Idea Transcript
The College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
Fall 2016 | Volume XIII, Issue I
Save the Dates: December 4-5, 2016
Thank You! Sponsors of Israel Studies at the University of Arizona $20,000+
Speakers & Topics Prof. Anita Shapira, Tel Aviv University
Keynote Address Israel 2016: Vision and Reality
Prof. Asher Susser, University of Arizona
Introduction: Israel’s Changing Society & Politics
Prof. Dan Ben-David, Tel Aviv University
Israel at a Crossroads: The View from 30,000 Feet
Dr. Einat Wilf, Jewish People Policy Institute
Back to Basics: Israeli Education, Society & Politics
Prof. Aomar Boum, University of California, Los Angeles
Peculiar Ties: The Cultural & Political Capital of North African Judaism in Israel
Israel Institute Alice & Paul Baker Joan & Don Diamond Betsy & Ken Plevan Andrea & David Stein Diane & Ron Weintraub $10,000-20,000
Sara & Tom Borin Steve Sim & Marilyn Einstein $5,000-10,000
Larry and Kristen Gellman Linda & Ken Robin The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona $1,000-5,000
Ron Margolis Trudy & Howard Schwartz Marsha & Gary Tankenoff
Prof. Elie Rekhess, Northwestern University
The Arabs in Israel: Reconsidering the “1948 Paradigm”
Prof. Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland
Shifting Public Attitudes on Coexistence and Peace
Prof. Ilan Troen, Brandeis University
Israel and the Land of Israel
Prof. Yoram Peri, University of Maryland
The (Fatal) Decline of the Israeli Left Prof. Joel Peters, Virginian Tech University
Israeli Foreign Policy
Conference Sponsors:
Thank You! Our 2015 Conference, Israel in the Changing Middle East, was a great success thanks to all of our speakers, volunteers, sponsors and participants! Visit our YouTube Channel to watch the entire 2015 Conference.
For more information, call (520) 626-5758 or visit us at judaic.arizona.edu/IsraelConference2016
From the Director
Fall 2016, Volume XIII, Issue I This newsletter is a biannual publication for alumni and friends of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at The University of Arizona.
Director
J. Edward Wright
Assistant Director David Graizbord
Sr. Business Manager Martha Castleberry
Outreach Coordinator John Winchester
Student Staff
Dakota Hogeboom, Martin Somoza, Jennie Taer, Daniela Tascarella
Advisory Board
Alice & Paul Baker Joan & Donald Diamond Deanna Evenchik Joan Kaye Cauthorn Gary Kippur Mitchell Pozez Bobby Present
Mission Statement
The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies’ mission is to contribute to the overall mission of The University of Arizona by promoting advanced scholarship, by translating faculty research into dynamic undergraduate instruction, and by contributing to the community through educational outreach and professional advising. Our goal is to transmit, interpret, and critique Jewish historical, religious, and cultural traditions for the benefit of present and future generations.
The fall semester is a season of new beginnings — a new academic year, a new set of courses, new professors, new programs and most importantly, new students. This fall we in the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies proudly announce a couple new Judaic Studies courses and welcome to our program a new professor, a couple new graduate students and many new undergraduate students. This fall Dr. Gil Ribak will join us as the university’s first professor of Modern American Jewish Studies. After serving as a Schusterman Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow at the UofA from 2010-2012, Dr. Ribak taught at The American Jewish University and Oberlin College. We welcome him back to Tucson and look forward to the new courses he will offer in the area of American Jewish history and culture. We are also pleased to announce some other new courses. Uri Maimon, the head of our Hebrew Program will be offering a new advanced Hebrew course that focuses on Israel’s hi-tech industry. He and Hebrew instructor Naomi Present will also add a hi-tech component to all the intermediate Hebrew courses. This year the Center will also offer a new course on the archaeology of early Judaism and Christianity. With these additions to our already strong programs, we are able to offer our students and supporters a dynamic educational experience on campus and in the community. The Center will host its second annual Israel Studies conference on December 4th and 5th. This year’s theme builds on last year’s conference theme, Israel’s Place in the Changing Middle East, and will focus on Israel’s Changing Society and Politics as it strives to balance its unity and diversity as a Jewish, democratic state in the context of its pressing regional, social and cultural challenges. You will not want to miss this opportunity to hear from some of the world’s leading experts on various aspects of Israeli society. Due in part to the growth of our programs both on and off campus over the past several years, Dean JP Jones of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has approved the appointment of Prof. David Graizbord as Assistant Director of the Center. Prof. Graizbord has been at the UofA for 15 years, and he will be supervising all curricular affairs, undergraduate advising and various other projects in the Center. The Center is a thriving enterprise, and I hope that you find our semi-annual newsletters informative updates on what we are doing. I also hope that you find them to be inspiring reminders of how your support positively impacts the lives of the many people we serve on our campus and in our community. I would take this opportunity to ask that you please consider renewing your commitment to our campus and community enterprise by supporting the Center financially at this time. We work hard to maximize the impact of our partners’ support, and I hope that you enjoy this brief update on the success you have made possible. Appreciatively as always,
Ed Wright, Director
judaic.arizona.edu judaic.arizona.edu
Arizona Center for Judaic Studies | Fall 2016 3
Lecture Series Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series Israel, Jordan and Palestine: What is their Place in the New Middle East? Monday, Nov. 7, 2016 • 7pm Tucson JCC • Free
Prof. Asher Susser The Stein Family Professor of Modern Israel Studies University of Arizona
As the Middle East region goes through what is perhaps its worst crisis ever, and as key states seem to be on the verge of disintegration, how stable are countries like Jordan and how does its stability impinge upon Israeli security, on the one hand, and on the future of Palestinian statehood on the other? In the present regional circumstances how valid is the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians? Is there a one-state solution? To what extent should old ideas like the Jordanian - Palestinian confederation be revived? What validity is there to the notion that “Jordan is Palestine”? This lecture seeks to discuss these questions and other related issues.
Israel 2016: Vision and Reality Keynote Address for the “Balancing Unity & Diversity” Israel Conference
Monday, Dec. 5, 2016 • 7pm Tucson Marriott University Park $50 (Students $25) includes Dinner
Prof. Anita Shapira Professor Emerita Tel Aviv University The Zionist thinkers envisioned a pastoral land of milk and honey, living in harmony with its neighbors, a country that is a model of enlightenment and progress. Reality trumps the idyllic dreams: Israel is better than the vision in some aspects, but much less idyllic, full of contrasts and conflicts, and of contradictory trends. The lecture will try to describe and analyze the expectations versus the reality, the success and the failure of the most amazing national movement in the 20th Century, Zionism.
Spring 2017 Lectures Mapping Middle East Mayhem:
Stolen Legacy
Prof. Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg University of Pittsburgh
Dina Gold Moment Magazine
Monday, January 30, 2017 • 7pm Tucson JCC • Free
Monday, March 6, 2017 • 7pm Tucson JCC • Free
Religion & the 2016 Election:
Historical Context & Unusual Alliances Monday, February 20, 2017 • 7pm Tucson JCC • Free
Prof. Randall Balmer, Dartmouth College
4
Full information is online at Judaic.arizona.edu/ PozezLectures
Arizona Center for Judaic Studies | Fall 2016
Forbidden Composers: Schoenberg, Weill, Winterberg
2016 Shaol & Louis Pozez Fine Arts Symposium
October 14-16 The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music
Festival Director: Daniel Asia Guest artists: Michael Haas, Stephen Hinton, Sabine Feisst, Amernet String Quartet The music of three composers, Arnold Schoenberg, Kurt Weill, and Hans Winterberg was banned by the Nazis. This year’s Pozez Fine Arts Symposium will present the lives and music of these three major composers under the overarching theme of “Forbidden Composers.” The speakers will explore the lives of these composers in their native lands and as immigrants in America, explain the relationship between serious and popular music as exemplified in their music, and present a new understanding of ‘compositional voice’ in the music of these important 20th century composers. There will also be two concerts in conjunction with the symposium. For a complete schedule of events, please go to judaic.arizona.edu/ ForbiddenComposers judaic.arizona.edu
Sally & Ralph Duchin Campus Lecture Series Middle Eastern Secularism, Islamism and Sectarianism A Brief History of Ideas & Politics
Monday, Sept. 12, 2016 • 4 pm UA Hillel • Free
Prof. Asher Susser The Stein Family Professor of Modern Israel Studies University of Arizona
Over the last two hundred years the Middle East has undergone various forms of Westernizing and secularizing reforms under the impact of European ideas, key of which was nationalism. How did Ottoman reforms evolve into nationalism and into secular ideas of collective identity? Why did the process of secularization have only a limited impact? Secular nationalism proved to be less pervasive than initially assumed and never really superseded religious identities, which have reasserted themselves with great force in recent decades. Islamism has become a dominant force in Middle Eastern politics. As religion and religious identity have become more politicized, religious sectarianism has resurfaced to deeply divide Middle Eastern societies and thus to challenge the integrity of the Middle East state system.
Gender in Archaeology Today: The Key to
Understanding Ancient Israel
Monday, Sept. 26, 2016 • 4 pm UA Hillel • Free
Prof. Beth Alpert Nakhai University of Arizona
women’s daily lives, nor about their critically important contributions to social, economic, and religious well-being. For those interested in Iron Age Israel (1200587 BCE) this might seem surprising, since the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament includes many well-known stories about illustrious – and not so illustrious – women. This talk explores the ways in which traditional scholarship in the fields of archaeology and biblical studies has hampered exploration of the roles of women in the ancient Near East and, specifically, in ancient Israel. It looks at women and the exploration of the ancient Near East, and relates these topics to changing frontiers in scholarship on women in ancient Israel.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Jewish Responses
to Accusations of Jewish Criminality in Early TwentiethCentury America
Monday, Oct. 31, 2016 • 4 pm UA Hillel • Free
Dr. Gil Ribak University of Arizona Dr. Ribak’s talk will focus on the ways Jewish communal leaders, activists, intellectuals, and the Yiddish press in New York City responded to accusations in the early twentieth century by American nativists about alleged Jewish proclivity to criminality. Those Jewish reactions delineated the beliefs, attitudes and judgments about Jewish difference from non-Jews at a time when xenophobia and nativism were on the rise in America.
Armageddon and the Roman VIth Ferrata Legion: New Excavations at
Legio, Israel, and Early JewishChristian-Roman Relations Monday, Nov. 14, 2016 • 4 pm UA Hillel • Free
Dr. Matthew Adams Director, W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem In the late 1st and early 2nd Centuries CE, dangerous Jewish (and incipient Christian) rebels were causing problems for the Roman Empire in Palestine. Though the First Revolt resulted in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE and in the establishment of a permanent base of the Xth Legion there, these groups continued to harass their overlords. Historical sources indicate that the Roman VIth Ferrata Legion was deployed to Palestine in the early 2nd Century CE to provide support for the Xth, a sure sign that the rebels were acting up again. The VIth Legion established their base somewhere near Megiddo, but its exact location has been a long-standing question in the archaeology of the period. Using historical and geographical sources, aerial photography, and remote sensing, the Jezreel Valley Regional Project searched for potential locations of the elusive fortress. In 2013, one of these locations was tested by excavation, providing the first glimpse of a 2nd Century Roman military base yet uncovered in the entire eastern Empire. These new excavations have new implications for Jewish-Christian-Roman relations and for the composition of the Book of Revelation.
Until the last few decades, the topic of women in antiquity was virtually unexplored by archaeologists and biblical scholars. Little was known about judaic.arizona.edu
Arizona Center for Judaic Studies | Fall 2016 5
Student News Alumni News
Weintraub Scholar Kati Juhlin
Andrea Brodie, Class of 2006
Weintraub Scholarship recipient Kati Juhlin spent the Spring 2016 semester in Jerusalem, Israel.
Andrea Brodie is now an associate at Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Formato, Ferrara & Wolf, LLP in the family law group. Prior to joining Abrams Fensterman, Ms. Brodie worked at another prominent family law boutique firm as their senior associate with an emphasis almost exclusively on family and matrimonial cases. Ms. Brodie graduated magna cum laude from the U of A and received her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law with a Concentration and Citation of Excellence in Child and Family Advocacy.
The greatest thing she took from her experience living in Israel was a greater proficiency in spoken Hebrew, especially learning “how much more I need to learn”. She laughingly recalls asking a fellow bus passenger to repeat an announcement from the driver and then asked directions, but promptly forgot the Hebrew name of the place she was going. Living in the land of the Bible brought to life the Judaic Studies lectures she had attended. Especially moving for her was learning how to put Biblical narratives into Mesopotamian and Babylonian history, looking at 5,000 year old accounts of life, and gaining a greater understanding of the Torah through the greater contextualization. Living in Israel during this tumultuous time was eye-opening. Though she was never directly affected by violence, she began to recognize the places mentioned in news stories, and heard the harrowing personal accounts of Jewish and Muslim friends. The quote that she’ll most remember is this: “When someone visits Israel for a week, they know enough to write a book. When they visit Israel for a month, they know enough to write a journal article. When they visit Israel for a few months, they maybe will say a sentence or two. When they live in Israel, they realize they don’t know anything.”
Thanks to Judaic Studies Donors $10,000+ Anonymous Paul & Alice Baker Tom & Sara Borin Don & Joan Diamond Ralph & Sally Duchin Marilyn Einstein & Steve Sim Deanna Evenchik Larry & Kristen Gellman The Israel Institute Gary & Tandy Kippur Ken & Betsy Plevan The Pozez Family Fund Bobby Present Ken & Linda Robin David & Andrea Stein
$5,000-$9,999 Anonymous Roy Medina & Rowene Medina Aguirre Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona
6
Ruthann Pozez & Norman Pozez Evie & Shaol Pozez Fund
$1,000-$5,000 Anonymous Deborah Baker Margaret Houghton Michael & Robin Kaiserman Ron & Kathy Margolis Mitch & Robin Pozez Shelley Jo Pozez Howard & Trudy Schwartz Irving I. Silverman Gary & Marsha Tankenoff
Under $1,000 Anonymous Jack & Stephanie Aaron Ashley Aguilar Barry Baker Al Bergesen David Bilgray Nathaniel & Suzanne Bloomfield
Ken Brandis Ron Breiger & Linda Waugh Jade Carr Edward & Arlene Cohen George & Marjorie Cunningham Jacob Donze Emmanuel Furst David Goldstein Ralph & Maxine Henig Gary & Linda Israel Robert Jewett Deborah Kaye Ron & Ruth Kolker Boris & Billie Kozolchyk Lisa Kurr-McMillan Seymour & Sheila Lehrer Sidney Lissner Michael & Helene Miron Alice Morris Tom & Caren Newman Janet Oseran Hal & Rachel Ossman Stuart & Eve Pinkert
Arizona Center for Judaic Studies | Fall 2016
Burke & Kathleen Rosenzweig Betty Anne Sarver John & Helen Schaefer Esther Sherberg Shelly Silverman Nancy Surdoval Donald & Elissa Tempkin Shelia Tobias & Carl Tomizuka Robert & Evelyn Varady Tamir & Naomi Weiner Liz Weiner-Schulman Patricia White Irving & Marcia Winick Bruce & Linda Wright
Your donations support engaging programs, academic excellence and community involvement!
judaic.arizona.edu
Jeffrey Plevan Memorial Lecture: Dennis Ross United States Ambassador Dennis Ross addressed the history of the U.S. relationship with Israel for the purpose of plotting the future trajectory in a lecture hosted by The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies on April 6th. Ross’ talk was the 2016 Jeffrey Plevan Memorial Lecture, which is an annual
endowed lecture memorializing Jeffrey Plevan, a graduate of the University of Arizona in History and Judaic Studies. Jeff passed away at the age of 38. In 2013 Betsy and Ken Plevan graciously and generously endowed the Jeffrey Plevan Memorial Lecture in Israel Studies to honor the memory of their son. Modern Israel was a very important topic to Jeff, and each year the lecture is aimed at shedding light on this area of study. This year, lecture-goers were in for a treat as they attended “The Past, The Present and Future of U.S.-Israel Relations,” presented by Ambassador Ross, one of the judaic.arizona.edu
world’s leading experts on U.S. policy in the Middle East and U.S.-Israel relations. Ross, the author of new book, Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama, contextualized the relationship between the U.S. and Israel against the backdrop of the regional threats and the struggle between extrem-
ist religious groups in the Middle East. The most difficult task of the evening was to predict where the relationship would go to the near future by trying to track U.S. policy decisions in the region. The lecture took place in the newly constructed Environment and Natural Resources Phase 2 building located on the University of Arizona campus. A free reception hosted by the Plevan family was held in Jeff’s honor in the courtyard of the building prior to the talk. Over 200 people attended the reception and 90-minute lecture.
Ross served as the director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush. As well, Ross served as the Middle East peace envoy for President Bill Clinton and served as a special assistant to President Barack Obama.
Ross is the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and is also a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Please consider a donation to Judaic Studies. Your donations support excellent programs like this one.
Arizona Center for Judaic Studies | Fall 2016 7
The University of Arizona Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Louise Foucar Marshall Bldg. 845 N. Park Ave., Ste. 420 Tucson, AZ 85721-0158
NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE
PAID
TUCSON AZ PERMIT NO. 190
Second Annual Modern Israel Conference
Conference Sponsors:
Save the Dates: December 4-5, 2016