The Center for Jewish Studies at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference

The Center for Jewish Studies actively participated at the 51st Annual Association for Jewish studies Conference in San Diego. For the second year in a row, the Center for Jewish Studies sponsored the AJS Film Festival. In addition, Dalit Katz, the center’s director, introduced the opening film of the festival, Tel Aviv on Fire. Shayna Dollinger, a candidate for the Certificate in Jewish and Israel Studies, and Sophia Shoulson, a Wesleyan graduate, also attended the conference. Michelle Katz, an alumni of the Center for Jewish Studies, is the AJS Membership and Content Conference Manager.

Professor Katz Published an Article on the Association for Jewish Studies Film Committee Work

Dalit Katz, the Chair of the Film Committee of the Association for Jewish Studies, published an article entitled “From Cairo to the Cloud to Tel Aviv on Fire: News from the AJS Film Committee, Fall 2019” at the AJS News: The Conference Issue . The article details the film committee’s work: organizing a film festival at the AJS conference, arranging for speakers and Q/A sessions with film directors, and initiating and chairing an annual pedagogical session on “Teaching with Films,” with a different theme each year. The annual AJS conference is scheduled for December 16-18, 2019, and will take place at Hilton San Diego Bayfront. The Association for Jewish Studies is the largest learned society and professional organization whose mission is “to advance research and teaching in Jewish Studies at colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning, and to foster greater understanding of Jewish Studies scholarship among the wider public”.

For more information about the article, please check the following link:

https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/publications-research/ajs-news/2019-news-from-the-ajs-film-committee/

Prof. Dollinger speaks on Black Power, Jewish Politics

Professor Marc Dollinger, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University  and a  Wesleyan parent, delivered an interactive multi- media presentation about Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s. Earlier  that day Professor Dollinger met with students in the Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for African- American Studies for a lunch in which he shared  the circumstances which prompted him to write this book.  This presentation was part of the Annual Jeremy Zwelling lecture instituted to honor Jeremy Zwelling, the founder of Jewish Studies at Wesleyan University. We had a full house in attendance, and hope to plan more events with the Center for African -American Studies. The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies.

Contemporary Israeli Voices, 2019 Features Two Outstanding Female Writers: Shalev and Rabinyan

In the fall, the Center for Jewish Studies hosted Dorit Rabinyan and Zeruya Shalev as part of the series Contemporary Israeli Voices. Dorit Rabinyan delivered a talk about her recent book All the Rivers, a love story between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, which was banned by Israel’s Ministry of Education from being taught at high schools. Zeruya Shalev delved into the return of pain and the haunting of the past in her recent novel Pain. Both writers met Hebrew classes and answered the students’ questions in Hebrew. A book sale and reception followed each presentation. Students in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Studies wrote papers reflecting on those presentations. We look forward to hosting those accomplished writers again in the future. The series Contemporary Israeli Voices was initiated and organized by Dalit Katz the Director for the Center for Jewish Studies and is sponsored by the Center for Jewish studies.