About Judaic Studies

Contact Us:

e-mail: bjacobs1@unl.edu
Betty L. Jacobs, Project Assistant

e-mail: jcahan1@unl.edu
Jean A. Cahan, Director
and Undergraduate Program Advisor

e-mail: nleite2@unl.edu
Naomi Leite, Assistant Director

SPRING 2012 (Term 1121): Recent Additions to Course Offerings

This course will examine the relationship between globalization and religious identity, with particular attention to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities around the world. ANTH 498/898.002, Thursdays, 3:00-5:30 p.m., 124 Burnett Hall, UNL City Campus.

University Honors Seminar: UHON 395H

Using materials from both Israeli and Arab experts on Middle East water issue and policies, we will examine the main water problems of the region and the main areas of agreement and disagreement. Practical and scientific solutions will be considered, including frameworks for cooperative water management, tasks for governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). UHON 395H.011, Thursdays, 2:00-4:00 p.m., ROOM: TBA; City Campus.

Explore!

Hillel is one of many opportunities on campus.

Hillel JSA

The UNL Hillel Jewish Student Association is located in the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center, Room 312, in the heart of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln campus, adjacent to the Nebraska Union.

What is Hillel? It is the largest foundation for Jewish campus life in the world! It was first started at the University of Illinois in 1923. Today, there are more than 500 campus chapters throughout the United States and Canada. The mission of Hillel is "to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that the may enrich the Jewish people, and the world."

Hillel Activities and Events:

If you want dates, details and/or information on current activities, or desire to comment on any of the following recent events please email: unlhillel@gmail.com. Email us to also get on the Hillel email list!

Hillel partnered with the Women's Center to bring Harry Brod to UNL campus! On Tuesday November 1st he lectured about the ethics and erotics of sexual consent, Asking For It: The Ethics and Erotics of Social Consent, and then on Wednesday November 2nd he presented a lecture, Is Superman Jewish? How comic book heroes came to serve truth, justice, and the Jewish-American way; on Wednesday before his lecture the Women's Center hosted a dinner with Harry at the Green Gateau, and invited Hillel members to attend. The lecture was free and open to the public.

Yom Kippur Service (Day of Atonement)

UNL Campus, 331 Gaughan Center, Nebraska Union, featured Rabbi Dovid Bashekin of New York City, who led out in discussions, lectures and prayer and study sessions from 10:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Saturday, October 8. Hillel JSA

Breaking News:

We extend warmest congratulations to our colleague, Professor Gerald Steinacher, who has just been named winner of the National Jewish Book Award (Holocaust Studies) for his book Nazis on the Run. The award will be given at a dinner at the Center for Jewish History in New York in mid-March.

We are also delighted to welcome Dr. Naomi Leite as Assistant Director of the Harris Center. Naomi is a cultural anthropologist from the Bay area, winner of numerous teaching awards at UC Berkeley; it will be great to have her assistance in moving our program forward in every way.

Jean Axelrad Cahan, Director

Upcoming Events

JANUARY 24 2012:

Professor Jorge Heine, former Chilean Ambassador to India and South Africa, worked with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions; Ph.D. Stanford; currently working on reconstruction in Haiti. (Co-sponsored by Forsythe Family Program in Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs)

FEBRUARY 22, 23 2012:

Alon Tal, Ben Gurion University, leading environmental scientist and activist in Israel relating to water issues (previously a key speaker at the Klutznick-Harris Symposium on the Environment) will discuss the different environmental accords between Israel and its neighbors, and why the Oslo Accords did not produce environmental dividends, among other related issues. He is a Senior Lecturer from Ben Gurion University - Sdeh Boker Campus, Israel. In 1996, Dr. Tal founded the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a graduate studies center in which Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian students join environmentalists from around the world in an advanced interdisciplinary research program. He currently is chairman of the board for sustainable development at the Jewish National Fund (KKL) and is on the faculty of Ben Gurion University. The lecture will take place at the UNL Nebraska Union Auditorium, Wednesday, February 22, 7:00 p.m., and will be sponsored by The Harris Center for Judaic Studies, and will be open to the public.

MARCH 7, 8 2012:

The three guest speakers will be Professor David Harrington Watt, Professor of History at Temple University; Professor Lynda Clarke, Department of Religion at Concordia University; Shaul Magid, Professor, Department of Religious Studies and The Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Chair, Jewish Studies in Modern Judaism, Indiana University-Bloomington.

The symposium will be held in the City Union on the UNL campus, and cosponsored by The Harris Center for Judaic Studies and the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, and will be free and open to the public.

MARCH 8 PANEL DISCUSSION: University of NE, City Campus, Nebraska Union Auditorium, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

APRIL 2012:

Public lecture by Dr. Naomi Leite, Department of Anthropology and Assistant Director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies. A Harris Center event, open to the public. Location and details to come.

Recent Events

NOVEMBER 30, 2011:

Escaping Nuremberg: How Nazi Perpetrators Fled Justice
by Professor Gerald Steinacher

Professor Steinacher, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, reveals the fascinating story from his most recent book, "Nazis on the Run. How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice" of how Nazi war criminals escaped from justice at the end of World War II by fleeing through the Tyrolean Alps, and the role played by the Red Cross, the Vatican, and the Secret Services of the major powers in smuggling them away from prosecution in Europe to a new life in North and South America, Spain, and the Near East.

The event is open to the public and will be held at the UNL Campus' Great Plains Gallery, 1155 Q Street, Lincoln, NE, at 7:00 p.m.

OCTOBER 23, 24 2011:

Background Note: The Harris Center for Judaic Studies became part of a joint venture with Creighton University in September 2000, when the 14th annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium was held on both the UNL and Creighton campuses, with the evening keynote address taking place at the Omaha Jewish Community Center, 333 S. 132nd St., Omaha, NE.

This fine tradition continues, and continues to enlighten and entertain audiences.

Klutznick Symposium: Programs, Presenters and Abstracts

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011:

Timothy Snyder Lecture: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

Timothy Snyder of Yale University laid out the argument of his recent book, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), to a very attentive audience Wednesday, September 21st at the Sheldon Museum of Art's Abbott Auditorium.

The 2011 Henry and Gretl Wald Lecture, a free event open to the public and sponsored by the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies and the Department of History, UNL drew considerable interest.

...a brief biography and obituary

Gerry Shapiro