Past Events

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine & East European Jews: What’s New? What’s Not?, September 13, 2023, 5.30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. 

SUSAN KUSEL: The Passover Guest and the Many Hats of Susan Kusel, March 28, 2023, 12pm and 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

IZABELA WAGNER: From the Warsaw Ghetto to Human Rights Organizations: The Extraordinary Life of Alina Margolis, March 2, 2023, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MICHAEL BRENNER: Munich 1923: Hitler’s Insurrection and the Rise of Antisemitism, February 6, 2023, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

WORKSHOP: Visual Explorations of Jewish Histories in Florida through Data Science: October 18, 2022.

TONY MICHELS: Is America Different? Antisemitism and the Belief in American Exceptionalism“. March 12, 2020, 5.30 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

STEVEN WEITZMAN: “The FBI, Jews, and Muslims: A History of Suspicion”. January 27, 2020, 5:30 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

FRANCESC MORALES: The Wandering Chess Player: Chess, Traveling, and the Jewish Condition.” November 19, 2019, 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MYLA GOLDBERG: Evolve or Die: Redefining Jewish Literature for the 21st Century.” November 13, 2019, 12.30 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

DARIUSZ STOLA:The Holocaust, the POLIN Museum, and the Politics of the Past in Poland.” October 29, 2019, 5.30 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

JOSHUA TEPLITSKY: “Prince of the Press: How One Collector Built History’s Most Enduring and Remarkable Jewish Library.” October 28, 2019, 5.00 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

STEVEN AND SARAH LEVY: “Making Rashi Understandable for Adults and Children,” July 1, 2019 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

SAMUEL WEBER: “Messianism in Minnesota Circa 1967: The Coen Brothers’ Serious Man”, April 12, 2019, 2-4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

AARON LANSKY: “New Frontiers in Yiddish Translation,” April 8, 2019 at 12pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MICHAEL BERKOWITZ: “Bringing America Together, Taking the Nazis Apart: Hollywood Jews, Moving Making During World War II, and Implicating Film in the Third Reich,” April 4, 2019 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

ROBERT ORSI: The Study of Religion on the Other Side of Disgust,” February 19, 2019 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

DEVIN NAAR: “The Rise and Fall of Salonica: The ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’” February 14th, 2019 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

PHILIPPE SANDS: “East West Street: Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, Then and Now,” February 5th, 2019 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

AVIAD MORENO: “Between Israel and the Caribbean Seaboard: The Worldwide Web of Jewish Moroccan Immigrants,” January 14, 2019, 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

CENGIZ SISMAN: “Muslim Converts or Crypto Jews?: Sabbatean Communities in the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic,” November 26th, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

DARA HORN: “Talking About Eternal Life,” November 13, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

RACHEL ROTHSTEIN: “We Were, We Are, We Will Be:’ Jewishness in Contemporary Poland,” November 8th, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

GERALD STEINACHER: “Escaping Nuremberg: How Nazi Perpetrators Fled Justice,” November 6th, 2018, at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

HECKMAN, ALMA: “Divided Dreams: Moroccan Jews and the Post-Independence Moroccan State,” October 25th, 2018, at 5pm, Judacia Suite, Smathers Library.

JULIA PHILLIP-COHEN: Rethinking Muslim-Jewish Relations: Reflections on Late Ottoman Realities,” September 20, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

STEVEN BAUMANN: “Finca Paso Seco, a Jewish refugee camp in Cuba,” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), August 28, 2018 at 5 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

STEPHANIE PRIDGEON: “Jewish involvement in revolutionary movements of the 1960s and 1970s in film,” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), April 17, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

TYLER ANBINDER: “Not Like My Grandparents?: Comparing New York’s Jewish Immigrants of 1918 to Today’s American Immigrants,” (see: Jews in the Americas Fellowship Series) April 5, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MARIUSZ KALCZEWIAK: “Yiddish Travel Writing,” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), March 20, 2018 at 12pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

HILIT SUROWITZ-ISRAEL: “Portuguese Jews in the Atlantic of the Early Modern Period” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), March 13, 2018 at 12pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

CHARLES DELHEIM: “The Untold Story of Nazi Stolen Art,” March 1, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

CHANTAL RINGUET: “Leonard Cohen: In Words and Music”, February 22, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

PIERRE ANCTIL and CHANTAL RINGUET: “Retranslating Marc Chagall”, February 20, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MICHAEL DICKEL: Poetry Reading, February 14, 2018, 12pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

AVIGAIL OREN: “Jewish Community Center Movement in Florida” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), February 13, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

JONATHAN RAY: “Merchants, Mystics, and Secret Jews: Sephardic Identities in the Age of Discovery”, the annual Alexander Grass Endowed Lecture, February 5,2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

RUBY NAMDAR: “Living in English, Writing in Hebrew,” February 8, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

ELEANOR STANFORD: “Jewish Experience in post-WWII Brazil” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), January 16, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

SHARONAH FREDRICK: “Jewish Piracy and Anticolonial Rebellion,” (Jews in the Americas Fellowship and Speaker Series), January 9, 2018 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

CYNTHIA BAKER: “America’s and Europe’s New Jews,” November 2, 2017, 4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

HERBERT WOLLOWICK: “Haggadah: A Mirror of Jewish History, its Agony and Triumph,” March 29, 2017, 2pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

AVRAHAM SELA: “Reflections on Post-Oslo Israeli and Palestinian History and Memory of 1948”, February 28, 2017 at 4:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

TODD ENDELMAN: “Why Jews Became Christians in the Modern Era” the annual Alexander Grass Endowed Lecture February 7, 2017 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

TUDOR PARFITT: “From Papua New Guinea to Nicaragua: The Unprecedented Spread of Judaism in the Globalized World of the Twenty-First” , February 2, 2017 at 3pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MARINA RUSTOW: “The Cairo Geniza and the Lost Arabic Archives”, January 24, 2017 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

LEORA AUSLANDER: “The Eruv as Metaphor for Jewish Home-making in the Diaspora”, January 17, 2017 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

GAVRIEL D. ROSENFELD: “What Ifs and the Holocaust: Speculation and Memory”, November 14, 2016 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

JAN JANSEN: “Sociability and Emancipation: Imperial Freemasonry and Jewry in the British West Indies (early 19th century)” , October 26, 2016 at 5.30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

ROGER HOROWITZ: “Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food,” October 19, 2016 at 5.30 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

NINA CAPUTO: “Debating Truth: History in the Mode of Comics,” September 16, 2016 at 5.30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

SAMUEL KASSOW: “In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Joseph Zelkowicz”, May 2, 2016 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

ERIC KLIGERMAN, MAUREEN TURIM, ALICE FREIFELD, KATALIN RAC: “Son of Saul: A Panel Discussion,” April 14, 2016, 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library

SIDI N’DIAYE: “Murder of Neighbors: Comparing Genocide of Tutsis in Rwandad and Polish Jews”,April 12, 2016 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

MISHA KLEIN: “Kosher Feijoada, or Blending Contradictions into Identities,” April 11, 2016 at 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

TAMIR SOREK & BRIGITTE ALON: “Colonial Memories Book Celebration,” April 4, 2016, 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

RACHEL FURST: “Liminal Jews: The Rehabilitation of Relapsed Converts in Medieval Ashkenaz”, March 10, 2016 at 4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

ENRIQUE CHMELNIK: “The Jews of Mexico: History, Culture and Libraries”, January 14, 2016 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

LISA LEFF: “The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust,” January 13, 2016 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

EVE JOCHNOWITZ: “The Best and Most Practical Diet: Jewish Vegetarianism Between the Wars,” November 9, 2015, 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

JOSHUA TEPLITSKY: “Quarantine in the Jewish Ghetto: Confinement and Contagion in Early Europe”, October 26, 2015 at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

RALPH LOWENSTEIN: “The Planes of Spain Fall Mainly in the Drain: The American Origin of the Israeli Air Force in 1948,” May 12, 2015, 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

RONALD SCHECHTER: “Daniel Mendoza, Professor of Pugilism: How a Sephardic Jew in Eighteenth-Century Britain became one of the World’s First Sports Stars,”, March 30, 2015, at 4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

STEFANIE FISCHER: “Economic trust and Anti-semitic Violence: Jewish Cattle Traders, Nazis and Farmers, 1919–1939,”, March 10, 2015, at 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

PETER KORNBLUH: “The United States and Cuba: The Secret History Behind the Historic Obama-Castro Rapprochement,” March 9, 2015, 4.30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with the Department of History, the Department of Political Science, and the UF International Center.

ARI SHAVIT: A Talk with Ari Shavit (Senior Correspondent for Haaretz), February 27, 2015 at 1.30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with UF Hillel.

NATALIE SCHOLZ: “How many Jews…?: Driving the Volkswagen through Space and Time,” February 25, 2015, 5:30 pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

DAVID NIRENBERG: “Does the History of Anti-Judaism have anything to do with the Present?” a talk by David Nirenberg (University of Chicago), Judaica Suite, Smathers Library, Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 5.30pm. [Co-sponsored with the Center for Jewish Studies]. http://web.jst.ufl.edu/images/nirenberg_postcard.jpg

JESSICA ORECK: “The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, a screening and talk by filmmaker Jessica Oreck,” January 13, 2015, at 4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with the Center for Children’s Literature and the Baldwin Library of Children’s Historical Literature.

GUISEPPE MAZZOTTA: “Dante and the Future,” November 20, 2014, 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with the Department of Languages and Linguistics.

NADIA VALMAN: Child-like Humility to Spiritual Crisis,”November 17, 2014, 5:30pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

TONY MICHELS: “The Return of Yiddish in American Comedy,” November 13, 2014, at 3pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with the Center for European Studies.

ABEL SIERRA MADERO: “Recuperando el Cuerpo Nacional: Intelectuales Homosexuales y UMAP en la Revolucion Cubana,” November 7, 2014, at 3pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with the Center for Latin American Studies, UF Cuba Program, and the UF History Department.

IDO DE HAAN: “The Dutch Paradox: History and Memory of the Holocaust in the Netherlands,” October 29, 2014, 5pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

KAREN AUERBACH: “A Window on Warsaw: Integration and Its Obstacles in Poland after the Holocaust,” October 26, 2014 at 4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

VICTOR CHANG: “Counter Culture: the Chinese and Jamaica: a reading and discussion”, February 24, 2014, at 4pm, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library. Co-sponsored with the Center for Latin American Studies, the Department of English.

For other events co-sponsored by the Price Library, see the Center for Jewish Studies’ Past Events page.

Past Conferences in the Judaica Suite

“The Jewish 1950s: A Symposium of Scholars” March 9–11, 2019, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

“Boundaries and Transgressions: A Transnational Conference on Jews and Muslims” March 8-10, 2016 Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.

“Writing Retribution: Holocaust Justice and its Meaning” an international conference, February 21-22, 2015, Judaica Suite, Smathers Library.