Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. 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
Winter DEI Film Discussion Series | "Denial" (March 9, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/103321 103321-21807025@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 9, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: MSA Diversity Equity & Inclusion

This riveting 2016 drama is based on Deborah Lipstadt's 2005 book, "History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier." An award-winning theatrical release starring Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall, and Tom Wilkinson, it's an account of the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Holocaust scholar Lipstadt was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel in London's High Court of Justice in 1996. Available to stream FREE Kanopy for everyone in the U-M community. This discussion is open to all, but please register to receive the Zoom link prior to the session.

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Other Thu, 12 Jan 2023 14:50:01 -0500 2023-03-09T12:00:00-05:00 2023-03-09T13:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location MSA Diversity Equity & Inclusion Other "Denial" original theatrical film poster featuring actors (left to right) Timothy Spall, Rachel Weisz, and Tom Wilkinson.
Winter DEI Film Discussion Series | "Denial" (March 9, 2023 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/105469 105469-21811912@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, March 9, 2023 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: MSA Diversity Equity & Inclusion

This riveting 2016 drama is based on Deborah Lipstadt's 2005 book, "History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier." An award-winning theatrical release starring Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall, and Tom Wilkinson, "Denial" is the account of the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, in which Holocaust scholar Lipstadt was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving for libel in London's High Court of Justice in 1996. Available to stream FREE Kanopy for everyone in the U-M community. This discussion is open to all, but please register to receive the Zoom link prior to the session.

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Other Mon, 27 Feb 2023 14:49:35 -0500 2023-03-09T12:00:00-05:00 2023-03-09T13:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location MSA Diversity Equity & Inclusion Other Theatrical poster for film "Denial," with actors (left to right) Timothy Spall, Rachel Weisz, and Tom Wilkinson.
STS Speaker Series. Queering and Transing the Life Cycle in Jewish Ritual (March 13, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/102182 102182-21803655@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Monday, March 13, 2023 4:00pm
Location: Tisch Hall
Organized By: Science, Technology & Society

The term “life cycle ritual” is used widely in Jewish Studies. In this talk I trace the idea of the life cycle and its development, while considering the racialized, gendered, and sexual politics of the term, and the way it borrows from biological sciences. Scholars have argued that the concept of the life cycle in Judaism originates with the rabbis in late antiquity. Eunuchs and androgynes, who are found prolifically in rabbinic literature, can trouble the assumption that the rabbis are invested in an orderly cycle of life. I weave together trans and queer theory with Jewish sources to examine legal attempts to channel messy embodiment into a life trajectory.

Max Strassfeld is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Arizona. They are the author of Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards in 2022.

Co-sponsors: Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies; Classical Studies; Center for Judaic Studies

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:05:04 -0500 2023-03-13T16:00:00-04:00 2023-03-13T17:30:00-04:00 Tisch Hall Science, Technology & Society Lecture / Discussion Prof. Max Strassfeld
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
Annual Copernicus Lecture. Survivors Saving Survivors (March 22, 2023 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/103584 103584-21807516@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 5:00pm
Location: Museum of Art
Organized By: Copernicus Center for Polish Studies

The 2023 Annual Copernicus Lecture will feature two presentations on how JCC Krakow has organized volunteers to aid Ukrainian refugees who fled to Poland. Following the presentations, the two speakers will join a conversation led by CCPS Director Geneviève Zubrzycki.

"In the Shadow of Auschwitz: How JCC Krakow is Rebuilding Jewish Life in Poland and Supporting Ukrainian Refugees"

JCC Krakow (est.2008) is the vibrant center of reborn Jewish life in Kraków, with over 850 members. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it quickly morphed into one of Kraków’s most important humanitarian aid centers, providing services to over 150,000 Ukrainian refugees to date. In this talk, JCC Krakow CEO Jonathan Ornstein will discuss the center's mission to rebuild Jewish communal life in the shadow of Auschwitz, and the impact of the Jewish community’s work with Ukrainian refugees.

"Survivors Saving Survivors: Photographing the Ukrainian Refugee Experience in Poland"

In April and June 2022, at the invitation of JCC Krakow, Chuck Fishman traveled to Poland to document the JCC and the Jewish community’s commitment to helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing their war-torn country. What he witnessed and captured in a series of gripping photographs is tikkun olam, a central concept in Judaism that denotes activities that repair and improve the world we live in. Fishman will discuss his experience and the accompanying exhibit--on display in Weiser Hall in March and April--that shifts the lens away from the horror the refugees have endured to focus instead on human goodness and how it can overcome lingering evil.

Jonathan Ornstein is the Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow. The JCC boasts over 850 Jewish members, welcomes 10,000 visitors a month and has become one of Poland’s most visible signs of Jewish revival. Ornstein created the annual Ride For The Living and Holocaust Survivor Day, two global initiatives with tens of thousands of participants. Prior to occupying his post at the JCC, Ornstein lectured in Modern Hebrew at Jagiellonian University, founded the “Gesher” association for Polish-Israeli dialogue, and is a founding member of the Krakow Association of Christians and Jews where he serves as vice president.

In his 45-year career, freelance photographer Chuck Fishman has focused on social and political issues with a strong humanistic concern. His work on Jewish life in Poland, begun in 1975, continues to the present day.Fishman’s work has been extensively published, exhibited, and collected worldwide, and has earned him prestigious World Press Photo Foundation medals four times. His photographs have appeared on the covers of *Time, Life, Fortune, Newsweek, The London Sunday Times, The Economist* and numerous others. Fishman’s work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; the United Nations; POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Stanford University and New York Public Libraries, to name a few, as well as private and corporate collections.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 22 Mar 2023 11:29:24 -0400 2023-03-22T17:00:00-04:00 2023-03-22T18:30:00-04:00 Museum of Art Copernicus Center for Polish Studies Lecture / Discussion Copernicus Lecture banner
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
Representations of the Theresienstadt ghetto in survivors' testimonies (March 28, 2023 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/105801 105801-21812971@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 28, 2023 5:00pm
Location: Modern Languages Building
Organized By: Slavic Languages & Literatures

Please join us for this Presentation on narratives of the Theresienstadt Ghetto in early postwar Czechoslovakia based on two reports written by Czech Jewish survivors: Mirko Tůma’s “A ghetto of our days” (1946) and Richard Feder's “Jewish tragedy – Last act” (1947). Analyzing how those narratives were perceived by contemporaries in Czech media.

Lena Franke studied European Studies (BA) and Slavic Studies (MA) at the universities of Passau, Tübingen and Regensburg and spent semesters abroad in Kazan, Riga and Prague. In 2020 she worked as a research assistant for the project “Grenze/n in nationalen und transnationalen Erinnerungskulturen zwischen Tschechien und Bayern” at Bohemicum, Center for Czech Studies, University of Regensburg. During her Ph.D., research stays in Prague were supported by the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency and by a Josef Dobrovský Fellowship at the Institute for Czech literature at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Since April 2021 she is a scholarship holder at the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at slavic@umich.edu. Advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Thank you!

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Presentation Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:59:49 -0500 2023-03-28T17:00:00-04:00 2023-03-28T19:00:00-04:00 Modern Languages Building Slavic Languages & Literatures Presentation Theresienstadt ghetto
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
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
The Human Question: Jewish Thought in the Anthropocene (September 28, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/111305 111305-21826644@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, September 28, 2023 4:00pm
Location: Haven Hall
Organized By: Judaic Studies

"The field of modern Jewish thought has been slow to treat climate change as a significant area of inquiry. This reluctance stems from the fact that modern Jewish thought remains largely beholden to an increasingly untenable presumption that the human being is distinct from the non-human world. This outmoded view has stubbornly endured, I argue, because it underpins a prominent strategy for positioning Judaism favorably over against Christianity and other religious traditions. I locate the origins of this influential strategy in nineteenth-century German Jewish philosophy and then trace the manner in which Hermann Cohen embeds it into the basic foundations of the field. Finally, I show how the anthropocentric framing of this approach has persisted in Jewish thought, even as Cohen’s own project has been subsequently critiqued and repudiated. For modern Jewish thought to fully engage with the environmental humanities, it will need to reckon with this lingering legacy."

About the speaker: Robert Erlewine is a Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of History & Philosophy at Eastern Michigan University and the director of the Eastern Michigan University Center for Jewish Studies. Professor Erlewine is a scholar of modern Jewish thought with a particular interest in the German-Jewish tradition and its legacy in North America and beyond. He has published two monographs, Monotheism and Tolerance (2010) and Judaism and the West (2016), with Indiana University Press, and he edited and introduced an anthology of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s writings with Plough Press in 2021. He has published essays in a variety of academic journals including The Journal of Religion, Association for Jewish Studies Review, Harvard Theological Review, Modern Judaism, and Jewish Studies Quarterly.

This is a hybrid event. You can join remotely here: https://myumi.ch/1A3Qr

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 27 Sep 2023 09:20:35 -0400 2023-09-28T16:00:00-04:00 2023-09-28T17:30:00-04:00 Haven Hall Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Event Poster
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
Unexpected Gifts: A Convening on Jewish Education in Honor of Harlene Appelman (October 15, 2023 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113198 113198-21830490@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Sunday, October 15, 2023 1:00pm
Location: School of Social Work Building
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Please join the Jewish Communal Leadership Program, the Covenant Foundation, and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies for a convening on Jewish education to honor the memory of master Jewish educator and long-term executive director of the Covenant Foundation, Harlene Winnick Appelman."

This gathering will take place on Sunday, October 15, 2023, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and Michigan Hillel in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Harlene made her home. Dinner will be included for those who RSVP by October 2.

Master educators Dr. Sivan Zakai, Dr. Susie Tanchel, and Rabbi Rebecca Milder will explore the unexpected gifts embedded in children’s capacity for learning and imagination. Musical artists and educators Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell and Sarah Aroeste and visual artist Hillel Smith will consider the use of art and culture to challenge our cultural assumptions. Rabba Yaffa Epstein will honor Harlene's work in elevating the entire field with a keynote presentation focused on “The Holy Work of Education: Excellence, Passion, and Empowering Others.” The evening program will include music from Sarah Aroeste as well as words of appreciation and remembrance from some of Harlene’s students, colleagues, and friends.

Additional program sponsors include the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation, Michigan Hillel, the Center for Jewish Studies at Eastern Michigan University, Hillel Day School, and Just-Ice Tea.

This event (including a kosher dinner at Hillel for those who RSVP before October 2) is free and open to the public. We welcome all community members, educators, and Jewish professionals. For more information, please contact Megan Bernard (megberna@umich.edu). Out-of-town guests are invited to be in touch for help with local arrangements.

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Workshop / Seminar Wed, 27 Sep 2023 14:16:22 -0400 2023-10-15T13:00:00-04:00 2023-10-15T21:00:00-04:00 School of Social Work Building Judaic Studies Workshop / Seminar Unexpected Gifts: A Convening on Jewish Education in Honor of Harlene Appelman
Rethinking Disability and the Divine Image: Resisting Ableism, Queering Kinship (October 24, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113451 113451-21831027@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 24, 2023 4:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The assertion that humanity is made in the image of God has long been a linchpin of Jewish ethical thought, grounding contemporary commitments to human rights, racial justice, gender equity, disability affirmation, and more. But "divine image" traditions rest on a troubling intellectual history, one that traffics in human exceptionalism, anthropocentrism, and intense ableism. This talk critically examines that complex history and imagines richer alternatives, showing how queer, feminist, and ecologically-informed disability wisdom can catalyze a radical recognition of the sacred among human, animal, and earthy kin.

About Julia:

Julia Watts Belser (she/her) is professor of Jewish Studies at Georgetown University and core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies program, as well as a rabbi and longtime activist for disability and gender justice. Her research centers on gender, sexuality, and disability in rabbinic literature; she also brings classical Jewish texts into conversation with disability studies, feminist and queer theory, and environmental justice. She is the author of several scholarly books, including Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her latest book is Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole (Beacon Press, 2023).

Join us person in 2022 Thayer or online here: https://myumi.ch/m7MeD

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 03 Oct 2023 14:57:58 -0400 2023-10-24T16:00:00-04:00 2023-10-24T17:00:00-04:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Professor Julia Watts Belser
ASC Film Screening. *Germany’s Forgotten Genocide in South West Africa: Nuh-Mi-Bee-Uhn*, followed by a discussion with Film Director Kavena Hambira (October 26, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113447 113447-21831025@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, October 26, 2023 4:00pm
Location: Munger Graduate Residences
Organized By: African Studies Center

*Germany’s Forgotten Genocide in South West Africa: Nuh-Mi-Bee-Uhn* was directed by Kavena Hambira. The film “focuses on the twentieth century’s first genocide—the Herero and Nama Genocide, carried out by Germany in 1905 in his family’s native Namibia. Hambira bridges geography and time to describe the indelible and far-reaching impacts of the genocide and the ongoing struggle for reparations and reconciliation.” The film will be accompanied by a discussion with Hambira and ASC Director Omolade Adunbi.

Kavena Hambira, MFA (he/ him) – With his work grounded in documentary filmmaking, Hambira seeks to connect nodes of history that tell a story of shared resilience and invention despite ongoing colonial and racial oppression. While his earlier work documented families impacted by police violence, his current work focuses on the twentieth century’s first genocide—the Herero and Nama Genocide, carried out by Germany in 1905 in his family’s native Namibia.

Engaging textiles and traditional costumes alongside documentary film, here Hambira bridged geography and time to describe the indelible and far-reaching impacts of the genocide and the ongoing struggle for reparations and reconciliation. Kavena holds a master’s in fine art (MFA) from the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently an adjunct faculty at California State University Stanislaus.

Omolade Adunbi is a political and environmental anthropologist and professor of Afroamerican and African Studies in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS). His research examines the dynamics of power, natural resource extractive practices, governance, human and environmental rights, culture, transnational institutions, multinational corporations, and the postcolonial state.

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Film Screening Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:04:10 -0400 2023-10-26T16:00:00-04:00 2023-10-26T18:00:00-04:00 Munger Graduate Residences African Studies Center Film Screening ASC Film Screening. Germany’s Forgotten Genocide in South West Africa: Nuh-Mi-Bee-Uhn
Poetry, Translation, and Solidarity during War (November 8, 2023 5:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/113794 113794-21831699@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 8, 2023 5:30pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Alex Averbuch will discuss the complex, interwoven, and centuries-long Jewish-Ukrainian relationship through his project on the translation of contemporary Ukrainian poetry into Hebrew. The conversation with Mikhail Krutikov will touch on such topical questions as cultural collaboration and solidarity, as well as shame, guilt, and reconciliation through literature in time of war. Additionally, Averbuch will introduce his forthcoming anthology of contemporary Ukrainian poetry and read some Hebrew translations from it.



Alex Averbuch, a poet, translator, and scholar, is the author of three books of poetry and an array of literary translations between Hebrew, Ukrainian, English, and Russian. His latest book Zhydivs’kyi korol' (The Jewish King) was a finalist for the Shevchenko National Prize, Ukraine’s highest award for culture and literature. Averbuch is active in promoting Ukrainian-Jewish relations. He has translated into Hebrew and published over thirty selections of poetry by contemporary Ukrainian poets. Averbuch is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Davis Center, and soon to be a research fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 10 Oct 2023 12:09:09 -0400 2023-11-08T17:30:00-05:00 2023-11-08T19:00:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Dr. Alex Averbuch of Harvard University
Eyes on the Street: A Conversation on Photography (November 14, 2023 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114016 114016-21832218@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 4:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

Join Professors Sara Blair and Daniel Hurwitz as they discuss Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York with author Deborah Dash Moore. Drawing on the experiences of and photographs by a generation of young Jewish photographers many of whom belonged to the New York Photo League, Walkers in the City offers a new perspective on New York as seen through their eyes—a cityscape of working-class people and democratizing public transit. With their cameras, they pictured Gotham’s abrasive social milieu and its evanescent textures and light, creating an archive of vernacular images of city life and a distinctive tradition of street photography that would be widely imitated.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Deborah Dash Moore is a Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History and Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. An historian of American Jews, she specializes in twentieth century urban history. Her new book, Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Mid-Century New York (2023) extends her interest in urban Jewish history to photography. Currently, she serves as editor in chief of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, a ten-volume anthology of original sources translated into English from the biblical period to 2005, selected by leading scholars.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 16 Oct 2023 11:24:49 -0400 2023-11-14T16:00:00-05:00 2023-11-14T17:00:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York by Deborah Dash Moore
Winter 2024 MEMS Lecture. Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe (January 17, 2024 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/114420 114420-21832857@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, January 17, 2024 4:00pm
Location: Tisch Hall
Organized By: Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS)

Beginning in the twelfth century, Jewish moneylenders increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of European authorities, who denounced the evils of usury as they expelled Jews from their lands. Yet Jews were not alone in supplying coin and credit to needy borrowers. Across much of Western Europe, foreign Christians likewise engaged in professional moneylending, and they too faced repeated threats of expulsion from the communities in which they settled. In charting the emergence and spread of this association between usury and expulsion, this talk will explore how mass expulsion became a pervasive feature of European law and politics—with tragic consequences that have reverberated down to the present.

Bio: Rowan Dorin is associate professor of History at Stanford University, where his teaching and research focus on premodern Europe and the Mediterranean. He holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, and he was previously a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. In addition to his recent book, No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe (Princeton UP, 2023), he has also published articles on Jewish-Christian relations, medieval canon law, digital humanities, and the circulation of people, goods, and manuscripts in the premodern world.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 28 Nov 2023 07:11:05 -0500 2024-01-17T16:00:00-05:00 2024-01-17T17:30:00-05:00 Tisch Hall Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) Lecture / Discussion BL-Arundel-157-fol-6v
Israel-Russia: Russian Speaking Jewry Today (January 18, 2024 12:30pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/115688 115688-21835382@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, January 18, 2024 12:30pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The lecture is devoted to the situation on the Russian-Israeli track due to the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. We will talk both about the specifics of interstate interaction in the current situation and about possible future developments. A special place in the lecture will be devoted to the new wave of repatriation of Russian-speaking Jews to Israel - its problems, its place in Israeli society, and its role in the development of Israeli-Russian relations.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 01 Dec 2023 09:10:03 -0500 2024-01-18T12:30:00-05:00 2024-01-18T14:00:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion
Absinthe 29: Translating Jewish Multilingualism (January 26, 2024 1:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/116802 116802-21838015@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, January 26, 2024 1:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The 29th Volume of Absinthe - a literary journal published by UM Comparative Literature - titled "Translating Jewish Multilingualism," contains translations of literary works written by Jewish authors in 7 languages. It was edited by Maya Barzilai and Marina Mayorski, and contains translations by Frankel faculty and students (Devi Mays, Ruth Tsoffar, Denisa Glacova). This event will feature readings by authors and translators including Jessica Kirzane, Rita Kogan, Denisa Glacova, Yardenne Greenspan, and Nesi Altaras.

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Livestream / Virtual Tue, 09 Jan 2024 15:21:39 -0500 2024-01-26T13:00:00-05:00 2024-01-26T14:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Judaic Studies Livestream / Virtual Absinthe 29 Event Flyer
Abortion in Jewish and Islamic Law (January 30, 2024 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/115689 115689-21835383@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, January 30, 2024 4:00pm
Location: 202 S. Thayer
Organized By: Judaic Studies

The Jewish and Islamic legal traditions provide diverse, nuanced opinions on the legality and morality of abortion. Despite the historical contexts of these opinions, they remain salient to the current legal debate in the United States. The range of opinions includes strict limitations on abortion, circumstantial legality, and general permissibility. Scholars in both traditions debated the issue over extended periods of time (millennia in both instances), creating sophisticated bodies of jurisprudence on abortion.

Although scholars disagreed over the permissibility of abortion, they recognized the legitimacy of differing opinions. Comparatively, the American political and legal debates on abortion have little tolerance for diversity of opinion and have become increasingly polarized. In this presentation, Professor Benhalim will provide examples of sophisticated abortion jurisprudence from both traditions that recognize and accommodate a wide range of answers to the legal and ethical questions abortion presents.


About Rabea Benhalim:

Rabea Benhalim is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Law School. She specializes in comparative Jewish and Islamic law with a focus on (1) The development of Islamic and Jewish law in the modern era and (2) the application of Islamic law in commercial contexts. Within these areas, her current work investigates how secular environments affect interpretations and development of religious law, especially for minority religions. Her recent publications include Islamic Law, Sex, & Marriage Contracts, 108 MINN. L. REV. (2023) (forthcoming) and Oppression in Islamic, Jewish and American Private Law, 94 COLO. L. REV. 1 (2023). She teaches a variety of law courses including Contracts, Secured Transactions, Jewish Law, and Islamic Law.

Professor Benhalim's prior work experience as a lawyer and policy expert includes positions at the Brookings Institution, Mayer Brown LLP, Maersk Oil, and the Carter Center. She was the 2017-2019 William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She holds a J.D. from the University of Texas, an L.L.M. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, a Master of Islamic Studies from the University of Texas, a Master of Public Policy Degree from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 01 Dec 2023 09:25:08 -0500 2024-01-30T16:00:00-05:00 2024-01-30T17:30:00-05:00 202 S. Thayer Judaic Studies Lecture / Discussion Professor Rabea Benhalim