Lecture series to focus on 'Jews and Diversity'

11:37 a.m., Feb. 16, 2012--"Jews and Diversity" is the topic of a spring lecture series sponsored by the Frank and Yetta Chaiken Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Delaware.

The free public lectures, scheduled from 12:20-1:10 p.m., Wednesdays, in Room 204 Ewing Hall, are free and open to the public. The series is part of a course, "Issues and Ideas in Jewish Studies," which may be taken for one credit. 

Campus Stories

From graduates, faculty

As it neared time for the processional to open the University of Delaware Commencement ceremonies, graduating students and faculty members shared their feelings about what the event means to them.

Doctoral hooding

It was a day of triumph, cheers and collective relief as more than 160 students from 21 nations participated in the University of Delaware's Doctoral Hooding Convocation held Friday morning on The Green.

• Doctoral hooding
• Old Swedes
• Summer SAT, ACT prep
• 'Opus 13' pre-sale

Upcoming February programs include:

• Feb. 22: "Where Harry Met Sally: The Deli in Pop Culture," with Ted Merwin, author of In Their Own Image: Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture and the forthcoming Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli and professor of religion and Judaic studies at Dickinson College; and

• Feb. 29: "Dwelling Together, Living Apart: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Women in Medieval Perpignan," with Rebecca Winer, author of Women, Wealth and Community in Perpignan c. 1250-1300: Christians, Jews and Enslaved Muslims in a Medieval Mediterranean Town and associate professor of history at Villanova University. 

Scheduled in March are

• March 7: "The Virginia Plan: William B. Thalhimer and a Rescue from Nazi Germany," with Robert Gillette, a lifelong educator and author of a book of the same title; 

• March 14: "Tell the World: Preserving Local Holocaust Eyewitness Testimony," with Steve Gonzer, educator and documentary filmmaker; and

• March 21: "Memoir and the Holocaust: How to Tell the Story," with Diane Isaacs, who teaches in UD's English and Jewish studies departments and supervises student teachers in the English and history departments. 

April talks include:

• April 4: "Lionel and Charlotte Rothschild and Victorian England," with Stanley Weintraub, Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University, adjunct professor of English at UD and author of 60 books, including biographies of Lawrence of Arabia, George Bernard Shaw, Aubrey Beardsley, James Whistler, Queen Victoria and Benjamin Disraeli;

• April 11: "Who Is the Israeli?," with Onn Halfon, director of Israel engagement at the Kristol Hillel Center; 

• April 18: "French Jewish Activism and the Refugee Crisis in the 1930s: A Local Perspective," with Meredith Scott, a recent Ph.D. graduate of UD who is currently visiting assistant professor of European history at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania; and

• April 25: "Global Connections: The Jews of Smyrna and Anglo-American Trade in the 1700s," with Cathy Matson, professor of history at UD, director of the Program in Early American Economy and Society (PEAES) in Philadelphia and author of three books. 

Concluding the series in May are

• May 2: "Kill the Best of the Gentiles: Attitudes Toward Gentiles in the Talmud," with Rabbi Alan Iser, former pulpit rabbi and Hillel director and currently an adjunct professor of theology at St. Joseph's and Villanova universities; and 

• May 9: "Jews into Germans: Jewish Culture and Assimilation, 1770-1914," with James Brophy, author and professor of history at UD specializing in modern European history, particularly the social and political history of 19th century Germany.