Major Issues in Contemporary Jewish Life
Lecture Series and new 3-credit class
In the Spring of 1997, Professor Jay Berkovitz, director of the Center for Jewish Studies (Dept. of Judaic & Near Eastern Studies) and Larry Goldbaum, director of the Office of Jewish Affairs, began to collaborate on a series of public lectures in conjunction with Prof. Berkovitz's new course, "Major Issues in Contemporary Jewish Life" (Judaic 394A).
The course itself was merely a revision of Berkovitz's earlier course, "Issues Facing Contemporary Jewry"—but our collaboration created the opportunity for a series of lectures by guest speakers which could be open to the public and widely publicized. And so a new lecture series was born.
The lecture topics ran the gamut from Black/Jewish relations to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, from the Holocaust and Jewish identity in the Diaspora to the impact of feminism on Jewish life.
Some speakers came from as far away as Israel; others from nearby colleges (UConn and Smith) or from our own campus.
We held three lecture series—in 1997, 1998, and 2001. Specific information about topics and speakers can be found by clicking on any of those years.
