UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

4/3 PANEL | Perspectives on the 2019 Israeli Parliamentary Elections
2019-04-03 12:30 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | HUB 214, UW Seattle Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Image by Yonatan Popper, for the Israeli magazine The Liberal.
The upcoming elections in Israel are drawing worldwide attention. The indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shaken up the political arena and led to surprising coalitions and the formation of new parties.
What are the stakes of these elections for Israel’s various populations and political constituencies? What effect might they have on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What role will Trump’s “deal of the century” play in these elections? Join faculty and graduate students from the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies for a pre-election discussion of these issues and more.
Panelists
Dr. Noam Pianko, director of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies
Marwa Maziad, journalist and Ph.D. candidate at the Near and Middle East interdisciplinary program
Hayim Katsman, Ph.D. student at the Jackson School of International Studies
Moderator:
Dr. Liora Halperin, Associate Professor of International Studies and History; Jack and Rebecca Benaroya Endowed Chair of Israel Studies

STUDENT EVENT: Meza de Ladino ~ Ladino Table
2019-04-03 11:30 - 13:00 | SMITH 320
Join Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington to explore Ladino, a Mediterranean language that blends Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Italian & French all into one!
Delicious Sephardic and Mediterranean treats will be provided.
Open to undergraduates, graduates, and the UW community.
All language levels welcome.
Please RSVP here for the location.

Seattle Jewish Film Festival | The Tobacconist
2019-03-26 20:35 - 22:30 | SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Bruno Ganz as Sigmund Freud
**The Stroum Center has a limited number of complimentary tickets available. If you are interested, please contact jewishst@uw.edu. Include your contact information and the number of tickets you’d like.
Join the Seattle Jewish Film Festival for the 2018 film “The Tobacconist,” directed by Nikolaus Leytner.
Franz, a 17-year-old boy from rural Austria, comes to Vienna to apprentice in a smoke shop. Although tyranny under the Nazi occupation and hatred towards Jews has worsened oppression and conditions, the tobacco store remains a small sanctuary for newspaper- and cigarette-seekers. He gradually befriends Sigmund Freud, the renowned psychoanalyst and a regular customer. When the shop’s politically outspoken owner is taken away by the Nazis, Franz and Freud stand at the crossroads of survival.
Based on Austrian writer Robert Seethaler′s novel of the same name, “The Tobacconist,” is a tender and gripping coming-of-age story under tragic circumstances through the Freudian lens of dreams, libido, and death that transform a boy to a man. Actor Bruno Ganz (“Wings of Desire”) plays Freud.
Buy tickets and learn more on the Seattle Jewish Film Festival website.

Seattle Jewish Film Festival Sephardic Spotlight | Children of the Inquisition
2019-03-24 13:00 - 15:30 | AMC Pacific Place, 600 Pine Street, Seattle, WA, United States
Carlos DeMedeiros, one of the subjects featured in “Children of the Inquisition”
Join the Seattle Jewish Film Festival for this year’s Sephardic Spotlight film, the 2018 documentary “Children of Inquisition,” directed by Joseph Lovett.
Imagine discovering a hidden past that shakes your worldview and sense of self. For New York Times journalist Doreen Carvajal, learning of her family’s Jewish roots in Spain challenged her Catholic identity and led her on a journey of historical and self-discovery.
This documentary follows Carvajal and other descendants of Spanish and Portuguese families and “conversos” (the Spanish term for Jews converted to Roman Catholicism) as they uncover their complicated and nuanced roots.
“Children of the Inquisition” uses a familiar travelogue style to trot around the globe and delve into the global mass conversion resulting from the Spanish Inquisition. Original manuscripts dating as far back as the 14th century and oral traditions secretly passed down through the generations unearth hidden histories of the Jews of Spain and Portugal.
The film features University of Washington historian Devin Naar and members of Seattle’s Sephardic Congregation Ezra Bessaroth.
Buy tickets and learn more on the Seattle Jewish Film Festival website.
Followed by an echar lashon (coffee klatch) with coffee, tea, biscochos, and our special guests.

3/13 CONCERT | Singing the Sephardic Diaspora: Mediterranean Elements in Judeo-Spanish Choral Arrangements
2019-03-13 19:30 - 21:00 | Kane Hall 220, 4069 Spokane Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195, US
**Note: The location of this event has changed. It will take place in Kane Hall, room 220.
Ladino songs reflect a wealth of musical influences, from Turkish scales to Balkan rhythms. In this lecture-recital, recent Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) graduate Sarah Riskind will discuss Mediterranean features of Sephardic music and how these elements can be highlighted in arrangements for chorus. The Seattle Jewish Chorale (directed by Jacob Finkle) will perform a selection of classic Judeo-Spanish songs, including “Par’o Era Estrellero,” “Durme, Durme,” and “Cuando el Rey Nimrod.”
Please RSVP for this event at the bottom of the page.
Get ready with Dr. Riskind’s brief explainer: What makes music sound Jewish (2018)
Did you miss the event? Check out the UW Daily’s writeup, which includes a number of audio excerpts.
About the speaker
Sarah Riskind is a choral conductor, composer, vocalist, and music educator based in Seattle. She recently received her DMA in choral conducting from the University of Washington, completing a dissertation entitled “Informed and Informative: New Choral Arrangements of Sephardic Music,” and she is the Music Director at Magnolia United Church of Christ. With previous degrees from Williams College and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, she has directed ensembles at the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Williams College, the German International School of Boston, and the First Parish Church of Berlin, MA; she has also assistant-conducted the Renaissance choir Convivium Musicum and the Boston Children’s Chorus. Her compositions have been performed by the Seattle Jewish Chorale, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Triad: Boston’s Choral Collective, the Bennington Children’s Chorus, and other college, community, synagogue, and church choirs across the country. Dr. Riskind enjoys folk and classical improvisation on violin, which led her to pursue doctoral research on choral improvisation in addition to Renaissance and Sephardic music. Riskind participated in the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Graduate Fellowship program during the 2017-18 academic year.

Iranian Jews in the Twentieth Century: Between Iranian Nationalism, Communism, and Zionism
2019-03-07 19:00 - 20:30
The 2019 Afrassiabi Distinguished Lecture in Persian and Iranian Studies with Lior Sternfeld, Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies, Penn State University
In the early 20th century, the Iranian Jewish communities were largely disenfranchised, marginalized, and impoverished. About 80% belonged to the lowest social and economic classes, 10% were part of the emerging middle class, and 10% counted among the country’s elites.
By the 1979 revolution, that situation had changed: only 10% were impoverished, while 80% belonged to the middle classes and 10% remained in the elite. By the 1979 revolution, Jews played a role in every Iranian political camp: as supporters of the monarchy or the revolutionary movements.
This talk analyzes the institutional history of the Jewish communities in Iran — and the pivotal role they played in facilitating integration and other social developments. The examples to be discussed will help us understand how Iran’s Jews adjusted to a rapidly changing post-revolutionary society, especially in light of the regional conflict between their respective spiritual and national homelands, Israel and Iran.
About the speaker
Lior Sternfeld is an assistant professor of history and Jewish studies at Penn State University. He is a social historian of the modern Middle East with particular interests in the histories of Jews and other minorities of the region. His first book, titled “Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran,” examines, against the backdrop of Iranian nationalism, Zionism and constitutionalism, the development and integration of Iran’s Jewish communities into the nation-building projects of the last century. Dr. Sternfeld completed his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin. His current research project examines the origins of “Third-Worldism” in the Middle East.
This event is hosted by The Department of Near Eastern Languages in conjunction with the Persian and Iranian Studies Program at the University of Washington and the Israel Studies program at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.
The lecture is free and open to the public. To RSVP, visit the NELC event page here.

3/4 TALK | New Language, New Story: How Translation Changed the Bible for Sephardic Jews Across History
2019-03-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Thomson Hall 101, 2023 King Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The Torah, as Heinrich Heine is said to have written, is the portable homeland of the Jews. As Jews move from place to place, the land that is the setting for the Bible (or “Tanakh,” in Hebrew) is the one place that does not change. In their diaspora, Jewish communities learn new languages with each move, and use these languages to reinterpret the stories of the Bible anew.
In this talk, Dr. David Wacks of the University of Oregon will discuss the history of how new translations affected Sephardic Jews’ understanding of the Bible and biblical stories, from medieval Arabic translations to later translations into Ladino and Judeo-Spanish.
Wacks will explore how generations of Sepharadim (Jews in the Mediterranean) used translations, commentaries and legends from their own time periods to reinterpret the Bible in new ways for the world in which they lived, and offer insights into how translation might influence our own understandings of important texts.
Get ready with a related essay by David Wacks: “Rabbis, a Spanish Biblical History, and the Roots of Vernacular Fiction.”
This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies.
About the speaker
David Wacks is Head of the Department of Romance Languages and Professor of Spanish at the University of Oregon. He earned his PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from UC Berkeley in 2003. In 2006 he was Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies.
Wacks is author of “Framing Iberia: Frametales and Maqamat in Medieval Spain,” (Brill, 2007), winner of the 2009 La corónica award, and “Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature: Jewish Cultural Production before and after 1492″ (Indiana University Press, 2015), winner of the 2015 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Sephardic Culture, and co-editor, with Michelle Hamilton, of “The Study of al-Andalus: The Scholarship and Legacy of James T. Monroe” (ILEX Foundation, 2018). His most recent monograph, “Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World,” is forthcoming in 2019 from University of Toronto Press.
He blogs on his current research at https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu.

STUDENT EVENT: Conversation with author Ayelet Tsabari
2019-03-01 10:00 - 11:30 | RSVP for location
Undergrads are invited to meet with Ayelet Tsabari, author of the award-winning collection of short stories “The Best Place on Earth” and the new memoir “The Art of Leaving.”
Coffee and pastries provided. Participants will receive a complimentary copy of “The Art of Leaving.”
RSVP to Student Engagement Director Lauren Kurland for location.

“The Art of Leaving: A Memoir” (2019), Tsabari’s new book, traces the writer’s journey from her childhood home on the outskirts of Tel Aviv to Vancouver and Toronto — and from her native Hebrew to her adopted English — alongside the story of her grandparents’ migration from Yemen to the land of Israel in the 1930s. An astute observer of lives of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Arab lands) in Israel and beyond, in “The Art of Leaving” Tsabari delivers a powerful coming-of-age story that reflects on identity and belonging and explores themes of family and home — both inherited and chosen.
Tsabari will also be speaking at the UW on February 28, 2019. Tickets are free and all undergraduate students are welcome.
About the speaker

Ayelet Tsabari was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. Her first book, “The Best Place on Earth,” won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and was longlisted to the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She currently lives and teaches creative writing in Toronto.

To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

"The Art of Leaving" with Author Ayelet Tsabari: Language, Longing, and Belonging
2019-02-28 17:30 - 19:00 | Ethnic Cultural Theater, 3940 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105
Author Ayelet Tsabari will discuss her new memoir, “The Art of Leaving,” with Professor Sasha Senderovich (Slavic & Jewish Studies) in this evening of conversation and selected readings from the book.
“The Art of Leaving” traces Tsabari’s journey from her childhood home on the outskirts of Tel Aviv to Vancouver and Toronto — and from her native Hebrew to her adopted English — alongside the story of her grandparents’ migration from Yemen to the land of Israel in the 1930s.
An astute observer of lives of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Arab lands) in Israel and beyond in her award-winning short story collection “The Best Place on Earth” (2016), in “The Art of Leaving” Tsabari delivers a powerful coming-of-age story that reflects on identity and belonging and explores themes of family and home — both inherited and chosen.
Please RSVP for this event at the bottom of the page.
About the Author
Ayelet Tsabari was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. Her first book, “The Best Place on Earth,” won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and was longlisted to the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.
“The Best Place on Earth” was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice selection and a Kirkus Review best book of 2016, and has been published internationally. Excerpts from her memoir, “The Art of Leaving,” have won a National Magazine Award, a Western Magazine Award, and The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler award. In 2014, Tsabari was awarded a Chalmers Arts Fellowship. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA Program at Guelph and teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto.
About “The Art of Leaving” & “The Best Place on Earth”
Author Ayelet Tsabari begins her new memoir, “The Art of Leaving” (2019), with the story of her father’s promise on her tenth birthday to publish her childhood writings as her first book. A lawyer who had published one poem as a young man and who spent a lifetime assiduously writing verse and prose on sheets of paper kept in his bedside drawer, he bequeathed to his daughter an insatiable desire for wordsmithing and storytelling. Tsabari’s father fell ill within days of making this promise and died shortly thereafter. It would take Ayelet Tsabari another two and a half decades to see her first book published—not in her home country of Israel or in her native Hebrew, but in Canada, her adopted homeland, and in English, her adopted tongue.
In that first book, “The Best Place on Earth” (2013), Tsabari made her debut as an intricate teller of stories about a kind of protagonist she did not see in the Israeli literature she avidly read during her childhood: Mizrahi Jews. Jews who trace their families’ lineage to North Africa and the Middle East— Tsabari’s family had come from Yemen — had been largely invisible in the Ashkenazi-centric literary culture of Israel. Mizrahi voices had also been absent in English-language Jewish literatures in Canada and the United States. Tsabari’s first book — a collection of astutely observed stories about women, lovers, children, soldiers, poets — had opened up this theretofore underexamined experience; it won the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature in 2015.
In “The Art of Leaving,” which will be published a week before her visit to Seattle, Tsabari weaves together stories of her own migration from the outskirts of Tel Aviv to Vancouver and Toronto, by way of much global peregrination, with the stories of her grandparents’ travel, on foot, to the Land of Israel through the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. In essays on heartbreak and loss of beloved people and native language, drug-fueled wanderlust and the discovery of dark family secrets, betrayal and abandonment, motherhood, and the ever-unquenched thirst for writing, Tsabari explores how the past haunts and shapes the stories that define us and that we tell ourselves.
Ayelet Tsabari’s visit, scheduled for February 28 – March 1, 2019, is sponsored by the Israel Studies Program at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies and is co-sponsored by the Sephardic Studies Program, the Canadian Studies Center, and the Middle East Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; and the Departments of English; Comparative Literature, Cinema & Media; Near Eastern Languages & Civilization; and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies; as well as the Simpson Center for the Humanities.

STUDENT/FACULTY EVENT: Writing Displacement: A Seminar on Memoir with Author Ayelet Tsabari
2019-02-28 11:30 - 13:00 | RSVP for venue
At this lunchtime seminar for UW graduate students, faculty, and advanced undergraduates, the writer Ayelet Tsabari will speak about her new memoir, “The Art of Leaving,” and lead a discussion of a short excerpt from the book that will be made available to the participants ahead of time. Tsabari will also discuss the process of writing and publishing a memoir.
“The Art of Leaving” traces Tsabari’s journey from her childhood home on the outskirts of Tel Aviv to Vancouver and Toronto — and from her native Hebrew to her adopted English — alongside the story of her grandparents’ migration from Yemen to the land of Israel in the 1930s. An astute observer of lives of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Arab lands) in Israel and beyond in her award-winning short story collection “The Best Place on Earth” (2016), in “The Art of Leaving” Tsabari delivers a powerful coming-of-age story that reflects on identity and belonging and explores themes of family and home — both inherited and chosen.
Please RSVP to jewishst@uw.edu by February 27 for location and a PDF copy of the reading; a vegetarian lunch will be provided.
Are you an undergraduate student? Ayelet Tsabari will discuss the book and her writing process with undergrads over coffee on Friday, March 1, from 10:00am – 11:30am. Learn more and RSVP for this undergrad discussion group here.
This event is organized by the Simpson Center for the Humanities and the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies. Ayelet Tsabari’s visit to UW is further supported by the Israel Studies Program, the Sephardic Studies and Canadian Studies Programs, the Middle East Center, the departments of English; Comparative Literature, Cinema & Media; Near Eastern Languages & Civilization; and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies.
About the speaker
Ayelet Tsabari lives and teaches Creative Writing in Toronto and was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. Her first book, “The Best Place on Earth,” won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and was longlisted to the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Learn more on her website.
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

STUDENT EVENT: Learning from the Holocaust in the Age of Trump
2019-02-26 10:30 - 12:00
How can history help us to make sense of the Trump era, when the president and other politicians regularly stoke fears about immigrants, minorities, and people from other countries for their own political benefit?
Join Richard Block, associate professor of Germanics and Jewish Studies, for a discussion of Nazi Germany and how its history of weaponized fear against “the other” can inform our present-day understanding of hate against immigrants and minorities in the United States and elsewhere, especially after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.
No prior knowledge required! Attendees will learn from Professor Block, engage with a short reading, and participate in an informal discussion of the issues. Coffee and pastries will be provided.
All undergraduate and graduate students are welcome.
Please RSVP to kurlandl@uw.edu for location (a cafe on the Ave).
Richard Block will be teaching a related class in the spring, “German/Jewish Writers: The Immigrant Experience” (GERMAN / JEW ST 295).
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

Can Patients Refuse Lifesaving Treatment? A Comparative Review of Secular, Jewish & Israeli Perspectives
2019-02-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Thomson Hall 101, 2023 King Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Scenarios where patients refuse lifesaving care raise difficult ethical and legal questions. Physicians are faced with the decision of whether to forgo beneficial therapy, or alternatively force treatment on an unwilling patient. In these undesirable situations, the ethical principle of respecting the patient’s autonomy is in direct conflict with the ethical principle of beneficence.
In this talk, Dr. Hadar Khazzam-Horovitz will examine whether it is morally and legally permissible for healthcare professionals to treat patients without consent in order to save their lives. To answer this question, Khazzam-Horovitz will review two different approaches: secular ones as well as Jewish-rabbinic discourses. She will also discuss the Israeli legal system’s attempt to find a compromise that incorporates both the secular and the Jewish perspectives.
About the speaker

Dr. Hadar Khazzam-Horovitz is a lecturer of bioethics and Modern Hebrew at Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School ofInternational Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Washington School of Law. She was a member of the Human Subjects Division committee (IRB) at University of Washington. Previously, she was an Israeli attorney specializing in insurance litigation.

STUDENT EVENT: The Rabbis on Love
2019-02-14 14:00 - 15:30
Painting: “The Bride and Groom at the Eiffel Tower” by Marc Chagall, 1939.
This Valentine’s Day, join Mika Ahuvia, assistant professor of Jewish studies and comparative religion at the Jackson School of International Studies, for insights on love and relationships, courtesy the influential rabbis of the classic era, when Rabbis Hillel and Shammai lived and worked.
Learn about and discuss rabbis’ perspectives on love, desire, and relationships, and benefit from the collective wisdom of deep thinkers from centuries past. Open to all undergraduate and graduate students!
Coffee and pastries provided. RSVP to Lauren Kurland for location (a coffee shop on the Ave).
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

CANCELED: How Frontier Jews Made American Judaism
2019-02-12 15:30 - 17:00 | HUB 145, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
**The University of Washington Seattle campus has suspended operations Tuesday, due to continued snow accumulation. We are therefore unable to host this event. Keep an eye on our e-journal for articles on this topic.
The first mass migration in American Jewish history took place in the nineteenth century, during the era of westward expansion and “manifest destiny.”
Shari Rabin, author of the new book “Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in the Nineteenth Century” (NYU Press) and assistant professor of Jewish studies at the College of Charleston, will discuss how far-flung Jewish migrants in this era shaped the religious idioms, institutions, and ideologies of American Judaism, paving the way for the unique realities of American Jewish life today.
Get ready:

Podcast interview with Shari Rabin on “Jews on the Frontier” by Jewish History Matters

About the speaker
Shari Rabin received a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University in 2015 and is currently assistant professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture at the College of Charleston. A historian of American religions and modern Judaism, she is the author of “Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-century America” (New York University Press, 2017), which won the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies and was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.
Register for the event

STUDENT EVENT: Reading Group for "The Best Place on Earth"
2019-02-06 18:00 - 19:30 | RSVP for location
In advance of author Ayelet Tsabari‘s upcoming visit to the UW, undergrads are invited to discuss Tsabari’s 2013 novel, “The Best Place on Earth,” with Professor Sasha Senderovich.
A complimentary copy of the book will be provided in advance to students who RSVP.
Vegetarian dinner provided.
Please RSVP for location and to reserve a copy of the book.

About the speaker

Ayelet Tsabari, who now lives and teaches Creative Writing in Toronto, was born in Israel to a large family of Yemeni descent. Her first book, “The Best Place on Earth,” won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and was longlisted to the Frank O’Connor International Short StoryAward.

Note that Tsabari will also be speaking at the UW on February 28, 2019. Tickets are free and all are welcome.

To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

CANCELED: Dancing with the Angel of Death: Demonic Femininity in the Ancient Synagogue
2019-02-05 15:30 - 17:00 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
“Lady Lilth” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1873.
**The University of Washington Seattle campus has suspended operations Tuesday, due to continued icy conditions around the region. We are therefore unable to host “Dancing with the Angel of Death” with Laura Lieber. Keep an eye on our e-journal for articles on this topic.
What makes a woman powerful… and dangerous? Can what makes her “good” also be a potential “evil”?
In this talk, Laura Lieber (Duke University) will consider a striking presentation of demonic femininity in the early synagogue era (ca. 6th century CE), centering around a dramatic poem depicting a nefarious woman accused of adultery (a “Sotah“) and the magic ritual for determining her guilt or innocence (Numbers 5:12-31).
How does this synagogue performance expand on traditions as preserved in rabbinic sources, and resonate with magical texts and traditions of the time? How does the portrayal of the accused woman relate to universal human fears, and the recurring fear around women’s power to arouse male desire in particular?
Read the poems Dr. Lieber will be discussing here.
About the speaker
Laura S. Lieber is Professor of Religious Studies and Classics at Duke University, where she directs the Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for Late Ancient Studies.

This talk is supported by a Royalty Research Fund grant given to Stroum Center faculty member Mika Ahuvia for the 2018-19 academic year.

Jews and Human Rights: Forgotten Past, Uncertain Future
2019-01-28 20:00 - 21:30 | HUB 145, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
The year 2018 marks the seventieth anniversary of both the state of Israel and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Both remain tied together in the ongoing debates about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, global anti-Semitism, and American foreign policy. Yet the surprising connections between Zionism and the origins of international human rights are completely unknown today.
Drawing on his recent book, “Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century,” Professor James Loeffler will explain how and why Jews helped to build the modern human rights movement, and what this recovered history reveals about the future of both Jewish politics and international law.
About the speaker
James Loeffler is Professor of History and the inaugural holder of the Berkowitz Endowed Chair in Jewish History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of “Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century” (2018) and “The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire” (2010), and co-editor of “The Law of Strangers: Jewish Lawyers and International Law in Historical Perspective” (2019). Professor Loeffler’s writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Mosaic, Tablet, and Haaretz.

Zionism and Emotion: Love, Fear, and Guilt
2019-01-15 19:00 - 20:30 | Kane Hall 110, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
In this talk, Derek Penslar of Harvard University will consider Zionism, and by extension all forms of modern nationalism, as expressions of emotion. Like emotions, nationalisms vary, and Zionism has, in different times and places, conformed to erotic, spiritual, parental, and companionate forms of human feeling and attachment.
The talk will span the history of the Zionist project, demonstrating the positive effects of emotions as a source of strength and sacrifice, but also showing how and when nationalistic emotions have catalyzed the hatred of others.
The talk draws on Penslar’s research for his current book project,”Zionism: An Emotional State” (for Rutgers University Press’ “Keywords in Jewish Studies” series).

This event is cosponsored by the Middle East Center and Department of History.
About the Speaker
Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Modern Jewish History at Harvard University. His work encompasses the history of the Jews in modern West and Central Europe, North America, and Palestine/Israel. He is particularly interested in the relationship between modern Israel and diaspora Jewish societies, global nationalist movements, European colonialism, and post-colonial states.
Penslar has taught at Indiana University, Bloomington, the University of Toronto, and Oxford University, where he served as the inaugural Stanley Lewis Professor of Modern Israel Studies from 2012 until 2016. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and President of the American Academy for Jewish Research.
Penslar has authored or edited ten books, including “Shylock’s Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe” (2001), “Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective” (2006), “The Origins of the State of Israel: A Documentary History” (2011), “Jews and the Military: A History” (2013) and “Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader” (forthcoming in Yale University Press’ “Jewish Lives” series).

Ladino Day 2018: Jewish Folktales of the Mediterranean
2018-12-05 20:00 - 21:30 | Kane Hall 130, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Illustration by Aude Samama (2014)

Ladino Day 2018 will showcase a creative initiative to bring Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) traditions to future generations.
Paris-based author François Azar will discuss his two new collections of Sephardic folktales, “The Jewish Parrot” and “Bewitched by Solika” — written in both Ladino and English — and the significance of storytelling and art in Sephardic culture. Through live performance, members of Seattle’s “Ladineros” Ladino-speaking group will help to bring several of these classic tales to life.
* Watch the full video of Ladino Day 2018 now *
About Judeo-Spanish Tales
Illustration by Petros Bouloubasis (2016)
Judeo-Spanish tales transmit the wisdom and humor of Sephardic Jews, Jews who originated in the Iberian peninsula (present-day Spain) and who settled all around the Mediterranean, particularly in the Balkans, Turkey and northern Morocco. Sephardic Jews adapted their neighbors’ tales and legends to their own culture, while also crafting original stories set in their new environments.
Tales were transmitted orally within families, providing entertainment, relief from everyday worries, and a way to laugh off human weaknesses. Through these tales, essential elements of Jewish and universal life are transmitted in a lively, imaginative way. The tales collected in “The Jewish Parrot” and “Bewitched by Solika” are presented in both English and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), a language based in old Castilian that has been enriched by borrowed elements of Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and French.
About the Speaker
François Azar is the vice president of the Judeo-Spanish society Aki Estamos – Les Amis de la Lettre Sépharade and the founder of Lior Press in Paris, France.
Read a profile of François Azar, and learn more about his Ladino publishing initiative and his connection to Ladino folktales:
François Azar brings folktales and the French Sephardic revival to Seattle Ladino Day — by Hannah Pressman
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This event is made possible through the generosity of the Lucie Benveniste Kavesh Endowed Fund for Sephardic Studies, and is cosponsored by Congregation Sephardic Bikur Holim, Congregation Ezra Bessaroth, Seattle Sephardic Network, the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, French and Italian Studies, and Linguistics; and the Turkish & Ottoman Studies Program in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Water and the Environment in the Middle East: Israel's Sustainability Challenges in the Desalination Era
2018-11-27 18:00 - 19:30 | Kane Hall 110, 4069 Spokane Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Alon Tal of Tel Aviv University will give the 2018 Jack and Rebecca Benaroya Endowed Lecture in Israel Studies on the topic of Israel’s new dependence on desalination, assessing the sustainability of desalination as a source of usable water and the lessons that Israel’s experience can offer an increasingly water-scarce world.
Also with Alon Tal on Tuesday, 11/27 (11am, Thomson 317): Towards a Sustainable Population Policy in Israel: Axioms for a Crowded Planet
About the Speaker
Alon Tal is the chair of the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. In 1990, he founded the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, Israel’s leading green advocacy organization, as well as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Between 2010 and 2013 he served as chair of Israel’s Green Party. Israel’s Ministry of Environment gave him a lifetime achievement award at age 48. Presently Tal is co-chair of Tzafuf, the Israel Forum for Population, Environment and Society, as well as co-chair of This is My Earth. In 2005, Tal was the winner of the Bronfman prize, a humanitarian award for young leaders. He has held faculty positions at Ben Gurion, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan State, Science Po and Otago Universities. Tal has over 100 publication and has written or edited ten books. He plays fiddle and mandolin for the Arava Riders, one of Israel’s veteran bluegrass bands.
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This event is cosponsored by the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs.
Vegetarian reception to follow.

Towards a Sustainable Population Policy in Israel: New Axioms for a Crowded Planet
2018-11-27 11:00 - 12:20 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Alon Tal of Tel Aviv University will discuss challenges around population growth in Israel, a country that is on track to become denser than Japan in a few decades. How can policymakers and planners encourage sustainable growth — and a high quality of life in crowded spaces — through policies and other interventions? The lessons Tal shares will be increasingly important for growing cities in the United States and elsewhere.
RSVP below, and get ready with Alon Tal’s recent article: “Life in Israel Has Become Very, Very Crowded”
About the Speaker
Alon Tal is the chair of the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. In 1990, he founded the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, Israel’s leading green advocacy organization, as well as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Between 2010 and 2013 he served as chair of Israel’s Green Party. At age 48, Israel’s Ministry of Environment presented him with a life achievement award. Presently Tal is co-chair of Tzafuf, the Israel Forum for Population, Environment and Society, as well as co-chair of This is My Earth. In 2005, Tal was the winner of the Bronfman prize, a humanitarian award for young leaders. He has held faculty positions at Ben Gurion, Harvard, Stanford, Michigan State, Sciences Po, and Otago Universities. He has over 100 publication and has written or edited ten books. Alon plays fiddle and mandolin for the Arava Riders, one of Israel’s veteran bluegrass bands.
This event is cosponsored by the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology.

Workshop: Spinoza on Freedom and the Highest Good
2018-11-16 15:30 - 2018-11-18 15:30
Professor Michael Rosenthal has organized a workshop, “Spinoza on Freedom and the Highest Good: Workshop on Ethics, Part V,” which will take place from Friday, November 16 to Sunday, November 18th.
Seven scholars will discuss issues raised by Spinoza’s treatise “Ethics, Part V,” including concepts of freedom, reason and the role of imagination in seeking the highest good. View the three-day workshop’s full schedule at the Department of Philosophy website.
The workshop is supported by the Saari Endowment, the Department of Philosophy, and the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington.

"Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual" Book Launch
2018-11-13 15:30 - 17:00 | HUB 334, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Daniel Bessner, assistant professor of international studies, will discuss his new book, “Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual,” his biography of Hans Speier, a defense analyst who worked for the RAND Corporation think tank in the 1950s and 1960s.
Bessner’s book shows how the Weimar Republic’s collapse and the rise of Nazism informed Hans Speier’s work as an American policymaker and institution builder, delving into Speier’s intellectual development and illuminating the ideological origins of the expert-centered approach to foreign policymaking, revealing the European roots of Cold War liberalism.
“Democracy in Exile” places Speier at the center of the influential and fascinating transatlantic network of policymakers, many of them German émigrés, who struggled with the tension between elite expertise and democratic politics. Bessner depicts the critical role Speier played in the shift in American intellectual history in which hundreds of social scientists left their universities and contributed to the creation of an expert-based approach to U.S. foreign relations, in the process establishing close connections between governmental and nongovernmental organizations. As Bessner writes: to understand the rise of the defense intellectual, we must understand Hans Speier.
Listen to Cornell University Press’ interview with Daniel Bessner on the book.
“Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual” is available now from Cornell University Press.
This event will include a vegetarian catered reception.
About the Speaker
Daniel Bessner is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He works on intellectual and cultural history, U.S. foreign relations, the history of democratic thought, and the history of the social sciences.
This event is co-sponsored by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Faculty Panel: Responding to Pittsburgh
2018-11-07 17:00 | Thomson Hall 101, 2023 King Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Image from the Los Angeles Times.
Join University of Washington faculty to discuss and reflect on the Pittsburgh tragedy from a variety of scholarly perspectives. Participants include scholars of Jewish history, Nazi Germany, and immigrant and minority experiences in the United States.
The event will be video-recorded and will be available to view soon.
Faculty panelists
Noam Pianko, Director, Stroum Center for Jewish Studies (moderator)
Kathie Friedman, Jackson School faculty
Susan A. Glenn, History faculty
Laurie Marhoefer, History faculty
Devin Naar, Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies
Sasha Senderovich, Jackson School and Slavic Languages and Literatures faculty
This event is cosponsored with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Department of History.

STUDENT EVENT: Israeli Nation-State Bill Discussion
2018-10-30 14:00 - 15:30 | RSVP for location
Meet with Stroum Center director Professor Noam Pianko to discuss perspectives on Israel’s recent nation-state bill, which states that Israel is the “historical homeland of the Jewish people.”
No prior knowledge is required! Professor Pianko will start by explaining the bill, its political significance, and the conversation around it. If you would like to learn more before attending the event, check out the (short) full text of the bill, an explanation of opposition to the bill, and a defense of the bill.
Coffee and pastries provided.
This event open to undergraduates and graduate students only.
Please RSVP for location.
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

"What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans)" Book Launch
2018-10-29 15:30 - 17:00 | HUB 145, UW Campus, 4001 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Professor Naomi Sokoloff will discuss her new book “What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans),” co-edited with Professor Nancy Berg of Washington University, St. Louis.
The volume collects ten essays on the past, present, and future of the Hebrew language from contributors to the Stroum Center’s 2016 Hebrew and the Humanities Symposium, which invited Hebrew experts from around the world to share their thoughts on the language. (Read some of their short essays about Hebrew.)
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans)” is available from the University of Washington Press. Read a review from Moment Magazine and a writeup by the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
A catered vegetarian reception will follow the talk.
About the Speaker
Professor Naomi Sokoloff teaches Hebrew and modern Jewish literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and The Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media at UW. Her research interests cover a range of modern Jewish writing, with special focus on the representation of childhood in narrative, on Holocaust studies, and on feminist criticism.
This event is cosponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilization and The Middle East Center.
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STUDENT EVENT: Medical Experimentation: Past, Present & Future Discussion
2018-10-24 18:00 - 19:30 | RSVP for location
Why do we need informed consent? What is ethically based experimentation? Who are the vulnerable people protected under the law?
In this discussion/lecture, join faculty member Dr. Hadar Khazzam-Horovitz to review the dark side of medical experimentation on human subjects. These cases show how participants’ rights were grossly violated in the name of scientific progress.
The discussion examine the various mechanisms in place to protect human subjects in the current scheme, then, through case studies, wthe new technology of gene editing (Chrispr – cas9) and the ethical issues it raises, both from Jewish and secular perspectives.
Open to undergraduate and graduate students only.
Vegetarian dinner provided.
RSVP for location.
To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu. The University of Washington makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests. Requests can be responded to most effectively if received as far in advance of the event as possible, preferably at least 10 days.

STUDENT EVENT: Dawg Daze with Jewish Studies
2018-09-26 10:00 - 15:00 | Red Square
Come find the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies on Red Square during the Student Activities Fair during Dawg Daze.
Grab a free Stroum Center tote bag, enter to win a free gift card to the University Book Store, and stay a while to chat!
Email us with any questions or if you can’t find us!

The Ottoman Last Decade: The Perspectives of "The Other Ottomans"
2018-05-31 12:30 - 14:00 | Thomson 317, UW Campus, 2023 Skagit Lane, Seattle, WA, 98195, United States
Discover the fate of non-Turkish populations—especially Ladino-speaking Jews—during the final years of the Ottoman Empire in this lecture by Prof. Eyal Ginio. Prof. Ginio will discuss the significance and inclusion of non-Turkish speaking populations in current discussions on the late Ottoman period. No RSVP is required.
About the Speaker
Eyal Ginio is an Associate Professor in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is also the Coordinator of the Forum of Turkish Studies at the Institute of Asian and African Studies. He also serves as the chairman of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East.
His research interests include the social and cultural history of the Ottoman State, marginality and marginal populations in Ottoman society, Islam in the Balkans, and secular writing in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) during the late Ottoman period.
The event is co-sponsored with the Middle East Center of The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

SIFF Film: The Oslo Diaries
2018-05-27 16:00 - 18:00
