Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies

Eight years ago the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara received a gift from the Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation which is enabling us to bring to our campus leading writers, artists, scholars, critics, and activists engaged in work of great distinction related to the Jewish experience.

The Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies were inaugurated with appearances by Art Spiegelman (Fall, 1997), Leah Rabin (Winter, 1998), and Rabbi Michael Lerner (Spring, 1998). Since then our featured guests have included Rodger Kamenetz (Fall, 1998), Steven Katz (Fall, 1998), Ze'ev Chafets (Winter, 1999), Arthur Hertzberg (Spring, 1999), Amos Oz (Fall, 2000), Thomas Friedman (Fall, 1999), Theatre Company Jerusalem (Winter, 2000), The Jerusalem Trio (Fall, 2000), Morris Dees (Fall, 2000), David Shipler (Winter, 2001), Ruth Gruber (Fall, 2001), A.B. Yehohsua (Winter, 2002), Elie Wiesel (Spring, 2002), Tom Segev (Winter 2003), Jacques Derrida (Fall 2003), Moshe Idel (Spring, 2004), Ambassador Dennis Ross (Fall, 2004), Aaron David Miller (Winter, 2005), Jonathan Sarna (Spring 2005), Yossi Klein Halevi (Fall 2005), Bernard-Henri Lévy (Spring 2006), and Rabbi Daniel Gordis (Fall 2007).

In 1998-99, we also introduced a "New Voices" Seminar intended to showcase and nurture talented scholars, writers, and artists who promise to define the field of Jewish Studies in years to come. Susannah Heschel convened the first of these seminars, which have also featured Marc Dollinger and Michael Levine. In addition, we began screening films such as The Shoah Foundation's Academy Award-winning documentary, The Last Days, which chronicles the experiences of five Holocaust survivors who lived in Hungary, Amir Bar-Lev's Fighter which garnered numerous film festival awards for its portrait of two old friends engaged in an original and unorthodox exploration of the Holocaust, the Emmy Award winning documentary, Promises, which explores the Middle East Conflict through the lives of seven Palestinian and Israeli children from Jerusalem, and Seeds, which offers an intimate and candid glimpse of the incredible experiences of young leaders from four conflict regions who meet at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Maine.

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, is cosponsored by UCSB Arts & Lectures, Department of Religious Studies, Congregation B’nai B’rith, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara Hillel.

 

Current Events

James Carroll
“The Disputation: Christians Arguing with Christians about the Jews”
Thursday, February 7 / 8:00 p.m. / Free
UCSB Campbell Hall
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Sandy Tolan
“One Land, Two Peoples: Sixty Years of the Israel-Palestine Tragedy”
Tuesday, February 19 / 8:00 p.m. / Free
UCSB Campbell Hall
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Past Events

Bernard-Henri Lévy
"The Re-emergence of Anti-Semitism in Europe"
Monday, April 10 2006
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Jon D. Levenson
"The Conversion of Abraham to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam"
Wednesday, January 25 2006
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Yossi Klein Halevi
"Dismantling the Settlements: Road Map to Peace?"
Wednesday, November 9 2005
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Jonathan D. Sarna
“The Future of American Judaism”
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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Aaron David Miller
Arab-Israeli Peacemaking
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
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James Rudin & Akbar Ahmed
“Judaism and Islam: A Conversation”
Sunday, October 24, 2004
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Rina Bar-Tal
“Women in Israel -- The Myths, Realities and the Current Situation”
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
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Ambassador Dennis Ross
“The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace”
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
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Alvin Rosenfeld
“The Anne Frank We Remember”
Tuesday, May 11 2004
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Geoffrey Hartman
“Holocaust Testimony in a Genocidal Age”
Monday, April 19 2004
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Robert Krell
“The Life Journey of Child Holocaust Survivors”
Thursday, February 26 2004
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Bruce Feiler
“Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths”
Sunday, February 22 2004
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“Collecting Memory”
Thursday, November 6 2003
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Jacques Derrida
“Vivre ‘ensemble’ -- Living ‘together’”
Thursday, October 23 2003
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Elinor Langer
“A Hundred Little Hitlers: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White
Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America”
Sunday, October 19 2003
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“I Want to Remember, He Wants to Forget”
with special appearance by Dr. Ichak Adizes
Monday, April 28, 2003
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Yair Dalal and the Al Ol Ensemble
Monday, April 7, 2003
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Daniel Matt
"Kabbalah and Contemporary Cosmology: Discovering the Resonances"
Thursday, March 6, 2003
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Tom Segev
"Beyond Sharon and Arafat"
Sunday, February 2, 2003
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Ruth Ellen Gruber
"Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe"
Thursday, January 16, 2003
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Arthur Green
"The Song of Songs in the Jewish Mystical Tradition"
Sunday, January 12, 2003
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Ruth Kluger
“Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered”
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
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Lawrence H. Schiffman
"Scholars, Scrolls, and Scandals: Judaism, Christianity, and the Dead Sea Scrolls"
Monday, November 4, 2002
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"Promises"
With appearance by Co-Director/Co-Producer B.Z. Goldberg
Sunday, October 20, 2002
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Edward Cohen
"The Peddler's Grandson Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi"
May 5, 2002
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An Evening with Elie Wiesel
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
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A.B. Yehoshua
“Israelis and Palestinians: New Dangers in the Current Crisis”
Sunday, February 24, 2002
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Bernat Rosner and Frederic Tubach
“An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust”
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
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Ruth Gruber
"From Holocaust to Haven"
Sunday, November 4, 2001
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Chava Alberstein And Her Band
Thursday, November 29, 2001
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An Evening of New Documentary Films on The Holocaust
with Special Appearances by their Directors
Monday, October 22, 2001
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Edgar M. Bronfman, Sr.
"Creating a Renaissance in Jewish Life"
Thursday, May 3, 2001
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Chants of Sands and Stars
Thursday, March 1, 2001
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David Shipler
"Twilight War, Twilight Peace: Palestinians and Israelis Struggle
over Common Ground"
Tuesday, February 13, 2001
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Lisa Schiffman
"Generation J"
Wednesday, January 31, 2001
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Judith Plaskow
"Rethinking Jewish Sexual Ethics"
Monday, January 22, 2001
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