Past Events

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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Esther Schor

Emma Lazarus

2:30 PM @ Museum of Jewish Heritage

Best known for her poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, Lazarus' brief life had many chapters. Read more.

 

 

 

 

Sunday, April 19, 2012

Gerhard L. Weinberg

"A New Look at Hitler and the Beginning of the Holocaust"

7 PM @ Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus, UAlbany

A different perspective on how the Holocaust came to be initiated and implemented. Read more.

 

 

 

Various Dates

World War II & the Holocaust

3 Documentary Films

All screenings are at 7:00 PM @ the UAlbany Standish Room Science Library 3rd Floor

Tuesday, March 20: A Film Unfinished (Yael Harsonski, 2010, b/w, 90 mins)
Tuesday, March 27: Respite (Harun Farocki, 2007, b/w, 40 mins)
Tuesday, April 3: About a Village (John C. Swanson, 2010, color, 69 mins)
Learn More

 

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Audrey Kupferberg and Rob Edelman

Catskill Cinema: Glimpses of Borscht Belt Life on Film

7:00 PM @ The Linda WAMC's Performing Arts Studio

Watch films that take place in the early Twentieth Century as Kupferbeg and Edelman discuss entertainment in the Catskills, dating, parent-child conflicts - and of course, the food! Read more.

 

 

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Richard Hamm

The Jewish Civil Libertarian Arthur Garfield Hays

7:00 PM @ William K. Sanford Town Library

Co-sponsored by NYS Civil Liberties Union

UAlbany Professor of History Richard Hamm discusses, Arthur Garfeld Hays - a leading advocate of civil liberties in American society from the 1920s until his death in 1955. Read more.

 

 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Jared Poley

Sigmund Freud and Financial Desire: Body, Greed, and Medicine in the Early 20th Century

7:00 PM @ UAlbany Alumni House

Co-sponsored by UAlbany Department of History's Phi Alpha Theta

Professor Poley discusses 20th century Central European Jewish intellectuals' examination of the psychology of greed and its relationship to cultural decline. Read more.

 

 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Eric Keenaghan

The Poet Muriel Rukeyser and the Politics of Life-Writing

7:00 PM @ William K. Sanford Town Library

Explore the political and ethical implications of Rukeyser's life-writing with poet and UAlbany Associate Professor of English Eric Keenaghan. Read more.

 

 

 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Chris McKenna & Barry Trachtenberg

Investigating Kiryas Joel

7:00 PM @ Sidney Albert Albany Jewish Community Center

Insights into the challenges of reporting on the Hasidic Jews of the Satmarer dynasty. Read more.

This event is free and open to the public

 

 

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

"The Little Bride" Book Talk

by Anna Solomon

7:00 PM @ Wm. J. Sanford Public Library

Anna Solomon's engrossing debut novel inspired by Jewish pioneers on the Great Plains. Read more.

This event is free and open to the public

 

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Rabbi Don Cashman

Albany and the Origins of Jewish Reform

7:00 PM @ The Golub Center, The United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York

Co-sponsored by The United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York

A discussion about Isaac Mayer Wise and the growth of Reform Judaism in America. Read more.

This event is free and open to the public

 

 

Wednesday, October 5

Searching Our Past: An Introduction to Jewish Genealogy

7:00pm @ The Golub Center, The United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York

Co-sponsored by The United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York

Jewish genealogist Nolan T. Altman will discuss how to rediscover your ancestors' history from the time your family arrived in the United States - and even back to the "old country"! Read more.

This event is free and open to the public

 

Sunday, September 18

Photographer Albert J. Winn:
"Summer Joins the Past"

1:00pm @ UAlbany Alumni House - Uptown Campus

This event is free and open to the public

Lecture and Slideshow
Followed by a public storytelling event curated by Abby Lublin
Read more.

 

 

Thursday, September 15

Alicia Svigals' Klezmer Fiddle Express

7:30pm @ Recital Hall, UAlbany Performing Arts Center

Tickets: (518) 442-3997
$15 General public / $12 Faculty-staff & seniors / $10 Students

The renowned violinist, a founder of the Klezmatics, and the world's foremost klezmer fiddler presents a program of ecstatic Jewish melodies accompanied by Patrick Farrell on accordion & Brian Glassman on bass. Read more.

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Holocaust Survivors and Historians: Changing and Challenging Relations

Yom Ha-Shoah Lecture with University of Toronto Prof. Doris Bergen

7PM Page Hall, UAlbany Downtown Campus

A part of the Center's Spring 2011 Lectures on the Nazi Holocaust

Decades after the war, the original bond between victims/survivors and historians has weakened. Only a few scholars of the survivor generation remain active. Younger scholars are likely to encounter survivors, not as experts in the field but as historical sources, through memoirs and testimonies. This presentation examines these changes and their implications for the present and future of Holocaust studies.

Co-sponsor: The University at Albany Foundation

Sunday, April 10

Idol Worship in the Yiddish Press and Other Stories

Graphic Novelist Ben Katchor

2PM @ Albany Institute of History and Art

A part of the Jewish Renegades in the Arts speaker series

Ben Katchor, the graphic novelist whose acclaimed works include The Jew Of New York and Julius Knipl: Real Estate Photographer, discusses the symbolic and accidental references embedded within works created by the Yiddish printing press. View Details…

Co-sponsors: UAlbany Art Department and the New York State Writers Institute

 

Wednesday, March 30

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Yale Prof. Timothy Snyder

4PM @ Room 110, University Hall, UAlbany

A part of the Center's Spring 2011 Lectures on the Nazi Holocaust

Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.

Co-sponsor: UAlbany History Department

 

 

 

Monday, March 14

Book Talk with Writers Ed Schwarzschild and Elisa Albert

Philip Roth Then & Now: Goodbye, Columbus and The Humbling

12PM @ William K. Sanford Town Library in Colonie

A part of the Jewish Renegades in the Arts speaker series

Writers Ed Schwarzschild and Elisa Albert discuss the greatest living American Jewish fiction writer, Phillip Roth, through the lens of his first and most recent works, with a focus on his half-century-long themes of rebellion against societal norms. View Details…

 

 

Monday, March 7

Undoing Mischievous Questions about the Holocaust

Wesleyan University Prof. Berel Lang

1:30PM @ UAlbany Alumni House

A part of the Center's Spring 2011 Lectures on the Nazi Holocaust

This talk will address four questions about the Holocaust that Professor Lang considers “mischievous”, not because their subjects cannot be addressed as historically relevant, but because of the way that they are formulated. All through assumptions that are either historically false or simply self-serving -- i.e., mischievous.

Sponsored by the UAlbany Emeritus Center, with support of the Center for Jewish Studies

Wednesday, February 16

Film Screening

Keeping the Kibbutz

7:00PM @ the Standish Room, Science Library, UAlbany

Chronicling the changing kibbutz through the eyes of some of its most devoted members, Keeping the Kibbutz examines the challenges faced by a community in transition. A story about nostalgia, the effects of communal living and the hope for what lies ahead, this feature length documentary (54 min) captures the lingering ghost of a movement left behind.

 

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Chameleon in the Closet by BJ Rosenfeld

7PM @ Campus Center Terrace Lounge, UAlbany

The Chameleon in the Closet traces the universal journey parents take as their children try to find their place in the world. With candor, passion and humor, BJ Rosenfeld gives the reader a fascinating glimpse inside the world of Orthodox Judaism. This memoir is a unique tribute to all parents who stand behind their children's life-altering decisions.

Co-sponsor: UAlbany Hillel

 

 

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Book Talk with UAlbany Prof. Martha Rozett

Beyond The Pale by Elana Dykewomon

7:30PM @ The Golub Center: United Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York

A part of the Jewish Renegades in the Arts speaker series

This novel follows a young girl who immigrates to New York after a pogrom kills her parents and scatters her family. She and her cousin go to work in the garment industry and eventually bear witness to the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Prof. Martha Rozett leads a discussion of lesbian activist Elana Dykewomon’s novel. View Details…

 

Thursday, December 9, 2010: Scarface (1932)

7PM @ Spectrum 8 Theatres

During the 1930s and 40s, several Jewish actors earned stardom playing tough guys, challenging the stereotype of the unathletic, unassertive Jew. Film historian Rob Edelman will introduce and moderate a discussion following a screening of Scarface, starring Jewish tough guy Paul Muni. View Details…

 

Thuesday, November 30, 2010

Inside Nazi Germany: Diplomatic reports on the Third Reich and the persecution of the Jews 1933-1945

6PM @ Standish Room, Science Library 3rd Fl, UAlbany

A lecture by Dr. Frank Bajohr, Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Hamburg in Germany and 2010-11 Charles H. Revson Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

 

 

Thursday, November 4, 2010: The Jazz Singer (1927)

7PM @ Spectrum 8 Theatres

The Jazz Singer is arguably the iconic story of the Jewish renegade, caught between his traditions and success in the secular world. The Jazz Singer features a mesmerizing performance by Al Jolson that dazzled its original audience, helped usher in a talking-pictures revolution, and still resonates today. Film historian Audrey Kuperferberg will introduce the film and lead a post-film discussion. View Details...

Thursday, October 14, 2010:

Abayudaya: the Music of the Jews of Uganda

7PM: @ WAMC Linda Norris Auditorium

After adopting Judaism a century ago, Uganda’s Abayudaya began creating a musical tradition marrying the rhythms and harmonies of Africa with Jewish celebration and traditional Hebrew prayer. Musician Mike Cohen, who has spent time among the Abayudaya in the village of Putti, will take the audience on a musical tour of this singular African community of people who live Jewish lives, have survived persecution, and assert, “We have been saved by our music.” View Details…

Thursday, October 7, 2010: The Modicut Puppet Theater

7:30PM @ William K. Sanford Town Library

Historian Eddy Portnoy surveys the fascinating story of the Modicut Theatre: the first Yiddish language puppet theater in America, which delivered sharp satire with a distinctly left-wing political outlook. View Details…