UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

Impressions of Israel with Prof. Joel Migdal
2016-07-26 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Washington State Jewish Historical Society Gallery, 100 W Harrison Street, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Join the Washington State Jewish Historical Society for the next History Happy Hour on July 26th in the WSJHS exhibit gallery. Jewish Studies faculty member, Professor Joel Migdal, will speak about his impressions from living in Israel over the past year. Refreshments will be provided.

$5 for members, $10 for non-members
RSVP required for admittance. Tickets can be purchased at WSJHS website: wsjhsorg.presencehost.net/historyhappyhour/page.html

About the speaker:
Joel S. Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies. He was the founding chair of the School’s International Studies Program. Dr. Migdal was formerly associate professor of Government at Harvard University and senior lecturer at Tel-Aviv University. His books include Peasants, Politics, and Revolution; Palestinian Society and Politics; Strong Societies and Weak States; State in Society; Through the Lens of Israel; The Palestinian People: A History (with Baruch Kimmerling); and, most recently, Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. He received the UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award and Graduate Mentor Award, as well as the Governor’s Writers Award. He is also a board member of the Washington State Jewish Historical Society

Women of the Book Exhibit
2016-09-22 - 2016-10-01 | Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 East Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA, 98040, United States
A collection of 54 limited edition artworks, each representing one of the 54 weekly Torah portions and completed by a different female artist from around the world.
Women of the Book, founded by Social Practice artist, Shoshana Gugenheim, is an international collaboration of 54 Jewish women artists. The selected artworks, created on parchment – one for each Torah portion – acknowledge the emergence of Jewish women artists as visionaries and creative interpreters of text. The exhibition will be open to the public and on display at the Stroum Jewish Community Center from September 22, 2016 through September 30, 2016.
Join the JCC for a celebration and reception on the opening night of the exhibit, 6:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 22! Associate curator Judith Margolis will lead a tour of the exhibit. Details and RSVP here.
On Thursday Sept. 29th, Prof. Mika Ahuvia will give a special lecture as part of this exhibit. Find out more here.
A partnership of the Stroum Jewish Community Center and UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.

Links for Further Exploration

Women of the Book Project
About the Founder, Shoshana Gugenheim
Stroum Jewish Community Center

STUDENTS: Talking International Studies -- Food, Music & Your Future
2016-09-27 12:00 - 13:30 | HUB 340, University of Washington HUB, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
Jewish Studies is one of SEVEN majors available at the Jackson School of International Studies.
A degree in International Studies can take you anywhere. Just ask Jackson School students!
They’ll be here – along with Jackson School advisers, Resource Centers, and Career Services staff.
Find out about classes, internships, study abroad, and connect with fabulous alumni who have taken their international studies degrees to all corners of the world.
Oh, and this too: We’ll have globally-minded refreshments, music, and salsa dancing! Join us for a fun and informative time.

Drawing on the Past: Biblical Women in History, Memory, and Ritual Life
2016-09-29 19:30 - 20:30 | Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 East Mercer Way, Mercer Island, WA, 98040, United States
As part of the Women of the Book art exhibition at the Stroum Jewish Community Center, Professor Mika Ahuvia will give a lecture about the women of the Bible and their impact on Jewish life.
To register for this event, please fill out this online form for the Stroum Jewish Community Center. To learn more about the lecture or the Women of the Book art exhibit, visit the Stroum Jewish Community Center Women of the Book webpage or contact the Stroum Jewish Community Center staff.

Prof. Mika Ahuvia is Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Assistant Professor, Jackson School of International Studies. She researches the formative history of Jewish and Christian communities in the ancient Mediterranean world. Specializing in Late Antique Jewish history, she works with Rabbinic sources, liturgical poetry, magical texts, early mystical literature, and archaeological evidence. Her dissertation was on angels in Jewish texts from the fourth to eighth century CE.

Links for Further Exploration

Register for the lecture
Women of the Book Project
Learn more about the Founder of Women of th Book, Shoshana Gugenheim
Stroum Jewish Community Center

LSJ Lox and Learn: Jewish Bioethics
2016-10-05 12:30 - 13:20 | Gates Hall (UW School of Law)
LSJ students are invited to speak with Hadar Khazzam-Horovitz about Jewish Bioethics.
This lecture will explore Jewish-religious perspectives on contemporary biomedical issues. It will focus on some of the key differences between secular and Jewish approaches in interpretation and application of medical ethics. The topics to be discussed include: doctor-patient relationship; euthanasia; and stem cell research. The goal is to promote important discussion of alternative perspectives to ethical evaluations and practices.

The Holocaust in the Soviet Union
2016-10-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Kane Hall 110, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Dr. Daniel Newman will discuss the experiences of Holocaust victims in the Soviet Union as well as the divisiveness of the memory of the Holocaust in the postwar USSR. Additionally, he will address the political factors affecting the remembrance of the Holocaust and argue that it is essential to study this horrific tragedy both in the context of Holocaust history and also in the context of politics and conflict in the former USSR. Remembrance of the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust proved to be a contentious issue throughout the Soviet period and regrettably remains so today, with certain political considerations and even possibly anti-Semitic agendas relegating the story of the Jews during the Holocaust to a historical byline at best that is completely absent from the historical record at worst.
This event is free and open to the public. No RSVP is necessary.

About the Speaker
Dr. Daniel Newman is the Program Manager of the Initiative for the Study of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union at the the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. He holds a PhD in modern European history from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Immigration, Religion & Human Rights Panel
2016-10-27 19:00 - 21:00 | HUB 332, Husky Union Building, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Should our country discriminate among potential immigrants on the basis of religion? Our policy has been not to do so. But there have been recent calls by prominent politicians to change that practice. Our panelists will discuss this and related questions from philosophical, sociological, and historical perspectives.
Moderator:
Michael Rosenthal, Professor of Philosophy and Samuel and Althea Stroum Chair in Jewish Studies, UW Seattle
Participants:
Michael Blake, Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Governance, Department of Philosophy and Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, UW Seattle
Sarah Eltantawi, Assistant Professor of Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies, Evergreen State College
Kathie Friedman, Associate Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, UW Seattle
Thomas Schmidt, Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Department of Catholic Theology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
This panel is part of a conference, “Immigration, Toleration, and Human Rights,” which will take place on October 27-28th. Please see the Simpson Center website for more details: https://simpsoncenter.org/projects/immigration-toleration-and-human-rights.
Sponsors: The conference and related events are co-sponsored by the UW Tri-Campus Research Cluster on Human Interactions and Normative Innovation (HI-NORM), the Global Innovation Fund of the UW Office of Global Affairs, the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW-Tacoma, the Department of Philosophy, the Program on Values in Society, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, the Friends of Philosophy, the UW Center for Human Rights, the MERCUR Research Project: Ethics of Immigration at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen, and the Cluster of Excellence: The Formation of Normative Orders at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.

Jewish Salonica Book Launch with Prof. Devin Naar
2016-11-03 19:00 - 20:30 | UW Tower Auditorium, 4333 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
Note: This event is sold out and no more tickets are available. A waitlist will be available at the event on a first-come, first-served basis. Thank you for your understanding.
A video of Prof. Naar’s lecture will be available by the end of Autumn Quarter. He will also be among the featured speakers at International Ladino Day on Nov. 30th. More info and registration are available here.

The city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) was once home to the largest Sephardic Jewish community in the world. In this lecture, Prof. Naar will explore the fate of Salonica’s Jews and offer behind-the-scenes insight into how he uncovered the previously lost sources necessary to tell the story. Join the Stroum Center and the Sephardic Studies Program for this exciting book launch event.
Light kosher reception to follow lecture.
This event is co-sponsored by the University of Washington’s Department of History, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, and the Center for West European Studies.
Devin Naar at Ladino Day 2015
Devin E. Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington.
Parking & Transportation to the UW Tower
The W-46 parking garage is attached to the UW Tower via a skybridge located on the 3rd floor of the garage. Vehicles may enter on 12th Ave NE and NE 43rd Street. The garage and skybridge entrance normally close at 6pm, but the Stroum Center has arranged to hire a guard for the entrance so that our guests may enter until 7:30pm. This should give everyone plenty of time to park and get to the book launch.
Visitors should be sure to park only in numbered spaces and use machines on the 1st or 3rd floor to prepay. The cost is $3 per hour.
For more information including details on ADA accessibility and public transit, see the UW Tower’s “Getting Here” page: https://www.washington.edu/facilities/uwtower/getting-here.

Links for Further Exploration

Learn more about Prof. Naar’s book Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece
Explore the UW Sephardic Studies program
Visit the Sephardic Studies Collection at the UW Libraries Digital Collections

Screening of "Ha'Ivrim" ("The Writers") and Discussion with Professor Sokoloff
2016-11-09 11:45 - 13:15 | HUB 145, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Access Students and community members are invited to join Professor Naomi Sokoloff for a screening of an episode from the Israeli television series Ha’Ivrim (“The Writers”) about Israel’s national poet, Hayim Nahman Bialik. Professor Sokoloff will lead a discussion after the screening.
Please bring your own lunch; the Stroum Center will provide tea, coffee and cookies.
The film is in Hebrew with English subtitles.
No cost.
Registration is limited to 40.

Tomasz Łysak: Classic Documentary Films About Auschwitz-Birkenau
2016-11-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Kane Hall 110, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
After WWII there was a significant shift in the visual principles of rendering the operations of Auschwitz-Birkenau, its history, and its moral significance. Soviet and Polish filmmakers established the cinematographic conventions of Holocaust documentaries, which contributed to the conceptualization of concentration camps and industrial genocide as modernist events. The films in question span the period between the liberation of Auschwitz and the 1960s, and include liberation footage recorded by the Red Army and the Polish Film Chronicle, Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog (1955), Andrzej Brzozowski’s Archeology (1967), and Tadeusz Jaworski’s I was a Kapo (1963). This selection sheds light on the aesthetic choices of film genres like newsreel, post-traumatic film, scientific film, and first person testimony.

Join former Polish Fulbright Scholar Tomasz Łysak as he discusses his new book Od kroniki do filmu posttraumatycznego – filmy dokumentalne o Zagładzie. The book explores a comparative perspective on Holocaust cinema, placing Polish productions in the context of the larger international phenomenon of this genre.

This event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Organized by UW Polish Studies, co-sponsored by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.

About the Speaker:
Tomasz Łysak, University of Warsaw, received his PhD in Philosophy from the Polish Academy of Sciences. His work focuses on representations of the Holocaust in relation to trauma studies and psychoanalysis. He has held fellowships at the University of Washington, Seattle, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Chicago.

About the Book:
Documentary materials shot during the war by Nazi cameramen came to define the audiovisual memory of Polish Jews in the ghettoes and Auschwitz-Birkenau liberation footage became a powerful symbol of the Holocaust. Polish documentary filmmakers had relied on these materials in order to present various aspects of the genocide, Nazi atrocities, and the fate of Jews under the occupation. Subsequently, quoting of archival footage lost its appeal and other modes of documentary film-making prevail: cinematic memory work (in response to Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog), audiovisual testimony, documentaries of return etc. The book traces these developments and adopts a comparative perspective showing Polish productions in the context of a larger international phenomenon of Holocaust cinema. The argument combines insights from psychoanalytical trauma theory, generic criticism, memory studies, and political aesthetics.

STUDENTS: Funny Jews--From Seinfeld to Broad City, An Evening of Comedy with Prof. Pianko
2016-11-16 17:30 - 19:00 | Hillel UW, 4745 17th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, US
Broad City Girls. Seinfeld. Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Watch clips from some of these classic shows and chat afterward with Prof Noam Pianko about what makes these shows so darned funny.
Light refreshments will be served.
Co-sponsored by Hillel UW.
Open to all UW undergraduate and graduate students.
RSVP is required.

"Oriental Neighbors" Discussion with Prof. Moshe Naor
2016-11-29 12:30 - 13:30 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine
Focusing on Oriental Jews and their relations with their Arab neighbors in Mandatory Palestine, this book analyzes the meaning of the hybrid Arab-Jewish identity that existed among Oriental Jews, and discusses their unique role as political, social, and cultural mediators between Jews and Arabs. Integrating Mandatory Palestine and its inhabitants into the contemporary Semitic-Levantine surroundings, Oriental Neighbors illuminates broad areas of cooperation and coexistence, which coincided with conflict and friction, between Oriental and Sephardi Jews and their Arab neighbors. The book brings the Oriental Jewish community to the fore, examines its role in the Zionist nation-building process, and studies its diverse and complex links with the Arab community in Palestine.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, UW Middle East Center*, and Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.
Kosher lunch will be provided. Note that registration is required to attend this event.

*The Middle East Center’s sponsorship of this of this event does not imply that the Center endorses the content of the event.

4th Annual International Ladino Day
2016-11-30 19:30 - 21:00 | Kane Hall 120, 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and the Sephardic Studies Program present
International Ladino Day
Support made possible by the Lucie Benveniste Kavesh Endowed Fund for Sephardic Studies
Additional support provided by Sephardic Bikur Holim, Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, the Seattle Sephardic Network, the Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood, and the Sephardic Studies Program Founders Circle
In 1978, the acclaimed film Song of the Sephardi by David Raphael premiered in Seattle. The director decided to set the film—and premiere it—in Seattle because he wanted to capture the dynamic Sephardic culture, religion, and the Ladino language in all of its richness, and recognized Seattle as one of the best places to do so. Nearly forty years later, in honor of the Fourth International Ladino Day, we will revisit the film, reflect on the snapshot of Sephardic culture it captured, and follow the protagonists and the families featured in the film: Where are they now? And what is the present status of Sephardic culture and community in Seattle? Are there more verses to the Song of the Sephardi yet to be composed?
After a brief screening of excerpts from Song of the Sephardi, Prof. Devin E. Naar will moderate a panel of Seattle community members to discuss the past, present, and future of Ladino. The panel participants include: Judith Amiel, Hazzan Isaac (Ike) Azose, David Behar, and Makena Owens.

Enjoy video highlights from our previous 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

Graduate Fellow Presentation: Spinoza, Borges, and Literary Imagination
2016-12-08 12:00 - 13:30 | Thomson Hall 317, Thomson Hall 317, Seattle
New event series this year! The Jewish Studies faculty is hosting quarterly seminars featuring the research projects of our Jewish Studies Graduate Fellows. These talks will take place at lunchtime, 12:00-1:30 pm, on the UW campus. Join us to hear about the latest innovations in the field from our talented class of 2016-17 fellows!
Vegetarian lunch will be provided; please RSVP so that we can plan our catering accordingly. Everyone who RSVPs will receive an advance copy of the research paper to be discussed.
First Presentation: Zachary Tavlin, “Polishing Crystals in the Twilight: Spinoza, Borges, and the Literary Imagination”
On Thursday, December 8th at 12:00 pm, Zachary Tavlin, a PhD candidate in the Department of English, will present “Polishing Crystals in the Twilight: Spinoza, Borges, and the Literary Imagination.” Zachary Tavlin is the 2017-17 Richard M. Willner Memorial Scholar at the Stroum Center. He is a PhD candidate in the UW Department of English. He received his BA in Philosophy from The George Washington University in 2011, and his MA in Philosophy from Louisiana State University in 2013. He is currently writing a dissertation on nineteenth-century American literature, the visual arts, and embodied phenomenology. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on topics including psychoanalysis, Victorian materialisms, eco-criticism, poetics, philosophy and American literature, and film theory.
Check out Zachary Tavlin’s new blog post, Is It Time to Reconsider Marlowe’s and Shakespeare’s Jews?
Prof. Michael Rosenthal, this year’s Samuel and Althea Stroum Chair, will serve as the respondent to Zachary’s paper. Prof. Rosenthal is faculty for the UW Department of Philosophy. He teaches and publishes in the areas of early modern philosophy, ethics, political philosophy, and Jewish philosophy. Prof. Rosenthal’s current research focuses on the philosophy of Benedict Spinoza, and he is currently finishing a book on Baruch Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise.
Check out Prof. Rosenthal’s blog post, Was Spinoza a Heretic or a Theologian?
Save the dates for the Winter Quarter and Spring Quarter Graduate Fellow presentations:
Thursday, March 9th, 12:00-1:30 pm: Oded Oron (JSIS-International Studies) and Esra Bakkalbasioglu (JSIS-Near and Middle Eastern Studies) will speak on Refugees and Minorities in Israel
Thursday, May 11th, 12:00-1:30 pm: Ozgur Ozkan (JSIS-International Studies) and Emily Gade (Political Science) will speak on Life in Conflict Zones

STUDENTS: JSSAC Meeting
2017-01-17 18:00 - 19:00 | THO 403
Students are welcome to join the Jewish Studies Student Advisory Council to give feedback and input about upcoming Jewish Studies courses and programs.
Please RSVP so we can be sure to have enough food!

Discussion Screening of “Ha’Ivrim” (“The Writers”)
2017-01-23 11:45 - 13:15 | HUB 337, Husky Union Building, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Access Students and community members are invited to join Professor Naomi Sokoloff for a screening of an episode from the Israeli television series Ha’Ivrim (“The Writers”) about the Israeli poet, Zelda. Professor Sokoloff will lead a discussion after the screening.
Please bring your own lunch; the Stroum Center will provide tea, coffee and cookies.
The film is in Hebrew with English subtitles.
No cost.
Registration is limited to 40.
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization.

An Evening with MaNishtana
2017-01-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Kane Hall 110, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
“Truth, Justice, and the American (Oy) Vey: The Significance of the Jewish Influence on Comic Books”
MaNishtana is a writer and speaker whose work takes prejudice, bias, and ignorance head on, relentless in the pursuit of truth by partnering with his audience to ask the questions about humanity, race, religion, and social injustice that we all have… and maybe are afraid to talk about. A social activist more by chance than choice, MaNishtana’s humorous and often irreverent voice shatters the paradigms and misconceptions of both American Jewish and African-American identity.
Born to two African-American Jewish parents, MaNishtana grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the oldest of five siblings in a Chabad family. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in English & Secondary Education. He has taught English Literature, Math, and Science in both public and Yeshiva secondary schools.
In 2014, MaNishtana was part of the inaugural writing staff of Hevria, whose mission is to be the go-to community for creative Jewish and “spiritual” people. MaNishtana is also on the Speaker’s Bureau of Bechol Lashon, an internationally active San Francisco non-profit dedicated to celebrating racial and ethnic diversity in the Jewish community. He has created books, films, and video games. You can read more about MaNishtana’s biography at his official website: https://manishtana.net/biography/
We thank our campus cosponsors for this event:
Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema & Media
Comparative Religion Program, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
Race and Equity Initiative
Links for Further Exploration
Here are some recent articles written by MaNishtana, who describes his work as “100% Black. 100% Jewish. 0% Safe.”

Latino Jews Respond to Trump (Tablet Magazine, Dec. 6, 2016)
“You Don’t Get To Play Much with Kids Who Look Like You, Right?” (Tablet Magazine, Sept. 29, 2016)
This is #MyJewish. It Matters (Tablet Magazine, July 13, 2016)

Medicine & Medical Ethics After the Holocaust
2017-02-01 18:00 - 19:00 | Thomson Hall 101, 2023 King Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
In this public lecture, Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld of the Baylor College of Medicine will speak on how medicine and medical ethics were challenged and affected by the Holocaust.
German physicians embraced eugenics, a worldwide movement in the first three decades of the twentieth century, transformed the Hippocratic Oath from a doctor-patient relationship into a StateVolkskörper relationship, and developed a politicized philosophy of medicine called “Applied Biology.” Hitler refashioned these ideas into public health policies such as involuntary sterilization, the Nuremberg Laws, and involuntary euthanasia.
The United States was the world leader in eugenics, providing moral, legal, and philanthropic support to the Third Reich. After the end of World War II and the Nuremberg Medical Trial, the United States dismissed the behavior of German medical professionals as an irrelevant aberration, developed comforting but false myths about medicine and the Holocaust, and failed to examine her own eugenic past and its implication for contemporary medicine.
This lecture will review this history and challenge medical professionals and healthcare policy makers to personally confront the bioethics of the Holocaust and apply that knowledge to contemporary medicine.
Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld is the editor of Medicine After the Holocaust: From the Master Race to the Human Genome and Beyond (Palgrave, 2010). Dr. Rubenfeld is Clinical Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Clinical Professor of Nursing at the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston, and a Fellow in the American College of Endocrinology. He has taught courses on medical ethics and the Holocaust at the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and publishes and lectures throughout the world on both subjects. Dr. Rubenfeld is the founding chairman of the Center for Medicine After the Holocaust. Among other activities, the Center hosts a biennial trip to European medical sites relevant to the Holocaust, and is preparing a documentary about medicine and the Holocaust. In April of 2015 Dr. Rubenfeld convened the First International Scholars Workshop on Medicine After the Holocaust to promote medicine and the Holocaust as an academic discipline in medical centers throughout the world.

Graduate Fellow Presentation: Refugees and Minorities in Israel
2017-03-09 12:00 - 13:30 | HUB 145, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
New event series this year! The Jewish Studies faculty is hosting quarterly seminars featuring the research projects of our Jewish Studies Graduate Fellows. These talks will take place at lunchtime, 12:00-1:30 pm, on the UW campus. Join us to hear about the latest innovations in the field from our talented class of 2016-17 fellows!
Vegetarian lunch will be provided; please RSVP so that we can plan our catering accordingly. Everyone who RSVPs will receive an advance copy of the research papers to be discussed.
Oded Oron
Oded Oron – 2016-17 Rabbi Arthur A. Jacobovitz Fellow. His research project is “Migrants’ Mobilization for Rights and Recognition in Israel and the United States”
Oded Oron was born and raised in Tel Aviv, and his research focuses on the political mobilization of labor migrants and undocumented workers in Israel and the USA. Oded already holds degrees in Political Science and Communications as well as in Politics and Government. Prior to his enrollment in the Jackson School’s International Studies doctoral program, Oded worked in the Israeli media and government communications, and also worked for Hillel at UCLA. This is his second year in the Jewish Studies Graduate Fellowship.
Esra Bakkalbasioglu – 2016-17 Robert and Pamela Center Fellow. Her research project is “Non-Jewish Citizens of the Jewish State: Bedouin Citizens’ Perception of the State in Israel.”
Esra Bakkalbasioglu is a PhD candidate in Near and Middle Eastern Studies in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. She received her MA and BA degrees in Political Sciences and International Relations from Bogazici University, Turkey. She is writing her dissertation on the politics of infrastructure in the peripheral regions of Turkey and Israel. This is Esra’s second year in the Jewish Studies Graduate Fellowship. Check out Esra’s new blog post, Questions of Denial.
This research seminar will be facilitated by Prof. Kathie Friedman of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.
Save the date for the final seminar in the series:
Life in Conflict Zones, Thursday, May 11th, 12:00-1:30 pm, featuring Ozgur Ozkan (JSIS-International Studies) and Emily Gade (Political Science)

Lunch and Learn with Prof. Jeffrey Herf
2017-04-06 12:00 - 13:30 | HUB 214, UW Seattle Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967-1989 examines a spectrum of antagonism by the East German government and West German radical leftist organizations – ranging from hostile propaganda and diplomacy to military support for Israel’s Arab armed adversaries – from 1967 to the end of the Cold War in 1989. The book is about ideas and politics as well as details of arms deliveries and military training.
Vegetarian lunch provided.

Prof. Jeffrey Herf is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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Lunch and Learn with Dr. Federica Francesconi
2017-04-20 12:30 - 13:45 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The Stroum Center is proud to host Dr. Francesconi’s lunchtime talk, “The Italian Jewish Household in the Early Modern Mediterranean,” with a response from Dr. Rena Lauer. Complimentary falafel lunch to be provided. Please RSVP to ensure enough food.

Federica Francesconi (PhD, University of Haifa) is Assistant Professor of History and the Howard Berger-Ray Neilsen Chair in Judaic Studies at The College of Idaho. Her research and publications address the social, religious, and cultural aspects of the early modern history of Jews in Italy, focusing on the multifaceted politics and dynamics of ghetto life. She has held fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Oxford. She has just completed a monograph, Invisible Enlighteners: Modenese Jewry from the Renaissance to Emancipation. Her new book project is tentatively entitled “Cosmopolitan Intimacy: Jewish Spaces as Crossroads for Multi-Religious Communities in Early Modern Italy.”

Respondent Rena Lauer (PhD, Harvard) studies minority life on the borders of medieval Christendom and cross-cultural contacts in the late medieval Mediterranean. Her current book project is a social history of the Jews of Venetian Crete in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly through the lens of intra-Jewish litigation in the Venetian secular courtroom.

This seminar is made possible thanks to the American Academy of Jewish Research.

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Screening of "Ha'Ivrim" ("The Writers") and Discussion with Professor Sokoloff
2017-04-25 11:45 - 13:15 | HUB 334, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Access Students and community members are invited to join Professor Naomi Sokoloff for a screening of an episode from the Israeli television series Ha’Ivrim (“The Writers”) about the Sephardic cantor and hymnist Rabbi David Buzaglo.
The Moroccan-born rabbi, considered the greatest Hebrew liturgical poet of the 20th century, took inspiration from all sources, including even Arab pop music in the synagogue while remaining faithful to a musical tradition dating back to Andalusian Spain.
Professor Sokoloff will lead a discussion after the screening.
Please bring a lunch; the Stroum Center will provide complimentary tea, coffee and cookies.
The film is in Hebrew with English subtitles.
Co-sponsored with UW’s Department of Near Eastern Language and Civilization.

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Tabling Outside Thomson!
2017-05-04 12:00 - 14:00
Join UW Stroum Center outside Thomson hall to learn about upcoming courses and to get a free Stroum Center Tote Bag!

Graduate Fellow Presentation: Life in Conflict Zones
2017-05-11 12:00 - 13:30 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
New event series this year! The Jewish Studies faculty is hosting quarterly seminars featuring the research projects of our Jewish Studies Graduate Fellows. These talks will take place at lunchtime, 12:00-1:30 pm, on the UW campus. Join us to hear about the latest innovations in the field from our talented class of 2016-17 fellows!
Vegetarian lunch will be provided; please RSVP so that we can plan our catering accordingly.
“Non-Muslim Military Service and Minority Experience in the Late Ottoman Empire”
Ozgur Ozkan – 2016-17 I. Mervin & Georgiana Gorasht Fellow
Ozgur Ozkan is a PhD candidate in the Jackson’s School International Studies doctoral program. He holds a BS degree in Systems Engineering and an MA degree in Regional Security Studies from the US Naval Postgraduate School. Ozgur is planning to study Sephardic Jewish heritage in the Northern Aegean and Southern Marmara, especially in Canakkale and its vicinity. He is particularly interested in Sephardic Jewish participation in the Ottoman Gallipoli Front in the First World War and the immigration patterns of Sephardic Jews of this region.
“Effects of Violence on Civilian Support for Militancy”
Emily Gade – 2016-17 Samuel & Althea Stroum Fellow
Emily Gade is a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on civilians in conflict zones, political violence and nonviolent resistance, and she is especially interested in the role of ZAKA recovery workers in Israel. Before coming to Seattle, she worked as a contract research and writer, most recently completing research for the LSE Center for the Study of Global Governance on peace agreements. Emily also enjoys athletic endeavors, having competed at the 2012 Olympic Trials (rowing) in the lightweight double sculls and placed second in that same event at the 2013 US National Team Trials.
Professor Noam Pianko will serve as moderator and respondent for these presentations.

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Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference: Day 1
2017-05-21 12:45 - 17:15 | Hillel UW, 4745 17th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, US
This international conference aims to explore the myriad ways in which Spinoza contributed to the development of modern Jewish philosophy. Although Spinoza was banned from the Jewish community in 1656 due to his “abominable heresies,” posterity has come to see his work differently. For some he is the central figure of the radical Enlightenment and the secular world. For others he is the first modern Jew, the harbinger of reforms that make Judaism possible in the modern world. Is Spinoza antithetical to the basic tenets of Judaism, or is his work essential to the articulation of a modern Jewish identity? The sessions will explore Spinoza’s philosophy and its impact on the philosophical, historical, and literary understanding of the modern world.
Confirmed speakers include:
Leora Batnitzky (Princeton University) ● Julie E. Cooper (Tel Aviv University) ● Paul Franks (Yale University) ● Willi Goetschel (University of Toronto) ● Michah Gottlieb (New York University) ● Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University) ● Julie R. Klein (Villanova University) ● Tracie Matysik (University of Texas) ● Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins) ● Michael Morgan (University of Indiana & University of Toronto) ● Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin) ● Benjamin Pollock (Hebrew University) ● Michael A. Rosenthal (University of Washington) ● Daniel Schwartz (George Washington University) ● Abraham Socher (Oberlin College)
The conference schedule, along with information about speakers and panels, are online now on the conference webpage. Conference sessions (excluding meals) are free and open to the public; please register in advance. You may reserve a seat at both day sessions, and attend any or all panels on that day.
The UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is pleased to host “Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy” in conjunction with the 2017 Stroum Lectures featuring Prof. Jonathan Israel. Prof. Israel will be speaking on May 21st and 23rd, 7:00 pm in Kane Hall. Click here for more information and registration.
We thank the following units for their support of this event: the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Germanics, and the Simpson Center for the Humanities.
Related Events:

Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference: Day 2 – May 22, 2017
Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures featuring Prof. Jonathan Israel

Stroum Lecture Night 1: In What Sense was Spinoza a Revolutionary Thinker?
2017-05-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Kane Hall 220, 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
Learn more about Spinoza, and read writing by Jonathan Israel and other Spinoza scholars, at the 2017 Spinoza & Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference website.

The 2017 Stroum Lectures will feature Prof. Jonathan Israel of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Jonathan Israel’s recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought (especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot, and the eighteenth-century French materialists) on the Enlightenment and on the emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press, and individual freedom. His books include European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750 (1985); The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477–1806 (1995); Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750 (2001); Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670–1752 (2006); and A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy (2009).
Prof. Israel received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 1972. Prior to the IAS, he taught at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the University of Hull, and University College London. He has been awarded numerous prizes, including the PROSE Award 2015; City of Amsterdam, Frans Banninck Cocq Medal 2012; London Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Benjamin Franklin Medal 2010; Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize in History 2008; Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion 2004; American Historical Association, Leo Gershoy Award 2001; Wolfson Literary Award for History 1986. He is a member of the British Academy and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In What Sense was Spinoza a Revolutionary Thinker?
In the centuries since his expulsion from the synagogue in 1656, Spinoza has been a notorious figure within the Jewish world, and in the wider Western world as a whole. Spinoza is seen as the very embodiment of irreligion, of the rejection of religious authority, and of skepticism about the Hebrew Bible as divine revelation. As several key passages of his writings make clear, however, his principal aim was not to spread irreligious attitudes, but rather to promote “freedom” and to fight political tyranny, especially tyranny in the form of great monarchical empires, like those of Philip II of Spain and Louis XIV of France, which operated in close alliance with religious authority.
Spinoza was a revolutionary in his attempt to undermine political tyranny in alliance with institutionalized religion and philosophy in alliance with theology, and in his efforts to move the intellectually aware toward the view that the democratic republic guaranteeing individual freedom is the best, safest and freest form of government. In this respect, Spinoza can be described as the greatest Jewish “revolutionary” before Karl Marx.

Following Prof. Israel’s first Stroum Lecture, the Stroum Center will host a kosher reception in the Walker Ames Room of Kane Hall.
This year’s Stroum Lectures will take place in conjunction with the international conference on “Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy,” taking place at the UW on May 21-22, 2017. Learn more about the conference, which has been organized by Prof. Michael Rosenthal, the Samuel and Althea Stroum Chair in Jewish Studies and professor in the Department of Philosophy.

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Related Events:

Stroum Lecture Night 2, May 23, 2017: “Eighteenth-Century Jewish Emancipation: a Consequence of the Radical Enlightenment?” featuring Prof. Jonathan Israel
Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference, May 21-22, 2017: Hosted by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington

Related Links:

Stroum Lecture Digital Archive – watch lectures from previous years by scholars such as Ruth Behar, Jonathan Sarna, and Yael Zerubavel
Stroum Lectures at the University of Washington Press – browse titles that emerged from previous years’ Stroum Lectures, including Yosef Haim Yerushalmi’s Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory and Ilana Pardes’ Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israel Culture.

Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference: Day 2
2017-05-22 09:00 - 17:30 | HUB 334, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Spinoza by Studio Odilo Girod.
This international conference aims to explore the myriad ways in which Spinoza contributed to the development of modern Jewish philosophy. Although Spinoza was banned from the Jewish community in 1656 due to his “abominable heresies,” posterity has come to see his work differently. For some he is the central figure of the radical Enlightenment and the secular world. For others he is the first modern Jew, the harbinger of reforms that make Judaism possible in the modern world. Is Spinoza antithetical to the basic tenets of Judaism, or is his work essential to the articulation of a modern Jewish identity? The sessions will explore Spinoza’s philosophy and its impact on the philosophical, historical, and literary understanding of the modern world.
Confirmed speakers include:
Leora Batnitzky (Princeton University) ● Julie E. Cooper (Tel Aviv University) ● Paul Franks (Yale University) ● Willi Goetschel (University of Toronto) ● Michah Gottlieb (New York University) ● Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University) ● Julie R. Klein (Villanova University) ● Tracie Matysik (University of Texas) ● Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins) ● Michael Morgan (University of Indiana & University of Toronto) ● Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin) ● Benjamin Pollock (Hebrew University) ● Michael A. Rosenthal (University of Washington) ● Daniel Schwartz (George Washington University) ● Abraham Socher (Oberlin College)
The conference schedule, along with information about speakers and panels, are online now on the conference webpage. Conference sessions (excluding meals) are free and open to the public; please register in advance. You may reserve a seat at either day session, and attend any or all panels on that day.
The UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies is pleased to host “Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy” in conjunction with the 2017 Stroum Lectures featuring Prof. Jonathan Israel. Prof. Israel will be speaking on May 21st and 23rd, 7:00 pm in Kane Hall. Click here for more information and registration for the Stroum Lectures.
We thank the following units for their support of this event: the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Germanics, and the Simpson Center for the Humanities.
Related Events:

Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference: Day 1 – May 21, 2017
Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures featuring Prof. Jonathan Israel

Stroum Lecture Night 2: Jewish Emancipation and the Radical Enlightenment
2017-05-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Kane Hall 220, 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
Learn more about Spinoza, and read writing by Jonathan Israel and other Spinoza scholars, at the 2017 Spinoza & Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference website.

The 2017 Stroum Lectures will feature Prof. Jonathan Israel of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The second night’s lecture, on May 23, 2017, will explore “Eighteenth-Century Jewish Emancipation: a Consequence of the Radical Enlightenment?”
Jonathan Israel’s recent work focuses on the impact of radical thought (especially Spinoza, Bayle, Diderot, and the eighteenth-century French materialists) on the Enlightenment and on the emergence of modern ideas of democracy, equality, toleration, freedom of the press, and individual freedom. His books include European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750 (1985); The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477–1806 (1995); Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750 (2001); Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670–1752 (2006); and A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy (2009).
Prof. Israel received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 1972. Prior to the IAS, he taught at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the University of Hull, and University College London. He has been awarded numerous prizes, including the PROSE Award 2015; City of Amsterdam, Frans Banninck Cocq Medal 2012; London Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Benjamin Franklin Medal 2010; Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize in History 2008; Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion 2004; American Historical Association, Leo Gershoy Award 2001; Wolfson Literary Award for History 1986. He is a member of the British Academy and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Jewish Emancipation and the Radical Enlightenment
The process of Jewish emancipation in Europe proved to be long, hard, and bitter. Most people, most churchmen, and most governments, as well as most academics in Europe did not accept that Jews had rights equal to those of other citizens until well into the second half of the nineteenth century. How then did Jewish emancipation come about? What were the forces that dismantled the near-universal prevalence of restrictions that controlled where Jews could live, excluded them from occupations, limited their property rights, kept them out of the universities and excluded them from holding public office?
This lecture will explore how the Jewish emancipation is inseparable from the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century revolutionary tendency, especially the subversive call for “universal and equal rights” that first arose in the 1770s and 1780s. The intellectual forces that rallied behind the call for Jewish emancipation were the same as those fighting for “universal and equal rights” in Europe generally– the Radical Enlightenment.
Because of this, modern Jewish history is fundamentally embedded in a style of political and religious thinking that was anti-monarchical, anti-aristocratic and anti-ecclesiastical, one that began in Holland with the group around Baurch Spinoza in the seventeenth century. This Radical Enlightenment included a long list of subversive thinkers and revolutionaries from a variety of backgrounds, including a remarkable batch of Jewish revolutionaries before Marx: Moses Mendelssohn, the “gentle revolutionary,” Zalkind Hourwitz, Hartog de Hartog Lemon, Ludwig Börne, Heinrich Heine, Moses Hess. Even young Marx himself can be seen as part of this tradition–until he turned away from democracy and equal rights, rejected Spinoza, and finally became a “Marxist.”

This year’s Stroum Lectures will take place in conjunction with the international conference on “Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy,” taking place at the UW on May 21-22, 2017. Learn more about the conference, which has been organized by Prof. Michael Rosenthal, the Samuel and Althea Stroum Chair in Jewish Studies and professor in the Department of Philosophy.

Powered by Eventbrite

Related Events:

Stroum Lecture Night 1, May 21, 2017: “In What Sense was Spinoza a Revolutionary Thinker?” featuring Prof. Jonathan Israel
Spinoza and Modern Jewish Philosophy Conference, May 21-22, 2017: Hosted by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington

Related Links:

Stroum Lecture Digital Archive – watch lectures from previous years by scholars such as Ruth Behar, Jonathan Sarna, and Yael Zerubavel
Stroum Lectures at the University of Washington Press – browse titles that emerged from previous years’ Stroum Lectures, including Yosef Haim Yerushalmi’s Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory and Ilana Pardes’ Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israel Culture.

Learn Salsa with the Jackson School @ Dawg Daze
2017-09-29 10:30 - 11:30 | HUB 334, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
¡Vamos a bailar!
Learn and practice the basic rhythms and footwork of salsa dancing with Reinier Valdes, an Afro-Cuban master dancer and leader of the “La Clave Cubana” dance troupe. No dance experience or partner necessary. Free snacks.
Eat, Salsa and be merry!
Sponsored by the Jackson School of International Studies, the home of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.

Talking International Studies @ Dawg Daze
2017-09-29 11:30 - 12:30 | HUB 334, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Jewish Studies is one of seven majors offered by the Jackson School of International Studies.
Meet other International Studies students, advisers and staff to learn about classes, internships, study abroad and career possibilities all over the world.
We will have globally-minded food, fun and prizes.
Undergraduate, transfer, and graduate students welcome.
