Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. Jews of Algeria in Light of Modern Studies: Major Trends and New Horizons (October 25, 2022 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/95646 95646-21790514@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Register for this virtual event here: https://myumi.ch/RWq4G

In this talk, Amina Boukail outlines the development of contemporary scholarship on Algerian Jews. In doing so, she offers a critical examination of contemporary research on Algerian Jews in several languages (Arabic, French, Hebrew, English, and Spanish) in order to demonstrate how scholarship on the history of Algerian Jews has been impact by and has developed in relation to certain historical processes (French colonialism, postcolonial French-Algerian relations, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Palestinian cause).

Amina Boukail addresses a number of questions: What are the trends in recent studies on the topic of Jews of Algeria? How do other factors impact the writing of Algerian Jewish history? What are some new interdisciplinary avenues of exploration on this topic? Are there sufficient studies compared to the studies that deal with the Jews of Tunisia or Morocco? What topics still remain taboo when it comes to the history of Jews in Algeria?

Her review of the principal currents in the study of Algerian Jews is divided into two sections: First, the study of Jews in Algeria in France, the United States, and Israel; second, the study of Jews in Algeria in Algerian universities.

*Amina Boukail* is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Jijel in Algeria. She received her Doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of Annaba in 2016. Her current research interests include: Arabic Medieval literature; Cultural Contacts in Medieval Iberia; Cultural Minorities in the Arab world; Hebrew Cultures in North Africa; Sephardic Literature and Judeo-Arabic Heritage in Algeria; Muslim-Jewish relations in Algeria; Colonialism and Literature.

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Livestream / Virtual Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:24:54 -0400 2022-10-25T13:00:00-04:00 2022-10-25T14:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Judaic Studies Livestream / Virtual La Société d'étude du Zohar (la Cabale) de Constantine, datant du début du XXe siècle.
Padnos Public Engagement on Jewish Learning Lecture: “Remnants of a Mighty Nation”: Jews Through the Eyes of American Christians (November 1, 2022 7:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/97306 97306-21794290@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 7:00pm
Location: 1027 E. Huron Building
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The Stuart and Barbara Padnos Foundation has provided a gift to the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies to establish the Padnos Engagement on Jewish Learning fund. The initiative, which commenced last year, will facilitate annual public educational activities in Jewish Studies throughout the State of Michigan with a focus on the western part of the state.This lecture is in partnership with the Kaufman Interfaith Institute at Grand Valley State University.

The Padnos Public Engagement on Jewish Learning Event, to take place on November 1 at 7 pm, will feature Dr. Julian Levinson, Samuel Shetzer Professor of American Jewish Studies, University of Michigan. Dr. Levinson will present a lecture called “'Remnants of a Mighty Nation': Jews Through the Eyes of American Christians” at the Loosemore Auditorium at the Richard M. Devos Center on Grand Valley State University's Campus. The event will also be virtually simulcast via Zoom. Immediately following the lecture at approximately 8:30 there will be a light reception in the adjacent Lubbers Exhibition Hall.

Dr. Levinson prefaces his discussion: "What is it like to belong to a religious minority? For Jews in the United States, there have been countless challenges as well as unexpected benefits from living among a Christian majority. While some individual Christians have been highly critical of Jews for their beliefs and practices, others have been deeply respectful of Jews for being the original “chosen people,” for preserving the Hebrew language, and for maintaining traditions going back to the Bible. This talk will focus on the ways Jews were perceived in nineteenth-century America, when the origins of present-day Christian-Jewish relations were established. It will trace the formation of views that are still prevalent today, including the evangelical fascination with Israel. It will also consider how Jews have shaped their own identities in relation to the broader Christian environment."

This is a hybrid lecture.
Loosemore Auditorium, DeVos Center, Grand Valley State University
Zoom Registration: https://myumi.ch/DJN9M

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 30 Sep 2022 11:47:55 -0400 2022-11-01T19:00:00-04:00 2022-11-01T21:00:00-04:00 1027 E. Huron Building Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Julian Levinson
"Can a Literary Mafia Affect Your Choice of Books?": Jews, Publishing, and American Literature (November 3, 2022 1:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/95647 95647-21790516@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 3, 2022 1:30pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

In the 1960s and 1970s, many American authors, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, complained about a “Jewish literary mafia.” While perniciously circulating antisemitic ideas, such claims also reflected the remarkable success of Jews in the U.S. publishing industry. How did Jews’ roles in publishing influence the development of American literature? How can attention to this story help to produce a more equitable industry now?

This is a hybrid event. Register for the virtual stream here: https://myumi.ch/kyJmr

*Josh Lambert* is the Sophia Moses Robison Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and English, and director of the Jewish Studies Program, at Wellesley College. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard and his doctorate at the University of Michigan, and before Wellesley he taught at NYU, UMass Amherst, and Princeton, and served as the Academic Director of the Yiddish Book Center. His books include Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture (2014) and, co-edited with Ilan Stavans, How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (2020).

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 01 Jul 2022 10:30:43 -0400 2022-11-03T13:30:00-04:00 2022-11-03T15:00:00-04:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion The Literary Mafia: Jews, Publishing, and Postwar American Literature
New on the Mizrahi Bookshelf: Meet the Scholars (November 8, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/97307 97307-21794306@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 12:00pm
Location:
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The interdisciplinary field of Mizrahi studies covers a wide array of issues, approaches, and methodologies, illuminating in compellingly diverse ways the intricacies of the Mizrahi experience. This hybrid panel brings together scholars who published invaluable books over the past year, thus contributing to the expansion of knowledge about the historical, cultural, and socio-political dimensions of the Mizrahi experience. The authors will present their new texts, while also participating in a conversation with the audience about the significant issues raised by their books and the intellectual dialogue they hope to generate. Offering insight into this vital scholarly landscape, the panel also aims to give a sense of the challenges faced by critical scholars engaging the Mizrahi story within fresh perspectives.

Zoom Registration: https://myumi.ch/7e8NN

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:36:49 -0400 2022-11-08T12:00:00-05:00 2022-11-08T14:00:00-05:00 Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies
"Where is Anne Frank" Film Screening (November 10, 2022 5:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/97308 97308-21794307@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 10, 2022 5:30pm
Location: Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Join the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies for the screening of "Where Is Anne Frank," a 2021 animated magic realism film directed by Israeli director Ari Folman. The film follows Kitty, Anne Frank's imaginary friend to whom she addressed her diary, manifesting in contemporary Amsterdam.

The screening will be accompanied by a discussion with the film's director, Ari Folman.

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Film Screening Wed, 09 Nov 2022 08:16:54 -0500 2022-11-10T17:30:00-05:00 2022-11-10T19:45:00-05:00 Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) Judaic Studies Film Screening Where is Anne Frank?
Faith and Feminism: Changing Roles of Women in American Judaism and Malaysian Islam (November 15, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/100766 100766-21800332@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 15, 2022 4:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

What does it mean to think about faith and feminism together? Is there a place for feminism in Abrahamic, patriarchal religions? Conversely, is there space for faith within often secular feminist movements? Does being part of a majoritarian group (Muslims in Malaysia) versus being part of a minoritarian group (Jews in the United States) shape or hinder reformist efforts in any way? historian Karla Goldman and political sociologist Saleena Saleem address these questions as they discuss the changing roles of women in American Judaism and Malaysian Islam throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Join the Frankel Center for this hybrid lecture with Saleena Saleem in conversation with Professor Karla Goldman and moderated by Professor Adi Saleem Bharat. This event is co-sponsored with Asian Languages and Cultures.

This is a hybrid taking place in 2022 South Thayer Building.

Zoom Registration: https://myumi.ch/29GXm

*Saleena Saleem* is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Liverpool. She is a currently a Visiting Researcher with the Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs, Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Her research interests are on decolonial feminism, ethno-religious politics, and gender in South-east Asia. Saleena holds a Master of Science in Political Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Science in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University. She has held research positions at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, and at the Centre for Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

*Karla Goldman* is the Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work, School of Social Work, and Professor of Judaic Studies, College of LS&A. Her research focuses on the history of the American Jewish experience with special attention to the history of American Jewish communities and the evolving roles and contributions of American Jewish women. She directs the University of Michigan Jewish Communal Leadership Program, a collaborative effort between the School of Social Work and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.

*Adi Saleem Bharat *is a scholar of modern and contemporary France. He is an Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. He conducts research and teaches courses on race and religion in contemporary French society, with a particular focus on Jews and Muslims. He is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled Beyond Jews and Muslims, which examines and challenges the construction of a polarized, oppositional category of “Jewish-Muslim relations” in media and political discourse in contemporary French society.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 27 Oct 2022 12:23:11 -0400 2022-11-15T16:00:00-05:00 2022-11-15T17:30:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Faith and Feminism
Judaic Studies Course Pitch Night - WN23 (November 15, 2022 6:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/100966 100966-21800611@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 15, 2022 6:30pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Would you like to learn more about WN23 course offerings in Judaic Studies straight from the faculty teaching them?! Please stop by room 2022 of the South Thayer Building on Tuesday, November 15 at 6:30pm for our course pitch night. There will also be food. Hope to see you there!

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Reception / Open House Wed, 02 Nov 2022 08:43:08 -0400 2022-11-15T18:30:00-05:00 2022-11-15T20:00:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Reception / Open House Course Pitch Night
Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies Fall Symposium: “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection: Rewriting Body, Language, and Cultural Memory” (November 30, 2022 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/97313 97313-21794308@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 30, 2022 10:00am
Location: Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.)
Organized By: Judaic Studies

As an interdisciplinary formation, the field of Mizrahi Studies has generated engaged scholarship that questions the ready-made paradigms of knowledge production. A critical strain has been key to shaping a cross-border Mizrahi epistemology, performed in conversation with multiple fields such as ethnic and race studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and post/colonial studies. Yet the intellectual home of Mizrahi studies remains fraught with ambiguities, symptomatic of an in-between identity which does not always fit neatly into a single institutional space. The very name of the field, “Mizrahi,” exists in relation to other rubrics -- Sephardis, Arab Jews, Jews from Muslim countries, Middle Eastern Jews, Asian and African Jews, etc. -- each suggesting different mappings and frames of reference. Although not necessarily mutually exclusive, these diverse rubrics suggest the intricacies of a historically recent constructed identity and the multiple genealogies and orientations that mark this compelling area of inquiry. Critical Mizrahi scholars themselves, as writing subjects, have deepened the study of their own variegated communal stories and experiences across multiple geographies.

This symposium aims to address some of the key issues raised by Mizrahi studies as conceptualized through a transnational, transregional, multidirectional, and intersectional prism. Rather than produce a Mizrahi subject in isolation, the symposium will problematize any fixed understanding of Mizrahiness by highlighting the ways this concept is dynamically shaped by class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and so forth. The symposium strives to illuminate Mizrahi studies as a critical field not simply about the Mizrahim but also about decolonization of knowledge. It hopes to interrogate established categories by asking what constitutes legitimate knowledge when ways of knowing may themselves have to be reconceptualized in a discursive climate saturated with hierarchical, exclusionary, and even violent assumptions? Some additional questions posed by the symposium include: Which methodological paradigms and epistemic frameworks enable the shaping of fragmented memories into a broader and more relational narrative? What kind of obstacles do scholars face in the process of carrying out research involving archival documentation and oral transmission, when such data collection is entangled in histories of obscuring and silencing? What challenges does an academically normative discourse pose for those writing on subjects that touch on traumatic experiences and memories, at once personal, familial, and communal? And what lessons could be learned from more self-reflexive research practices and coping strategies in terms of future scholarship. In sum, this one-day symposium brings together a committed group of scholars working within the broadly construed field of Mizrahi studies, while also reflecting on critical interventions in the field itself.

Program:

9:00 Coffee/ Breakfast

10:00: Welcoming Words
Maya Barzilai, Director, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies
Ruth Tsoffar
Ella Shohat

Panel I, 10:30- 12:00: Reframing Mizrahi Memory
Ruth Tsoffar, Moderator
Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli: "Movements of Return between Israel and Morocco: Discourses and Practices"
Daniel Schroeter: "Remembering Morocco: The Global Moroccan Jewish Diaspora"
Yali Hashash: “The Lost Academic Work of Mizrahi Women”
Erez Tzfadia: “Home and Citizenship: Mizrahiyut and Informality in Settler-colonial Spatiality”

Lunch: 12:00-1:00

Panel II, 1:00-3:00: Discourses of Mizrahi Belonging
Gal Levy, Moderator
Merav Aloush Levron: “Mizrahi Autoethnography and the Inter-generational Art of Memory”
Naphtaly Shem-Tov: “‘Fricha is a Beautiful Name: Performance as Theatrical Interruption”
Rafael Balulu: “Thoughts about the Possibilities of Metaverse for Mizrahi History and Aesthetics”

Coffee Break: 3:00-3:30

Panel III, 3:30- 5:00: Decolonizing the Mizrahi Body
Liron Mor, Moderator
Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber: “‘Maybe We Did Them a Favor:’ Reading the Kidnapped Babies Affair Through Intersectional Feminist Lens”
Inbal Blau (Maimon): "Healing the Wounds: Legal Perspective on Injustices against the Mizrahim"
Raz Yosef: “Ethnicity, Disidentification, and Queer Performativity: The Arisa Mizrahi Party Line Videos”

Discussion: 5:15- 5:45

Dinner: 6:00

This is a hybrid event.
Rackham East and West Conference Rooms
Zoom Registration: https://myumi.ch/wMPxz

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Conference / Symposium Thu, 08 Dec 2022 14:22:49 -0500 2022-11-30T10:00:00-05:00 2022-11-30T17:30:00-05:00 Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) Judaic Studies Conference / Symposium Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies
Frankel Institute Film Screening (February 2, 2023 5:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/102702 102702-21805008@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 2, 2023 5:30pm
Location: Modern Languages Building
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Join the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies for a film screening with director and Frankel Fellow, Rafael Balulu.

The Frankel Institute will be Screening *Levantine - Jacqueline Kahanoff* in MLB 1420 - Lec 2 at 5:30pm on February 2. Film Description:

Jacqueline Kahanoff lived in ebullient Cairo, Paris, and New York, but died lonely in an old-age home in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was the first to write of Levantine and Mizrachi identities and was charismatic and admired, but only a few people knew her work during her lifetime. Director Rafael Balulu goes on a journey in the footsteps of “Levantine thinker” and author, through encounters with her friends in Paris, with intellectuals in the Mizrachi discourse, and with Levantine artists, he not only draws a portrait of this impressive thinker and writer, but also chronicles the trajectory of Levantine identity in Israel as a cultural option.

Trailer:
https://youtu.be/OSd53dGCi_I


*Rafael Balulu* was born in Israel to a Jewish Moroccan family. He is the director of the films A Song of Loves, R. David Buzaglo, and Levantine, Jacqueline Kahanoff. He is currently working on a monumental documentary series recounting the history of the Jews in the The Muslim world, writing a feature film about the Israeli Black Panther movement, and directing a documentary feature film about the life and politics of Rabbi Israel Abuhazira – the Baba Sali. Balulu participated at the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2008, 2011, and 2012. He also participated at the TIFF Talent Lab and Greenhouse Film Centre. Balulu has written and directed projects for television and eight shorts that won international prizes. Among them – Such Eyes which won the NYC Shorts. Batman at the Checkpoint, which won the Berlin Today Award at the 62nd Berlinale. My Name Is Solomon Hagos, which premiered at the 2013 TIFF. Close Your Eyes premiered at the Jerusalem Film Fest Rafael teaches film studies at the Technion’s department of architecture, is a board member of the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers Forum, a member of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, and a board member of The Lottery Council for Culture and the Arts where is held the position of the chairperson to the subcommittee of Film & Television. He holds a bachelor’s degree in film studies from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. He lives in Jaffa.

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Film Screening Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:18:37 -0500 2023-02-02T17:30:00-05:00 2023-02-02T19:00:00-05:00 Modern Languages Building Judaic Studies Film Screening Rafael Balulu
New Translations from Yiddish (February 9, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/102703 102703-21805016@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, February 9, 2023 12:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Public lecture by Anita Norich and Julian Levinson about two new translations of Yiddish fiction: "Fear" by Chana Blankshteyn and "Flames from the Earth" by Isaiah Spiegel. Norich and Levinson will introduce these works, discuss broader issues surrounding Yiddish translation, and read excerpts.

This is a hybrid event in 2022 South Thayer Building.
Zoom: https://myumi.ch/W2RRW

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 03 Feb 2023 08:23:41 -0500 2023-02-09T12:00:00-05:00 2023-02-09T13:30:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion New Translations from Yiddish
"An Ideological Suitcase Ripe for Stuffing": How the Soviet Jew Was Made (February 21, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/104065 104065-21808356@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 21, 2023 4:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

In this presentation, Sasha Senderovich will discuss his new book, *How the Soviet Jew Was Made* (Harvard University Press, 2022), which was named a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. In the book, Senderovich offers a close reading of postrevolutionary Russian and Yiddish literature and film that recast the Soviet Jew as a novel cultural figure: not just a minority but an ambivalent character navigating between the Jewish past and Bolshevik modernity.

After the revolution of 1917, Jews who had previously lived in the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement quickly exited the shtetls, seeking prospects elsewhere. Some left for bigger cities in different parts of the new Bolshevik state, others for Europe, America, or Palestine. Thousands tried their luck in the newly established Jewish Autonomous Region in the Far East, where urban merchants would become tillers of the soil. For these Jews, Soviet modernity meant freedom, the possibility of the new, and the pressure to discard old ways of life.

This ambivalence was embodied in the Soviet Jew—not just a descriptive demographic term but a novel cultural figure. In insightful readings of Yiddish and Russian literature, films, and reportage, Senderovich finds characters traversing space and history and carrying with them the dislodged practices and archetypes of a lost Jewish world. Senderovich urges us to see the Soviet Jew anew, as not only a minority but also a particular kind of liminal being in a shifting landscape.


This is a hybrid event in 2022 South Thayer Building.
Zoom Registration: https://myumi.ch/73eJy

*Sasha Senderovich* is an Assistant Professor in Slavic Languages & Literatures and the Jackson School of International Studies, and a faculty affiliate at the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Together with Harriet Murav, he translated, from the Yiddish, David Bergelson’s novel *Judgment *(Northwestern University Press, 2017). Together with Harriet Murav, he is currently working on* In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union*, a collection of stories by several different authors translated from both Yiddish and Russian. He has also published on contemporary Soviet-born immigrant Jewish authors in America. His first monograph, *How the Soviet Jew Was Made*, was published by Harvard University Press in 2022. In addition to scholarly work, he has also published essays on literary, cultural, and political topics in the *Los Angeles Review of Books*, the *New York Times*, the *Forward*, *Lilith*, *Jewish Currents*, the *Stranger*, and the *New Republic*.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 26 Jan 2023 13:36:58 -0500 2023-02-21T16:00:00-05:00 2023-02-21T17:30:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Sasha Senderovich
33rd Belin Lecture: An Evening with Gary Shteyngart (March 16, 2023 5:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/102705 102705-21805017@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 16, 2023 5:30pm
Location: Weiser Hall
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Join the Frankel Center for the 33rd Annual David W. Belin lecture with author Gary Shteyngart. The lecture will be preceded by a reception at 5:30pm and followed by a book signing with Shteyngart at 7:30pm. This is a hybrid event in the Weiser Hall 10th Floor Event Space. Zoom registration: https://myumi.ch/Qqqrq

In this evening with Gary Shteyngart, the author will read from his work; discuss past Jewish immigration and current Jewish American affairs; and candidly answer audience questions about a wide range of social and literary topics.

*New York Times* bestselling author Gary Shteyngart wins over readers and audiences with his blistering humor, his satirical takedowns of contemporary society, and his compassionate examination of modern love and loss. With his recent memoir *Little Failure*, Shteyngart speaks to the American immigrant story with heart, humor, and biting wit. His book, *Lake Success*, tells the tale of a modern American living as a member of the one percent who abandons everything to discover the "real America."

The Belin lecture series was established in 1991 through a generous gift from the late David W. Belin of Des Moines and New York to provide an academic forum for the discussion of contemporary Jewish life in the United States. Previous scholars to hold this honor include Deborah Lipstadt, Samuel Freedman, Ruth Messinger, Jim Loeffler, Beth Wenger, and Lila Corwin Berman among others. Each year, the lecture is also published in written form in collaboration with Michigan Publishing.

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 02 Mar 2023 12:16:28 -0500 2023-03-16T17:30:00-04:00 2023-03-16T20:00:00-04:00 Weiser Hall Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Gary Shteyngart, Photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe
Aspects of Disgust and Rabbinic Judaism (March 23, 2023 12:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/102708 102708-21805020@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 23, 2023 12:30pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

In the study of Rabbinic Judaism (200-700 CE), the emotion of disgust has received minimal attention. Yet disgust plays a role in almost every category of rabbinic law and thought, including dietary regulations, impurity, sacrifices, forbidden sex, divorce, prayer, social relations with gentiles and “Others,” and ethical character. This lecture begins by discussing theoretical aspects of disgust and then surveys the ways disgust impacts these different dimensions of rabbinic Judaism. It concludes by charting some questions for further study and productive avenues for further research.

This is a hybrid event in 2022 South Thayer Building.
Zoom Registration https://myumi.ch/MrzeV

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Lecture / Discussion Thu, 23 Feb 2023 12:20:47 -0500 2023-03-23T12:30:00-04:00 2023-03-23T14:00:00-04:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Dr. Jeffrey L. Rubenstein
Wieseneck and Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies Spring Symposium, “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection” (March 29, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/102709 102709-21805021@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 29, 2023 9:00am
Location: Michigan League
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies is hosting the Wieseneck Symposium, “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection" on March 29-30 in the Michigan League's Michigan Room. The symposium will be followed by a performance by Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen at 7pm on the 30th.

This event is a part of the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies theme year “Mizrahim and the Politics of Ethnicity,” led by co-head fellows Ruth Tsoffar, U-M Professor of Comparative Literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Judaic Studies, and Ella Shohat, professor of Cultural Studies at New York University. This theme year brings together thirteen scholars from three countries who will explore interdisciplinary and intersectional conversations on the meaning of ethnicity in the study of Mizrahi (Arab-Jewish) culture. The group consists of a dynamic forum of scholars from a variety of disciplines aiming to reflect and further expand, diversify, and theorize the discussion of Jewish/Israeli society and culture.

This symposium aims at addressing some of the key issues raised by Mizrahi studies as conceptualized through a transnational, transregional, multidirectional, and intersectional prism. Rather than producing a Mizrahi subject in isolation, the symposium seeks to problematize any fixed understanding of Mizrahiness by highlighting the ways this concept is dynamically shaped by class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and so forth. As such, the symposium strives to illuminate Mizrahi studies as a critical field not simply about the Mizrahim but also about decolonization of knowledge. It hopes to interrogate established categories by asking what constitutes legitimate knowledge when ways of knowing may themselves have to be reconceptualized in a discursive climate saturated with hierarchical, exclusionary, and even violent assumptions? Some additional questions posed by the symposium include: Which methodological paradigms and epistemic frameworks enable the shaping of fragmented memories into a broader and more relational narrative? What kind of obstacles do scholars face in the process of carrying out research involving archival documentation and oral transmission, when such data collection is entangled in histories of obscuring and silencing? What challenges does an academically normative discourse pose for those writing on subjects that touch on traumatic experiences and memories, at once personal, familial, and communal? And what lessons could be learned from more self-reflexive research practices and coping strategies in terms of future scholarship.

The participants will also reflect on the symposium in a closed discussion on Friday, March 31st at Rackham Graduate School.

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of Comparative Literature, Middle East Studies, Women’s Studies and Gender, Institute for Research on Women & Gender, and Anthropology.

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Conference / Symposium Tue, 28 Mar 2023 13:18:04 -0400 2023-03-29T09:00:00-04:00 2023-03-29T18:00:00-04:00 Michigan League Judaic Studies Conference / Symposium Image: Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen’s Muima, 2022
Wieseneck and Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies Spring Symposium, “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection” (March 30, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/102709 102709-21805022@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 30, 2023 9:00am
Location: Michigan League
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies is hosting the Wieseneck Symposium, “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection" on March 29-30 in the Michigan League's Michigan Room. The symposium will be followed by a performance by Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen at 7pm on the 30th.

This event is a part of the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies theme year “Mizrahim and the Politics of Ethnicity,” led by co-head fellows Ruth Tsoffar, U-M Professor of Comparative Literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Judaic Studies, and Ella Shohat, professor of Cultural Studies at New York University. This theme year brings together thirteen scholars from three countries who will explore interdisciplinary and intersectional conversations on the meaning of ethnicity in the study of Mizrahi (Arab-Jewish) culture. The group consists of a dynamic forum of scholars from a variety of disciplines aiming to reflect and further expand, diversify, and theorize the discussion of Jewish/Israeli society and culture.

This symposium aims at addressing some of the key issues raised by Mizrahi studies as conceptualized through a transnational, transregional, multidirectional, and intersectional prism. Rather than producing a Mizrahi subject in isolation, the symposium seeks to problematize any fixed understanding of Mizrahiness by highlighting the ways this concept is dynamically shaped by class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and so forth. As such, the symposium strives to illuminate Mizrahi studies as a critical field not simply about the Mizrahim but also about decolonization of knowledge. It hopes to interrogate established categories by asking what constitutes legitimate knowledge when ways of knowing may themselves have to be reconceptualized in a discursive climate saturated with hierarchical, exclusionary, and even violent assumptions? Some additional questions posed by the symposium include: Which methodological paradigms and epistemic frameworks enable the shaping of fragmented memories into a broader and more relational narrative? What kind of obstacles do scholars face in the process of carrying out research involving archival documentation and oral transmission, when such data collection is entangled in histories of obscuring and silencing? What challenges does an academically normative discourse pose for those writing on subjects that touch on traumatic experiences and memories, at once personal, familial, and communal? And what lessons could be learned from more self-reflexive research practices and coping strategies in terms of future scholarship.

The participants will also reflect on the symposium in a closed discussion on Friday, March 31st at Rackham Graduate School.

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of Comparative Literature, Middle East Studies, Women’s Studies and Gender, Institute for Research on Women & Gender, and Anthropology.

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Conference / Symposium Tue, 28 Mar 2023 13:18:04 -0400 2023-03-30T09:00:00-04:00 2023-03-30T18:00:00-04:00 Michigan League Judaic Studies Conference / Symposium Image: Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen’s Muima, 2022
Wieseneck and Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies Spring Symposium, “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection” (March 31, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/102709 102709-21805023@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, March 31, 2023 9:00am
Location: Michigan League
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies is hosting the Wieseneck Symposium, “Mizrahi Studies at the Intersection" on March 29-30 in the Michigan League's Michigan Room. The symposium will be followed by a performance by Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen at 7pm on the 30th.

This event is a part of the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies theme year “Mizrahim and the Politics of Ethnicity,” led by co-head fellows Ruth Tsoffar, U-M Professor of Comparative Literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Judaic Studies, and Ella Shohat, professor of Cultural Studies at New York University. This theme year brings together thirteen scholars from three countries who will explore interdisciplinary and intersectional conversations on the meaning of ethnicity in the study of Mizrahi (Arab-Jewish) culture. The group consists of a dynamic forum of scholars from a variety of disciplines aiming to reflect and further expand, diversify, and theorize the discussion of Jewish/Israeli society and culture.

This symposium aims at addressing some of the key issues raised by Mizrahi studies as conceptualized through a transnational, transregional, multidirectional, and intersectional prism. Rather than producing a Mizrahi subject in isolation, the symposium seeks to problematize any fixed understanding of Mizrahiness by highlighting the ways this concept is dynamically shaped by class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and so forth. As such, the symposium strives to illuminate Mizrahi studies as a critical field not simply about the Mizrahim but also about decolonization of knowledge. It hopes to interrogate established categories by asking what constitutes legitimate knowledge when ways of knowing may themselves have to be reconceptualized in a discursive climate saturated with hierarchical, exclusionary, and even violent assumptions? Some additional questions posed by the symposium include: Which methodological paradigms and epistemic frameworks enable the shaping of fragmented memories into a broader and more relational narrative? What kind of obstacles do scholars face in the process of carrying out research involving archival documentation and oral transmission, when such data collection is entangled in histories of obscuring and silencing? What challenges does an academically normative discourse pose for those writing on subjects that touch on traumatic experiences and memories, at once personal, familial, and communal? And what lessons could be learned from more self-reflexive research practices and coping strategies in terms of future scholarship.

The participants will also reflect on the symposium in a closed discussion on Friday, March 31st at Rackham Graduate School.

This event is co-sponsored by the departments of Comparative Literature, Middle East Studies, Women’s Studies and Gender, Institute for Research on Women & Gender, and Anthropology.

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Conference / Symposium Tue, 28 Mar 2023 13:18:04 -0400 2023-03-31T09:00:00-04:00 2023-03-31T14:00:00-04:00 Michigan League Judaic Studies Conference / Symposium Image: Neta Elkayam and Amit Hai Cohen’s Muima, 2022
In this Holy Place: Ritual Healing Sites in Roman and Late Antique Palestine (April 3, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/106526 106526-21814407@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, April 3, 2023 4:00pm
Location: Tisch Hall
Organized By: Department of Middle East Studies

Part of the Meet the Author Series. In the ancient Mediterranean world, the sick and injured visited sites associated with healing deities in order to be cured. In Palestine, ritual cures were often sought at sites associated with water, and especially at the thermal-mineral springs. This talk will show how evidence from Hammat Gader and Hammat Tiberias indicates that Jews and Christians bathed in these springs alongside devotees of Asclepius, hoping that a divine healer would appear to them in a dream and heal them. Join guest speaker Dr. Megan Nutzman April 3rd at 4:00-5:30pm in Tisch Hall, Room 1014.

Additionally, Dr. Nutzman will be leading a discussion about her book in a different location for a small group of faculty and graduate students at 9:00am. If you are interested please contact Deborah Forger at dkforger@umich.edu to register as space is limited.

*Contested Cures: Identity and Ritual Healing in Roman and Late antique Palestine*

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 21 Mar 2023 10:38:08 -0400 2023-04-03T16:00:00-04:00 2023-04-03T17:30:00-04:00 Tisch Hall Department of Middle East Studies Lecture / Discussion Poster
Queering Identity: A Conversation with 2Fik (April 10, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/106868 106868-21814954@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, April 10, 2023 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Join 2Fik in conversation with Adi Saleem Bharat for a discussion about deconstructing reified, oppositional notions of Jewishness and Muslimness through performance art and the possibility of broadening (or queering) our understandings of what it means to be Jewish and Muslim in the twenty-first century. 2Fik is a multidisciplinary artist known for embodying multiple, unique characters. Through his social and political works, 2Fik creates lives for characters who almost seem real, whose stories, personalities, and interests are rooted in our world. Each of his creations are conceived in a voyeuristic way that pushes the spectator to wonder what exists beyond the scope of the work. Each character in this humorous and interpretative world becomes a reflection of our society. Québécois by adoption, French by birth, and Moroccan by origin, 2Fik stages his characters much in the manner of a soap opera/reality show, thus creating a dialogue between reality and fiction that provokes a reflection on our society and our place in it. A pioneer in his field with a nearly twenty-year career, he masters the art of caricature and encourages the reflection on universality, equality between men and women, and the acceptance of oneself as a unique being. His work has been the subject of a number of critical scholarly analyses, from Denis Provencher's book Queer Maghrebi French: Language, Temporalities, Transfiliations (2017) to Gil Hochberg's article "From 'sexy Semite' to Semitic ghosts: contemporary art between Arab and Jew" (2020).


Register for the virtual event here: https://myumi.ch/qG26Z

Credit : Albert Zablit

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 07 Apr 2023 11:25:40 -0400 2023-04-10T13:00:00-04:00 2023-04-10T14:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Judaic Studies Livestream / Virtual Image Credit: Albert Zablit
A Discussion of The Mishnah and its Place in History (September 6, 2023 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/111409 111409-21826986@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, September 6, 2023 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Judaic Studies

This one-day colloquium will reflect on the place and use of the Mishnah in the study of early Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, and Christianity. Centered in the conversation is the publication of the new Oxford Annotated (2022), edited by Shaye J.D. Cohen and Hayim Lapin.

The event is comprised of two panels, each of which will begin with two or three, 10-15 minute presentations and follow with an open conversation among all participants. The first session (9-11am EST) will discuss the problems of translating the Mishnah in light of the experience of the new edition. The second session (11:30am-1:30pm EST) will instead address the very thorny issue of using the Mishnah for the study of Second Temple Judaism.

Register for this free, virtual event here: https://tinyurl.com/5n677sua


SCHEDULE
** Schedule is set according to Eastern Daylight time / New York Time**

9:00-11:00am EDT Session 1: Translation Issues relating to the publication of the Mishnah

Phil Lieberman (Chair)
Shaye Cohen (Presenter)
Hayim Lapin (Presenter)
Michal Bar Asher Siegal
Gregg Gardner
Richard Sarason
Elizabeth Alexander


11:30am-1:30pm EDT Session 2: The Mishnah and the study of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins: To what extent and in what ways can or should we use the Mishnah?

Jonathan Kaplan (Chair)
Adele Reinhartz (Presenter)
Steven Fraade (Presenter)
Krista Dalton (Presenter)
Kelley Coblentz Bautch
Gabriele Boccaccini
Rebecca Wollenberg
Paula Fredricksen
Tal Ilan
Ishay Rosen-Zvi
Lawrence Schiffman

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Livestream / Virtual Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:08:14 -0400 2023-09-06T09:00:00-04:00 2023-09-06T13:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Judaic Studies Livestream / Virtual Event Poster
Daniel Kahn and Jake Shulman-Ment, Perform and Discuss their New Album, The Building and Other Songs (September 21, 2023 6:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111907 111907-21827880@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, September 21, 2023 6:00pm
Location: Ross School of Business
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Detroit-born, Hamburg-based troubadour and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Kahn and New Yorker master fiddler Jake Shulman-Ment have been playing and traveling together for nearly twenty years. Having worked in so many bands and projects (including The Painted Bird and Brothers Nazaroff), they have finally joined up to record a true analog duo record: The Building & Other Songs. It is, as Kahn says, "the most personal and intimate selection of songs I've ever recorded. And with Jake, it was like recording it with a brother." The interpretations range from radical treatments of modern Yiddish songs such as Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman's title track "Der Binyen / The Building" to new Yiddish translations of some of Kahn's lyrical heroes: Cohen, Brecht, Springsteen, Guthrie, and Waits. Yiddish serves here as a kind of broken mirror, reflecting both despair and repair, exile and ecstasy, loss of trust and wanderlust. The title track is the key to it all: "Imagine your building… how it suddenly burns and falls…a tower of steel on foundations of straw… Why sit and sigh?… Let us dance a tango till the dawn, warming our souls by the burning of straw."

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Performance Thu, 21 Sep 2023 09:26:26 -0400 2023-09-21T18:00:00-04:00 2023-09-21T19:30:00-04:00 Ross School of Business Judaic Studies Performance Ross School of Business
Horror Films Across Boundaries: American, Israeli, Jewish, and Muslim Perspectives (October 4, 2023 4:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113131 113131-21830128@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, October 4, 2023 4:30pm
Location: North Quad
Organized By: Judaic Studies

This roundtable brings together scholars of the horror film working in the contexts of Jewish, Muslim, American and Israeli cinemas. They will discuss these questions and issues: How do we take stock of concurrent developments in Jewish, Muslim, American and Israeli horror films? What are the points of convergence and divergence among them? What does horror add to our understanding of Muslim and Jewish cultures? Alternatively, how do Jewish and Muslim interventions contribute to the horror genre?

Attend in-person, or online at https://myumi.ch/gRAV2

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Film Screening Tue, 26 Sep 2023 15:11:32 -0400 2023-10-04T16:30:00-04:00 2023-10-04T18:30:00-04:00 North Quad Judaic Studies Film Screening Horror Films Across Boundaries: American, Israeli, Jewish, and Muslim Perspectives