Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program

Dr. Lawrence Baron, Nasatir Chair in Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University, will speak about how humor in Holocaust comedies had been used to satirize Hitler and sympathize with his victims.

Dr. Lawrence Baron, Nasatir Chair in Modern Jewish History at San Diego State University, will speak about how the Armenian and Jewish genocides have been portrayed in cinema.

The film depicts a small group of gay Filipino caregivers in Tel Aviv who devote themselves to their elderly Jewish charges around the clock - except on the nights they perform in drag in their dance troupe "Paper Dolls." The film raises questions about Israel's treatment of foreign workers, and it presents a complex picture of Israeli openness and tolerance. Appropriate for adults only. Winner, Audience Award, International Films, 2006 L.A. Film Festival.

Janice Kamenir-Reznik is Chairperson of Jewish World Watch, a project of a coalition of synagogues working together to mobilize synagogues, their schools, their members and the community to combat genocide and other egregious violations of human rights around the world. In this slide presentation, Ms. Kamenir-Reznik will explain what is happening in Darfur and the ways in which we can respond to the genocide.

Professor Talbott, whose research specialty is in Second Temple Judaism, mystery religions, Gnosticism, and early Christianity, will describe the recent scholarship on Jesus and his place within Jewish society in Roman Palestine. Hear how scholarship on this topic has changed over the years.

"The Ritchie Boys" is an engaging documentary (in English) about a group of young men who fled Nazi Germany. They knew the psychology and the language of the enemy better than anybody else, and during World War II they were trained by the U.S. military to serve as interrogators of captured German soldiers. Not always courageous, but determined, bright, and inventive, they fought their own kind of war. Now old men, they tell their tale with intelligence, insight, and great charm.

A panel of speakers including Rabbi Jan Offel, Dr. Alexis Navarro, and Professor Phyllis K. Herman will discuss differing religious viewpoints of the afterlife and their relevance to contemporary religious life.

Honey Kessler Amado is an accomplished and respected appellate lawyer. In addition to her legal expertise, she has served on the board of national and local Jewish community organizations that deal with Jews in the international arena and antisemitism.

Rabbi Laurie Hahn Tapper is the Director of Brandeis Collegiate Institute and Adult Programs at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. The first female BCI Director in the Institute's 65 years, Laurie is particularly committed to engaging the Jewish community in creative forms of education and spirituality, particularly through the arts, the outdoors, and alternative prayer.

What can we learn about L.A. Jews from the Jewish demographic studies in terms of residential change, and the changing numbers of the divorced, re-married, unmarried, and intermarried? What challenges and opportunities do these present? How does the Jewish community look in comparison to the larger Los Angeles population and its shifting demographics?

Presentations by Professor Bruce Phillips (Hebrew Union College) and Professor James Allen (California State University, Northridge)