Fall 2017
Monday, October 30, 7 p.m.
Historian David Fishman recounts one of the most amazing chapters of spiritual resistance in the Holocaust. A group of ghetto inmates risked their lives day in and day out for more than a year, to rescue thousands of rare Jewish books, manuscripts and documents from looting and destruction by the Germans. After World War II, the survivors dug up the cultural treasures hidden in bunkers and other places and smuggled many of them to America and Israel. Fishman has documented this remarkable event based on Jewish, German and Soviet sources in his new book, The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis.
Speaker:
- Dr. David E. Fishman
Professor of Jewish History
Director, Project Judaica
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Author: Russia’s First Modern Jews: The Jews of Shklov and The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture
Wednesday, November 8, 7 p.m. How to Research and Document Your Family History:
A Tale of Two Families
The vast majority of our Jewish ancestors came to the United States during one of two great migrations: German Jews during the period 1820-1880 and a larger migration of Eastern European Jews between 1880 and the early 1920s. Starting with information that you know about yourself and your immediate family, our goal is to discover our ancestors’ history both from the time our family came to the United States and back in the “old country.” Nolan Altman will discuss resources available to assist in trying to find information on family members who did not come to America or information that may have been lost during the Holocaust. Topics to be discussed include naming practices, vital records, passenger manifest records, Holocaust resources, and genealogy and your computer.
Speaker:
- Nolan Altman
Past President, Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island (JGSLI)
Vice President, JewishGen’s Holocaust Database
Adjunct Professor, Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Location for all lectures: Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library
Funding for these lectures has been provided in, part, by the Dorothy and Elmer Kirsch Endowment Fund for the Hofstra Cultural Center.
For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.
Monday, October 9, 2:55-4:20 p.m.
GLOBAL JUDAISMS LECTURE III
Between Israel and Argentina: Youth, Gender and Politics
Dr. Adriana Brodsky, president of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association and associate professor of history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, explores the paths taken by young Argentine Jewish women and men as they navigate these politically charged times. Youths who were active in Jewish communal institutions debated whether to participate in Argentine political youth groups. Most of them were training to eventually move to Israel, and many of these young Jews chose not to be apathetic to an existing political climate that increasingly viewed young people as agents of change.
Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library
Presented in collaboration with Hofstra’s Department of Religion, Department of History, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Women’s Studies Program, LGBT+ Studies Program, African Studies Program, and the Center for the Study of “Race,” Culture and Social Justice.
This film tells the story of a Roman Jewish community that, two and a half weeks into the German occupation of Rome, was ordered by SS Colonel Herbert Kappler to produce 50 kilos of gold within 36 hours, or he would deport 200 Jewish heads of family. Over a feverish day and a half, this already poor, working class community managed to come up with the 50 kilos of gold in order to save one another. Oro Macht Frei reveals the sad delusion of a community that – believing they had paid their ransom and would be left alone – did not go into hiding.
Monday, April 18, 7 p.m.
