Center for Jewish Studies Calendar - Past Events for this Academic Year

The Ten Commandments: Ancient Text and Modern Contexts

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID. For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310)825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Irvine Lecture in Critical Theory by Prof. Alexander Gelley

by

Alexander Gelley Professor of Comparative Literature University of California, Irvine

Language of Order(s): Jenny Holzer in the Public Sphere

Wednesday, October 17, 2001 3:00-5:00 pm Humanities Instructional Building - Room 135

If you need special accommodation for a disability, please call Ron Blosser at 824-7494.

-- submitted by Lisa Ness (lness@uci.edu)

For more information, contact lness@uci.edu

The Hermetic Imagination in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

-- submitted by Kathy Sanchez (ksanchez@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, see http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/c1718cs/calendar.htm

"The Ten Commandments: Ancient Text and Modern Contexts"

Please join us Thursday October 11 for lively presentations by distinguished speakers on the First Commandment:

I. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT.

Speakers: JACK MILES, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "God: A Biography" and a senior adviser to the president of the J. Paul Getty Trust. DAVID LIEBER,President Emeritus of the University of Judaism and currently the Flora and Arnold Skovron Distinguished Service Professor of Biblical Literature and Thought.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world. A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID. For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310)825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

CMRS Faculty Roundtable: "Are the Days of Aramaic Numbered? A Socio-Linguistic Study of the Christian and Jewish Aramaic Vestiges"

-- submitted by Karen Burgess (cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu)

Irvine Lecture in Critical Theory by Prof. Alexander Gelley

by

Alexander Gelley Professor of Comparative Literature University of California, Irvine

Language of Order(s): Jenny Holzer in the Public Sphere

Wednesday, October 17, 2001 3:00-5:00 pm Humanities Instructional Building - Room 135

For additional information, call Lisa Ness at (949)824-5583. If you need special accommodation for a disability, please call Ron Blosser at 824-7494.

-- submitted by Lisa Ness (lness@uci.edu)

For more information, contact lness@uci.edu

The Legacy of the Ten Commandments: Ancient Text and Modern Contexts, II

II. DO NOT HAVE ANY OTHER GODS BEFORE ME; DO NOT MAKE IMAGES.

Speakers:

GRACE COHEN GROSSMAN, Curator, Skirball Cultural Center and winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Visual Arts for her book, "Jewish Art."

ELLIOT DORFF, Rector and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Judaism.

RABBI YITZCHAK ETSHALOM, Associate Director of Project Next Step of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and on the faculty of the Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID). For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Michael Cohen (mcohen@humnet.ucla.edu)

Revelation Regained: Hermeneutics in the Temple Scroll

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact williams@humnet.ucla.edu

"The Legacy of the Ten Commandments: Ancient Text and Modern Contexts"

III. DO NOT TAKE THE NAME OF GOD IN VAIN.

Speakers:

BRADLEY ARTSON, Vice-President of the University of Judaism and Dean of its Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.

LAURIE LEVENSON, Dean of Loyola Law School and William M. Rains Fellow. Director of the Loyola Law School Center for Ethical Advocacy.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID).

For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Italian Jews: Memory, Music, Celebration

-- submitted by Karen Burgess (cmrs@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact luisadg@humnet.ucla.edu

Jewish Civilization and Its Discontents: Foundational Concepts, Critical Interventions

November 3-5, 2001 Royce 314 UCLA

A Conference sponsored by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies with the support of The "1939" Club Holocaust Memorial Fund; The UC Humanities Research Institute; The Susan and David Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies; The University of California Office of the President; and the National Endowment for the Humanities. as part of the ongoing UCLA Colloquium on Jewish Civilization.

Saturday Evening, Nov. 3rd, 7:00 - 9:00

Keynote Address: Robert Alter (Professor of Bible and Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley), "Scripture, Commentary and the Challenge of Interpretation" Introduction by Janet Hadda (Department of English, UCLA) Followed by a Reception.

Sunday, Nov. 4th Morning Session: Jewish Civilization and Its Discontents: To Open the Question

9:00 - 11:00 1. Ken Reinhard (Director, Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA) 2. David Myers (Professor of History, UCLA) 3. Nomi Stolzenberg (Professor of Law, USC)

11:15 - 12:30 Keynote Paper: Arnold Eisen (Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford) "Jewish Civilization in America: The Discontents of Mordecai M. Kaplan"

Afternoon Session: The Jewish Political Tradition Moderator: Steven Spiegel (Professor of Political Science, UCLA) Sponsored by the Susan and David Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies

2:00 - 4:00 1. David Gordis (President, Hebrew College; Director,Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies) 2. Adam Seligman (Professor of Economic Culture, Boston U.) 3. Suzanne Last Stone (Professor of Law, Cardozo Law School)

4:30 - 6:00 Keynote Paper: Michael Walzer (Professor of Social Science, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), "Universalism and Jewish Values"

Monday, Nov. 5th

Morning Session: The Ten Commandments and Their Vicissitudes Moderator: William Schniedewind (Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA)

10:00 - 12:00 1. Bernard Levinson (Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, U. of Minnesota) 2. Julia Reinhard Lupton (Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UC Irvine) 3. Robert Gibbs (Professor of Philosophy, U. of Toronto)

12:15 - 1:30 Keynote Paper: Calum Carmichael (Professor of Comparative Literature and Law, Cornell U.) "The Staging of the Ten Commandments"

Afternoon Session: Creation, Revelation, Redemption Moderator: Chaim Seidler-Feller (Director of Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA)

2:30 - 4:00 1. Elliot Dorff (Rector and Professor of Philosophy, U. of Judaism) 2. Elliot Wolfson (Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, NYU)

4:15 - 5:30 Keynote Paper: Paul Mendes-Flohr (Professor of Modern Jewish Thought, U. of Chicago and Hebrew University), Title to be announced.

Parking for the event will be in Lot 2. Please purchase permit ($6) at the kiosk at Hilgard and Westholme Avenues.

Registration: The conference is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required. Please call the Center for Jewish Studies at (310)825-5387 to register. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. There are no assigned seats.

-- submitted by (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Using the Classical Sources in the Study of the Ancient Near East

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact carter@humnet.ucla.edu

Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Trial of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

In 1952, the Kremlin organized a secret trial of 15 Jewish figures associated with the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The committee had been organized during World War II to help nurture support for the war-time alliance between the USSR and the Western democracies. But after the war, the work of the committee was held against its members. Thirteen of the 15 defendants, including five well-known Yiddish writers and poets, were executed on August 12, 1952, a date commemorated as the "Night of the Murdered Poets."

JOSHUA RUBENSTEIN is the Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International USA and an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian Studies. He is the co-editor of "Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee" and the author of "Tangled Loyalties: The Life and Times of Ilya Ehrenburg."

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

The Legacy of the Ten Commandments: Ancient Text & Modern Contexts

IV. REMEMBER THE SABBATH, TO KEEP IT HOLY.

Speakers:

RABBI CHAIM SEIDLER-FELLER, Director of the Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA.

JOSEPH EVERSON, Chair of the Religion Department at California Lutheran University.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID).

For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

The Legacy of the Ten Commandments: Ancient Text and Modern Contexts

V. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.

Speakers:

EDWARD FEINSTEIN, Rabbi, Valley Beth Shalom (Encino) and professor of Professional Rabbinical Studies at the University of Judaism's Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies.

JULIA REINHARD LUPTON,Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, and Director of Humanities Out There (H.O.T.).

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID).

For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"The Last Shtetl Survivors"

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

The Legacy of the Ten Commandments: Ancient Text & Modern Contexts

VI. DO NOT MURDER.

Speakers:

ROBERT WEXLER, President of the University of Judaism and Louis Colen Distinguished Lecturer in Bible.

KHALED ABOU EL FADL, The Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Fellow in Islamic Law at UCLA.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Winter quarter, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID).

For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Peace, the Intifada, and the Stories We Tell"

GERSHOM GORENBERG

a senior editor at the Jerusalem Report and author of "The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount."

Tuesday, January 29, 2002 4 PM in Royce Hall 306.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Walter Benjamin's Friendships: A Biographical Exploration"

ALEX GELLEY (UCI)

Thursday, January 31, 2002 Royce Hall, Room 306, 4:00 PM

as part of the Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy

Cosponsors: Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, Department of Germanic Languages, Center for European and Russian Studies

-- submitted by spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

'"You Still Haven't Finished With Your Mother': Allen Ginsberg and the Gendered Poetics of 'Kaddish'"

MAEERA SCHREIBER (U. of Utah)

as part of our Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Co-sponsored by:

UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures UCLA Department of Germanic Languages UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies UCLA Center for European & Russian Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"The Suffering and Salvation of God in Ancient Rabbinic Midrash"

MICHAEL FISHBANE (University of Chicago, Divinity School)

as part of the Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Cosponsored by: Center for Near Eastern Languages & Cultures Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies Department of Germanic Languages Center for European and Russian Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

The Ten Commandments, VIII: Do not steal.

VIII. DO NOT STEAL.

Speakers:

DAVID NIMMER, of counsel to Irell & Mandella LLP and author of the leading U.S. treatise on copyright law. He is currently Visiting Professor at the UCLA School of Law.

STEWART VOGEL, rabbi (Temple Aliyah, Woodland Hills) and co- author of "The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life." He is currently Vice President of the Southern California Board of Rabbis.

PAMELA BRUBAKER, Associate Professor of Religion at California Lutheran University. She is also Program Coordinator of the Women's Studies Department.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID).

For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Torah in the Mouth: Oral and Written Transmission in Jewish Culture

TORAH IN THE MOUTH: ORAL AND WRITTEN TRANSMISSION IN JEWISH CULTURE

A conference convened by

JOSEPH NAGY (UCLA)

Conference Speakers:

SUSAN NIDITCH (Amherst College) "Preparing a Commentary on the Biblical Book of Judges: Confessions of a Student of Early and Oral Literatures"

MARTIN JAFFEE (U. of Washington) "Torah in the Mouth as a Rhetoric of Monotheism: Ideology, Oral Tradition, and the Social Exclusions of Rabbinic Disciple Communities"

YONA SABAR (UCLA) "Torah in the Mouth and Torah in the Heart: How Judaism Was Transmitted in a Minimally-literate Near Eastern Jewish Community"

DAN BEN-AMOS (U. of Pennsylvania) "Literacy and Orality: A Medieval Epic and a Modern Oral Tale"

Moderators:

William Schniedewind (UCLA)

Herbert Davidson (UCLA)

Arnold Band (UCLA)

Peter Tokofsky (UCLA)

Organized in conjunction with

The UCLA Faculty for the Study of Oral Tradition

National Endowment for the Humanities

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Remapping Rabbinic Judaism: Legal Hermeneutics in Rabbi Ishmael and Clement of Alexandria

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact williams@humnet.ucla.edu

What If She Puts a Basket Over Her Head? Contexts, Subtexts, and Pretexts of an Early Rabbinic Tradition

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact williams@humnet.ucla.edu

"Who Owns the Bible?: Copyright in the Dead Sea Scrolls"

DAVID NIMMER

David Nimmer, currently Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA, is of counsel to Irell & Manella LLP. The following is excerpted from Irell & Manella's website (http://www.irell.com/attorneys/ShowLawyer.asp?AID=118):

He is also a Distinguished Scholar at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. In 2000, he was elected to the American Law Institute.

Since 1985, Mr. Nimmer has updated and revised Nimmer on Copyright, the standard reference treatise in the field, first published in 1963 by his late father, Prof. Melville B. Nimmer. Besides also contributing to other treatises, Mr. Nimmer has authored numerous law review articles on domestic and international copyright issues. A selection includes the following:

A Riff on Fair Use in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 148 U. Pa. L. Rev. 673 (2000)

Puzzles of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 46 J. Copyright Soc’y USA 401 (1999)

The Metamorphosis of Contract Into Expand, 87 Cal. L. Rev. 17 (1999)

Aus Der Neuen Welt, 93 Nw. U. L. Rev. 195 (1998)

Time and Space, 38 IDEA 501 (1998)

Adams and Bits: Of Jewish Kings and Copyrights, 71 S. Cal. L. Rev. 219 (1998)

An Odyssey Through Copyright’s Vicarious Defenses, 73 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 162 (1998)

A Tale of Two Treaties, 22 Colum.-VLA J.L. & Arts 1 (1997)

Are We Running Through the Jungle Now or Is the Old Man Still Stuck Down the Road? 39 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 65 (1997)

Brains and Other Paraphernalia of the Digital Age, 10 Harv. J.L. & Tech. 1 (1996)

The End of Copyright, 48 Vand. L. Rev. 1385 (1995)

A Structured Approach to Analyzing the Substantial Similarity of Computer Software in Copyright Infringement Cases, 20 Ariz. St. L.J. 625 (1988)

"Nimmer on Copyright" is routinely cited by U.S. and foreign courts at all levels in copyright litigation. In addition, the courts have relied on many of the foregoing articles. For instance, the Eleventh Circuit in 1999 evaluated the constitutionality of GATT-inspired amendments to the Copyright Act by relying on The End of Copyright. In 1992, the Second Circuit adopted wholesale the test for copyright infringement of computer software proposed in A Structured Approach. In subsequent years, other courts have followed the Second Circuit’s lead, until today a plurality of circuits follow that test.

Mr. Nimmer lectures widely in the copyright arena. Besides in-house seminars (such as for the legal staffs of Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta and Times Mirror in New York and Los Angeles), he has lectured around the world — at MILIA in Cannes, ALAI in Tel Aviv, LUISS in Rome, IMPRIMATUR in London, the Copyright Society of Japan in Tokyo, and regularly to bar organizations in California and throughout the U.S.

In addition to writing and lecturing, Mr. Nimmer represents clients in the entertainment, publishing, and high- technology fields. He gave congressional testimony on behalf of the United States Telephone Association in 1997 and the National Association of Broadcasters in 1992, and Parliamentary testimony on behalf of the Combined Newspaper and Magazine Copyright Committee of Australia in Sydney in 1993.

Mr. Nimmer received an A.B. with distinction and honors in 1977 from Stanford University and his J.D. in 1980 from Yale Law School, where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Was There 'Science' in Ancient Judaism? Creation, Cosmology, and the Limits of Exegesis in Late Antiquity

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact williams@humnet.ucla.edu

Israel Versus American Jewry: The Struggle over Soviet Jews

FRED LAZIN (Ben-Gurion University)

Cosponsored with:

The Center for American Politics & Public Policy

UCLA-BGU Program of Academic Cooperation, ISOP

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

History and Exegesis in the Study of Midrash: The Case of Rabbinic Portrayals of Ishmael

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact williams@humnet.ucla.edu

"The Legacy of the Ten Commandments, IX: Do not Testify as a False Witness Against Your Neighbor"

Speakers:

DANIEL SMITH-CHRISTOPHER, Professor of Theological Studies (Old Testament)and Director of Peace Studies at Loyola Marymount University .

MORDECAI FINLEY,Rabbi, Ohr HaTorah (West L.A.)

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID). For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"The Struma"

THE STRUMA

a new film by Simcha Jacobovici.

Exactly 60 years ago, on February 24, 1942, almost 800 men, women and children, Jewish refugees from Romania, perished in the frigid waters of the Black Sea. Only one survived. "The Struma" tells the story of 779 Jewish refugees who fled Romania in 1941, aboard a dilapidated vessel called the Struma. Bound for Palestine, the over- crowded ship suffered engine failure and barely made it to Istanbul. Under pressure from Great Britain, Turkey refused the passengers sanctuary. For 71 days the Struma's fate was deliberated at the highest levels. Then, as desperate cries echoed from its hull, the Struma was towed out to sea and left to drift aimlessly. 24 hours later, it went down under suspicious circumstances.

The film screening will be followed by Q&A with Simcha Jacobovici and David Stoliar (the sole survivor of this tragedy).

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"'Remember Lot's Wife' [Luke 17:32]: Scenes from a Failed Encounter in Post-Biblical Cultures"

"'Remember Lot's Wife' [Luke 17:32]: Scenes from a Failed Encounter in Post-Biblical Cultures"

as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Cosponsors: Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies; Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures; Department of Germanic Languages; Center for European and Russian Studies; Department of English; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

The Legacy of the Ten Commandments: Ancient Text and Modern Contexts, X

X: DO NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE, WIFE, HIS MALE OR FEMALE SLAVE, HIS OX, HIS ASS, OR ANYTHING THAT IS YOUR NEIGHBOR'S.

Speakers:

ELIE SPITZ, Rabbi, Congregation B'nai Israel (Tustin).

RICHARD MOUW, President, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Professor of Christian Philosophy and Ethics.

The Ten Commandments: Universal ethics that all righteous people should uphold or the "Moral Majority's" attempt to impose its religious beliefs on the secular world? Come discover with us, on selected Thursday evenings during Fall and Winter quarters, the remarkable textual and historical complexity of these Commandments and their legacies in the modern world.

A public forum sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies with the generous assistance of the Jerry and Joy Monkarsh Family, this series costs $55 for all 11 evenings ($25 for UCLA students with SID) or $10 per person per evening ($5 for UCLA students with SID). For further information or to receive a brochure, contact CJS at (310) 825-5387.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Differing Conceptions of Memory in the Book of Numbers"

PROFESSOR ADRIANE LEVEEN (Hebrew Union College) on:

"Differing Conceptions of Memory in the Book of Numbers"

as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Cosponsors: Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies; Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures; Department of Germanic Languages; Center for European and Russian Studies; Department of English; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Celtic Movie Night

-- submitted by Dorothy Kim (dorothyk@humnet.ucla.edu)

"The Dialogue with Judaism: Its Challenge for Christian Self-Understanding"

JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI, O.S.M., Ph.D. (Catholic Theological Union, University of Chicago)

speaking on "The Dialogue with Judaism: Its Challenge for Christian Self-Understanding."

John Pawlikowski, a priest of the Servite Order, serves on the Executive Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and chairs its Church Relations Committee. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Catholic-Jewish Relations, National Conference of Catholic Bishops. A 1986 recipient of "The Righteous Among Nations" Award from the Detroit Holocaust Museum, he is also the 1989 recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award for Distinguished Contributions to Religion. He is the author and editor of 11 books, including "The Challenge of the Holocaust for Christian Theology," "Christ in the Light of the Christian- Jewish Dialogue," and "Jesus and the Theology of Israel."

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Ethnic Identity in the Roman Near East: the Evidence of Aramaic Inscriptions

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

For more information, contact carter@humnet.ucla.edu

Three Apples Fell From Heaven

-- submitted by Gayane Hagopian (hagopian)

For more information, contact hagopian@humnet.ucla.edu

"THE PIT AND THE ROPE: JUDAH DISCOVERS JOSEPH"

AVIVAH ZORNBERG (Pardes Institute of Torah Studies)

on "The Pit and the Rope: Judah Discovers Joseph"

as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Cosponsors: Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies; Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures; Department of Germanic Languages; Center for European and Russian Studies; Department of English; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Studies Program

-- submitted by (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"THE HOLOCAUST AND GERMAN FOOD POLICY IN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, 1942"

THE ANNUAL "1939" CLUB HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL LECTURE,

to be given this year by

DR. CHRISTIAN GERLACH (U. of Maryland)

Please join us on THURSDAY,APRIL 18 at 7 PM in ROYCE 314. Refreshments will be served after Dr. Gerlach's lecture.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"FROM BAPTISM TO INQUISITION, OR HOW THE CONVERSOS BECAME JEWISH"

"FROM BAPTISM TO INQUISITION, OR HOW THE CONVERSOS BECAME JEWISH"

by PROFESSOR DAVID NIRENBERG (Johns Hopkins University).

Please join us on Monday, April 22 at 3 PM in Royce 314. Refreshments will be served after the lecture.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST IN POLAND: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE"

Professor Trojanski is a senior lecturer at the Institute of History of the Pedagogical University in Krakow, Poland where he specializes in the modern history of the Jews in Poland, and especially Holocaust education. He is a member of the Polish-German Center in Krakow and the Polish Society of Jewish Studies as well as on the editorial board of the journal "Studia Judaica." He is the co-author of the Polish curriculum for teaching about the Holocaust ("Holocaust: About the History and Extermination of the Jews within the Framework of Humanities Lessons in Post- Primary Schools.")

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Kabbalah: From Secrets to Mysteries and Back"

PROFESSOR MOSHE IDEL

Visiting Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, UCLA

“KABBALAH: FROM SECRETS TO MYSTERIES AND BACK"

April 25, 2002 Royce 314, 4 pm

Refreshments will be served. No advance registration required.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Jacques Derrida: The Last and Least of the Jews"

With Gil Anidjar (Columbia University.), Robert Gibbs (University of Toronto), Dana Hollander (Michigan State University), Moshe Idel (Hebrew University), Joshua Kates (St. Johns College), Eric Santner (University of Chicago), Elisabeth Weber (UC Santa Barbara), Samuel Weber (Northwestern University)

Sunday, April 28th, 2002, 2:30 - 7:30 Covel Commons: The Grand Horizon Room, Salon A UCLA

Jacques Derrida is one of the most famous and influential philosophers of our times. At the same time he is arguably a centrally Jewish philosopher, not only biographically, but as one whose ideas cannot be understood exclusively within a Greek framework of thinking. Derrida was born in El-Biar, Algeria in 1930 and grew up there with a strong sense both of being a Jew and of being persecuted for his Jewishness. He has referred to himself, somewhat cryptically, as "the last and the least of the Jews," and as a "Marrano." In an essay on the great Jewish Egyptian writer Edmond Jabès, Derrida comments on "the difficulty of being a Jew, which coincides with the difficulty of writing; for Judaism and writing are but the same waiting, the same hope, the same depletion."

Please join us for a discussion with Professor Derrida on the Jewish themes that have become ever more present in his work in recent years. This symposium is the first half of a two day conference on the Impact of Jewish Thought on European Culture, which will continue the following day with sessions on Franz Rosenzweig.

After initial Remarks by Professor Derrida, a group of his readers will present their Responses to the role of "the Jewish Question" in deconstruction and philosophy. This will be followed by an open discussion, focused on two of Derrida's recent essays on Jewish issues, "Avowing -- The Impossible" and "Abraham, the Other," which are attached here. Finally, the Symposium will end with a reception and screening of the recent film by Safaa Fathy, Derrida's Elsewhere, which takes up the role of religion and Jewish culture in his life and ideas. A schedule and parking information is below.

2:30 - 2:40 Kenneth Reinhard, Director UCLA Center for Jewish Studies Introductory Remarks

2:45 - 3:15 Jacques Derrida, Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine, Remarks

3:15 - 5:45 Responses to Derrida's "Abraham, the Other" and "Avowing - The Impossible" and Comments by Professor Derrida

Gil Anidjar (Columbia University.), Robert Gibbs (University of Toronto) Dana Hollander (Michigan State University), Moshe Idel (Hebrew University) Joshua Kates (St. Johns College), Eric Santner (University of Chicago) Elisabeth Weber (UC Santa Barbara), Samuel Weber (Northwestern University)

5:45 - 6:30 Reception

6:30 - 7:30 Screening of Derrida's Elsewhere (1999, 52 minutes)

PARKING DIRECTIONS

Parking permits may be purchased at Lot 4. Enter campus at Westwood Plaza from Sunset Blvd. and proceed straight ahead to the information kiosk in front of the underground parking structure. You may purchase your permit ($6) from the attendant, who can direct you to the Sunset Village parking structure, where parking for the conference will be.

Once parked in Sunset Village, take the elevator in the southwest corner of the parking garage to the Lobby (L) level. Once on the L Level, the Covel Commons building will be directly in front of you.

Turn RIGHT and walk along the outside of the Covel Commons building. Turn LEFT at the corner of the building and proceed to the entrance. There will be signs directing you to the Derrida symposium.

Here is a link to a map of campus that shows Covel Commons and the Sunset Village parking structure: http://www.ucla.edu/map/sectors/northwest.html

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Franz Rosenzweig and Political Thoelogy: Universalism, Particularism, Exceptionalism"

Monday, April 29th, 2002 Royce 306 UCLA

9:00 - 12:00 Session One "Opening the Question: Franz Rosenzweig and Political Theology"

Peter Eli Gordon (Harvard University) Dana Hollander (Michigan State University) Moshe Idel (Hebrew University) David Myers (UCLA)

1:30 - 4:30 Session Two: "Unscientific Conclusions: Between Present and Eternity"

Giorgio Agamben (University of Verona) Gil Anidjar (Columbia University) Robert Gibbs (University of Toronto) Kenneth Reinhard (UCLA) Eric Santner (University of Chicago)

7:00 Keynote Address Peter Eli Gordon Department of History, Harvard University "Rosenzweig's Nietzschean Judaism"

Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) is both one of the most famous and least read figures of 20th century European and North American Judaism. Besides his masterpiece, The Star of Redemption, largely written on aerograms to his mother from the trenches of WWI, Rosenzweig wrote several shorter essays and books, collaborated with Martin Buber on a monumental new translation of the Bible (as well as a radical theory of translation), and founded the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus in Frankfurt. Although he has long been revered as a great Jewish thinker, few people until recently have actually read his central work, The Star of Redemption (1921), with the attentiveness that it demanded. Increasingly, however, Rosenzweig has become the focus of intensive study in universities and seminaries, and these re-encounters have often been fruitful in unexpected and timely ways. Rosenzweig's thought has already had a great impact on a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, theology, the critical study of religion, psychoanalysis, education, and Jewish-Christian dialogue, and new implications and connections are constantly emerging. Rosenzweig's thought is both traditional in its reliance on classical Jewish texts and commentaries, and radical in its application of those concepts to a reinterpretation of human experience and possibility. Like many of his intellectual friends and relatives in Germany at the turn of the century, Rosenzweig considered converting to Christianity, as the more "rational" religion and the historical fulfillment of the Jewish revelation; but instead Rosenzweig forged a new path by returning to the texts and practices of Judaism and comparing them to those of Christianity and Islam. In the particulars of Rabbinic Jewish thought, Rosenzweig found the basis of a fundamental philosophy and ethico-political practice that would extend to embrace all people in its universal vision of redemption.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"THE BELIEVER"

THURSDAY, MAY 2 7:30 p.m.

THE BELIEVER

(2001) Directed by Henry Bean

Winner of the 2001 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, THE BELIEVER is an uncompromising character study that confronts the volatile subject of Jewish self-hatred. Gifted newcomer Ryan Gosling stars as a former yeshiva student who has refashioned himself into a noxiously articulate Jew-hating neo-Nazi. When he begins moving unaccountably back towards Judaism, however, he finds himself locked in a vicious inner struggle between reverence and hatred for the faith of his fathers. Directed with rigor and sympathy by first- timer Henry Bean, and featuring strong supporting performances from Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell and Billy Zane, THE BELIEVER is an intense, unforgettable account of a young man determined to live out his life as an irreconcilable contradiction. Producers: Susan Hoffman, Christopher Roberts. Screenplay: H. Bean. Cinematography: Jim Denault. Editor: Mayin Lo, Lee Percy. With: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane. 35mm, 100 min.

*IN PERSON: director Henry Bean.

Film screens at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, located on the northeast corner of the UCLA Westwood campus, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue.

Tickets are available at the theater one hour before showtime. Admission is $7 general, $5 students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members with ID.

Parking is available adjacent to the theater in Lot 3 for $6. For further information, please call (310) 206-FILM or (310) 206-8013, or log onto www.cinema.ucla.edu.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer)

For more information, contact cjs@humnet.ucla.edu

"Haunts of Assimilation: The Work of New York Artist David Deutsch"

LAWRENCE RICKELS (UC Santa Barbara)

on "HAUNTS OF ASSIMILATION: THE WORK OF NEW YORK ARTIST DAVID DEUTSCH" as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Professor Rickels, author of numerous books, including Nazi Psychoanalysis, Volume I: Only Psychoanalysis Won the War; Nazi Psychoanalysis, Volume II:Crypto-Fetishism; Nazi Psychoanalysis, Volume III: Psy Fi; The Vampire Lectures; The Case of California; and Acting Out in Groups, will discuss David Deutsch's surveillance photographs and explore them in the context of contest between Old Testament and New Testament media, with special attention awarded the Golem legend.

Co-sponsored by:

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department of Germanic Languages Department of English Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center for European and Russian Studies Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Jesus, Gentiles and the Synagogue: The Real Origins of Christianity"

PAULA FREDRIKSEN (Boston University)

on "JESUS, GENTILES, AND THE SYNAGOGUE: THE REAL ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY" as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Co-sponsors: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures Department of Germanic Languages Department of English Center for European & Russian Studies Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"ISAAC ENCOUNTERS ISHMAEL: A MUSLIM-JEWISH CONVERSATION"

RABBI CHAIM SEIDLER-FELLER (UCLA Hillel) AND PROFESSOR KHALED ABOU EL FADL (The Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Felllow in Islamic Law, UCLA) ON "ISAAC ENCOUNTERS ISHMAEL: A MUSLIM-JEWISH CONVERSATION"

Co-sponsor: UCLA Hillel

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Wagner, Kafka, Rosenzweig on Soil, Blood, Language"

ELISABETH WEBER (UC Santa Barbara)

on "Wagner, Kafka, Rosenzweig on Soil, Blood, Language" as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Co-sponsored by:

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department of Germanic Languages Department of English Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center for European and Russian Studies Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

New Light on the Egyptian Historian al-Jabarti (1753-1825) and His Work ‘Aja’ib al-Athar (1688-1821)

-- submitted by Michael Fishbein (fishbein@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: Biblical Texts in Historical Contexts"

MARY ANN TOLBERT (Graduate Theological Union)

on

"HOMOEROTICISM IN THE BIBLICAL WORLD: BIBLICAL TEXTS IN HISTORICAL CONTEXTS"

as part of our ongoing Seminar on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Cosponsors: Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures

Department of Germanic Languages

Department of English

UCLA Hillel

Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies

Center for European & Russian Studies

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies

-- submitted by spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"New Reflections of Spinoza's Excommunication"

RICHARD POPKIN (UCLA, Emeritus)

on

"NEW REFLECTIONS OF SPINOZA'S EXCOMMUNICATION"

as part of our ongoing series on Jewish Hermeneutics and Philosophy.

Co-sponsors:

UCLA Department of English

UCLA Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies

UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures

UCLA Department of Germanic Languages

UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies

UCLA Hillel

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

THE MAURICE AMADO COLLOQUIUM IN SEPHARDIC STUDIES

"HERMENEUTICS IN SPANISH JEWRY"

June 2, 2002 • 1 PM • Faculty Center, UCLA

SHALOM ROSENBERG (Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem)

"Sephardic Hermeneutics: Deciphering the Mystery of the Texts"

BOAZ HUSS (Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica, Harvard University, and Professor of Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University of the Negev)

"Exegesis and Cultural Power: The Emergence of Zoharic Literature"

MOSHE IDEL (Visiting Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, UCLA, and Professor of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem)

"Spiritual Interpretations in Spanish Thought"

MOSHE LAZAR (Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California)

"Moses Arragel's 'Biblia de Alba' (1422-1430): An Ecumenical Translation-Interpretation of the Scriptures for a Tolerant Christian Patron"

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

Jewish Cultural Dilemmas in Mandatory Palestine, 1920-1947: An Analysis of Two Dance Festivals

NINA SPIEGEL (Stanford University)

on

"Jewish Cultural Dilemmas in Mandatory Palestine, 1920-1947: An Analysis of Two Dance Festivals"

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)

"Rethinking Jewish Identity in America"

ARNOLD EISEN (Daniel E. Koshland Professor of Jewish Religion and Culture at Stanford University)

"RETHINKING JEWISH IDENTITY IN AMERICA"

Professor Eisen's research and teaching focuses on the transformation of Judaism in the modern West, against the background of secularization and modernization more generally. His many publications include: "Galut: Modern Jewish Reflection on Homelessness and Homecoming" (Indiana UP, 1986); "The Chosen People in America: A Study in Jewish Religious Ideology" (Indiana UP, 1995); "Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community" (U. of Chicago Press, 1999); (with Steven Cohen) "The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America" (Indiana UP, 2000); and "Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America" (Indiana UP, 2000).

A reception will precede the lecture.

-- submitted by Susan Spitzer (spitzer@humnet.ucla.edu)