2016–2017 Events
Public Events
First Screening: The Band’s Visit
Tuesday, September 27, 2016, 5:00 – 7:00 pm, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Directed by Eran Kolirin
A brass band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center. But due to bureaucracy, bad luck, or for whatever reason, find themselves stranded in a desolate, almost forgotten, small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert. A brass band comprised of members of the Egyptian police force head to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center. But due to bureaucracy, bad luck, or for whatever reason, find themselves stranded in a desolate, almost forgotten, small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert.
A Robbins Collection Lecture on Jewish Law, Thought, and Identity
American Judaism 2016: From Theory to Practice and Back
Thursday, October 27, 2016, 5:15 Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft WayArnold Eisen: Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary in New York
Chancellor Eisen is one of the world’s foremost authorities on American Judaism. He has written several books and articles on a range of topics, including Jewish community and scholarship. Chancellor Eisen’s lecture was sponsored by the Robbins Collection and the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies.
Film Screening: Gett: The Trial of Vivianne Amsalem
Tuesday, November 1, 2016, 6:00 pm, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Directed by Eran Kolirin
An Israeli woman (Ronit Elkabetz) seeking to finalize her divorce from her cruel and manipulative husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country’s religiously-based marriage laws, in this riveting drama from sibling directors Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz, who is also one of Israeli cinema’s most acclaimed actresses. As Viviane attempts to finalzie the divorce, her husband’s cold intransigence, Viviane’s determination to fight for her freedom, and the ambiguous role of the judges shape a procedure in which tragedy vies with absurdity, and where everything is brought out for judgment, apart from the initial request.
Threats to Democracy in Israel
Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 5:30 pm Reception, 6:00 pm Lecture, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way
Itzhak GalnoorL Herbert Samuel Professor of Political Science (Emeritus), Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Senior Fellow, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
This lecture will follow the uneven path of Israel’s democratic development, asking questions
such as: While the rules of the game have been observed—fair elections, orderly change of regime, independent judiciary, pluralistic party system, free speech why have the democratic values underlying them not become axiomatic? What explains the decline in public trust? Do the changes in political practices, such as the emergence of an autonomous civil society, indicate where Israeli democracy is heading? What are the implications for Israel’s democracy of the inability to cope with major problems—security; the status of the Arab citizens in Israel; socio-economic gaps and inequality; and state and religion? Is there a danger to democracy in Israel? How to build an enduring trust in democracy among young people?
Film Screening: Late Marriage
Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 6:00 pm, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Directed by Dover Koshashvili
Set within the Georgian emigre community of Tel Aviv, a look at what happens when human beings get stuck between the rock of true love and the hard place of family tradition. Lily and Yasha are distraught that their 31-year-old son Zaza has not yet married. He is handsome, intelligent, and charismatic... So why no wife? Forced to choose between his familial obligations and his body-and-soul love for Judith, Zaza doesn’t know where to turn. This film grapples with the challenges between traditional values and modernity, and feel like a representative snapshot of many such stories.
Is Israel Stuck Forever with its Political Fault Lines? A Project to Reorient the Left-Right Chasm
Wednesday, November 30, 2016, Reception: 5:30 pm, Lecture: 6:00 pm, Warren Room, 295 Boalt Hall, Berkeley Law
Eilon Schwartz, the founder and director of Shaharit, and Nissim Mizrachi, a Sociology Professor and former chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, will share with us their story of a unique collaboration between academia and civil society for the purpose of creating a new political space in Israel: beyond “left” and “right.
Nissim Mizrahi: Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University
Eilon Schwartz: Founder and Director Shaharit, a think tank in Israel focused on politics of the common good
Moderated by Claude Fischer: Professor, the Graduate School of Sociology University of California, Berkeley
On the Banks of the Tigris
Monday, February 13, 2017, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Performance and Conversation with Yair Dalal
Directed by Marsha Emerman
Film Screening: A Borrowed Identity & Conversation with Author Sayed Kashua
Thursday, February 22, 2017, Receptioin, 5:30 PM, Screening, 6:00 PM, 295 Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley
Moderated by UC Berkeley Professor Chana Kronfeld
Sayed Kashua is a novelist, opinion columnist for Haaretz newspaper, and television writer of the highly popular Israeli series, Avodah Aravit (Arab Labor). The fillm A Borrowed Identity is based on Sayed Kashua’s 2002 memoir, Dancing Arabs. The drama directed by Eran Riklis tells the story of Eyad, a Palestinian teenager from Tira who moves to Jerusalem to study at a prestigious boarding school, where he struggles with issues of culture and identity. Sayed Kashua will join for a post-screening discussion. Cosponsored by The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Department of Comparative Literature.
Film Screening: East Jerusalem/ West Jerusalem and Conversation with David Broza and Ali Paris
Monday, February 27, 2017, 6:00 Reception, 6:15 pm Screening, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Directed by Dover Koshashvili
East Jerusalem/ West Jerusalem follows Israeli singer-songwriter superstar, David Broza, as he sets out to record an album with Palestinian, Israeli, and American musicians, under the studio direction of Grammy winner Steve Earle. Over eight days in a small studio in Palestinian East Jerusalem, the artists build cultural bridges and transcend politics through music. Directed by Henrique Cymerman and Erez Miller. (2014, 80 min. In English, Hebrew, and Arabic with English subtitles.) David Broza and fellow musician Ali Paris will join for a post-screening discussion and performance.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017, 6:00 PM Reception, 6:30 Lecture, 295 Boalt Hall
Adina Hoffman’s Till We Have Built Jerusalem is a gripping and intimate journey into the very different lives of three architects who helped shape modern Jerusalem. A beautifully written rumination on memory and forgetting, place and displacement, the book uncovers the ramifying layers of one great city’s buried history as it asks what it means, in Jerusalem and everywhere, to be foreign and to belong. Adina Hoffman is an American essayist, critic, and biographer who writes often about the Middle East. Her books include House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood and My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century. Her book Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza, cowritten with Peter Cole, was awarded the American Library Associations Brody Medal for the Jewish Book of the Year. Winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and Windham Campbell literary prize, she lives in Jerusalem and New Haven.
Film Screening: Wedding Doll and with Conversation Filmmaker Nitzan Gilady
Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 6:00 PM Reception, 6:15 Screening, 295 Warren Room, Boalt Hall
Directed by Dover Koshashvili
Wedding Doll follows Hagit, a young woman with mild mental deficiency, that works in a toilet-paper factory. She lives with her mother Sarah, a divorcee who gave up her life for her daughter. Hagit strives for independence and Sarah is torn between her desire to protect Hagit, and her own will to live. When a relationship develops between Hagit and the son of the factory owner, Hagit hides it from her mother. The announcement of the closing of the factory shakes Hagit and Sarah’s life and jeopardizes Hagit’s love story. The fi lm received nine nominations for the Israeli Academy Awards and won Best Actress and Best Costume Design. Nitzan Gilady is a director and writer, known for his documentaries In Satmar Custody and Jerusalem is Proud to Present. Wedding Doll is his first feature film. Join us for this fantastic film! The screening will be preceded by a light reception.
Academic Events
Welcome Back Event
Thursday, September 8, 2016, 5:30 PM, Warren Room, 295 Law Building
Meet and greet event for new students and faculty, introducing the Berkeley Institute.
Conference: Israeli Artists in Conversations with Israel
April 5–7, 2017
Wednesday, April 5
Conference Opening: Film Screening, at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
5:30pm Reception, 6:00pm Film Screenings and Discussion, “Women in Sink/Hafifa” (2015, 36 minutes); “The Women’s Balcony” (2016, 96 minutes)
8:15pm: Q and A with filmmakers Iris Zaki and Emil Ben Shimon, Moderator: Ilana Szobel
9:00pm End of Program
Thursday, April 6
Conversations in the Arts
8:30am: Breakfast at The Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
9:00–10:30am: Panel I: The State of the Arts in Israel
Scholars will explore and discuss many of the current exciting creators in the Israeli arts scene and the ways in which they are addressing topical social and political questions through their art. Art highlights social themes in specific ways and through specific forms; the lenses of art can allow viewers and participants to experience critical issues in Israeli society in new ways. The speakers will provide scholarly overviews of “the state of the arts” in the visual arts, in music, in theatre, drama, and performance studies. Panelists will include Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, Motti Regev, and Gannit Ankori. Moderator: Francesco Spagnolo.
10:30am: Coffee Break
11:00am–12:30pm: Panel II: Roundtable: Israel Between Cultures and Identities
This round table includes several participating artists – working in different genres from music to theatre to visual culture – talking together with a moderator about the intersection of multiple cultures in Israel, with one another and with diverse artistic mediums. How do the artists shape and perceive Israeli and other identities through their art forms, and where do they draw/express the boundaries of Israeliness (and otherness)? With Yair Dalal, Iris Zaki, Eyal Weiser, Ibrahim Miari, Raafat Hattab. Moderator: Ben Brinner.
12:30–1:30pm: Lunch
1:30: 2:30pm: Panel III: Artist/Scholar Discussion: Eyal Weiser with Sharon Aronson-Lehavi
2:30pm: Coffee Break
3:00–4:30pm: Panel IV: Roundtable: Performing Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Israel
This round table includes several participating artists – working in different genres from music to theatre to visual culture – talking together with a moderator about the intersections of religion, gender and sexuality in Israel, both with one/ another and with diverse artistic mediums. How do the artists grapple with these themes in their work? With Iris Zaki, Nelly Agassi, Elad Schechter, Emil Ben Shimon, Raafat Hattab. Moderators: Merav Singer and Noam Gil.
6:00pm: Israeli Artists in Performance, at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
6:30pm: Dinner Reception
- Performances
- Yair Dalal
- c.a.t.a.m.o.n dance troupe
- Ibrahim Miari
8:30pm End of Program
Friday, April 7
Continued Conversations in Arts and Technology
8:30am: Breakfast at Berkeley Law (Goldberg Room), Boalt Hall, 215 Bancroft Way, Berkeley CA 94720
9:00–10:00am: Panel V: Artist/Scholar Conversation: Nelly Agassi with Gannit Ankori
10:00-10:15am: Coffee Break
10:15–11:15am: Panel VI: Roundtable: Artists at the Intersection of Art and Technology with Eran Hadas, Elad Schechter, Iris Zaki, Nitzan Lederman. Moderator: Ken Goldberg.
11:15am–12:00pm: Screening of Artist Videos
12:00–1:00pm: Lunch
Conference Closing
Sociology in the Garden: Beyond the Liberal Grammar of Contemporary Sociology
Nissim Mizrahi, Tel Aviv University (Anthropology and Sociology)
Who Came and Who Stayed Home? Israel’s Massive Street Protests of 2011
Michael Shalev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology)
State Responsibility and the Policy of Privatization in Israel
Itzhak Galnoor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Political Science)
Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine
Moshe Naor, University of Haifa (Israel Studies)
Grammatical Gender: Does Hebrew Language Fail Women in Math?
Tamar Kricheli-Katz, Tel Aviv University (Law and Sociology) and Tali Regev, Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (School of Economics)
Salvage or Restitution? The Removal of Jewish Cultural Property to Israel After the Holocaust
Shir Kochavi, Cultural Arts Director, Addison Penzak JCC
Musical and Other Cultural Cosmopolitanism in Israel
Motti Regev, The Open University of Israel (Sociology)
Israel in Africa: Medical Diplomacy and Global Health, 1959–1973
Anat Moorvile, Israel Post-Doctoral Fellow at University of California, Davis (Jewish Studies)
Student Events
Poetry with Shlomi Hatuka: Writing Gender in Modern Hebrew Literature
February 9, 2017, Room 246, Barrows Hall, 2:30 – 4:00 PM
Shlomi Hatuka
Moderated by Ilana Szobel and Chana Kronfeld
Shlomi Hatuka is an activist, poet, editor, and founder of the Tangier Publishing House and Amram Organization. His first book Mizrach Yarech was published in 2015. Earlier in 2015, Hatuka won a prize for young poets by the Ministry of Culture. Hatuka's poems have been published in Haaretz, Yediot Ahronot, and Maariv. Amram is the leading organization working on the kidnapped babies affair. The event will be in Hebrew.
A Reporter's Notebook: The Pitfalls and Rewards of Writing about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Thursday, April 21st, Warren Room, 295 Law Building, 5:00 PM
Stanford Lecturer and Journalist joined us to discuss her experiences reporting in Israel and in the Middle East.