New Pulver Chair in Jewish Studies!
In the Fall Term of 2008 we welcome the new Pulver Chair in Jewish Studies, Assistant Professor David Freidenreich. Professor Freidenreich received his Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University and his Rabbinic  Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. The new Pulver Chair was hired after a very competitive search with a field of very fine candidates and comes to us from Franklin and Marshall College where he has been teaching as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies. Professor Freidenreich specializes in Rabbinic legal thought in its historical and comparative contexts, and his dissertation-based manuscript, which is under contract with the University of California Press, is a study of the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic authorities define and fortify the boundaries of their communities through laws regulating the involvement of religious outsiders in food preparation and shared meals. Professor Freidenreich has a varied and comprehensive expertise in Jewish Studies and will offer a broad range of courses for students in Jewish Studies, Religious Studies, History, and other fields. We look forward to welcoming Professor Freidenreich to Colby College—be sure you stop by his office and say Hello!

The Annual Berger Family Holocaust Lecture, Professor Christopher Browning, renowned Holocaust Scholar, will speak on "Remembering Survival: The Factory Slave Labor Camps of Starachowice, Poland." 
April 19 2007, 7:00 pm
Ostrove Auditorium
Diamond Building

The 2007 Lipman Lecture: Professor Debroah Lipstadt will speak on " In Every Generation They Wish to Destroy Us: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism as factors in Jewish Identity."
March 7, 2007, 7:00 pm
Pugh Center

Convivencia: Professor Mark Cohen will speak on Jewish-Christian-Muslim retations in Spain. Presented by the Goldfarb Center and sponsored by The Jewish Studies Program and The Department Of History.
Feb 27, 2007, 7:00 pm

The Maine Jewish Film Festival
Opening Night, Saturday March 17
The Festival runs from March 17 through March 25 offering over twenty films, forums, and other events. For more information visit www.mjff.org or call 207-831-7495.

NEW JEWISH STUDIES PROFESSOR!
The Jewish Studies Program is pleased to announce that Visiting Assistant Professor Sara Abosch will join the program for the academic year 2007-2008. Professor Abosch earned her Ph.D. in History at SUNY Buffalo and is currently teaching at North Carolina State University and Meredith College. Professor Abosch has an extensive background in Anglo-Jewish history, Jewish and European history, in addition to Political Science, International Relations, Political Geography and Civil Military Relations. In addition to the required two part Historical Survey course, Porfessor Abosch will teach History of Israel and Zionism, History of the Jews in England, and the American Jewish Experience. Please see Courses Offered for more information.

The Jewish Studies Program presents the first Annual Jewish Film Series, featuring "Munich," "Protocols of Zion," "Fateless," "The Believer," "Paradise Now," and other films. Dates, time, and place to be announced.

October 8 2006, 11:00 am: Colby Family Weekend Hillel Bagel Breakfast, Smith, Hurd, Robbins Room. Elisa Narin van Court will speak, "Invisible in Oxford: History, Memory, and Medieval Anglo-Jewry in Modern England."

September 28 2006, 7:00 p.m.: The Late Night Players, Pugh Center. Looking for your inner "Cool Jew"? Come for the comedy, stay for the dance-off.

February 8 2006, 11:00 a.m.: Professor Phillip Silver will perform live on MPBN's "Live at 11".

February 18 2006, 7:30 p.m.: Professor Phillip Silver will be in concert in the Givens Auditorium in a performance entitled "Thwarted Voices." Part of an ongoing series at University of Maine, Orono, each year Professor Silver presents musical material from composers whose music was banned by the Nazis, the overwhelming majority of whom were Jewish composers.

March 8 2006, 7:00 p.m.: The Annual Lipman Lecture, Pugh Center. Jerry Fowler, Staff Director Committee on Conscience Holocaust Museum, Washington DC., will give a talk on "Creating a Constituency of Conscience: the Role of Holocaust Remembrance in Combating Contemporary Genocide".

March 18-26: The Maine Jewish Film Festival in Portland. Included in this year's fine and provocative line-up are "Ushpizin" and "Protocols of Zion" ("a chilling look at the post-9/11 resurgence of anti-Semitism"). For more information see www.mjff.org or filmfest@mjff.org

April 23 2006, 7:00 p.m.: The Annual Berger Family Holocaust Lecture, Pugh Center. Professor Phillip Silver of U Maine, Orono, will speak about "Hitler's 'Model Camp': Jews, Music, and Resistance in Terezin 1941-1944".

Jewish Studies 197/Music 197J Professor Phillip Silver, Associate Professor of Music, U Maine, Orono: Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) was the term applied by the Nazis to any music influenced by jazz, the avant-garde or written by composers of Jewish descent. This music, at odds with the perverse racial and cultural policies of the regime, was banned from performance, the composers driven into exile and/or murdered in concentration camps. The exclusion from public life of many esteemed artists created what is in fact a lost generation, and may actually have altered the direction of twentieth century musical development. Sixty years after the defeat of Nazi Germany there is a worldwide effort underway to undo the fascist endeavor to write these artists out of history, and it is the primary focus of this course to contribute to that effort. Topics include German anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic thought in the work of Wagner, Nazi Racial Laws targeting Jewish musicians, Official Agencies and cultural policies, performers and composers as victims and survivors.

Family Homecoming Weekend Hillel Bagel Brunch Sunday, October 30 at 11:00 in the Parker/Reed room in the Alumni Building.
Lots of lox! Lots of bagels! Join us!

Friday Night Sabbath Candle Lighting & Dinner - see Hillel for details

Announcing the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest:
The Prize in Ethics Essay Contest is an annual competition for college students. Full-time juniors and seniors at accredited four-year colleges and universities in the US are welcome to enter the Essay Contest and compete for $10,000 in prizes and the opportunity to meet Elie Wiesel in NYC.

For more information, guidelines and entry form: www.eliewieselfoundation.org. Deadline: December 9, 2005

David Hirsh, Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London will give a talk entitled "Anti-Zionism: The Shifting Boundaries between Critique and Demonization," November 8, 2005. Time and place to be announced. Professor Hirsh works on anti-semitism and anti-zionism, and was a key figure in the campaign against the proposed academic boycott of Israel by the Association of University Teachers in the UK.

The McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College features "The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons." The exhibit focuses on late-19th and early-29th century women and the political/cultural salons they established and attended. Open through December 5, 2005. M-F 11-4; Sat-Sun 12-5. Tel.: 617-552-8587.

Maine Jewish Film Festival Presents The 2005 Yom Hashosh Film Project Sunday May 8, 10:30 am at the Portland Museum of Art
Two films: The Danish Solution: The Rescue of the Jews in Denmark and The Zone plus discussion with filmaker Karen Cantor, The Danish Solution. No charge, open to all. For more information call 207-831-7495 or visit www.mjff.org

Film Series: The Believer Date to be announced

An Olive on a Seder Plate March 28 2005, 7 pm, Page Commons

A full-length multi-media performance that explores how progressive Jews wrestle with the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip.Through a variety of Jewish voices, a collaboration between over a dozen Jewish musicians, performers, artists, and activists, the play goes into the history and politics of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. While the politics expressed in "An Olive on a Seder Plate" challenge the policies behind the occupation, the show consistently approaches the issues from multiple perspectives. Accompanied by live, original and traditional Jewish music, the play (and the discussion that follows the play) is a creative and innovative contribution to understanding the issues and forwarding peace and solidarity work in Jewish communities and beyond.

Annual Lipman Lecture: April 7 Pugh Center 7:00 PM

This year's Lipman speaker is renowned Israeli author David Grossman. He will speak on Writing in Time of War. Grossman, an important journalist and fiction writer, first received international recognition in 1987 with the publication of _A Yellow Wind_, an account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, widely considered to depict both sides of the struggle with compassion. He is also the author of plays, childrens' books, and novels.

Annual Berger Holocaust Lecture: April 27, 2005, 7 pm, Bixler Art Museum Auditorium

This year's Berger speaker is Jerry Robinson, artist, writer, historian, cartoonist, and curator. The last remaining cartoonist from the Golden Age of Cartooning (he worked on Batman, created the character the Joker), Mr. Robinson has recently curated an extensive exhibition of the Golden Age of Comic Books for the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta. Most of those involved in the creation and publication of Superhero cartoons were either Jewish immigrants or the children of Jewish immigrants and Mr. Robinson will speak on the power of these cartoonists and their medium to sway public opinion in America concerning entry into World War II--superheros battling Hitler mobilized public sentiment for the US to enter the war.

Upcoming: A video broadcast of Boston Globe columnist and Interfaith writer/scholar James Carroll's Yale Lecture. Date to be announced.

Film Series in conjunction with English 397: Jews in Literature. Contact Professor Narin van Court

"When I Wish Upon a Weinstein" (untelevised episode of "The Family Guy") followed by "Der Ewige Jude" or "The Eternal Jew," November 2004. The Jews of Poland (invaded by Germany in 1939) are depicted as filthy, evil, corrupt, and intent on world domination. Street scenes are shown prejudicially, along with clips from Jewish cinema of the day and photos of Jewish celebrities, while the narrator "explains' the Jewish problem. The climax and resolution of the film is Hitler's 1939 announcement that the Jewish race will meet its "annihilation" (Vernichtung).

"Focus" December 2004, Starring William H. Macy and Laura Dern. In the waning months of World War II, a man and his wife are mistakenly identified as Jews by their anti-Semitic Brooklyn neighbors. Suddenly the victims of religious and racial persecution, they find themselves aligned with a local Jewish immigrant in a struggle for dignity and survival.

"The Believer" December 2004. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and called the "most potent and provocative film of the year" by _Rolling Stone_, "The Believer" is a daring and gripping portrayal of a young Jewish man living an impossible contradiction as a neo-Nazi. Inspired by real events, the film tells the story of Danny Balint and his struggle between destroying his own people and being drawn back to Judaism.

The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino, Railroad Square March.

Maine Jewish Film Festival, www.mjff.org