4 PM\nBiblical Monothesim: Exclusive or Inclusive? \nBenjamin Sommer (Jewish Theological Seminary)\nModerator: William Schniedewind (UCLA) \nThe Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/benjamin-sommer2026/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260429T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260429T173000
DTSTAMP:20260415T230255Z
CREATED:20260415T230255Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T230255Z
UID:8772-1777478400-1777483800@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jewish Anti-Zionism as Political Theology: The Major Writings of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum
DESCRIPTION:Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar\, one of the most celebrated Hasidic masters of the twentieth century\, is known not only for founding the world’s largest Hasidic dynasty\, but also for his strongly held anti-Zionist views. His work articulates a Jewish political theology against Zionism built on the foundations of traditional Jewish sources\, and its influence remains strong within the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community and beyond. Dense with references to rabbinic\, medieval\, and modern sources\, Teitelbaum’s writing is notoriously challenging even for scholars of Torah to parse. In this volume\, Shaul Magid provides a richly annotated translation of selections from the books Vayoel Moshe and ‘Al Ha-Geulah ve ‘al Ha-Temurah\, making Teitelbaum’s major political writings accessible to English-speaking readers for the first time. \nShaul Magid is Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in Residence at Harvard Divinity School. After spending time in various yeshivot in Israel\, where he lived for a decade\, and receiving rabbinical ordination in 1984\, he went on to complete a master’s degree in Jewish thought from the Hebrew University and a Ph.D. in near eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University. \nMagid’s research bridges centuries and disciplines\, exploring topics from sixteenth-century Kabbalistic mysticism and Hasidism\, including its spiritual ties to Christianity\, to contemporary American Judaism\, Jewish identity\, race\, and critical theory. His groundbreaking work engages a broad spectrum of readers\, combining deep textual analysis with theoretical sophistication. \nMagid is the author of nine books and more than 75 scholarly articles. He has also written over 150 essays\, offering insight into the cultural\, political\, and spiritual dimensions of modern Jewish life. His writing has contributed significantly to broader conversations on religion\, culture\, and justice. \nWed\, April 29\, 2026 • 306 Royce Hall • 4 PM\nJewish Anti-Zionism as Political Theology: The Major Writings of Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum \nShaul Magid (Harvard Divinity School) \nRespondents:\nLeah Hochman (Hebrew Union College)\nDavid N. Myers (UCLA)\nJoshua Shanes (UC Davis) \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/shaul-magid-2026/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Alan D. Leve Center Book Talk Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260428T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260428T173000
DTSTAMP:20260304T165821Z
CREATED:20260304T165821Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260304T165821Z
UID:8731-1777392000-1777397400@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:All Consuming: Germans\, Jews\, and the Meaning of Meat
DESCRIPTION:Meat is one of the most visible markers of Jewish distinctness and social separation. In his most recent book\, John Efron argues that meat has played an especially important role in the formation of Jewish and Christian identities in Germany from the Middle Ages until today. To an extent not seen elsewhere in Europe\, the importance of meat is reflected in many realms including the visual arts\, literature\, religion\, politics\, commerce\, and home life. Studying the history of meat and its multiple meanings in Germany tells us much about the changing nature of German and German-Jewish identity\, the links between religion\, nationality\, politics\, and food. Above all\, focusing on meat provides us with a singular window into the rich\, fraught\, and ultimately tragic history of German Jewry. \nJohn Efron is the Koret Professor of Jewish History at the University of California at Berkeley\, where specializes in the cultural and social history of German Jewry. A native of Melbourne\, Australia\, he has a B.A. from Monash University\, an M.A. from New York University\, and a Ph.D. at Columbia University. In his work\, Efron has focused on the way German Jewry attempted to reinterpret and reinvent Jewish culture in the wake of its complex encounter with modernity. Among his publications are Defenders of the Race: Jewish Doctors and Race Science in Fin-de-Siècle Europe (Yale UP\, 1994); Medicine and the German Jews: A History (Yale UP\, 2001); German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic (Princeton UP\, 2016); The Jews: A Modern History (Routledge\, forthcoming 2025); and All Consuming: Germans\, Jews\, and the Meaning of Meat (Stanford UP\, 2025). \nTuesday\, April 28\, 2026 • 306 Royce Hall • 4 PM \nAll Consuming: Germans\, Jews\, and the Meaning of Meat\nJohn Efron (UC Berkeley)\nModerator: David N. Myers (UCLA) \nNaftulin Family Program on Studies in Jewish Identity \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/all-consuming-germans-jews-and-the-meaning-of-meat/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Naftulin Family Program on Studies in Jewish Identity
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260421T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260421T153000
DTSTAMP:20260304T161724Z
CREATED:20260304T161724Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260304T161724Z
UID:8727-1776780000-1776785400@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union
DESCRIPTION:The short fiction collected in In the Shadow of the Holocaust recovers a range of compelling voices that had been scarcely known or translated. Jewish authors from Ukraine\, Lithuania\, Russia\, and Belarus\, some writing in Yiddish and others in Russian\, tell the stories of ordinary people living on after the massive devastation of the Holocaust on Soviet territory\, depicting memories\, conflicts\, love\, and loss. These are not stories only about how people died\, but how they continued to live: an entire family legacy is reduced to a single tea cup\, the now raspy voice of a telephone that once never stopped ringing\, and a train timetable that lists key places of Jewish life largely destroyed but still vital. Translated by Sasha Senderovich and Harriet Murav\, these stories provide new perspectives on questions fundamental to literature of the Holocaust and legacies of other genocides and mass violence. \nSasha Senderovich is Associate Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures and of International Studies at the University of Washington. With Harriet Murav\, he translated David Bergelson’s Judgment: A Novel (2017). He is the author of How the Soviet Jew Was Made (2022). Harriet Murav is Center for Advanced Study Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois\, Urbana-Champaign. Her most recent books are David Bergelson’s Strange New World: Untimeliness and Futurity (2019) and As the Dust of the Earth: The Literature of Abandonment in Revolutionary Russia and Ukraine (2024). \nTuesday\, April 21\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nIn the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union \nSasha Senderovich (University of Washington\, Seattle) and\nHarriet Murav (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)\nModerators: Michael Rothberg (UCLA) & Lilya Kaganovsky (UCLA) \nThe 1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies \nLecture made possible by The 1939 Society\, a division of Holocaust Museum Los Angeles \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260322T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260322T160000
DTSTAMP:20260120T230841Z
CREATED:20260120T230841Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260120T230841Z
UID:8676-1774188000-1774195200@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Disposable Humanity - Film Screening
DESCRIPTION:Through decades of research and powerful interviews\, the Mitchell family—a team of disability studies scholars and filmmakers—investigates the Nazi Aktion T4 program\, the first Nazi mass killing initiative and precursor to the Holocaust. Featuring conversations with memorial directors\, disabled people\, and descendants of victims\, Disposable Humanity brings to light the forgotten truth that disabled people were the first to be targeted by the Third Reich. This revelatory documentary exposes how this chapter has been neglected in public memory and calls for its rightful place in Holocaust history. \nSunday\, March 22\, 2026 • James Bridges Theater\, UCLA • 2 PM \nComplimentary Film Screening \nDisposable Humanity \nThe Barbara Roisman Cooper and Martin Cooper Jewish Film Series \nconversation with\nCameron S. Mitchell (Director)\, David Mitchell (Writer)\, \nJared McBride (UCLA)\, and Michael Rothberg (UCLA) after the screening \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/disposable-humanity-film-screening/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:The Barbara Roisman Cooper and Martin Cooper Jewish Film Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260316T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260316T153000
DTSTAMP:20260205T222903Z
CREATED:20260205T222903Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T222903Z
UID:8683-1773669600-1773675000@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Black Lives Under Nazism: Making History Visible in Literature and Art - Sarah Phillips Casteel
DESCRIPTION:In a little-known chapter of World War II\, Black people living in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe were subjected to ostracization\, forced sterilization\, and incarceration in internment and concentration camps. In the absence of public commemoration\, Black writers and visual artists have preserved the stories of these forgotten victims of the Third Reich. Their works of memoir\, poetry\, fiction\, painting and photomontage illuminate both the relationship between creativity and wartime survival and the role of art in the formation of collective memory. Probing the boundaries of Holocaust memory and representation\, this talk draws attention to a largely unrecognized artistic corpus that challenges the erasure of Black wartime history. \nSarah Phillips Casteel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Professor of English at Carleton University. She has written and co-edited five books\, the most recent of which is Black Lives Under Nazism: Making History Visible in Literature and Art (Columbia University Press\, 2024). She has held visiting professorships at the Universities of Vienna and Potsdam and visiting fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Zentrum Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg. The recipient of a Canadian Jewish Literary Award and a Polanyi Prize\, she is a member of the Academic Council of the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University. \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/sarah-phillips-casteel-2/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Sady and Ludwig Kahn Program in German Jewish Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260312T153000
DTSTAMP:20260205T223945Z
CREATED:20260205T223945Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T223945Z
UID:8691-1773324000-1773329400@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Warsaw Testament - Samuel Kassow
DESCRIPTION:Until recently\, very few people knew about Rokhl Auerbach\, a remarkable woman who survived the Holocaust and then dedicated her life to preserving the memories of its victims. Professor Samuel D. Kassow will discuss Auerbach’s memoir Warsaw Testament\, which paints a vivid portrait of that city’s prewar Yiddish literary and artistic community atruction at the hands of the Nazis. This book received a National Jewish Book Award in the cat­e­go­ry of Holo­caust Mem­oir. \nSamuel Kassow\, Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College\, holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He has been been a visiting professor at many institutions and was on the team of scholars that planned the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Among his books is Who will Write our History: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Secret Ghetto Archive (Indiana\, 2007)\, which received the Orbis Prize of the AAASS and which was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. It has been translated into eight languages. His translation of Rachel Auerbach’s Warsaw Testament\, published by the White Goat Press\, received a National Jewish Book Award in March 2025. A child of Holocaust survivors\, Professor Kassow spent his earliest years in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/warsaw-testament-samuel-kassow/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Michael and Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260305T153000
DTSTAMP:20260205T223608Z
CREATED:20260205T223608Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260205T223608Z
UID:8688-1772719200-1772724600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema\, Global Genre - Olga Gershenson
DESCRIPTION:Before 2010\, there were no Israeli horror films. The next decade saw a blossoming of the genre by young Israeli filmmakers. New Israeli Horror is the first book to tell their story and analyze their films\, from inception to reception. What triggered this sudden development? Why did Israeli filmmakers turn to horror? How do their films portray Israel? What kind of horror scenarios do they depict and how? This presentation will grapple with these questions\, which are particularly poignant now\, in light of the attack on October 7 and the ensuing wars\, which pitted the real-life horrors against the fictional ones. \nOlga Gershenson is Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and of Film Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A multi-disciplinary scholar\, her interests lie at the intersection of culture\, history\, and film. She is the author of New Israeli Horror: Local Cinema\, Global Genre (2024)\, The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe (2013)\, Gesher: Russian Theater in Israel (2005)\, as well as editor of Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender (2009). She is currently working on a volume titled The Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Film. \n \nBook Website \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/new-israeli-horror-local-cinema-global-genre-olga-gershenson/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Alan D. Leve Center Book Talk Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260224T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260224T153000
DTSTAMP:20260114T005710Z
CREATED:20260114T005710Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260114T005710Z
UID:8670-1771941600-1771947000@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Seeing Like a Merchant: Jews and Greeks from Ottoman to Greek Rule - Paris Papamichos Chronakis
DESCRIPTION:How did the cosmopolitan bourgeoisie of the Eastern Mediterranean navigate the transition from empire to nation-state in the early twentieth century? In this talk\, Paris Papamichos Chronakis shows how the Jewish and Greek merchants of Salonica (present-day Thessaloniki) skillfully managed the tumultuous shift from Ottoman to Greek rule amidst rising ethnic tensions and heightened class conflict. Bringing their once powerful voices back into the historical narrative\, he traces their entangled trajectories as businessmen\, community members\, and civic leaders to illustrate how the self-reinvention of a Jewish-led bourgeoisie made a city Greek. Salonica’s merchants were present in their own—and their city’s—remaking. \nParis Papamichos Chronakis is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Modern Greek History at Royal Holloway University of London. His work explores the entangled histories and divided memories of Jews and Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean from the late Ottoman Empire to the Holocaust. In recent years\, his research and publications have expanded to Salonica in World War One\, Greek interwar Zionism and anti-Zionism\, the Holocaust of Sephardi Jewry\, and digital Holocaust Studies. His first book\, The Business of Transition: Jewish and Greek Merchants of Salonica from Ottoman to Greek Rule\, was published by Stanford University Press in 2024 winning that year’s National Jewish Book Awards – JDC-Herbert Katzki Award (Writing Based on Archival Material). \nTuesday\, February 24\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nSeeing Like a Merchant: Jews and Greeks from Ottoman to Greek Rule \nParis Papamichos Chronakis (Royal Holloway\, University of London)\nModerated by Aomar Boum (UCLA) \nMaurice Amado Program in Sephardic Studies \nCosponsored by the UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/seeing-like-a-merchant-jews-and-greeks-from-ottoman-to-greek-rule-paris-papamichos-chronakis/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Maurice Amado Program in Sephardic Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260219T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260219T153000
DTSTAMP:20260114T004439Z
CREATED:20260114T004439Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260114T004439Z
UID:8664-1771509600-1771515000@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Vanishing Vienna: Modernism\, Philosemitism\, and Jews in a Postwar City - Frances Tanzer
DESCRIPTION:Frances Tanzer will discuss her new book\, Vanishing Vienna: Modernism\, Philosemitism\, and Jews in a Postwar City (University of Pennsylvania Press)\, which traces the reconstruction of Viennese culture from the 1938 German Anschluss through the early 1960s. The book reveals continuity in Vienna’s cultural history across this period: a framework for interpreting Viennese culture that has relied on antisemitism\, philosemitism\, and a related discourse of Jewish presence and absence. As she shows\, antisemitism and philosemitism were not contradictory forces in post-Nazi Austrian culture. They were deeply interconnected aspirations in a city where nostalgia for the past dominated cultural reconstruction efforts and supported seemingly contradictory impulses. Philosemitism was much more than a simple inversion of antisemitism—instead\, Tanzer argues\, philosemitism defined Vienna in the era of postwar reconstruction. Vanishing Vienna uncovers a rarely discussed phenomenon of the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust—a society that consumes\, redefines\, and bestows symbolic meaning on the victims in their absence. \nFrances Tanzer is the Rose Professor of Holocaust Studies and Jewish Culture at Clark University in Massachusetts and associate professor of history. Her book Vanishing Vienna: Philosemitism\, Modernism\, and Jews in a Postwar City was published with University of Pennsylvania Press in 2024. She has received support for her research from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum\, the Remarque Institute at NYU\, and others. Her new project is entitled: Klezmer Dynasty: An Intimate History of Modern Jewish Culture\, 1880-2019. \nThursday\, February 19\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM  \nVanishing Vienna: Modernism\, Philosemitism\, and Jews in a Postwar City \nFrances Tanzer (Clark University)\nModerator: Michael Rothberg (UCLA) \nThe 1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies\nProgram made possible by The 1939 Society\, a division of Holocaust Museum Los Angeles \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/francestanzer/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260210T170000
DTSTAMP:20260108T233337Z
CREATED:20260108T233337Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260108T233337Z
UID:8656-1770739200-1770742800@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Multilingualism and Translation in Ancient Judaism: Before and After Babel - Steven D. Fraade
DESCRIPTION:In this book\, Steven Fraade explores the practice and conception of multilingualism and translation in ancient Judaism. Interrogating the deep and dialectical relationship between them\, he situates representative scriptural and other texts within their broader synchronic – Greco-Roman context\, as well as diachronic context – the history of Judaism and beyond. Neither systematic nor comprehensive\, his selection of Hebrew\, Aramaic\, and Greek primary sources\, here fluently translated into clear English\, best illustrate the fundamental issues and the performative aspects relating to translation and multilingualism. Fraade scrutinizes and analyzes the texts to reveal the inner dynamics and the pedagogical-social implications that are implicit when multilingualism and translation are paired. His book demonstrates the need for a more thorough and integrated treatment of these topics\, and their relevance to the study of ancient Judaism\, than has been heretofore recognized. \nTuesday\, February 10\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 4 PM\nMultilingualism and Translation in Ancient Judaism: Before and After Babel\nSteven D. Fraade (Yale University)\nModerator: William Schniedewind (UCLA) \nBible and the Ancient World series \nCosponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/multilingualism-and-translation-in-ancient-judaism-before-and-after-babel-steven-d-fraade/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260205T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260205T173000
DTSTAMP:20251201T190628Z
CREATED:20251201T190628Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251201T190628Z
UID:8640-1770307200-1770312600@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Antisemitism\, an American Tradition - Pamela Nadell
DESCRIPTION:In Antisemitism\, an American Tradition Pamela S. Nadell\, the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender history at American University\, recounts the powerful story of antisemitism in America and how it has shaped the lives of Jews for almost four centuries. \nIndeed\, Jews have met antisemitism since first landing in New Amsterdam in 1654 when Peter Stuyvesant tried to expel them. The founding of the US changed little\, as negative European stereotypes rooted into American soil. They faced restrictions on holding office\, admission to schools\, and employment in industry\, while their synagogues and cemeteries were vandalized. Recently\, white nationalists chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville\, Virgina\, and a gunman killed eleven members at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue building. Antisemitic incidents have increased each year. \nProfessor Pamela Nadell holds the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History at American University. Her book America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award’s Everett Family Foundation “Book of the Year” and was translated into Hebrew. Her new book Antisemitism\, an American Tradition\, was published by W.W. Norton in October. A past president of the Association for Jewish Studies\, she consults to the museum planned for the rebuild of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life and has testified before Congress three times. \nModerated by Dov Waxman (UCLA) \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/antisemitism-an-american-tradition-pamela-nadell/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:American Jewish Studies
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T170000
DTSTAMP:20251201T185323Z
CREATED:20251201T185323Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251201T185323Z
UID:8637-1769702400-1769706000@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:After the Catastrophe: Ezra-Nehemiah and the Rebuilding of Community and Identity - Tamara Cohn Eskenazi
DESCRIPTION:The deaths and deportations that accompanied the destruction of the Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BCE mark the turning point in the arc of biblical narrative. The book of Ezra-Nehemiah describes the reconstruction of life in Judah in the aftermath that catastrophe. It is the only book in the Hebrew Bible to depict this period. For over a century\, scholars neglected Ezra-Nehemiah and the period it describes. But the pendulum swung at last\, and in recent decades the book became a focal point for several reasons; among them is the growing consensus that the Pentateuch received its decisive shape during this period. Additionally\, as a story about a return from exile to an ancient homeland\, Ezra-Nehemiah has been embroiled in current political discourse linked with the return to Israel in the 20th century. Detractors and admirers alike concur that its messages had an enduring significance in the past and important messages for the present. This session will explore the book’s contribution to its own time as well as its relevance to today’s challenges. \nTamara Cohn Eskenazi\, Ph.D. is the Effie Wise Ochs Professor Emerita of Biblical Literature and History at Hebrew Union College. She is an award-winning scholar who specializes in writings from the Persian Period (538-333 BCE)\, with special focus on Ezra-Nehemiah. Her book\, In an age of Prose: A Literary Approach to Ezra-Nehemiah (1988) set the study of Ezra-Nehemiah on a new foundation. See also her recent Ezra: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Yale Bible Series (2023). Prof. Eskenazi is the first woman professor appointed to the Rabbinical School at Hebrew Union College and a major contributor to Women’s Studies. Her publications include\, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary\, a 1400 page volume (2007) which won “The Book of the Year Award” granted by The Jewish Book Council\, and her JPS Bible Commentary: Ruth (2012\, authored with the late Tikva Frymer-Kensky) which won the award for Women’s Studies. \nModerator: Catherine Bonesho (UCLA) \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/after-the-catastrophe-ezra-nehemiah-and-the-rebuilding-of-community-and-identity-tamara-cohn-eskenazi/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260127T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260127T153000
DTSTAMP:20251209T182430Z
CREATED:20251209T182430Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251209T182430Z
UID:8644-1769522400-1769527800@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Prelude to the Holocaust: The Anti-Jewish Pogroms of Summer 1941 - Jeffrey Kopstein
DESCRIPTION:This lecture examines a particularly brutal wave a violence that occurred across hundreds of predominantly Polish and Ukrainian communities in the aftermath of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The dominant explanations for pogrom violence center around three most frequently cited causes: endemic antisemitism in Eastern European societies\, a desire for revenge for alleged Jewish involvement in Soviet crimes during the occupation of 1939–1941\, and opportunistic appropriation of Jewish property. But a difficult question needs to be posed: why did pogroms occur in some places and not in others? Situating pogroms within the long history of local intercommunal relations sheds light on the sources of mass ethnic violence and the ways in which such gruesome acts might be avoided. \nJeffrey Kopstein is Dean’s Professor of Political Science at the University of California\, Irvine. In his research\, Professor Kopstein focuses on interethnic violence\, voting patterns of minority groups\, antisemitism\, and anti-liberal tendencies in civil society. These interests are central topics in his latest books\, Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press\, 2018)\, Politics\, Memory\, Violence: The New Social Science of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press\, 2023)\, and The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers our Future (Polity\, 2024). Professor Kopstein’s writings also appear in outlets like The Atlantic\, The New York Times\, The Globe and Mail\, and The Washington Post. \n  \nTuesday\, January 27\, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nPrelude to the Holocaust: The Anti-Jewish Pogroms of Summer 1941 \nJeffrey Kopstein (UCI)\nModerator: Jared McBride (UCLA) \nThe 1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/prelude-to-the-holocaust-the-anti-jewish-pogroms-of-summer-1941-jeffrey-kopstein/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260115T173000
DTSTAMP:20251016T210540Z
CREATED:20251016T210540Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T210540Z
UID:8594-1768492800-1768498200@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:EVENT CANCELLED - And God Laughed: Humor in the Bible - Joel Kaminsky
DESCRIPTION:Due to unforeseen circumstances\, this event has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/joel-kaminsky2026/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Bible and the Ancient World Seminar Series
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251209T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251209T153000
DTSTAMP:20251016T205602Z
CREATED:20251016T205602Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T205602Z
UID:8592-1765288800-1765294200@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Unpacking my Father’s Book Store - Laurence Roth
DESCRIPTION:During its nearly thirty years in business\, J. Roth / Bookseller of Fine & Scholarly Judaica was a microcosm of the Los Angeles Jewish community and one of the premier Jewish bookstores in the United States. It thrived in the glow of the Jewish ethnic pride movements of the sixties and seventies but was unable to market its uniquely broad definition and collection of Jewish literature after the resurgence of Orthodox Judaism and the assimilation of Jewish writing into the corporate book superstores during the late eighties and early nineties. Through a combination of memoir and critical analysis\, and by connecting both to larger forces that helped shape Jewish and American book retailing in the twentieth-century\, Laurence Roth not only illustrates the importance of one American Jewish bookstore to its customers and to the family that helped run it. He explores\, too\, the role of Jewish bookstores in the assembly and transformation of Jewish cultures and how independent bookstores like J. Roth Bookseller\, which mostly disappear from history\, often had outsized effects on their communities. Breaking with conventional modes of scholarship\, Roth tells a unique and troubled story that rarely gets told\, one that is both personal and analytical\, theoretical but rooted in the everyday. \nLaurence Roth is the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of English and director of the Jewish & Israel Studies Program and The Build Collaborative (a project-based center for liberal arts\, business\, and creativity) at Susquehanna University\, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Inspecting Jews: American Jewish Detective Stories; coeditor\, with Nadia Valman\, of The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Jewish Cultures; and editor of Modern Language Studies\, the scholarly journal of the Northeast Modern Language Association. \n \nTuesday\, December 9\, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nUnpacking my Father’s Book Store: The Life and Times of J. Roth Bookseller in Los Angeles\, 1966-1994 \nLaurence Roth (Susquehanna University)\nModerator: David N. Myers (UCLA) \nArnold Band Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/laurence-roth/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Arnold Band Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251204T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251204T153000
DTSTAMP:20251016T205443Z
CREATED:20251016T205443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T205443Z
UID:8588-1764856800-1764862200@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora - David Kraemer
DESCRIPTION:Jewish people have always wandered. From the time of the Babylonian Exile in the early 6th century BCE\, diaspora became the Jews’ normal condition\, and though they may have hoped for a return to their “Promised Land” at the “End of Days\,” they made sense of their many homes\, defending diaspora as the realm where Jewish life could grow\, and they could fulfil their obligations to God. \nEmbracing Exile analyzes biblical and rabbinic texts\, philosophical treatises\, works of Kabbalah\, Hasidism\, and a multiplicity of modern expressions\, to show that diaspora Jews through the ages insisted that God joined them in their exiles\, that “Zion” was found in Babylon\, Ottoman Turkey\, and Eastern Europe\, and that\, as citizens of the world\, Jews could only live throughout the world. The result is an assertion that lament has not been the most common Jewish response to “exile” and that Zionism is not the natural outcome of either Jewish ideology or history. \nDavid Kraemer is Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian at The Jewish Theological Seminary\, where he has also served as Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics for many years. As Librarian\, Prof. Kraemer is at the helm of the most extensive collection of Judaica—rare and contemporary—in the Western hemisphere. On account of the size and importance of the collection\, Prof. Kraemer is instrumental in setting policy and establishing vision for projects of international importance.\nProf. Kraemer is a prolific author and commentator. His books include The Mind of the Talmud (1990)\, Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature (1995)\, The Meanings of Death in Rabbinic Judaism (2000)\, Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages (Routledge\, 2007\, 2009)\, and A History of the Talmud (Cambridge U. Press\, 2019)\, among others. His most recent book is Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora\, (Oxford U. Press\, 2025). \n \nThursday\, December 4 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nEmbracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora \nDavid Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary)\nModerator: David N. Myers (UCLA) \nAlan D. Leve Center Book Talk Series \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/embracing-exile-the-case-for-jewish-diaspora-david-kraemer/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Alan D. Leve Center Book Talk Series
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251202T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251202T153000
DTSTAMP:20251016T204148Z
CREATED:20251016T204148Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T204148Z
UID:8585-1764684000-1764689400@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:EVENT POSTPONED: Black Lives Under Nazism: Making History Visible in  Literature and Art - Sarah Phillips Casteel
DESCRIPTION:The event\, Black Lives under Nazism: Making History Visible in Literature and Art with Sarah Phillips Casteel (Carleton University)\, has been postponed. A new date will be announced once it is finalized. \nWe apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Please stay tuned for further updates. \n  \nIn a little-known chapter of World War II\, Black people living in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe were subjected to ostracization\, forced sterilization\, and incarceration in internment and concentration camps. In the absence of public commemoration\, Black writers and visual artists have preserved the stories of these forgotten victims of the Third Reich. Their works of memoir\, poetry\, fiction\, painting and photomontage illuminate both the relationship between creativity and wartime survival and the role of art in the formation of collective memory. Probing the boundaries of Holocaust memory and representation\, this talk draws attention to a largely unrecognized artistic corpus that challenges the erasure of Black wartime history. \nSarah Phillips Casteel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Professor of English at Carleton University. She has written and co-edited five books\, the most recent of which is Black Lives Under Nazism: Making History Visible in Literature and Art (Columbia University Press\, 2024). She has held visiting professorships at the Universities of Vienna and Potsdam and visiting fellowships at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Zentrum Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg. The recipient of a Canadian Jewish Literary Award and a Polanyi Prize\, she is a member of the Academic Council of the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University. \n \nBlack Lives Under Nazism: Making History Visible in Literature and Art \nSarah Phillips Casteel (Carleton University) \nIn conversation with Ben Ratskoff (Occidental College) \nIntroduction by/Moderated by Todd Presner (UCLA) \nMichael and Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies \n 
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/black-lives-under-nazism-making-history-visible-in-literature-and-art-sarah-phillips-casteel/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Michael and Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251118T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251118T153000
DTSTAMP:20251016T203824Z
CREATED:20251016T203824Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T203824Z
UID:8581-1763474400-1763479800@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Saving our Survivors: How American Jews Learned about the Holocaust - Rachel Deblinger
DESCRIPTION:Drawing on previously unexamined archives and postwar cultural materials\, Saving Our Survivors explores how American Jews constructed meaning out of devastation—and how humanitarian aid became intertwined with public memory. The book uncovers how American Jewish communities first came to learn about and respond to the Holocaust through communal campaigns\, radio broadcasts\, speeches\, short films\, and urgent calls to action. Rachel Deblinger highlights the messy\, diffuse\, and contested nature of memory construction in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and raises larger questions about how historical tragedies are narrated in moments of crisis. \nRachel Deblinger is the author of Saving Our Survivors: How American Jews learned about the Holocaust (2025\, Indiana University Press). Her research focuses on Holocaust memory in America\, media technology\, and the intersection of philanthropy and representation. Deblinger is also the Director of the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) at the UCLA Library\, a granting program that funds the digitization and preservation of at-risk cultural heritage materials from around the world. MEAP grants facilitate archival documentation and open access to diverse global collections. \n \nTuesday\, November 18\, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM  \nSaving our Survivors: How American Jews Learned about the Holocaust \nRachel Deblinger (UCLA) \nThe 1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies\nThe Alan D. Leve Program for Public History \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/rachel-deblinger/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies,Alan D. Leve Program for Public History
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251028T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251028T153000
DTSTAMP:20251016T202853Z
CREATED:20251016T202853Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T202853Z
UID:8576-1761660000-1761665400@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Webs of Life: Domestic Jewish Worlds in Early Modern Venice - Federica Francesconi
DESCRIPTION:This lecture explores domestic life in the Venetian ghetto as both a site of physical segregation\, housing scarcity\, and oppression\, and a space of cultural negotiation and transformation. Drawing on unpublished archival sources\, surviving material culture\, and the built environment\, it traces how Venetian Jews actively shaped their living spaces through engagement with objects\, furnishings\, and architectural features. From the central portego (the central space in Venetian houses) to repurposed Islamic carpets and gilt leather panels\, the home emerged as a site of transculturation where Jewish\, Islamic\, and Renaissance aesthetics intersected. These material choices reveal not only practical adaptation but also enduring ties to memory\, mobility\, and diasporic identity. By examining the interplay of people\, objects\, and spaces\, the lecture foregrounds the Jewish home in the ghetto as a dynamic meshwork—extending both vertically and horizontally\, and connecting domestic life to the broader urban fabric\, natural surroundings\, and the wider Mediterranean world. \nFederica Francesconi is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Judaic Studies Program at the University at Albany\, SUNY. Her research and publications focus on the social\, religious\, and cultural dimensions of early modern Jewish life in Italy\, with particular attention to the politics and dynamics of the ghetto. She has held fellowships in Europe\, Israel\, and the United States. Her recent book\, Invisible Enlighteners: The Jewish Merchants of Modena\, from the Renaissance to the Emancipation (University of Pennsylvania Press\, 2021)\, won the 2022 Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize from the American Historical Association and was the finalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Awards’ JDC-Herbert Katzki Award for Writing Based on Archival Material. She is currently working on a new monograph\, The Jewish Home in Early Modern Venice: Cosmopolitan Intimacy\, Global Networks\, and Diasporic Material Culture\, which examines the Jewish home in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venice as a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nexus of individuals\, communities\, and objects in motion. This project has been supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas\, the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture\, and I Tatti\, The Harvard University Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence. \nTuesday\, October 28\, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM\nWebs of Life: Domestic Jewish Worlds in Early Modern Venice \nFederica Francesconi (University at Albany)\nModerator: Stefania Tutino (UCLA)\nViterbi Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/federica-francesconi2025/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Viterbi Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251021T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20251021T173000
DTSTAMP:20251016T202241Z
CREATED:20251016T202241Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T202241Z
UID:8571-1761062400-1761067800@levecenter.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks\, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts - Rebecca Margolis
DESCRIPTION:The Yiddish language is often treated as humorous or nostalgic in television and in movies. As an ancestral language associated with trauma and dispossession\, Yiddish on screen additionally reconstructs haunted and mystical elements of the Jewish experience. The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen examines how Yiddish is used to reimagine Jewish lore and tells new stories of migration and dislocation where the supernatural looms over the narrative. The book talk considers the transformation of the figure of the dybbuk—a soul of the dead possessing the living—from folklore to 1930s Polish Yiddish cinema and on to global contemporary media; spoken Yiddish as a mystical cypher within the horror genre; and how immigrant or pre-immigrant pasts informs the present in prologues to comedy film and television such as A Serious Man. \nProfessor Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis is the Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation at Monash University\, Melbourne. Her research explores Yiddish cultural production across the past century\, including literature\, theatre\, film\, and television. She is the author of The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks\, Demons and a Haunted Jewish Past; Yiddish Lives On: Strategies of Language Transmission; Jewish Roots\, Canadian Soil: Yiddish Culture in Montreal\, 1905-1945; and Basic Yiddish: A Grammar and Workbook. \n \nTuesday\, October 21\, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 4 PM\nThe Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks\, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts \nRebecca Margolis (Monash University)\nModerator: Todd Presner (UCLA) \nMichael and Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies \nRSVP
URL:https://levecenter.ucla.edu/event/rebecca-margolis-2025/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Michael and Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies
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