2019-2020
11/6-11/17. Boston Jewish Film Festival.
Please click here to see details of the festival. Details of this event will be posted to this website as the event date approaches.
11/17. Conflict in Music.
Explore the repercussions of conflict through song. Through Latin, English, Indonesian, German, Hebrew, and Zulu lyrics, we peer into human’s varied reaction to struggle. Both cultural and compositional conflicts will be highlighted, showcasing soloists from the school of music and singers from across campus in Boston University’s Symphonic Chorus. Repertoire includes Mozart’s rarely heard Misericordias Domini, Holst’s Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Vivaldi’s Lauda Jerusalem, and excerpts from William Schuman’s Carols of Death. Come early to reserve your seat for a 7:30pm pre-concert lecture by Dr. Mariah Wilson, and join us at 8pm for an unforgettable evening of song, energy, and contemplation.
11/17 (Sun) BU Symphonic Choir Concert <Culture Pass>
We are singing in German, Hebrew, Latin, Indonesian, and other languages.
2018-2019
10/4. Jewish and Islamic Music Intersection through History.
01/27. 2019 International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration
You are invited to attend the 2019 International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration on Sunday, January 27, 2019 in Photonics 2nd Floor Auditorium (PHO 206). A 12 p.m. reception will be followed by the 1 p.m. film screening and panel discussion.
02/25. Screening of Selections from Shoah (1984)
February 25
Part of the Holocaust Through Film series.
Location and time: CAS 224, 725 Commonwealth Ave. 6:00-8:00 pm
04/02. Jewish Boy Dancers of Iran.
Join us on Tuesday, April 2, 2019, at 5 o’clock in the evening, when Dr. Houman M. Sarshar will deliver the Leon and Alice F. Newton Lecture in Jewish Studies at Boston University.
Dr. Sarshar will speak about “The Jewish Boy Dancers of Iran.”
This lecture and slide presentation traces the history of boy dancers in Iran, their role in Iranian entertainment, and the forces that led to their disappearance. It also touches on the history of male homosexuality in Iran, art history, and photography.
The lecture will take place at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House, 213 Bay State Road, 4th Floor, from 5-6 pm. Refreshments and discussion to follow.
About our speaker:
Dr. Houman M. Sarshar is co-editor of three volumes of The Contemporary History of Iranian Jews. Other publications include Esther’s Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews (2002); The Jews of Iran: The History, Religion, and Culture of a Community in the Islamic World (2014); and numerous articles on modern Persian literature. Dr. Sarshar is the founder of the Kimia Foundation, a culture foundation dedicated to promoting the art, culture, and history of Iran.
The Leon and Alice F. Newton Family Lecture in Jewish Studies was established by the children of Leon and Alice F. Newton, honoring both their father, an alumnus of what was then called the School of Management, and their mother. For close to thirty years, the Newton Lecture Fund has brought eminent scholars of Jewish Studies to lecture on our campus. Past speakers have included Ruth Calderon, Hilary Putnam, Arthur Green, Ruth Wisse, and Susannah Heschel.
2017-2018
9/17. In Memory of Elie Wiesel: A Day of Learning and Celebration.
Join in celebration with the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies as we honor the memory and enduring legacy of our extraordinary teacher, the Nobel Laureate and world-renowned writer Elie Wiesel, who was the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor (1976-2011). Spend your morning reflecting on panel discussions led by notable scholars, religious leaders, writers, and activists, such as Reverend Cornell William Brooks (STH’87, HON’15) and Rabbi Nehemia Polen, as they offer their thoughts on Professor Wiesel’s literary and humanitarian contributions. The afternoon will focus on the celebration of his life and work through a series of tributes in word, image, and music offerings by the HaZamir Chamber Chorus and the Inner Strength Gospel Choir.
The morning sessions in Questrom Auditorium (9:30-12:30) will involve three conversations about pedagogy, theology after the Holocaust, and Wiesel’s personal impact; with a diverse group of speakers, alums, scholars lined up. The afternoon event in the GSU (2;30-3:45) will include personal tributes by President Brown and other faculty, as well as by Elie Wiesel’s son; a short video; four musical tributes; and even singing. One of our morning speakers is Cornell Brooks, the outgoing president of the NAACP who will be a visiting prof. at BU (in STH and Law).
Program and Event Registration: go.bu.edu/wiesel
10/19 Evening Lecture with Israeli Author Dorit Rabinayan
2016-2017
9/27. BUJS Forum with Jeffrey Bernstein
Title: “Beyond Sartre and Adorno: Jean Amory’s Radical Questioning of Jewish Identity and Philosophy in the Aftermath of the Shoah” 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Jean Amory’s “At the Mind’s Limits.” In this collection of essays about his experience in Auschwitz, he questions the value and possibility of Jewish identity and philosophy after Auschwitz. While Amory’s views draw from the negative philosophizing of both Sartre and Adorno, he goes considerably farther than either. With particular emphasis on the final essay of the collection (translated as “On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a Jew”), Bernstein explores Amory’s critique, in order to raise the question of what it may mean for Jewish identity and philosophy today. Dr. Jeffrey A. Bernstein is an associate professor in the Philosophy Department at the College of the Holy Cross. He works in areas of Spinoza, German philosophy, and Jewish thought. His book, “Leo Strauss on the Borders of Judaism, Philosophy, and History”, was published by SUNY Press in 2015. He is currently at work on a study of Giorgio Agamben’s treatment of Jewish thought and psychoanalytic theory.
1/30 BUJS Forum, Jewish Poets/Jewish Prayers: Women Changing the Siddur with Kathryn Hellerstein
Dr. Hellerstein is Ruth Meltzer Director of the Jewish Studies Program and Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Yiddish. A poet, translator and scholar of Yiddish poetry, Dr. Hellerstein will discuss the connection between Jewish poetry and prayer by considering how women writers have participated in creating liturgy and sacred books from the 16th through the 21st century.
Presented by the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies
2/6 Middle Eastern Film Series, Shores of Light
(dir. Yael Katzir) A documentary that flows the untold story of thousands of Jewish survivors of WWII who arrived in Southern Italy on their way to Israel and were welcomed by the local Italians. With an introduction and Q+A session with the director, Yael Katzir.
Presented by the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies
Sponsored by BU’s Middles East and North African Studies Program
BUJS Forum, Programs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
3/15 Dr. Bilsky is a professor of law and director of the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University, and is an Israel Institute visiting professor at Boston University, serving as the William and Patricia Kleh Visiting Professor in International Law at BU Law during fall 2016 and a Visiting Professor in Political Science in Spring 2017. Her areas of expertise include transitional justice in international law, the history of political trials, and law after the Holocaust.
3/21 Dr. James Waller is the Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College (NH). Waller is a widely-recognized scholar in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies and his talk at BU will focus on genocide prevention.
3/23 As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial and the Nuremberg Code, this symposium will provide an opportunity to reflect on the legacy to Law, Bioethics and Human Rights. 70 years later, experts in Human Rights and Holocaust Studies will provide insight into the larger implications of this seminal trial as we enter a new age in research and bioethics.
3/29 Joshua Sobol is the most eminent Israeli playwright who has written over 75 plays and directed productions in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, and the United States. He will speak on the topic of theater as a form of resistance and a tool for survival
Presented by the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies
BUJS Forum: How Judaism Became an American Religion with Rachel Gordan.
Dr. Gordan is a scholar of American Jewish religion and culture and will be a visiting lecturer in the Religion and English departments in the spring. Her talk will look at a section of her current book project.
Presented by the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies