WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St.
Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 4, 2003 -- Amos Oz, a leader in the Israeli peace movement and one of Israel's best-known authors, will speak at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 18 as part of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues lecture series at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The lecture, titled "Israel: Peace and War," is free and open to the public and occurs in the main auditorium of the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St.
Oz is Israel's most distinguished literary figure and a founding member of Israel's Peace Now movement.
In a stellar and occasionally controversial literary career spanning nearly 40 years, Oz has commanded both serious critical attention and a wide popular audience. His reputation was established with his first book, "Where the Jackals Howl," and many of his subsequent novels have been critically acclaimed best-sellers in Israel and around the world, including his best known works, "My Michael," and "Black Box."
Oz is the author of 11 novels, three volumes of nonfiction, and a children's book. He continues to devote his time to writing, teaching, and actively campaigning for the Israeli peace movement.
Oz served as a reserve soldier with a tank unit on the Sinai front during the 1967 Six Day War and also served in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. Since the 1967 war, Oz has published numerous essays and works about the Israeli-Arab conflict, campaigning for an Israeli-Palestinian compromise to be based on mutual recognition and co-existence between Israel and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. As one of the leading figures of the Israeli Peace Movement, he has become a well-known international spokesman whose works have been published in 34 languages worldwide.
Two opportunities to learn more about the speaker have been scheduled. A student-led forum will begin at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Students Kelsey Doty and Noushan Noureddini will facilitate this free event.
A pre-talk, led by Ophira Bahar, will begin at 3 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Lied Center's Steinhart Room. Bahar is a native of Haifa, Israel, who has taught Hebrew in Lincoln and at UNL. She has lived in the United States for 40 years and has degrees from UNL.
Oz's Thompson Forum lecture, which is also part of the Kripke Lecture Series, is co-sponsored by the Thompson Forum and UNL's Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies and the Lincoln Jewish Federation. Oz will also speak at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at Omaha's Temple Israel, 7023 Cass St. Oz will read selections from his work and reminisce about his literary and political careers. That talk, delivered as the annual Kripke Lecture Series, is co-sponsored by UNL's Harris Center, the Hermene Zweiback Center for Lifelong Jewish Learning and the Philip G. and Ethel Klutznick chair in Jewish civilization at Creighton University.
The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, the Lied Center for Performing Arts and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For 16 years the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues has offered Nebraskans the opportunity to experience thought-provoking lectures presented by speakers whose work and ideas impact our changing world.
Thompson lectures are broadcast live at www.unl.edu, on Lincoln cable channel 21, UNL's KRNU radio station at 90.3 FM, UNL campus TV, the NebSat system, and at satellite sites in Scottsbluff, Norfolk, Grand Island, and North Platte (subject to change without notice). Information on other Thompson Forum lectures is available online (www.unl.edu/unlpub/special/thompsonforum), (www.cooperfoundation.org), (www.liedcenter.org).
Major funding for the Thompson Forum is provided by the Cooper Foundation, which was founded in 1934 by Joseph H. Cooper, a Russian immigrant who believed in the power of knowledge. The foundation's areas of interest are education, human services, and the arts and humanities. The series is named in honor of its founder, the late E.N. Thompson, former chair of the foundation.
Lied Center programming is supported by Friends of Lied and grants from National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; Heartland Arts Fund, jointly supported by Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance; and Nebraska Arts Council. All events in the Lied Center are made possible entirely or in part by the Lied Performance Fund, which has been established in memory of Ernst F. Lied and his parents, Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied.
CONTACT: Annette Wetzel, University Communications, (402) 472-8524
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Posted by Tom Simons, Office of University Communications
Phone: (402) 472-8514, Fax: (402) 472-7825