Purdue News

January 13, 2004

Jewish Studies Program schedules spring semester lecture series

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Jewish Studies Program at Purdue University will offer a variety of speakers for its Spring 2004 Jewish Studies Noon Series and Jewish Studies Public Lecture Series.

The public lecture and noon speaker series are free and open to the public. Both series promote an understanding of Jewish life, culture, language, literature, religion and history, says Gordon Young, associate professor of history and director of the Jewish Studies Program.

The first program, a panel discussion on "Introducing the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding," will be at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 in Stewart Center, Room 318. Ann Astell, professor of English; Sandor Goodhart, associate professor of English; and Thomas Ryba, Notre Dame theologian-in-residence at the St. Thomas Aquinas Center, West Lafayette, will serve as panel members.

Future public lecture and noon series events include:

• Feb. 4, 12:30 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 313. Jewish Studies Noon Series. Donald Mitchell, professor of philosophy. "Three Jewish Buddhists in Dialogue with Christians about Suffering."

• Feb. 12, 8 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 218. Jewish Studies Public Lecture Series. Steven A. Carr, professor of communication at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and 2002-03 U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Fellow. "Hollywood, Anti-Semitism, and the Return of the Passion Film."

• Feb. 18, 12:30 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 214 B. Jewish Studies Noon Series. Rabbi Audrey S. Pollack, Temple Israel, West Lafayette. "Spirituality and Jewish Women: From Tkhines Literature to the Prayers of Modernity."

• March 3, 12:30 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 318. Jewish Studies Noon Series. S.L. Wisenberg, author of "Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, and Other Obsessions." The lecture title is "Holocaust Girls: Looking for a 21st Century Jewish Identity."

• March 10, 8 p.m. Krannert Auditorium, Krannert Building. Jewish Studies Public Lecture Series. Vicky Saker Woeste, senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. "Jewish Lawyers and Conflicts of Interest in the Henry Ford Libel Suits."

• March 30, 7:30 p.m. Class of 1950 Lecture Hall, Room 224. Jewish Studies special event symposium. "Mel Gibson's Passion: The Film, the Controversy, and Its Implications." Panelists include Zev Garber, professor of Jewish studies and philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College; Gordon Mork, professor of history at Purdue; John Pawlikowski, professor of ethics and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; and Stuart Robertson, lecturer in Biblical Hebrew in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Purdue and pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church, West Lafayette.

• April 14, 12:30 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 313. Jewish Studies Noon Series. Marion "Mo" Trout, associate professor of jazz bands. "Jews and Jazz."

• April 22, 7:30 p.m. Stewart Center, Room 202. Jewish Studies Public Lecture Series. Stephen Z. Cohen, Jewish humorist from Chicago and co-author of "The Generation Gap: The Middle Aged and Their Aging Parents." The lecture title is "The Best in Jewish Humor."

The Purdue Jewish Studies Program was founded in 1981. The program is composed of faculty from the departments of English, foreign languages and literatures, history, philosophy, political science, sociology and anthropology, and visual and performing arts. The program offers an undergraduate major and minor.

Writer: Amy Patterson-Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Sources: Gordon Young, (765) 494-7965, jewishstudies@purdue.edu

Alice Wenger, assistant to the director of the Jewish Studies Program, (765) 494-7965, awenger@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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