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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260129T160000
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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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
CATEGORIES:Michael and Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies
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