20th Community Lecture Series

CJS MARKS THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMMUNITY LECTURE SERIES

The first year the Center for Jewish Studies was founded, Leslie Morris, the inaugural director, and then CLA Dean Steven Rosenstone met with the goal of developing strategies to fulfill the Center’s educational mission as broadly as possible as well as build a positive and active relationship between the CJS and the local community. Thus was born the UMN Center for Jewish Studies Community Lecture Series, established to bring to campus and to the local community some of the most exciting names from the full range of scholarship in the field of Jewish Studies. The initial slogan was “Bringing the U to You.” The CJS underwrote the cost of the lecture series for the first few years, with support from the College of Liberal Arts, after which a donor who was committed to the CJS, to Jewish education, and to service to the community stepped forward. Ever since the lecture series has been made possible by a generous gift in memory of Julia K. and Harold Segall. Over the past twenty years, the Lecture Series has featured over 120 scholars, speaking on topics ranging from “Sharing Sacred Spaces in Jerusalem” to “Sephardic Food and Identity in Medieval Spain” to “Contemporary Writing in Israel” to “Debbie Friedman and the Crucial Era in American Jewish Liturgical Change” to “Perfectionism in Rabbinic Judaism.” Beginning nine years ago, an increasing number of lectures have been recorded; you may view them on the CJS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ JWSTumn/videos. We are grateful to our generous donor, as well as to all of you who have attended the lectures and contributed financially to their continued viability. And we are grateful to all those organizations who have hosted our lectures—local congregations, the JCCs, MN Hillel, and a range of campus partners—without whom we would not be as able to meet our goal of bringing the most exciting scholarship in Jewish Studies out into the community. If you did not receive a brochure for the upcoming 20th Annual Center for Jewish Studies Community Lecture Series, please contact us to get on our mailing list. We look forward to seeing you this year, and we look forward to the next twenty years of shared learning in the vibrant field of Jewish Studies.

To view past lectures and events that have been recorded please visit our youtube page! y youtube.com/user/JWSTumn

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