UW Philosophers Talk about the Migration Crisis ft. Prof. Michael Rosenthal
2015-11-04 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Savery Hall (Large table outside of Savery Hall 361), 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Is religion or culture relevant to our decisions about helping refugees or our immigration policy? Join Prof. Michael Rosenthal in conversation around this issue.
This event is part of the series “UW Philosophers Talk about the Migration Crisis.” Each session of this series will begin with a brief, 15-20 minute presentation and then will continue with discussion with the goal of stimulating conversation about this important topic. Everyone in the UW community – students, faculty, and staff – are invited to attend. The only prerequisite is that you come willing to listen and discuss with respect.
For more information about this series, check out UW Philosphy’s website (phil.washington.edu) or send an e-mail to philinfo@uw.edu.

STUDENT EVENT: Feasting with Faculty with Prof. Susan Glenn
2015-11-04 17:00 - 18:15 | Shalimar on the Ave, 4214 University Way NE, Seattle, 98115, US
Get to know History professor and Jewish Studies faculty member Susan Glenn over a delicious (and free!) dinner. Come join for what is sure to be a delightful evening! Open to undergraduate and graduate students only. No cost but reservations required.

Holocaust History and Survivor Testimony: The Case of the Starachowice Factory Slave Labor Camps
2015-11-05 15:30 - 17:00 | Communications 120, UW Campus, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
The University of Washington Department of History and the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies are proud to present a lecture by Visiting Scholar, Prof. Christopher Browning.

Christopher R. Browning is the Giovanni Costigan Visiting Professor of History at the University of Washington and the Frank Porter Graham Professor History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously he taught at the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. He is the author of eight books, including Ordinary Men, The Origins of the Final Solution, and Remembering Survival, all three of which received the National Jewish Book Award – Holocaust Category. He has served as an expert witness in “war crimes” trials in Australia, Canada, and Great Britain as well as in two “Holocaust denial” cases: the second Zundel trail in Toronto in 1988 and in David Irving’s libel suit against Deborah Lipstadt in London in 2000.

Tea and Discussion with Prof. Naomi Sokoloff
2015-11-10 13:00 - 14:00 | HUB 307, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, US
Access students and community members are invited to join Naomi Sokoloff, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, to discuss two Hebrew poems in translation in an informal setting. The poems that will be discussed were covered in “Prayer and Poetry in the Jewish and Islamic Traditions,” an inspiring new course Prof. Sokoloff co-taught last winter with Prof. Samad Alavi, Assistant Professor of Persian Civilization.
Tea, coffee and cookies will be provided.
RSVPs appreciated.

A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz
2015-11-12 17:00 - 18:30 | HUB 340, University of Washington HUB, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
On August 2, 1947 a young man gets off a train in a small Swedish town to begin his life anew. Having endured the ghetto of Lodz, the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the slave camps and transports during the final months of Nazi Germany, his final challenge is to survive the survival.
Join Göran Rosenberg as he discusses his intelligent and deeply moving book, A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz, in which he returns to his own childhood to tell the story of his father: walking at his side, holding his hand, trying to get close to him. It is also the story of the chasm between the world of the child, permeated by the optimism, progress, and collective oblivion of postwar Sweden, and the world of the father, darkened by the long shadows of the past.
Want to learn more about A Brief Stop on the Road from Auschwitz? Check out Roger Cohen’s New York Times review of this award-winning book, “Where the Road From Auschwitz Ends.”

Göran Rosenberg was born in Sweden in 1948 and is one of Sweden’s best known authors. In 1970 he left academia to work as a journalist for Swedish television, radio, and print. He is the author of several books, including the highly acclaimed The Lost Land: A Personal History of Zionism and Messianism and The State of Israel.

Zionism, the Novel, and Contemporary Debates
2015-11-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Kane Hall 220, 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East presents: Zionism, the Novel, and Contemporary Debates
Scholars of literature can teach about the Middle East and contribute to debates about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by analyzing novels by Israelis, Palestinians, and others. This lecture will show what novels by A.M. Klein, Sayed Kashua, and Howard Jacobson can teach us about the conflict, about novels, and about ourselves.
Dr. Russell Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University, is a distinguished professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies. He has served as President of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in 2011. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Free and open to the public. Light reception to follow.
Please contact neareast@uw.edu with questions.

Co-sponsors: Jackson School of International Studies, Simpson Center for the Humanities, and the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies; the Departments of English, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Germanics, and Comparative Literature, Cinema, and Media; and Hillel UW.
Sponsorship of this event does not imply endorsement of the content of the lecture.

Jewish Peoplehood: An American Innovation
2015-11-18 19:00 - 20:30 | University Book Store – Seattle, 4326 University Way Northeast, Seattle, WA, 98105
Although fewer American Jews today describe themselves as religious, they overwhelmingly report a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. Indeed, Jewish peoplehood has eclipsed religion—as well as ethnicity and nationality—as the essence of what binds Jews around the globe to one another. In this exciting book launch event, Prof. Noam Pianko will highlight the current significance and future relevance of “peoplehood” by tracing the rise, transformation, and return of this novel term.
Find out more about Prof. Pianko’s book Jewish Peoplehood: An American Innovation!
Light Kosher reception to follow book reading. Prof. Noam Pianko is the Samuel N. Stroum Chair of Jewish Studies and Associate Professor in the Jackson School of International Studies. Pianko also directs the Samuel and Althea Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and serves as the Herbert and Lucy Pruzan Professor of Jewish Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies/Judaic Studies from Yale University in 2004 and joined the Jackson School faculty as an Assistant Professor in the fall of that year. Prof. Pianko’s research interests include modern Jewish history, Zionism, and American Judaism.

Baladino in Concert at SJCC
2015-11-21 19:30 - 21:00 | WA
With its members hailing from Berlin and Tel Aviv, Baladino is a Mediterranean folk band that offers fresh, yet deeply authentic interpretations of Sephardic and Ladino melodies and brings this tradition back into full, fresh dialogue with its trans-Mediterranean past, using extended technique, subtle electronics and improvisation to dust off the predominant heavy-handed approach to Ladino music. With stunning vocals, unexpected instruments, and a pitch-perfect sense of arrangement, the Israeli group melds everything from Egyptian darbuka to Armenian duduk, from Ladino classics to rarely heard tunes, into a sonically vibrant, organic whole. During Baladino’s live performances, songs often form a jumping-off point for instrumental improvisations driven by Mediterranean-Gypsy grooves, yet embracing rock and electronic influences.

To purchase tickets and find out more, please visit the Stroum Jewish Community Center online!
STUDENTS: Get $5 off your tickets using this promo code: UW5OFF

Organized by the Stroum Jewish Community Center

STUDENT-ONLY EVENT: Jewish Studies Student Advisory Council
2015-12-02 18:00 - 19:00 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The Jewish Studies Advisory Council (JSSAC) is a non-religious and non-political organization at UW that serves as a liaison between students and Stroum Center for Jewish Studies faculty and staff. The council provides a forum for student input and ideas, and offers students the opportunity to build leadership skills and gain mentorship in curriculum development and organizational management. JSSAC also builds community and friendships among students who are interested in Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. Undergraduate and graduate students from all backgrounds and majors with an interest in Jewish Studies are welcome to join.
Free dinner is provided! RSVPs appreciated so we can order the right amount of food. Please RSVP to Lauren Kurland at lkurland@uw.edu.

3rd Annual International Ladino Day
2015-12-06 16:00 - 18:00 | Kane Hall 130, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Biva la lingua de Ladino!
Join Professors Julia Phillips Cohen (Vanderbilt), Sarah Abrevaya Stein (UCLA), and Devin Naar (UW) as they shine a light on Sephardic language and culture at our third-annual celebration of International Ladino Day. The event will include:

Readings from the award-winning book, Sephardi Lives
Special performances by Los Ladineros and community members
Kosher reception featuring Sephardic delicacies

This event is hosted by the UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and the Sephardic Studies Program in cooperation with Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, the Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood, and the Seattle Sephardic Network.

The recipient of the 2014 National Jewish Book Award for Sephardic Culture, Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950, offers an unprecedented glimpse into the experiences of Sephardic Jews in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire by highlighting aspects of their religious, political, economic and cultural worlds over more than two centuries. Read our new interview with the editors!
Julia Phillips Cohen is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University.
Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Professor of History and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at UCLA
Links for Further Exploration

Read Ty Alhadeff’s preview article, “Celebrate Ladino Day 2015 at the UW on Dec. 6th“
“Sephardi Lives in Living Color” by Hannah Pressman
Enjoy video highlights from both our 2013 and 2014 celebrations of International Ladino Day in Seattle
“Ladino Day Confirms Seattle as Vibrant Hub of Sephardic Culture” by Molly FitzMorris
“What is the History of Ladino and Its Alphabet?” Video Featuring Prof. Devin Naar and Prof. David Bunis

STUDENTS ONLY: Sephardic Hanukkah Party
2015-12-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Hillel UW, 4745 17th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, US
With winter approaching, it’s time for Hanukkah, a holiday of celebration and lights!
UW students and young professionals from all backgrounds and majors are invited to a Hanukkah party sponsored by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and Hillel UW.
This special Hanukkah party will incorporate traditions of Jewish Sephardic culture in honor of International Ladino Day. Sephardic Jews are Jews from Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East and their descendants. The adjective “Sephardic” and corresponding nouns “Sephardi” (singular) and “Sephardim” (plural) are derived from the Hebrew word “Sepharad,” which refers to Spain. Sephardic Jews have their own special traditions, language (Ladino), foods and songs, and we will explore some of them at our Hanukkah party.
We will light a hanukkiyah, also known as a Hanukkah “menorah,” a candelabra designated specifically for the eight Hanukkah candles, one of which is lit each night.
We will sing Hanukkah songs in Ladino (bonus if you wear a fedora to the party like this singer of the classic Ladino Hanukkah song, Ocho Kandelikas, “Eight Candles”).
And we will try tasty Sephardic fare including bimuelos (fried dough puffs). What could be bad??
All welcome! No previous experience with Hanukkah necessary!
No cost.

STUDENT-ONLY Event: Jewish Studies Student Advisory Council Meeting
2016-01-13 18:00 - 19:00 | HUB 238, Husky Union Building, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195

Lunch and Learn: Marty Jaffee’s E-book of Sifre Devarim
2016-01-14 11:00 - 12:30 | Smith Room, Suzzallo Library, UW Campus
The Stroum Center is delighted to launch its very first e-book publication: Prof. Marty Jaffee’s new translation of the fascinating Sifre Devarim, a 4th-century compilation of rabbinic oral commentaries on Deuteronomy. Jaffee’s masterpiece uniquely captures the spoken dimension of the original text, bringing a fresh, often poetic perspective to a seminal piece of the biblical canon.
Parts of the Sifre Devarim were found in the Cairo Geniza, a hidden cache of sacred texts and fragments discovered in a storage room in Cairo, Egypt. The scholar Solomon Schechter, pictured above in 1895, helped to bring these valuable texts to light and is pictured on the cover of Prof. Jaffee’s e-book.
Read a news piece about this exciting digital project: Marty Jaffee Brings Rabbinic Voices from the Cairo Geniza to the E-book.
Our event celebrating Prof. Jaffee’s new work will feature a panel and discussion with two of Seattle’s premier Jewish educators: Beth Huppin of Jewish Family Service, and Rabbi Adam Rubin of Congregation Beth Shalom. They will address how to utilize the book as a resource from the dual perspectives of teacher and student.
A light kosher luncheon will be served at this event.

Marty Jaffee, Professor Emeritus at the UW, is a renowned scholar of the Oral Torah and rabbinic Judaism. He received his PhD in Religious Studies from Brown University and began teaching at the University of Washington in 1987. Over the course of four decades of teaching and publishing, he put the UW Jewish Studies and Comparative Religion programs on the national map. Jaffee was elected to the American Society for the Study of Religion in 2004, and was named a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research in 2010.

STUDENT EVENT: Feasting with Faculty Michael Rosenthal
2016-01-21 17:00 - 19:00 | Persepolis Grill, 5517 University Way NE, Seattle, WA
Get to know Professor Michael Rosenthal, Chair and Professor of the Department of Philosophy, and Jewish Studies faculty member, through informal conversation over dinner.
Prof. Rosenthal teaches and publishes in the areas of early modern philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, and Jewish philosophy. His current research focuses on the philosophy of Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher of Sephardic Portuguese origin. Spinoza’s writing lay the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe.
Join us for what is sure to be a delightful evening!
Open to undergraduate and graduate students only.
No cost but reservations required.

Beyond Hebrew: Zionism and the Politics of Language Diversity in Palestine and Israel
2016-01-25 17:30 - 19:00 | HUB 214, UW Seattle Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The promotion of Hebrew, traditionally a language of Jewish liturgy and study, as a spoken vernacular, was a central accomplishment of the Zionist movement in Palestine before Israeli statehood. Viewing twentieth-century history through the lens of language, author Liora Halperin questions the common narrative of a Zionist move away from multilingualism during the years following World War I, demonstrating how Jews in Palestine remained connected linguistically by both preference and necessity to a world outside the boundaries of the pro-Hebrew community even as it promoted Hebrew and achieved that language’s dominance.
The story of language encounters in Jewish Palestine is a fascinating tale of shifting power relationships, both locally and globally. Halperin’s absorbing study explores how a young national community was compelled to modify the dictates of Hebrew exclusivity as it negotiated its relationships with its Jewish population, Palestinian Arabs, the British, and others outside the margins of the national project and ultimately came to terms with the limitations of its influence and power in an interconnected world.
Light Kosher reception to follow lecture.

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is proud to offer this lecture as part of our Winter 2016 series, Beyond the Binary: Israel Studies Today which welcomes several emerging scholars to share new directions in the field of Israel Studies. Stay tuned for more information!

Liora R. Halperin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the Program in Jewish Studies and the holder of the Endowed Professorship in Israel/Palestine Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she has taught since 2013. Her research focuses on Jewish cultural history, Jewish-Arab relations in Ottoman and Mandate Palestine, language ideology and policy, and the politics surrounding nation formation in Palestine in the years leading up to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. She is also a member of the advisory board for CU’s Archive of Post-Holocaust American Judaism, and affiliated faculty in Middle Eastern Studies at the CU Center for Asian Studies.

Syrian Jews in Brooklyn: How Their Sabbath Morning Music Reflects Their Arab History and Culture
2016-01-28 17:30 - 19:00 | Ethnic Cultural Center, 3931 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, US
Syrian Jews have lived in Brooklyn since the 1880s. Today their community is estimated to be over 70,000. With twenty synagogues and twenty other institutions, the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn is thriving. For hundreds of years Syrian Jewish prayer has incorporated the melodies and musical styles of Arab culture. In this presentation, Prof. Mark Kligman will discuss their history, the Brooklyn community and the musical practices of their Sabbath morning services. This presentation will show video and audio examples that will demonstrate contemporary practices of Syrian prayer.

Prof. Mark Kligman, is the inaugural holder of the Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music and Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology at UCLA in the Herb Alpert School of Music. He specializes in the liturgical traditions of Middle Eastern Jewish communities and various areas of popular Jewish music.

In addition to his visit to UW, Prof. Kligman will be giving several lectures throughout the Seattle Jewish community. For more information about “Shabbat of Learning with Dr. Mark Kligman” at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth and Minyan Ohr Chadash, please contact Karen Treiger at karen@treiger.com

The Disability Rights Movement in Israel: Sources, Achievements and Challenges
2016-02-01 12:30 - 13:30 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
In recent years, Israel has witnessed a growing movement of people with disabilities who claim their rights and fight for their place in society through legal and other means. This development was a result of changes in Israeli society, in the disability community, and in the legal arena. Prof. Sagit Mor will address the local and global forces that shaped the history of disability activism in Israel, that are characterized by the turn from charity to welfare to rights. While the disability activism, protests, and lobbying efforts led to some remarkable achievements they still face significant challenges.

Sagit Mor is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law, Israel. She is an Israel Institute Teaching Fellow visiting the University of Washington for the 2015-2016 academic year (affiliated with Law Societies and Justice program (LSJ) and the Jewish Studies program).
Following the completion of her doctoral studies at New York University School of Law, she was an Ed Roberts postdoctoral fellow in disability studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation won the Association for the Study of Law Culture and the Humanities 2007 Dissertation Award.
Please note, this event is a Brown Bag Lunch. No need to RSVP, seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is proud to offer this lecture as part of our Winter 2016 series, Beyond the Binary: Israel Studies Today which welcomes several emerging scholars to share new directions in the field of Israel Studies.
Co-sponsored by UW Middle East Center. The Middle East Center’s sponsorship of an event does not imply that the Center endorses the content of the event.
Please contact UW Middle East Center (mecuw@uw.edu) with any questions.

Tea and Discussion with Prof. Noam Pianko
2016-02-08 14:30 - 15:30 | HUB 337, Husky Union Building, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Access students and community members are invited to join Prof. Noam Pianko to discuss “When Did Jews Become a People?” Professor Pianko will discuss themes of the current significance and future relevance of “peoplehood” by tracing the rise, transformation, and return of this novel term, based on research he did for his recently published book, Jewish Peoplehood: An American Innovation.
Prof. Pianko is the Samuel N. Stroum Chair of Jewish Studies and Associate Professor in the Jackson School of International Studies. He also directs the Samuel and Althea Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and serves as the Herbert and Lucy Pruzan Professor of Jewish Studies.
Tea and cookies will be provided.
RSVPs appreciated.

Jewish Culture Table @ CulturalFest
2016-02-12 10:30 - 15:00 | HUB Ballrooms
CulturalFest celebrates the diversity and talent that international students bring to our campus and region. This annual community event, sponsored by FIUTS (Furthering International Understanding Through Students) welcomes thousands of globally-minded visitors of all ages and backgrounds to the University of Washington for cultural exploration and learning.
Join Jewish Studies students at the Jewish Culture table at CulturalFest’s International Expo on Friday, February 12 from 10:30am-3:00pm. The Expo takes place in the HUB Ballrooms on the 2nd Floor.
The International Expo is FREE and open to the public.

We Are Seattle: Stories from Families, Immigrants, Refugees & the Agencies that Serve Them
2016-02-16 17:30 - 19:30 | Kane Hall 110, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in Seattle? How do we address their needs and celebrate their strengths? How have world events and national politics impacted our communities? Join us to share your perspective, hear from our panel, and explore images of Seattle’s changing populations.
To request interpretation for the event, please email miryaml@nhwa.org or call 206-461-8430 x 2096.

Neighborhood House is one of the Puget Sound regions’ oldest social service agencies. Established in 1906 as Settlement House for Jewish immigrants, Neighborhood House has evolved overtime to serve generations of Seattle and King County immigrant, refugee and low-income residents. Find out more about the services provided by Neighborhood House here!

Want to learn more about the Jewish roots of Neighborhood House? Check out this digital project by Jewish Studies students Katherine Stoner and Sandra Barnes to find out how it’s vision and intentions impacted the newly arrived Jewish Immigrant population.

Lunch and Learn: Visual Kabbalah with Yossi Chajes
2016-02-19 10:30 - 12:00 | Thomson Hall 317, Thomson Hall 317, Seattle
Visual Kabbalah and the Diagramming of the Divine Most students of kabbalistic literature find themselves “visualizing” its cosmogonic and cosmological teachings. The iconic “Tree of Life” is certainly the best known kabbalistic symbol, and is often the first thing conveyed to those being exposed for the first time to this lore. What few realize is that complex graphical scrolls have been a genre of kabbalistic literature in their own right since the Renaissance, and that from the seventeenth century such scrolls became an indispensable tool to Lurianic kabbalists. In this presentation, Prof. Chajes will introduce this little-known genre and explain the origins and functions of these amazing kabbalistic artifacts.
Light kosher lunch provided.

J. H. (Yossi) Chajes (Ph.D., Yale University 1999) is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Jewish History of the University of Haifa.

STUDENT EVENT: Jewish Studies Student Advisory Council Meeting
2016-02-22 18:00 - 19:00 | HUB 214, UW Seattle Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The Jewish Studies Advisory Council (JSSAC) is a non-religious and non-political organization at UW that serves as a liaison between students and Stroum Center for Jewish Studies faculty and staff. The council provides a forum for student input and ideas, and offers students the opportunity to build leadership skills and gain mentorship in curriculum development and organizational management. JSSAC also builds community and friendships among students who are interested in Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. Undergraduate and graduate students from all backgrounds and majors with an interest in Jewish Studies are welcome to join.
At the February meeting, Prof Pianko, Director of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, will join to ask students for feedback regarding a new course he wishes to teach next fall.
Dinner is provided! RSVPs appreciated so we can order the right amount of food. Please RSVP to Lauren Kurland at lkurland@uw.edu.

STUDENT EVENT: Feasting with Faculty: Profs. Mika Ahuvia and Sarah Culpepper Stroup
2016-03-02 17:30 - 19:30 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Beyond the Gender Binary
Join Professor Mika Ahuvia (Assistant Professor of Classical Judaism, Jackson School of International Studies) and Professor Sarah Culpepper Stroup (Associate Professor of Classics) for an informal conversation about ancient texts that go “beyond the gender binary.”
Open to undergraduate and graduate students only.
Free vegetarian dinner provided.
No cost but reservations required. This event is limited to 30 students.
This event co-sponsored with the Religious Studies Club of UW.

"Dr. Loewenstein, I Presume?": Israeli Eye Aid to Africa, 1959-1973
2016-03-08 12:00 - 13:30 | HUB 332, Husky Union Building, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Israel was involved in multiple foreign aid projects to sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960s as part of its quest to gain political allies and determine its place in the decolonized world. Dr. Mooreville will address how and why ophthalmology became Israel’s largest medical aid program, and in so doing address Israel’s claims to be a bridgehead between East and West, and its short-lived affiliation with the Global South. She investigates the historic symbolic significance of trachoma in Palestine, Africa as an extra-territorial site of pioneering that provided new clinical and research experiences, and how one physician took advantage of diplomatic policies to create an aid project that fulfilled his professional vision.

Anat Mooreville is the Hazel D. Cole Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research concentrates on Jewish history in the Middle East and North Africa, the history of medicine and science, and Israel-Palestine studies. She received her Ph.D. in History at UCLA in 2015 with the dissertation, “Oculists in the Orient: A History of Trachoma, Zionism, and Global Health, 1882-1973.”

A light Kosher lunch will be provided.

The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is proud to offer this lecture as part of our Winter 2016 series, Beyond the Binary: Israel Studies Today which welcomes several emerging scholars to share new directions in the field of Israel Studies.

CANCELLED - Rabbi Shai Held on Heschel and Maimonides
2016-04-01 10:00 - 11:15 | Savery 408, 408 Savery Hall, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Unfortunately, Rabbi Shai Held has had to cancel his upcoming visit to Seattle so this event will no longer be taking place. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
What do we mean when we say “God”? Are we talking about an abstract, distant, unknowable being? A personal God who loves and cares about us? Something else entirely? In this session, we’ll explore the very different ways two of Judaism’s greatest thinkers – Maimonides and Abraham Joshua Heschel – thought about God, and ask what we might learn for our own spiritual and religious quests.

Rabbi Shai Held is Co-Founder, Dean and Chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar. Shai also directs Mechon Hadar’s Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas, for which he has written over a year’s worth of weekly divrei Torah on the parashah. Previously, he served for six years as Scholar-in-Residence at Kehilat Hadar in New York City, and taught both theology and Halakha at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Shai holds a doctorate in religion from Harvard; his main academic interests are in modern Jewish and Christian thought and in the history of Zionism. His book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence was published by Indiana University Press in 2013.

SJFF Sephardic Film Highlight: Bulgarian Rhapsody
2016-04-03 13:30 - 15:00 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine Street, Seattle, WA, United States
A visually stunning tale of first love and friendship in a time of war. In the summer of 1943 in Sofia, Bulgaria, a shy 17-year-old Jewish boy, meets his cousin and is immediately smitten. Unfortunately, so is his more worldly friend Giogio. The boys navigate more than a love triangle; however, as the police begin rounding up the Jews in this Ladino-speaking community under pressure from their German allies, who are also devastating Shelli’s hometown of Kavala, Greece. To complicate matters, Giogio’s father is a brutish anti-Semite who works for the government department in charge of deporting Sofia’s Jews to forced labor and death camps.

Despite its grim setting, the film’s tender evocation of childhood exuberance, innocence, and budding romance recreates the sweet and sumptuous lost world of Bulgarian Sephardic Jewish culture.

Bulgaria’s submission to the 2014 Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language Film, BULGARIAN RHAPSODY is part of director Ivan Nichev’s historic trilogy about Bulgarian Jews, which also includes AFTER THE END OF THE WAR (1999) and THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM (2003). Warning: some nudity.

Featuring commentary and echar lashon with Prof. Devin Naar and special performances by the Bulgarian Women’s Choir group Dunava.

Tickets for this film are available through the Seattle Jewish Film Festival.

STUDENT EVENT: Jewish Studies Student Advisory Committee Meeting
2016-04-05 18:00 - 19:00 | HUB 332, Husky Union Building, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The Jewish Studies Student Advisory Council (JSSAC) is a non-religious and non-political organization at UW that serves as a liaison between students and Stroum Center for Jewish Studies faculty and staff. The council provides a forum for student input and ideas, and offers students the opportunity to build leadership skills and gain mentorship in curriculum development and organizational management. JSSAC also builds community and friendships among students who are interested in Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. Undergraduate and graduate students from all backgrounds and majors with an interest in Jewish Studies are welcome to join.
Dinner is provided! RSVPs appreciated so we can order the right amount of food. Please RSVP to Lauren Kurland at lkurland@uw.edu.

Lunch and Learn with Dr. Gerhard Weinberg
2016-04-06 12:00 - 13:00 | Petersen Room, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Hitler and the U.S.: Views, Plans, Policies, and the Jewish Question in All Three
Dr. Gerhard Weinberg, Professor Emeritus of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will be joining us for a Lunch and Learn event on Thursday, April 6, 2016.
Prof. Devin Naar, chair of the UW Sephardic Studies Program, will be the faculty respondent to Dr. Weinberg’s paper.
This talk, entitled “Hitler and the U.S.:. Views, Plans, Policies and the Jewish Question in All Three,” will engage Hitler’s hopes and plans for world conquest which from an early date included war with the United States. He also expected to have Germans kill all Jews throughout the world as well as the handicapped. Once becoming chancellor of Germany, he began preparations for both the wars to be fought — including the one against the US — and persecution of Jews. It was wartime that in his eyes made systematic killing possible; first of the handicapped and then of the Jews. The talk then reviews the plans for dividing the world between Germany and Japan after victory in World War II and the implications of a division of the United States between the two with Washington going to Japan and the other 47 to Germany.
This event is co-sponsored by the UW Department of History.

Dr. Gerhard Weinberg is a leading world scholar on the topics of Nazi Germany, WWII, foreign policy, and the Holocaust. He was born in Nazi Germany into a family of German Jews, he and his family escaped to London. Later, Dr. Weinberg joined the U.S Military. He earned his Ph.D. in 1951 at the University of Chicago. He worked on Columbia University’s War Documentation Project, and established the program for microfilming the captured German documents. Professor Weinberg has, over the course of his long career, taught at Universities of Chicago, Kentucky, Michigan, and North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has chaired several professional organizations and served on and chaired several U.S. government advisory committees. Now retired, he has authored or edited eleven books and over 100 chapters, articles, guides to archives and other publications.
A light kosher lunch will be served.

SJFF Short Film Highlight: In the Footsteps of Regina Jonas
2016-04-10 15:30 - 17:30 | Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 East Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA, 98040, United States
Who was the first woman rabbi and why don’t we know about her? Most American Jews believe that women in the rabbinate is an American phenomenon that arose out of the feminist movement of the 1970s. So it is surprising to discover that the first woman rabbi, Regina Jonas, was ordained in Berlin in 1935 and served German Jewry as they faced the agonies of Hitler’s murderous regime in Germany and then in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The film explores that question through a trip to Berlin and Terezin undertaken by America’s pioneering rabbis to recover their fore-mother and to discover both who she was and why she matters to us.
Tickets for this short film are available through the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. This short will be screened immediately before the showing of Raise the Roof.

Jewish Refugees and Their Lives in Shanghai
2016-04-11 09:00 - 11:00 | Hillel UW, 4745 17th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, US
Prof. Xu will speak about the arrival of Jewish refugees from Central Europe during the Holocaust to Shanghai, their lives during War time in Shanghai and what caused them to leave when the war ended.
Registration for this event is available through the Confucius Institute.
This event is offered as part of the The Jewish Refugees in Shanghai Exhibition (1933-1941), which brings together for the first time photos, personal stories, and artifacts from Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum. The exhibition will run at Hillel at UW from April 6 through April 30, 2016. It is free and open to the public Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM.

XU XIN is a professor at Nanjing University and China’s leading Judaic scholar, as well as the founder and director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish and Israel Studies at Nanjing University, China. Prof. Xu is the President of the China Judaic Studies Association, Vice President of the China Mid-East Studies Association, and Editor-in-Chief and a major contributor of the Chinese edition Encyclopedia Judaica (Shanghai: The Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1993).

Prof. Xu is the first Chinese scholar who introduced Modern Hebrew literature to Chinese readers and has introduced over 50 Israeli poets and writers to Chinese public readers. He was a guest speaker at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1988 and at Tel Aviv University (1993 and 1998). In 1995, he served as a Fellow at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1996 and 1998, he served as a visiting scholar at the Center for Jewish Studies of Harvard University.

Prof. Xu has given over 600 public lectures in the world since 1995 and his activities have been widely reported by newspapers such as Chicago Tribune, Jerusalem Post, New York Times, Harvard University Gazette, The Jerusalem Report, The Jewish Week, Forward and etc.

Links for Further Exploration

Profile of Prof. Xu from Tablet Magazine
