Susannah Heschel on “Joy and Obligation”
On Tuesday March 4, the Elie Wiesel Center inaugurated a new lecture series named for Leo Trepp (1913-2010), a rabbi and teacher who fled Nazi Germany and was active in the Boston area before settling in California.
Dispossession: A call for papers
Among the stereotypes about Jews circulating in Nazi Germany, perhaps the most prominent portrayed Jews not simply as rich, but as enriching themselves at the expense of non-Jewish Germans. It is one of the cruelest of ironies, however, that the Nazis were the real economic predators, robbing Europe’s Jews before murdering them. Within twelve short years, the Nazis managed to dispossess Germany’s Jews, taking away first their rights, then their property, and finally their lives. Follow the link above to a call for papers, to be presented at a conference, held November 9-11, 2014, at Boston University.
Israel and Nation Branding: A lunch talk with Ido Aharoni
On Monday, January 27, Israeli Consul General Ido Aharoni visited the Boston University Hillel House to discuss ongoing issues affecting the Israeli state in domestic and international spheres. The Consul General opened his talk by reflecting on the life of an Israeli consular officer who endeavored to promote American involvement in Israel discussions, especially among […]
Manischewitz It’s Not: Jeff Morgan and the art of kosher wine
On January 23, the Elie Wiesel Center resumed its “salon” series with a high-end wine tasting of Covenant and Peter Paul wines. Jeff Morgan’s Covenant wines have been called “the greatest kosher wines on the Planet Earth” by wine critic Robert Parker. Jeff is a former wine critic himself–ex-West Coast editor of Wine Spectator magazine–and the author of 8 books on food and wine. Jeff poured two of his renouned Covenant Napa Valley wines during his talk along with a special treat from Peter Paul.
Shimon Peres confers Israel’s presidential award on Elie Wiesel
In a private ceremony, Israel’s president Shimon Peres conferred the President’s Medal of Distinction on Elie Wiesel. In his remarks, following President Peres’s laudatio, Prof. Wiesel comments on his own upbringing as someone who preferred the Talmud to Zionism but whose parents compelled him to study modern Hebrew nevertheless. The realization of the importance of […]
Ethan Bronner on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Covering the Middle East conflict poses a difficult problem to journalists and academics: how to tell the story impartially and do justice to competing narratives. On November 19, Ethan Bronner who served as Jerusalem bureau chief of the NYTimes from 2008 to 2012, shared his experience on the job with an audience of about sixty guests, mixing personal anecdote with policy analysis.
Graduate fellowships available
The Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are pleased to invite applications for PhD fellowships in Jewish Studies. Eligibility is limited to students admitted to one of the PhD-level programs of study offered through the Division of Religious and Theological Studies. Within the DRTS students may specialize […]
New in spring 2014: visiting professor teaches Jewish thought and philosophy
Thomas Meyer, Visiting Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, a specialist in modern German Jewish intellectual history and Continental philosophy and currently working on a critical biography of political philosopher Leo Strauss, will teach an introduction to Modern Jewish Thought and a seminar devoted to the 1929 debate between Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger.
Hannah Arendt and the limits of ethnic solidarity
Tomorrow, November 12, a screening of Margarete von Trotta’s film on Hannah Arendt whose book on Eichmann in Jerusalem (On the Banality of Evil) rubbed many people the wrong way.
Harsh Justice in “The Law in These Parts”
The Jewish Law Students Association joined the Elie Wiesel Center for a screening of The Law in These Parts. In a series of interviews, Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (“James’ Journey to Jerusalem,” “The Inner Tour”) interrogates former Israeli military judges responsible for maintaining law and order in the West Bank, among them Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar.