|
|
 |
| |
2004 Programs
Fall
2004
Sunday,
October
24,
2004, 2pm to 4pm
American
Friends of the Jewish Museum Hohenems in cooperation with The Leo Baeck Institute welcomes Dr. Hanno Loewy
Director of the Jewish Museum Hohenems
A Presentation and Concert of
Cantorial
Music
featuring
- An
introduction
to the
former Jewish Community of Hohenems, Austria by Dr. Loewy
- Presentation
of
new
book, An Illusion? The History and Presence of the Hohenems Synagogue,
Hanno Loewy and Johannes Inama, editors
- Discussion
of the
restoration of the synagogue by the architects, Ada and Reinhard
Rinderer
- Performances
of
compositions of Salomon Sulzer in celebration of the 200th anniversary
of his birth in Hohenems. The music will be performed by Naomi Hirsch,
Richard Shapp, and Marlena Taenzer
Tickets:
CJH Box
Office
917-606-8200
Admissions: Free to LBI and AFJMH Members, $15.00 Non-Members
The
American
Friends of
Jewish Museum Hohenems and Leo Baeck Institute
extend special thanks to Dr. Christopher Thun-Hohenstein and to the
Austrian Cultural Forum for their partial support of this program.
Wednesday,
October 27,
2004, 7:30pm
48th
Annual Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture
David Ellenson:
Wissenschaft des
Judentums:
Historical Consciousness and Jewish Scholarship
|
Leo
Baeck lecturing at the
Juedische Lehranstalt Berlin, 1938 |
This
year, 2004,
marks the
150th anniversary of the founding of the famous Breslau-Seminary, where
Leo Baeck and countless other German-Jewish theologians were trained
for the Rabbinate. It also marks the 175th anniversaries of the
Seminario Rabinico in Padua, Italy, and the Seminaire Rabbinique
D'Alsace in France. It was in these seminaries that the so-called
scientific study and knowledge of Judaism, or Wissenschaft
des
Judentums, developed as the
modern approach to the comprehensive
study of Judaism, including literature, music, language, art and
comparative philosophies. The scholarly and intellectual frame of
reference created by these seminaries remains the model for
contemporary Jewish studies. The influence of this scholarship
penetrated Orthodox circles in Europe as well. This lecture will
explore that influence and examine the nature of Wissenschaftlich
influence in traditional nineteenth century Europe.
Dr.
David Ellenson is president of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion,
the 8th President in its 125-year-long history. A member of the
school's faculty since 1979, he has served in many capacities and has
held several Chairs. Professor Ellenson has also published and lectured
extensively on diverse topics in modern Jewish thought. His book "After
Emancipation: Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity"
(2004) was
recently released by HUC Press.
Monday,
November
1st ,
2004, 7pm
Monday
Night Film
Series
An American in Paris - "Imago:
Meret Oppenheim"
$10/$5
for
students,
seniors
Thursday,
November 11th,
2004, 7pm
Film
and
Discussion
"The Jews of Amsterdam:
1600-1940: A Great Community in a Small
Country"
An
evening with
co-authors
Philo Bregstein and Dr. Salvador Bloemgarten, who will show excerpts
from their film "In Search of Jewish Amsterdam", and discuss the
upcoming English translation of their book "Remembering Jewish
Amsterdam" (Holmes&Meier, New York, 2004). They are joined by
historian and sociologist Dr. Dienke Hondius, author of "Return:
Holocaust Survivors and Dutch Anti-Semitism".
Co-sponsored
by
the Leo
Baeck Institute with the National Center for Jewish Film, Brandeis
University, Waltham, MA and the Anne Frank Center, New York, NY.
$10/$5
for
students,
seniors
Free
for Leo
Baeck
Institute members
Sunday,
November
14, 2004
(by invitation only)
10th
Annual Leo Baeck
Institute Dinner
Harmonie Club, New York City
Dr.
Joschka
Fischer,
Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, will present the
Leo Baeck Medal to Dr. Fritz Stern, historian, professor and author.
The
speeches are
available online and published as "LBI Occasional Paper no. 5", available for purchase
for $12.00. For information please email lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org.
Sunday,
December
5th,
2004, 2-5pm
Panel
discussion,
exhibit,
and reception
Lawyers Without Rights. Jewish
Lawyers in Germany after 1933
In
April 1933,
shortly
after the Nazis came to power, Jewish lawyers, judges, law professors,
and civil servants throughout the judiciary system were disbarred and
stripped of their right to practice law. The wide-ranging contributions
of Jewish jurists in the late 19th and 20th century were disregarded.
Developments in commercial law, penal law, contract law, family law,
civial law, criminal procedures, women's rights, and free speech were
ignored. Under Nazi ideology, social justice and the rights of
minorities became "Jewish perversions" that had to be eliminated.
"Lawyers
Without
Rights",
focusing on the fate of Berlin's Jewish lawyers after 1933, was
originally curated by the Bar Association of Berlin and the Centrum
Judaicum. The exhibit was subsequently expanded to include lawyers from
all parts of Germany before being presented at the 63rd German Jurist
Convention in Leipzig in September 2000. It traveled to Israel before
arriving at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. For the exhibit at the
LBI, the panels have been augmented by letters, photos, documents, and
other material from the LBI archives.
The
discussion
will be
followed by a gallery tour and reception.
Guest
speakers
will
include:
- Uwe
Karsten-Heye,
Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York
- Michelle
Hirschman,
First Deputy Attorney General, State of New York
- Dr.
Bernhard
Dombek,
President, Bar Association of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Carol
Kahn
Strauss,
Executive Director, Leo Baeck Institute
Panelists
will
include:
- The
Honorable
Ernst H.
Rosenberger, Justice, Appeals Division, 1st Department (ret.); counsel, Strook, Strook and Lavan
- Joel
Levi, member
of
the Israeli Bar Association
- Dr.
Simone Ladwig
Winters, historian of the German legal system
- Dr.
Fritz
Weinschenk,
Partner, Hamburger, Weinschenk
and Fisher
Among
the topics
covered
will be a brief history of Jewish lawyers under the Nazis; the struggle
and contributions of German jurists in the United States after the war,
and a look at the involvement of German Jewish lawyers in the
development of the State of Israel.
Special
thanks to
the
Bundesrechtsanwaltkammer of the Federal Republic of Germany and the
Fran and Otto Walter Foundation for their support of this program.
Admission:
$10.00
Free
for Leo
Baeck
Institute members
RSVP: Norma Kirschen (212) 744-6400
Tuesday,
December
14th,
2004, 4-6pm
Panel
Discussion
and
Reception
cosponsored
by YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and
the Leo Baeck Institute
Noah Isenberg,
professor, New School University and author of a
new translation
"The Face of Eastern European
Jewry".
"The
Face of East
European
Jewry" is the product of a remarkable collaboration between German-born
novelist and critic Arnold Zweig (1887-1968) and German-born graphic
artist and illustrator Hermann Struck (1876-1944) .
As
members of the
German
press, Zweig and Struck both spent the final years of World War I on
the Eastern Front, in Lithuania, where they were able to observe the
life of the Ostjuden. Together, they produced this dramatic and moving
perspective of a lifestyle that was unfamiliar to most assimilated
German Jews, but offered a mystery and romance that appealed to their
secular senses. First published in 1920, this is the first English
translation of this important work.
Panelists
will
include:
- Tom
Freudenheim,
Independent Scholar
- Noah
Isenberg,
New
School University
- Liliane
Weissberg,
University of Pennsylvania
- Jeffrey
Shandler,
Rutgers University
Books
will be
available
for signing by the author.
RSVP:
CJH Box
Office (917)
606-8200
Spring
2004
Thursday,
February 5,
2004, 7:30pm
Book
discussion
On the Natural History of
Destruction
On
the Natural History
of Destruction by W.G. Sebald is
a meditation on the almost total
devastation of almost 131 German cities and towns, the death of more
than half a milion German civilians, and the subsequent homlessness of
many millions more. How can a nation heal from such self-inflicted
wounds? "People's ability to forget what they do not want to know, to
overlook what is before their eyes, was seldom put to the test better
than in Germany at that time."
Please
join Ernestine
Schlant Bradley (New School
University) and Professor Sander
Gilman (University of Illinois
at Chicago) for their views on this
penetrating look at German national guilt, national victimhood, and the
consequences of Germany's postwar inability and/or unwillingness to
address the realities of its own distruction.
The
discussion of
W.G.
Sebald's book will coincide with the just-published paperback edition
(Random House), which will be available at the lecture.
Thursday,
March
11, 2004,
7:30pm
Lecture:
Nicholas Rostow: Interntional
Justice After Nuremberg: Should the US
Participate in the International Criminal Court?
Mr.
Rostow is
General Counsel and Senior Policy Adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations. In that capacity he is constantly being asked why, in
the aftermath of Nuremberg, has the United States refused to
participate in the International Criminal Court which, unlike the
International Court of Justice at the Hague, can bring individuals, and
not just nations, to justice. What makes the United States so reluctant
to join a court that is supported by so many other nations?
At
a time when
"war
crimes" and "crimes against humanity" are once again in the forefront
of international news, it is more important than ever to understand why
the United States has not ratified what many consider the legitimate
judicial successor to the international forum of the Nuremberg trials,
the International Criminal Court.
|
Nicholas
Rostow
|
Clearly,
the
United States
stands strongly in support of securing universal respect for human
rights. And yet, Mr. Rostow will argue, this is the wrong court for the
United States to join at this time. He will defend the American
position to prevent its citizens from being brought to trial in this
forum.
Admission:
$5,
LBI members
free
Monday,
March 29,
2004, 7pm
Film:
Kurt Gerron's "The Karussell"
Director: Ilona Ziok, 1999, 65 mins, German and English w/English
subtitles
Ilona
Ziok's
musical
documentary celebrates the talents and achievements of a man who lived
- and died - for show business. Berlin 1928: Kurt Gerron sings Mack
the Knife on stage for the first
time, and then moves into film,
starring alongside Marlene Dietrich as the magician in The
Blue
Angel. By 1933, forced to
emigrate, he first goes to paris, and
then Amsterdam where he becomes one of the most important directors of
Dutch cinema. Rounded up in Amsterdam, he is deported to
Theresienstadt. There, in the "VIP" camp, he directs his own cabaret,
The Karussell.
Thursday,
April
29, 2004, 7:30pm
Lecture:
Eric Jacobson: Metaphysics of
the Profane: The Political Theology of
Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem
(Columbia Press, 2003)
Walter
Benjamin
and
Gershom Scholem are two of the most influential Jewish intellectuals of
the 20th century. Their ideas took shape independently and in
partnership, with special focus on three topics: messianism, language,
and justice.
Eric
Jacobson
examines
their complex relationship as well as the complex interrelationship of
these three main themes. Mr. Jacobson's analysis presents the unique
theological ideas of these two great thinkers in the context of
politics in the early 20th century.
The
book includes
material
that has never been published or translated, mainly from the early
years of their relationship, between World War I and 1923.
Professor
Jacobson teaches
Modern Jewish Thought and heads the Critical Religious Studies program
at the University of Sussex, England.
He is
currently a
Scholar
in Residence at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress in
Washington, DC, where is research topic is "Holocaust, Zionism, and
Jewish History in the Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Gershom
Scholem, 1941-1963."
Admission:
$5,
LBI members
free
Sunday,
May 16,
2004
Beyond
the Basics:
An all-day series of genealogy workshops taught by leading experts in
the field
Location:
Hebrew
Union
College Brookdale Center, 1 West 4th Street, New York, NY
For
further
details, fees,
and registration, contact the Jewish
Genealogical Society at info@jgsny.org or at (212) 294-8326.
Co-sponsors: Center
for Jewish
History Genealogy Institute, American
Jewish Historical Society, American
Sephardi
Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, YIVO
Institute
for Jewish Research.
Monday,
May 24,
2004, 7pm
Film:
Berlin's Jewish Museum: A
Personal Tour with Daniel Libeskind
Director: Michael Blackwood, 2000, 58 mins
Monday,
June 14,
2004, 7pm
Film:
Jazzman of the Gulag. The life
of trumpeter Eddie Rosner
Director: Pierre-Henrz Salfati, France, 1999, 58 mins. English and
Russian w/English subtitles.
Monday,
August
16, 2004,
7:30pm
Leo
Baeck
Institute and
American Society for Yad Vashem present:
Margarethe
von
Trotta
Rosenstrasse
A Samuel Goldwyn Film
A
special
screening of the
Donatello Award winning film by Margarethe von Trotta. The destiny of
almost 2,000 Jewish men in 1943 Germany was reversed when their
non-Jewish wives undertook a relentless public protest that culminated
in an open confrontation with the Gestapo. An extraordinary example of
the power of public dissent.
Introduction
by
Meyer
Gottlieb, President of Samuel Goldwyn Films, and Eli Zborowski,
Chairman of the American Society of Yad Vashem.
Post-screening
remarks and
Q&A with Pamela Katz, co-writer of Rosenstrasse, and Annette
Insdorf, Director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University
|
|
|
|
