The following conferences were generously supported by the Mike Grossman Seminar Fund.<\/p>\n
An International Workshop The phenomenon of a growing Israeli Diaspora \u2014 of Israeli citizens, both Jews and Arabs, who choose to live outside their homeland, has been receiving renewed scholarly attention in recent years. It is estimated that between half a million to one million Israelis, or about six to twelve percent of all Israeli citizens, now live in the diaspora.<\/p>\n For Israeli Jews, the decision to emigrate from Israel undermines fundamental tenets of Zionist-Israeli ideology, most conspicuously the \u201cnegation of the diaspora\u201d. However, like other transnational diasporic communities, Israelis abroad do not sever ties with their native land but rather continue to maintain close relationships with it, significantly influencing Israeli politics, economy and culture.<\/p>\n This workshop will bring together scholars and artists of Global, Palestinian and Israeli diasporas who will examine the subject from diverse disciplinary, methodological and theoretical perspectives. Among the topics to be discussed are: the changing facets of the Palestinian Diaspora and Palestinian \u2018internal refugees\u2019; the American Jewish community\u2019s reception of Soviet and Israeli Jewish immigrants; art created by transnational artists; economic aspects of transnational entrepreneurship; architecture and migrating urban spaces; Berlin\u2019s diasporic communities.<\/p>\n For more information, please visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/calendar\/events\/israeli-palestinian-and-other-diasporas-in-comparative-perspectives\/<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/p>\n The forum\u2019s purpose is to promote the research and career progress of promising young scholars from all countries. It is an ongoing forum, comprised of 15 advanced Ph.D. students (ABD) and recent Ph.D.s (before tenure-track appointments). It meets periodically and is intended to allow young scholars an opportunity for cross-fertilization in their fields with their own peers and with an esteemed group of senior scholars led by\u00a0Profs. Israel Bartal, Dan Diner, David Engel, Zvi Gitelman, Oleg Budnitskii,\u00a0and\u00a0Gabriella Safran.<\/p>\n The Summer 2015 International Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry will be held at the Boston University Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies. It is co-sponsored by the Simon Dubnow Institute<\/a> and the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry<\/a>.<\/p>\n The forum was organized by Professor Simon Rabinovitch.<\/p>\n Odessa, Ukraine:\u00a0The BU History Department and the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies are cooperating with Nevzlin Center at Hebrew University in organizing the Sixth Session of the International Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry, to be held this July in Odessa, Ukraine. This is an ongoing forum, comprised of 15 advanced PhD students (ABD) and recent PhDs (before tenure-track appointments). It meets periodically and is intended to allow these young scholars an opportunity for cross-fertilization in their fields with their own peers and with an esteemed group of senior scholars led by Professors Israel Bartal, Dan Diner, David Engel, Zvi Gitelman, Oleg Budnitskii, and Gabriella Safran. BU has been a sponsor since the Fifth Session, held in Lviv, Ukraine in 2011. Simon Rabinovitch<\/a> will be participating again, along with the organizers at Hebrew University, Semion Goldin and Jonathan Dekel-Chen.<\/p>\n For more information, contact Professor Rabinovitch (srabinov@bu.edu<\/a>) or see the\u00a0Forum Call for Applicants<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Fifth session of the International Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry took place on 27-30 June 2011 in L\u2019viv, Ukraine. This session was organized by the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry in cooperation with the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University, the Department of History and the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Boston University, the Ukrainian Catholic University, and the Institute for Historical Research, L\u2019viv National University. The session was hosted by the Ukrainian Catholic University.<\/p>\n More information can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n The Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University is pleased to present \u201cEconomic Racism in Perspective: Past and Present in the US and Germany<\/a>,\u201d <\/b>a series of events scheduled for November 2014 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and to consider more broadly the dangers of economic discrimination.<\/p>\n Serving as a backdrop to the events is \u201cFinal Sale: The End of Jewish Businesses in Nazi Berlin,\u201d <\/b>a historical exhibition on economic segregation in Nazi Berlin. Based on innovative research, the exhibition explores the fate of 16 small businesses, focusing on the entrepreneurs who built them and their struggle to survive in an increasingly segregated and racist business environment, from internationally renowned theater director Max Reinhardt to a family of egg wholesalers. \u201cFinal Sale\u201d will be on display throughout the month of November at the Rubin-Frankel Gallery on the second floor of the BU Hillel House (213 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215).<\/p>\n Nov 6: FINAL SALE opening reception<\/b> Nov 9-11: DISPOSSESSION international conference <\/b> Nov 9: KRISTALLNACHT public key-note lecture<\/b> 11\/13 and 11\/20: Economic racism in the American context <\/b> Robert A. Margo<\/b>, former chair of the BU Economics Department and incoming president of the Economic History Association, will deliver a lecture on\u00a0\u201cObama, Katrina, and the Persistence of Racial Inequality\u201d<\/b>\u00a0 at 7 p.m. on November 13.<\/b><\/p>\n Japonica Brown-Saracino<\/b>, Associate Professor in the BU Sociology Department and author of the prize-winning book A Neighborhood That Never Changes: Gentrification, Social Preservation, and the Search for Authenticity<\/i> (2009, University of Chicago Press), will speak on\u00a0\u201cThe Last Store Standing: Commerce as Force, Symbol and Casualty in the Gentrifying American City\u201d<\/b>\u00a0at 7 p.m. on\u00a0November\u00a020<\/b>.<\/p>\n All events will take place at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House <\/b>at Boston University. For more information, go to\u00a0http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/economic-racism\/<\/a>, contact the Elie Wiesel Center at \u00a0judaics@bu.edu, or call\u00a0617.353.8096. All events, with the exception of the Dispossession conference, are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n Program Director: Professor Jonathan Zatlin, History Department<\/p>\n Lead sponsors: Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, German Historical Institute, Washington D.C., BU Center for the Humanities, Florence and Chafetz Hillel House, BU History Department, Jewish Cultural Endowment, Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College, and the BU Alumni Association.<\/p>\n Co-Sponsored by the BU Law School, BU Economics Department, and BU Sociology Department.<\/p>\n\u201cIsraeli, Palestinian, and Other Diasporas in Comparative Perspectives\u201d Workshop<\/h3>
\nThe Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Boston University
\nDecember 13-14, 2018<\/p>\nInternational Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry<\/h3>
Summer 2015<\/h4>\n
Summer 2013<\/span><\/h4>\n
Summer 2011<\/h4>\n
Economic Racism in Perspective: Past and Present in US and Germany<\/h3>
\nA reception to launch the opening of the exhibition will take place at the Gallery at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 6, 2014<\/b>.<\/p>\n
\nTo explore the connection between economic racism and political violence, an international scholarly conference, entitled\u00a0\u201cDispossession. The Plundering of German Jewry, 1933-1945 and Beyond,\u201d\u00a0<\/b>will take place from November 9-11, 2014<\/b>. \u201cDispossession\u201d brings together scholars from a variety of countries working on a neglected topic: the financial history and cultural meanings of the Nazi theft of assets belonging to Jews. A variety of panels will engage with the legal, financial, and cultural techniques used to exclude and expropriate German Jews and the retroactive legitimation of dispossession under the guise of \u201crestitution\u201d in the immediate postwar period.<\/p>\n
\nTo launch the conference and commemorate the anniversary of the pogrom that was conducted on November 9, 1938 against German Jewry, Christoph Kreutzm\u00fcller <\/b>(Senior Researcher and Educator, Museum of the House of the Wannsee Conference) will deliver a lecture on\u00a0\u201cKristallnacht and the Destruction of Jewish Commercial Activity in Germany.\u201d<\/b>\u00a0The lecture, which will take place at 5 p.m. at the Hillel House, is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
\nContinuing with the theme of \u201cEconomic Racism in Perspective,\u201d we turn in mid-November to the American story of economic discrimination and its persistent effects. Two lectures delivered by BU faculty will focus on the insidious legacy of segregation in American commerce.<\/p>\n