Aviva Ben-Ur

Lecture: “Identity Imperative: Ottoman Jews and the Quest for Citizenship in Interwar England”

 Wednesday December 4, 7 pm, Ringsmuth Auditorium

Aviva Ben-Ur is Associate Professor in the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Adjunct to both the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Department of History. She earned her Ph.D. from Brandeis University (1998) and her M.A. and M.Phil. degrees from Columbia University (1992; 1994). She is the author, with Rachel Frankel, of Remnant Stones: The Jewish Cemeteries and Synagogues of Suriname (Hebrew Union College Press, forthcoming), and A Ladino Legacy: The Judeo-Spanish Collection of Louis N. Levy (Alexander Books, 2001). Her current book projects include Sephardic Jews in the United States: Where Diasporas Met (under contract with New York University Press) and “Jewish Identity in a Slave Society: Suriname, 1660-1863,” for which she has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship. Her articles and reviews have appeared in journals such as Journal of Southern History, American Jewish History, American Jewish Archives, Jewish History, Journal of Jewish Studies, and Studies in Bibliography and Booklore.

Lecture: “Cartography and Caring: Tracing the Lines of My Sephardic Ancestry”

Geoffrey Tabakin

Lecture: “Cartography and Caring—Tracing the Lines of My Sephardic Ancestry”

Wednesday December 11, 6 pm, Miller Center Library Ringsmuth Auditorium MC122

What I bring to this event:

Dr. Tabakin brings to this discussion a recognition that we ARE the sum total of our ancestry.  He is engaged in a search for the story of his Sephardic ancestry that is probably closer to personal mapping than tracking historical or genealogical roots.  At the same time there is recognition that the map is not the experiential terrain nor does it explain the story of survival through time.

What brings Dr. Tabakin back to this topic is an affirmation of his Sephardic / Ashkenazi lineage, born of a recent tragedy where genetic testing was done to determine the presence of Tay-Sachs.  Again one is reminded that the recognition of identity neither justifies the present nor exonerates the past –

de nobis fabula narratur (of us is the story told).

Titles and entitlement:

Professor Geoffrey Tabakin has been at St. Cloud State University for nigh on 25 years – much to everyone’s surprise including his own.  He has been variously titled, but rarely entitled, in a range of positions at St. Cloud State including Kindergarten Educator, Storyteller, Faculty Director for the Division of General Studies, and Director of the Honors Program.  Currently he serves in the Department of Academic Support, and as interim Community Anti-Racism Education Initiative organizer.  What may be most pertinent to this event is his work offering courses on genocide, his title as plaintiff in the Zmora anti-Semitism case against the University, and the oft-cited title of “troublemaker” and “challenger” to prevailing norms of discrimination including anti-Semitism.
Born, raised, and identified as persona non grata in apartheid South Africa while completing his B.A. at the University of Cape Town, he emigrated to the United States of America where he completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin Madison at the same time that he earned his Sho Dan (1st Degree Black Belt) in Shotokan karate, and earlier a certificate as a Class B Industrial Welder from the Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Film and Discussion: “Jubanos: The Jews of Cuba”

Milos Silber: Film and Discussion: “Jubanos: The Jews of Cuba

Wednesday November 13, 7 pm, MC Ringsmuth Auditorium

Milos Silber was born in Brazil. He is a graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, a program that gave him the opportunity to do a semester abroad in Cuba to make the film “Jubanos: The Jews of Cuba.”  In 2010, “Jubanos” won the Be’chol Lashon film award for best documentary. An initiative of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research, Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) advocates for a global understanding of the Jewish people that reflects contemporary identity.

Today Milos Silber is one of the founders of Hayden 5 Media, a multifaceted media company that produces commercials, web content, and high-end photography. He lives in New York.