Book discussion of The Lion’s Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky

Discussion of Dr. Susie Linfield’s book in anticipation of the author’s visit on January 17.  Complimentary copies of the book are available in the Serling Institute for faculty, students and community members to read before the discussion.

Monday, January 13, 4:30-6:00 PM| Wells Hall B-342

Jonathan Netanyahu lecture, “The Lion’s Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky”

Dr. Susie Linfield lectured on her new book, The Lion’s Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky (Yale University Press, 2019). The book is the winner of the Jewish Book Council distinction, formerly known as the Natan Book Award. 

Susie Linfield has been a professor in the journalism department of New York University since 1995.  A former editor at the Washington Post and the Village Voice, she has written for a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, the Nation, Dissent, and the New Republic.

Friday, January 17, 10:00-11:30 AM followed by catered lunch for participants | Wells Hall B-342

Hebreo: The Search for Salomone Rossi

An evening in collaboration with the College of Music, devoted to the music of Salomone Rossi (ca. 1570-1630). Rossi is the leading Jewish composer of the late Italian Renaissance, who is most famous for his Songs of Solomon, a beautiful collection of originally composed music for Hebrew psalms and prayers. The evening  included the 45-minute documentary Hebreo by Joseph Rochlitz, followed by a musical performance and Q&A with singers from the Israeli vocal ensemble Profeti della Quinta who are featured in the film: Doron Shleifer, Roman Melish, Lior Leibovici, Jacob Lawrence, Loïc Paulin, Elam Rotem, and Ori Harmelin. 

Monday, January 27, 7:00-8:30 PM | Residential College of Arts and Humanities Theater (Basement of C-20 Snyder Phillips, 362 Bogue St, East Lansing, MI 48825)

Yiddish Between Worlds

Dr. Margot B. Valles (MSU) will chair a panel bringing together three scholars of Yiddish who are 2019-2020 Frankel Institute Fellows exploring the theme of “Yiddish Matters” at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Dov-Ber Kerler (Dr. Alice Field Cohn Chair in Yiddish Studies at Indiana University) is a contemporary Yiddish poet and ethnographer who is currently exploring the relationship between Yiddish poetry and the status of Yiddish today.  Dr. Jack Kugelmass (Professor of Anthropology and the Melton Legislative Professor at the University of Florida) is a cultural anthropologist who studies Jewish identity and ethnography, particularly through travel narratives. Dr. Eli Rosenblatt (Northwestern University) works on racial politics and Ashkenazi identity through Yiddish literature.  Together the panelists will explore Yiddish writing and culture in diverse contexts.

Thursday, February 6, 7:00- 8:30 PM | Wells Hall B-342

Annual Rabin/Brill Lecture, “Holocaust by Bullets: Model for the Modern Genocide”

Father Patrick Desbois, Yahad-In Unum and Georgetown University

Meticulous Nazi records of Jews killed in the death camps identify fewer than half of the Holocaust’s victims.  When, were and how were the other victims killed?  Father Patrick Desbois has sought and found the answers to these questions.  Father Desbois’ books will be available for purchase and signing.

Father Patrick Desbois is founder and president of Yahad – In Unum, an organization dedicated to locating the sites of mass graves of Jewish victims of the Nazi mobile-killing units in the former Soviet Union.  He is Braman Endowed Professor of the Forensic Study of the Holocaust at the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University.

Monday, February 10, 7:00-8:30 PM followed by reception | The Kellogg Center Auditorium

Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece:  The Fate of Salonica ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’

Dr. Devin E. Naar, University of Washington

From 1492 until the twentieth century, the city of Salonica–once part of the Ottoman Empire and today the second biggest city in Greece–was home to the largest community of Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews in the world. This talk focuses on how this once-thriving Jewish community grappled with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of modern Greece prior to the devastation of the Holocaust.
Dr. Devin E. Naar is Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington.  His book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, won a National Jewish Book Award and the grand prize from the Modern Greek Studies Association.  Complimentary copies of Dr. Naar’s book will be available at the Serling Institute for those who would like to read it before the lecture. 

Monday, February 17, 8:00-9:30 PM followed by reception | The Kellogg Center Auditorium