S p r i n g S e m e s t e r 2 0 0 5
College of Arts & Letters
301 Linton Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
(517) 432-3493
Fax: (517) 355-4507
Web: www.jsp.msu.edu
E-mail: jewishst@msu.edu
Michigan State University
Jewish Studies, MSU-Hillel, the Assistant Provost Office for
Undergraduate Education, the Vice President's Office for Student
Services, and James Madison College have teamed up to send 12
students to the National Student Leadership conference to be held at
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), February 5-6,
2005.
For the first time in its brief history, the USHMM has declared a
genocide emergency and issued a call to action concerning events in
Darfur, Sudan. At the
conference, students from across
the country will share their
views, debate policy options,
and explore raising public
awareness and promoting action
on campuses to stop the killing.
A special guest at the conference
will be General Romeo Dallaire,
former commander of the UN
assistance mission in Rwanda,
who has criticized Western failure to act to prevent genocide in
Rwanda in the mid-1990s.
The 12 students come from Arts and Letters, Education, Social Science,
and James Madison College. Several are studying international
relations, one is an African Studies specialist, and two are studying
Arabic. Three students are descendants of Holocaust survivors; one is
the child of Sudanese parents; one has worked with the U.S. mission to
the UN, monitoring cables from Khartoum; two have worked with
Sudanese refugees; one has worked in an African AIDS orphanage; and
one has reported for the
Knight-Ridder
newspapers on hearings before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Darfur. Another student
wants to engage high school students about the Holocaust and
genocide and another is chair/president of the UN Security Council for
the Model UN conference to be hosted this spring at MSU.
These students comprise a terrific and committed group. All want to
heighten awareness about Darfur at MSU and will connect with
students from across the nation who seek to heighten awareness on
their own campuses.
MSU Students to Attend USHMM Conference on Sudan
Gender and the Holocaust
Jewish Studies will host two major lectures on "Gender and the
Holocaust." Sara Horowitz of York University in Toronto will speak
on
"Heroes, Villains, and Martyrs: Gender and the Shaping of
Collective Memory of the Shoah,"
Wednesday, February 9, at 7:30 pm
in the MSU Union Green Room. Horowitz has been exploring gender,
genocide, and Jewish memory in recent work. She is the author of
Voicing the Void: Muteness and Memory in Holocaust Fiction
(1997).
Dalia Ofer, Max and Rita Haber Professor of Holocaust Studies at the
Hebrew University, will deliver the 13
th
annual David and Sarah Rabin
Lecture on the Holocaust on Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 pm in the
MSU Union Gold Rooms A & B. Ofer's presentation will be on
"Gender and Class in the East European Ghettos."
Given normative
views of womanhood and motherhood in East European Jewish
culture, the Nazi assault on Jews, ghettoization, forced labor, and
deportation meant specific challenges for women.
Ofer will also kick off the Michigan Teachers' Workshop on Holocaust
Education with a discussion of
"Gender and the Holocaust."
The all-
day workshop is Friday, April 15, beginning at 8:00 am in the Kellogg
Center's Heritage Room.
Ofer's
Escaping the Holocaust: Illegal
Immigration to the Land of Israel
(1990) won the Jewish Book Award
in 1992. Her co-edited volume with Lenore Weitzman,
Women in the
Holocaust
(1998), was a finalist for a Jewish Book Award in 1999. She
co-edited
The Holocaust: History and Memory
(2001) and has
authored other books and over 50 articles. She directed the Vidal
Sassoon Center for the Study of Antisemitism at Hebrew University
1995-2002.
Kenneth Waltzer, Director
Michael Serling, Chair, Advisory Board
Seth Rogovoy
presents
"
Rocking the Shtetl"
Spring Brunch
Sunday, February 27
10:00 am12:00 pm
The Jewish Studies-Hillel Brunch, Sunday February 27, at the MSU
University Club, will feature Seth Rogovoy, author of
The Essential
Klezmer: A Music Lover's Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music,
which the
New York Times
called "invaluable" and
Jewish Week
called "indispensable." Seth will bring his
"Rocking the Shtetl"
multimedia show, a journey through the history and evolution of
klezmer
music from Old World
shtetls
to New World nightclubs
and halls. Seth is the
Berkshire Eagle's
jazz and pop music critic
and the cultural czar of WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network's
morning "Roundtable" program. His essays appear regularly in
the
Forward
and other newspapers on
klezmer
and Jewish music.
Bring your dancing shoes. Tickets for the brunch are $25, two for
$45, and only $15 for students--send checks payable to "Michigan
State University" to the Jewish Studies office. Co-sponsored by
Jewish Studies, MSU Hillel, and the MSU School of Music.