Activities and Events

The Frankel Center sponsors guest lectures, colloquia, conferences, exhibitions, films and other events, frequently in cooperation with other University units. Each year the Center hosts a series of colloquia to which faculty, students and the public are invited. These programs provide a forum for visiting scholars and Michigan faculty to present their current research and to address conceptual and methodological questions in various fields of Jewish study. Past programs have included lectures on topics such as the prospects of Jewish pluralism in Israel, Converso martyrdom, Jews and gentiles in Talmudic literature, rabbinic literature, intermarriage and Jewish continuity in the U.S., Ben Shahn and working class Jewish identity, and religious conversions among Polish Jewry in the nineteenth century; and conferences on the Jews of Islamic lands, and Jews and the encounter with the New World.

Current Colloquia in Judaic Studies Previous Colloquia Schedules

Winter 2004

Wednesday, February 4

"Modernity without Secularization:
'Masortiyim' (Traditionalists) in Israel"

Yaacov Yadgar
Department of Policital Studies, Bar-Ilan University
4:00 p.m. Eldersveld Room, Haven Hall, 505 South State Street

Thursday, February 5

Posen Project Colloquium

Yaacov Yadgar
Department of Policital Studies, Bar-Ilan University
3:30 - 4:30 p.m. 3512 Haven Hall, 505 South State Street
By Invitation Only

Monday, February 9

"What a Difference a Place Makes:
Jews and Christians East of the Euphrates"

Isaiah Gafni
Professor, Institute of Jewish Studies, Hebrew University in Jerusalem
7:00 p.m. Michigan League Ballroom, 911 N. University
Sponsored by UM, The Institute of Secular Humanistic Judaism, and The Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies
Part of the Michigan Lectures on Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World

Wednesday, February 11

"Zohar: Mystical Masterpiece"

Daniel C. Matt
A world leading authority on Jewish Mysticism
7:30 p.m. Lecture Room 1, Modern Languages Building, 812 E. Washington Street
Sponsored by the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and Department of Near Eastern Studies

Tuesday, February 17

"The State of Israel and the Prospects for Secular Jewishness"

Ruth Gavison
Professor, School of Law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
4:00 p.m. G115 Angell Hall
Posen Project Colloquium

Thursday, March 11

"Mirror Images: How Jewish Identities are Shaped by Jews' Perceptions of Gentile Attitudes"

Andras Kovacs
Professor of Sociology, CEU, Nationalism Studies Program
12:00 - 2:00 p.m. 3040 Frieze Building
Posen Project Colloquium

Monday, March 15

"The Pianist's Life After the War: My Father's Tragic Experience in World War II and the Difficulty of Forgetting"

Chris Szpilman
Visiting Scholar, E.O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
7:30 p.m. 1200 Chemistry Building
Sponsored by the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the Copernicus Endowment at the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies and Hillel

The David W. Belin Lecture in American Jewish Affairs
The annual Belin Lecture was endowed in 1991 by David W. Belin to provide an opportunity for serious discussion of the contemporary American Jewish community. In addition to the bringing distinguished speakers to the Ann Arbor campus, the Belin Lecture is published and distributed to interested individuals and institutions.

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