Overview
JEWISH STUDIES AT THE MOVIES
Turn off the technology? Celebrate a secular (?) Sabbath? See a documentary by an advocate for the “National Day of Unplugging” about her love/hate relationship with technology and participate in a post-film discussion with a scholar of American Judaism and a computer programmer.
JFilm Showing: “Connected” Saturday March 17, 8:10 pm, Southside Works
Film Schmooze with Rachel Kranson (Religious Studies at Pitt) and Jamie Forrest
See a moving film about a complicated Israeli family whose lives are further complicated by the arrival home of their autistic son and participate in a post-film discussion with an autism researcher who is setting up autism research programs in Israel.
JFilm Showing: “Mabul (The Flood)” Sunday March 18, 4 pm, Southside Works
Film Schmooze with Marlene Behrman-Cohen (Psychology at CMU)
Especially for students: See a hit Israeli TV show about 30-something Modern Orthodox singles (an Israeli “Friends”?) and meet the director for lunch.
JFilm Showing: “Srugim” Monday, March 19, 7:30 pm, Southside Works
Meet the Director: Eliezer Shapiro Tuesday, March 20, 12-1:15 pm, Hillel-JUC
For more information, contact Carly Adelmann at Hillel-JUC
See a film about complex relationships across generations and participate in a post-film discussion with a Pittsburgh gerontologist.
JFilm Showing: “Restoration” Sunday March 25, 4 pm, Southside Works
Film Schmooze with Steven Albert (Public Health at Pitt)
Jewish Horror? See the first Israeli horror film, attend a post-film discussion with two scholars, hear a lecture by one of those scholars on the long history of Jewish “horror” literature.
JFilm Showing: “Rabies” Tuesday March 27, 7:30 pm, Southside Works
Discussion, following the film, with Adam Lowenstein (Film Studies at Pitt) and Jeremy Dauber (Columbia)
Lecture by Jeremy Dauber: “Frightening Jews” Wednesday March 28, 12-1:30 pm
Pitt Humanities Center, 602 Cathedral of Learning (free)
Co-sponsored by Jewish Studies, German, Cultural Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Film Studies, and Religious Studies at Pitt.
See a film about the incredible story of Sofia Cosima, pianist and survivor, and hear the director talk about the documentary and play piano.
JFilm Showing: “A Suitcase Full of Chocolate” Thursday March 28, 7:00 pm
Frick Fine Arts Auditorium
Post-Film Lecture and Concert with Lincoln Mayorga, director and pianist
*film showings and discussions require paid admission: see www.JFilmPgh.org for information and pricing*
Program Awarded Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Gran
We are pleased to announce that we have just been awarded a major grant from the Association for Jewish Studies for public programming in 2012-2013 on the topic of "Squirrel Hill, The Jewish Community of Pittsburgh,and American Urban History." We will present a series of lectures, workshops, and panel discussions between September 2012 and May 2013 in a variety of venues and co-sponsored with a number of community partners. Watch this space for more details!
New Faculty Member
The Department of Religious Studies welcomes Rachel Kranson who takes up new tenure-track position in modern Judaism and American Jewish history. See here for details.
Fall 2012 Events
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11, 1:30-3:00 pm
Holiday Inn Ballroom
Lawrence Kritzman (Dartmouth College)
“The Jews Who are Not One: French Intellectuals, Philosophy, and the Politics of Nationhood”
[Jewish Studies is pleased to co-sponsor this Keynote Lecture at the “Idea of France” Conference, http://www.ideaoffrance.pitt.edu]
MONDAY NOVEMBER 14, 4:30-5:30 pm
208B Cathedral of Learning
Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration
Survivor’s Account by Ruth Drescher
Music by Susanne Ortner-Roberts, clarinet
Readings by Pitt students.
[Organized by the Jewish Studies Program and the German Department]
THURSDAY DECEMBER 1, 2011, 4:00-6:00 pm
History Department Lounge, Posvar Hall
Christian Gerlach (University of Bern):
"Resistance, Partisans, Civil Wars: What Did This Have to Do with the Murder of Jews, 1939-1945?"
[Jewish Studies is pleased to co-sponsor this session of the History Department’s European Colloquium, with our former colleague Christian Gerlach.]
SUNDAY DECEMBER 4, 6:00 pm
Israel Heritage Room, Cathedral of Learning
Israel Heritage Room Annual Meeting and Halpern Award Information Session
Dan Chyutin (PhD student, Film Studies)
“Orthodox Cinecorporeality: Fleshing Out the Haredi Male Body in Contemporary Israeli Cinema”
Students and faculty will speak about the Israel Heritage Room Scholarship and the new Ethel M. Halpern Award for Jewish Studies.
[Organized by the Jewish Studies Program and the Israel Heritage room Committee]
Halpern Award Competition
Undergraduate students in Jewish Studies are invited to apply for the Ethel M. Halpern Award in Jewish Studies. The Halpern Award will pay up to $1000 toward expenses associated with a study abroad experience, a language program, an unpaid internship, or research related to Jewish Studies. Undergraduates who are enrolled in or have completed a Jewish Studies course are eligible. The deadline will be February 2012 for projects in the summer of 2012 or in academic year 2012-2013. For more information contact Adam Shear at ashear@pitt.edu.
See here for details about the 2011-2012 competition.
Best Book in 20th-century Italian studies
Lina Insana’s work was named Best Book in 20th-century Italian studies. The American Association for Italian Studies awarded the prize to Arduous Tasks: Primo Levi, Translation, and the Transmission of Holocaust Testimony (University of Toronto Press, 2009) by Lina Insana, associate professor of Italian.
New Faculty Member
Jason von Ehrenkrook joins the faculty as Perlow Lecturer in Classical Judaism We welcome our new colleague who comes to use from a postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan. Read more on the religious studies Department News Web site.
Work Published
Kirsten Fudeman’s work on linguistic identity of medieval French Jews published. Assistant professor of French, Kirsten Fudeman, has published Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010).
Title VI National Resource Center
Global Studies Program designated a Title VI National Resource Center. The University Center for International Studies’ Global Studies Program will now be able to offer foreign language and area studies fellowships in a number of languages, including Hebrew and other languages relevant to Jewish studies such as Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The Title VI grant offers support for a number of programs in research and teaching.
Two Book Prizes Awarded
Two book prizes awarded to Adam Shear’s book on Kuzari reception. Adam Shear’s The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167-1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2008) won the 2008 National Jewish Book Award, Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award in Scholarship. The award was presented at the 58th Annual National Jewish Book Awards ceremony on March 5, 2009 at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. The book was also awarded the 2008 Morris D. Forkosch Award for Best First Book in Intellectual History by the Journal of the History of Ideas.
