2013–2014 Events
Public Events
Maimondes and Islamic Law: The Case of Sufism
July 25, 2013
Gideon Libson, Professor Emeritus of Muslim Law, Jewish Law and Comparative Jewish-Islamic Law, Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
A Green Bridge over Troubled Waters: The Israeli/Palestinian Initiative for Environmental Dignity in the Kidron/Wadi El Nar Basin
August 15, 2013, Dean’s Seminar Room, Boalt Hall
The Kidron/Wadi El Nar Plan is a unique cross-boundary cooperative effort designed to restore and enrich one of the most important-and most polluted-river valleys in the Middle East: the 28-kilometer Kidron/Nar Valley which runs from the center of Jerusalem, to the east through Palestinian villages, and eventuallyinto the Dead Sea. The project is the result of years of hard work on a plan encompassing ecological, historical, cultural, physical, economic, and geographical elements, agreed upon by Israelis and Palestinians, to serve the best interests of the Valley regardless of present or future political sovereignty issues. Liora Meron who, together Arie Rahamimoff, is chief architect of the Kidron/Wadi El Nar planning team, will present the project, and through it explore both challenges to, and and the need for, environmental and social cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Liora Meron, Chief Architect, Kidron/Wadi El Nar Basin and Master Implementation Plan
Jews and Words
October 9, 2013, Morrison Reading Room, Doe Library, UC Berkeley Campus
Fania Oz-Salzberger, Professor of History, University of Haifa
A talk on the book written with her father, novelist Amos Oz.
The Robbins Collection Lecture in Jewish Law and Thought
What We Can Learn from the Jewish Political Tradition
November 12, 2013
Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study
Prospects for Peace: An Assessment by Ambassador Dennis Ross
November 14, 2013
Ambassador Dennis Ross, Counselor, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Lecture Co-Sponsored with the Institute on International Studies; Religion, Politics, and Globalization Program; The Olive Tree Initiative; Institute of Governmental Studies; Berkeley Hillel; Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law
Tears the Civil Servant Cannot See: Levinas on Ethics, Politics and Zionism
November 20, 2013, 5:00 pm, 201 Moses Hall, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Michael Morgan, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, Indiana University at Bloomington
Lecture Co-Sponsored with the Institute of European Studies
Second Track Diplomacy and Prospects for Peace in Israel/Palestine
November 25, 2013, 7:00–8:30PM, Berkeley School of Law (Room 100)
Dr. Gershon Baskin, Founder, Co-Chairman, Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information
Lecture Co-Sponsored with the Olive Tree Initiative
Covering Israel: Conversations with Contemporary Journalists
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
February 14, 2014, 12:00PM, Northgate Library
Ari Shavit, Senior Correspondent for Haaretz
Watch the recording here.
Reporting Israel: the Personal, the Political, and the Press
Aluf Benn, Editor-in-chief for Haaretz
February 21, 2014, 12:00PM, Northgate Library
Watch the recording here.
Covering Israel: A Reporter’s Notebook
Janine Zacharia, Former Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The Washington Post
March 7, 2014, 12:00PM, Northgate Library
Watch the recording here.
This event is co-sponsored by the Israel Center, Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties and the Israeli Consulate. Co-Sponsored with the Graduate School of Journalism.
Film Screening and Talk: Brave Miss World
February 19, 2014, 7:30pm, 145 Dwinelle
Cecilia Peck, Director
Co-Sponsored with Berkeley Hillel
Public Panel and Networking Event: Israeli Start-Ups in the International Arena
March 6, 2014, 6:00PM, Room 105, Boalt Hall
Co-Sponsored with the Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB), the Israeli Consulate, Berkeley Hillel, TAMID Investment Group, the Haas Jewish Business Club, and Jewse (Jews in Engineering)
International Conference: Israeli and Palestinian Waterways: History, Politics, and Technology of Water and Environment in the Middle East
March 11, 2014, Bancroft Hotel
Conference in partnership with the College of Natural Resources. Co-sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy; the College of Environmental Design; the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES); the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE);the Institute of International Studies (IIS); and the Friends of the Arava Institiute.
Between ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’: Talmudic and Contemporary Gender Diversity
March 19, 2014, 5:00PM, Graduate Theological Union Library
Charlotte Fonrobert, Visiting Professor of Rabbinics, Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union(GTU), Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Stanford University
Lecture Co-Sponsored with the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union
Gender, Sexuality and Modern Jewish Identity
April 3, 2014, 4–5:30 pm, 145 Law Building
Shaun Halper, Ph.D. Candidate at UC Berkeley
Lecture co-sponsored with the Paradigms of Jewish Identity DeCal, Q-Jew, and Miriam the IV
Haluzah or Beauty Queen? National Ideals of Women in Israel after 1948
April 7, 2014, 5:00 pm, 3401 Dwinelle Hall
Julie Grimmeisen, University of Munich
Sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies, the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, and the Department of History
Conference: Talmudic Transgressions: Engaging the Work of Daniel Boyarin
April 8–10, 2014
A unique three-day conference, bringing leading Talmudic scholars to Berkeley to discuss Jewish law and engage with the scholarship of Daniel Boyarin. See full program for list of topics and presenters.
Co-sponsors: The Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union; the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University; the Department of Rhetoric, UC Berkeley; the Department of Near Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley; The Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion; and the College of Letters and Sciences, Arts and Humanities Division.
Berkeley School of Law and the Graduate Theological Union
From India to Israel: A Multicultural Celebration
April 10, 2014, 6:30–9:30pm, The Magnes Museum
Two communities are coming together to celebrate longstanding tradition and diversity. The event will consist of performances and a complimentary reception of both Indian and Israeli foods followed by a dance. We hope you join us and the many co-sponsoring groups to celebrate the longevity of both cultures and enjoy each's distinctive history.
Hosted by the Jewish Student Union (JSU), the Hindu Student Union (HSU), Indus, Indian Students Association (ISA), Hillel, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Mishelanu and KALB Public Access
Soviet Documentary Film of the Holocaust: Why it was Marginalized and the Case for Reassessment
April 15, 2014, 4:00 pm, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley
Jeremy Hicks, Reader in Russian Culture and Film and Chair of the Department of Russian Queen Mary, University of London
The events of the Holocaust happened nearly 70 years ago, and mediated forms of testimony, especially camera images, now play an increasingly important role in historical memory of the Holocaust. A wide range films about the Holocaust have been made, and will continue to be made, but they depend on the documentary films, and other camera images, made at the time of the war. While these need to be seen alongside written sources, they can no longer be relegated to the role of solely illustrating textual documents: documentary films constitute a distinct form of historical source material in their own right. This lecture argues that not only are these images in general important, but that the long-neglected Soviet footage constitutes a rich source of visual documentation and testimony as to the Holocaust, especially as it occurred in the USSR.
Sponsored by the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, and the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union
Yom Ha-Shoah Week Theater: If the Whole Body Dies: Raphael Lemkin and the Treaty Against Genocide
April 30, 2014, 7:00pm, Durham Theatre
A staged reading of the one-act play by Robert Skloot, followed by a discussion with the playwright.
Co-Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Student Union with Special Thanks to the Theater, Dance and Performance Studies Department
Academic Events
The Mystery of the Kibbutz: How Socialism Suceeeded
Ran Abramitzky, Professor of Economics, Stanford University
Social Protest and the Social Networks: Israel’s Civic Discourse On-and Off-Line
Fania Oz-Salzberger, Professor of History, University of Haifa School of Law
Performing the Bible on the Israeli Stage
Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, Lisa and Douglas Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor
Abandoning Religion for a Revolver: Israeli Soldiers Writing on the "Jewish Nature" in the 1948 War
Shay Hazkani, PhD Candidate, Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Department of History, New York University
Under Quarantine at Israel’s Ellis Island: Shaar Ha’aliya, 1949–1952
Rhona Seidelman, Visiting Professor, University of Illinois (Urbana–Champaign)
Constitutional Challenges of Community and Localism in Israel
Amnon Lehavi, Atara Kaufman Professor, Faculty of Law, IDC, Gilbert Foundation Visiting Professor, Berkeley Law
Langer’s Brand of "Zionist" Homosexuality: Implications for Thought and Society in the Yishuv
Shaun Halper, Ph.D. UC Berkeley Department of History
Babel in Zion: A New Look at Language Diversity in the Jewish Community of Mandate Palestine
Liora Halperin, Assisstant Professor of History, University of Colorado