Secret Chord: Songs of Leonard Cohen Concert

Date

Wednesday March 13, 2024
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Location

The Isabel Bader Centre

 

Songs of Leonard Cohen concert and conversation with special guest, Cantor Gideon Zelermyer, planned for Wednesday, March 13th at the Isabel Bader Centre. Reserve your free ticket here: https://www.queensu.ca/theisabel/whats-on/secret-chord-leonard-cohen-concert 

 

Sponsored by Jewish Studies at Queen's University. 

Ariel Salzmann

Headshot of Dr. Salzmann

Ariel Salzmann

Associate Professor

After a year of study in Iran and Afghanistan, Dr. Salzmann pursued graduate course work in literature, sociology and history, completing a Ph.D. on the history of the Middle East. An article of hers that traces the roots of neoliberalism, "An Ancien Régime Revisted: Privatization and Political Economy in the 18th Century Ottoman Empire," (Politics & Society 1993) won the Turkish Studies Association’s Ömer Lutfi Barkan Article Prize and remains one of the most widely cited articles in the field.

Theories of state formation, histories of Mediterranean communities and Muslim societies, the transformation of market systems and the making of global capitalism are topics addressed by Dr. Salzmann's research. A new book-length project, a historical sociology of ethno-religious exclusion before the nation-state, is under contract. These projects have been supported by international and national grants (the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Research Institute in Turkey, the American Council of Learned Societies, Queen's University's S.A.R.C., the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey).

In 2016-17, Dr. Salzmann co-taught a new lecture, “Islamophobia: From the Crusaders to Donald J. Trump.”

Research interests: Islamic and World History

Courses Taught: HIST 337 Multiculturalism in the Ottoman Empire, HIST 267 Modern Middle East

Oded Haklai

Headshot of Dr. Haklai

Oded Haklai

Professor

Department of Political Studies

Oded Haklai has been teaching at Queen’s since 2004. His book Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel (2011) was awarded the Shapiro Award for best book in Israel Studies. In addition, he has published 3 co-edited volumes on the impact of democratization and ethnic minorities, the politics of settlers in contested lands, and Jewish Israeli – Palestinian relations, as well as over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.  Winner of several prestigious research grants, Haklai has held several visiting fellowships including at the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University, the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, and the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at the Elliott School, George Washington University. In 2015, he became the founding Director of the Laboratory for Ethnic Conflict Research at Queen's.

Haklai’s main foci of doctoral supervisions are (1) populations settlements and territorial conflict, (2) the political mobilization of ethnic minorities, and (3) Israeli politics.  

Research interests: Politics of nationalism and ethnicity; state and majority-minority relations; Middle East politics; politics of Israel; Palestinian-Israeli relations; settlers and territorial disputes

Courses Taught: POLS 349 Contemporary Antisemitism

Indigenous Peoples & Jews in Canada: A Brief History

Date

Tuesday March 14, 2023
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Location

116 Centre Street Beth Israel

This session offers a wide-angle introduction to the history of encounters between Canadian Jews and Indigenous peoples, from the Jewish settlers and fur traders of the 18th century to the eve of our recent national reconciliation discussion. We'll touch on business entanglements, Jewish agricultural colonies, the Indigenous art market, Jewish literature that was preoccupied with Indigenous themes, Jewish legal, medical, and justice work on behalf of First Nations communities, and a whole lot more. There will be plenty of time for Q&A. 

koffman

Bio:

David S. Koffman is the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry in the Department of History at York University. He is the author of The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America (Rutgers University Press, 2019), and the editor of and a contributor to No Better Home? Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging (University of Toronto Press, 2021). He serves as the acting director of York’s Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, and the editor-in-chief of the journal Canadian Jewish Studies Études juives canadiennes.

 

koffmanposter

Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour: Memories of Soviet Russia

Date

Tuesday February 7, 2023
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location

Watson Hall 217

 – 

Watson Hall 217

How to write about a home that you left as a child? To reach for the memories you have willed yourself to forget? Lembersky’s recent, highly acclaimed mother-and-daughter memoir traces the lives of her family as they try to leave the Soviet Union in the years preceding its collapse.

Told in the dual points of view of both Yelena and Galina (Yelena’s mother), Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour is a clear-eyed look at the reality of life under Communist rule, giving us an insider’s perspective on the roots of contemporary Russia. It is also a coming-of-age story, heartfelt, moving, and funny, a testament to the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters, and the healing power of art.

Admission is free, all are welcome. Copies of Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour will be available for purchase. 

Yelena Lembersky is an author, an architect, and a project director at the Uniterra Foundation, promoting art and mutual understanding around the world. She has curated exhibitions and edited catalogues of her grandfather Felix Lembersky’s art. Her writing appeared in World Literature Today, Cardinal Points, and The Forward, and she was interviewed on National Public Radio, Radio Boston, and BBC.

 

The Art of Felix Lembersky

Date

Wednesday February 8, 2023
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location

Watson Hall 517

 

 – 

Watson Hall 517

A talk with Yelena Lembersky, moderated by Vassili Schedrin, REES Director.

Felix Lembersky (1913-1970) was a Soviet Jewish painter, teacher, theater sets designer, and an organizer of artistic groups in Ukraine and Russia. Born in Poland, he grew up in Ukraine, and began working as an artist in Kyiv, before moving to Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), Soviet Russia. Gaining national recognition for his realist portrayal of Soviet industry, he rejected Socialist Realism, mandated by the communists, and became a vocal critic of repressive policies against arts. He is best known for his Execution: Babyn Yar canvases (ca. 1944-52) and colorful non-figurative paintings that, in the artist’s words, “express subject matter as a metaphor” and “reveal hidden spirituality in nature.”

Admission is free, all are welcome.

Yelena Lembersky is an author, an architect, and a project director at the Uniterra Foundation, promoting art and mutual understanding around the world. She has curated exhibitions and edited catalogues of her grandfather Felix Lembersky’s art. Her writing appeared in World Literature Today, Cardinal Points, and The Forward, and she was interviewed on National Public Radio, Radio Boston, and BBC.

 

Shimon Attie: The Crossing

Date

Sunday October 30, 2022
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location

The Donald Gordon Centre

 

rosen Oct 30

We hope to see you on Oct 30th! 

To view Shimon Attie's "The Crossing and Other Tales" visit here for more information.

Yiddish Glory: Lost Songs of WWII

Date

Sunday September 18, 2022
4:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location

The Isabel Bader Centre

Yiddish Glory poster

Get your FREE ticket here.

Yiddish Glory is a product of collaboration between historian Anna Shternshis (University of Toronto), artist Psoy Korolenko (Moscow- New York), and Toronto-based producer Dan Rosenberg.  It features anti-fascist songs and music documenting Nazi atrocities that were discovered in a former Soviet archive in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. The songs have been resurrected by Yiddish Glory in a jaw-dropping new recording of music written by Holocaust victims and survivors in the Soviet Union during World War II.

The full performance includes:

Anna Shternshis leading the lecture concert
Psoy Korolenko: vocals

Alice Ackerman: vocals
Robert Horvath: Piano
Drew Jurecka: Bandoneon, Clarinet, Viola
Rebekah Wolkstein: Violin
Michael Herring: Double bass

 

Sponsored by the Harry and Sylvia Rosen Symposium

How to Measure a World?: A Philosophy of Judaism

Date

Thursday July 21, 2022
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Location

https://queensu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAuduuuqzkoHdX4HP9rR4jMKZ3Ij1GVC36V

book event

Join us on July 21st at 12:30pm EST on Zoom for a discussion of Martin Shuster's new book "How to Measure a World?: A Philosophy of Judaism". Joining us will be Deborah Achtenberg (University of Nevada, Reno), Annabel Herzog (University of Haifa), and Michael L. Morgan (Indiana University). Response by Martin Shuster. 

View the recording here: https://youtu.be/lyJp0BcIoNk