The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UCSB
Fifteenth Anniversary Events
Spring, 2012
In Commemoration of Yom HaShoah
Inaugural Event for Holocaust Remembrance Week at UCSB
Yehuda Bauer, Academic Advisor, Yad Vashem
“Holocaust and Genocide”
Thursday, April 19 / 8:00 p.m. / Free
UCSB Campbell Hall
What do we mean by “genocide”? Why are humans the only living creatures that kill their own kind in huge numbers? What place does the Holocaust occupy in the history of genocides? What are the essential similarities and differences between the Holocaust and other genocides, particularly ones that have occurred during the last hundred years – Armenian, Cambodian, Ethiopian, Rwandan, and Darfurian?
Yehuda Bauer, Professor Emeritus of History and Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the Academic Advisor to Yad Vashem. He was the founding Chair of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at Hebrew University. His publications include From Diplomacy to Resistance, My Brother's Keeper, Flight and Rescue, The Holocaust in Historical Perspective, The Jewish Emergence From Powerlessness, American Jewry and the Holocaust, History of the Holocaust, Jewish Reactions to the Holocaust, Out of the Ashes, Jews for Sale?, Rethinking the Holocaust, and The Death of the Shtetl.
The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UC Santa Barbara, a program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, is cosponsored by UCSB Arts and Lectures, Department of Religious Studies, Congregation B’nai B’rith, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara Hillel. This event is also cosponsored by Education Abroad Program, UCSB Department of Germanic, Slavic & Semitic Studies, and Department of History.
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Lawrence Baron, Nasatir Chair of Modern Jewish History, San Diego State University
“The Jazz Singer: From the Melting Pot to a Multicultural America”
Monday, May 14 / 8:00 p.m. / Free
Pollock Theater, UCSB
Ever since it premiered in 1927, The Jazz Singer has been considered the paradigmatic film about the Americanization of the children of Jewish immigrants. The movie has inspired remakes and retakes on the theme of the son’s rebellion against his father’s traditions. This lecture examines how and why subsequent versions altered the original plotline and message to reflect the values of target audiences and the changing configurations of national, racial, and religious identity in the United States from the 1920s until the present.
Lawrence Baron has held the Nasatir Chair of Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University since 1988 and directed its Jewish Studies Program until 2006. He has authored and edited four books including The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema (2011) and Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema (2005). He served as the historian and as an interviewer for Sam and Pearl Oliner’s The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. In 2006 he delivered the keynote address for Yad Vashem’s first conference devoted to Hollywood and the Holocaust. His contribution to Holocaust Studies was recently profiled in Fifty Key Thinkers on the Holocaust and Genocide (2010).
The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UC Santa Barbara, a program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, is cosponsored by UCSB Arts and Lectures, Department of Religious Studies, Congregation B’nai B’rith, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara Hillel. This event is also cosponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center at UCSB.
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The Future of Judaism Lecture Series Inaugural Event
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president-elect, Union for Reform Judaism
“A Force for Good and for God – Judaism in the 21st Century”
Sunday, May 20 / 8:45 a.m. / Breakfast $5.00 Suggested Contribution
Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road
At this dramatic moment of Jewish history, we must harness the innovation and creativity of those inside and outside our community to ensure a vibrant Jewish future. Join Rabbi Rick Jacobs as he highlights some of the pioneering developments at the Union for Reform Judaism and reflects upon the path that led him from UCSB to his exciting new role as the leader of the Reform Movement.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, who served for 20 years as the visionary spiritual leader at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York, is president-elect of the Union for Reform Judaism. Prior to his tenure at WRT, Rabbi Jacobs served the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, where he founded and co-directed the first synagogue-based homeless shelter in New York City. He was ordained in 1982 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York, where he received numerous excellence awards. In 2007, he received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, also from HUC-JIR. Deeply committed to the State of Israel, Rabbi Jacobs has studied for two decades at Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is now a senior rabbinic fellow.
The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UC Santa Barbara, a program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, is cosponsored by UCSB Arts and Lectures, Department of Religious Studies, Congregation B’nai B’rith, Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, and Santa Barbara Hillel.