Judith Brin Ingber
Movement and Movements: Modern Jewish Dance
Co-Sponsored By The UW World Series
November 20 2004, 6:00 PM
Kane Hall — Room 220
In conjunction with the Seattle premiere of a new work by choreographer Paul Taylor celebrating the 350th anniversary of Jews in America, dance historian Judith Brin Ingber examines the transformation of Jewish dance from a folk tradition to a vehicle for artistic and political expression. Using illustrative slides, Ingber shows how Jewish dancers and choreographers used movement to chronicle their community's struggles and how artists like Anna Sokolow and Pearl Lang used dance to advocate for social change. Ingber teaches at the University of Minnesota and has written about dance for numerous magazines and newspapers.
David Gitlitz
Jews and Crypto-Jews: The Early Years in the Americas
Co-Sponsored By Seattle Art Museum
December 2 2004, 7:30 PM
Nordstrom Lecture Hall, Seattle Art Museum
The year 1492 marked the rise of imperial Spain, but with the expulsion of the Jews and the Muslims, it also marked the end of one of the great civilizations of the medieval world, a pluralist society that reshaped intellectual life in both Europe and the Arab world. In conjunction with Seattle Art Museum's exhibition "Spain and the Age of Exploration, 1492-1819," historian David Gitlitz, author of
Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, examines the Iberian Jewish and crypto-Jewish communities on the eve of the Expulsion, their roles in the discovery, conquest, and settlement of the New World, and their eventual fate.
ALSO: Yemenite-born singer/songwriter Asher Hashash performs music of the Sephardic Jews, featuring the romance and ancient melodies of Judeo-Spanish song. From 5:30-7:30pm in the Brotman Hall (SAM lobby).
Dara Horn
Sibling Revivalry: The Singers of Warsaw
February 17 2005, 7:00 PM
Henry Art Gallery
On the occasion of the Isaac Bashevis Singer Centennial, novelist and scholar Dara Horn talks about Singer's relationships with his older sister and brother, the Yiddish writers Esther Kreitman and Isaac Joshua Singer. She explores their childhood together in Warsaw, how they both supported and provoked one another's literary ambitions, and how their story challenges the romantic notion of the writer as solitary genius. Horn's first novel,
In the Image, received a 2003 Jewish Book Award.
Thane Rosenbaum
Ripped from the Torah
April 7 2005, 7:00 PM
Henry Art Gallery
Every day, Americans watch as lawyers on
The Practice, Law & Order, and other courtroom dramas confront the divide between the law and their own sense of moral justice. Novelist, essayist, and law professor Thane Rosenbaum talks about why we love these characters (while often despising their real-life counterparts), and how these contemporary dramas reflect ancient Jewish concerns. Examining artists as diverse as Shakespeare, Ben Shahn, Sidney Lumet, and E.L. Doctorow, he explores how the tension between law and justice has been an animating force in Jewish culture. Rosenbaum is the author of
The Golems of Gotham and
The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right.