About Judaic Studies

Contact Us:

Harris Center for Judaic Studies
e-mail: hcjs@unl.edu

Staff:

Director: Jean A. Cahan
e-mail: jcahan1@unl.edu

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

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

FALL 2012 (Term 1128): Current/Advanced Course Offerings

News:

We extend warmest congratulations to Harris Center Fellow Professor Gerald Steinacher, who has just been named winner of the National Jewish Book Award (Holocaust Studies) for his book Nazis on the Run.

We are also delighted to welcome Dr. Naomi Leite as Assistant Director of the Harris Center. Dr. Leite is a cultural anthropologist from the San Francisco 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

OCTOBER 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

MARCH 7, 8 2012:

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

The symposium was 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 was free and open to the public.

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

FEBRUARY 22, 23 2012:

Speaker for the Ruth Kroon lecture was 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. 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). The lecture was sponsored by the Harris Center for Judaic Studies, and took place at the UNL Nebraska Union Auditorium, on Wednesday, February 22. The lecture was free and open to the public.

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; and at the time was working on reconstruction in Haiti. (Co-sponsored by Forsythe Family Program in Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs).

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 public event was 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.