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Message from the Director
Welcome back to the start of another academic year! We in The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies are tremendously excited about a number of significant developments in our department. First among them is the extraordinarily generous gift of Jordan and Arlene Schnitzer creating the Harold Schnitzer Family Scholarships (see below for details). We welcome a fantastic new academic advisor serving Judaic Studies students and are thrilled to announce an exciting lineup of events for Fall and Winter terms, including the new documentary “My Dear Children” and our 14th Gus and Libby Solomon Memorial Lecturer, Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl. And, as always, this term offers a range of stimulating and thought-provoking courses in Jewish history and culture open to both students and auditors. Join us for a course, a lecture, a film, or just drop in to the Judaic Studies office and say hello. A few announcements to mark some comings and goings over the past few months:
Thank you to College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Karen Marongelle, departing PSU for a position at the National Science Foundation, for her steadfast support of the Judaic Studies Program over the past four years. We wish her great success in her new position.
Thank you to Lynn Bonner for donating her fabulous collection of books on Hebrew literature, Jewish history, and Reform Judaism to the Judaic Studies Program.
Welcome to the new executive director of PDX Hillel, Hannah Sherman, who comes to Portland from California, where she worked at the Hillel at UC Santa Barbara.
And a hearty mazel tov to Nina Spiegel, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer Associate Professor of Judaic Studies, on the birth of her daughter Maya Rachel.
With warm wishes for a sweet and healthy New Year and a successful Fall term,
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Natan M. Meir, Academic Director
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We are honored and delighted to announce the creation of the Harold Schnitzer Family Scholarships, made possible by a $500,000 grant through the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Family Fund of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, on behalf of Arlene Schnitzer and Jordan D. Schnitzer. The scholarships will cover more than half the cost of tuition and fees at Portland State for nearly twenty students over the next five years. We in the Judaic Studies Program see this gift as a transformative investment in Judaic Studies. The Schnitzers’ gift will encourage and attract new and current students to major in Judaic Studies, supporting our vision of attracting a robust new cohort of students through the next decade and beyond. The scholarships gift is part of a $1 million grant that will also bring an Israeli visiting professor to campus.
See news stories in Portland Business Journal and KATU News.
Read about the new scholarships and the Judaic Studies Program’s other scholarships, and apply now!
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Our ad in Oregon Jewish Life Magazine's 2018-2019 Resource Guide, featuring the new Harold Schnitzer Family Scholarships | |
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When does the history of the Jews begin? How reliable is the Bible as a source for Jewish origins? What was life like for Jews living under Greek and Roman rule, during the time of Jesus, or under the first Christian and Muslim empires? This course will answer all these questions.
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This course looks at the Jewish encounter with modernity through literature. The focus will be on literature produced by East European Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period of great upheaval reflected in the emerging modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures of the time.
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Discusses the development and interaction of Roman paganism, Christianity and Judaism during the period of Late Antiquity. Topics include education, philosophy, asceticism, ritual, religious law, the image of the holy man and the phenomenon of religious polemic in the Later Roman Empire (c. 250-600 CE).
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Why the Jews? Why the Germans? Why genocide? Study the Holocaust as both a German and a pan-European phenomenon. Understand it from the perspective of its victims, both Jews and others. Grasp the extent of collaboration with the Nazis and the nature of resistance. Comprehend why the aftershocks of this historical earthquake are still being felt today, three-quarters of a century later.
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Sneak preview of Winter 2019 courses
NEW! JST 399 Fantasy and Faith mini-course (2 credits): This course explores the relationship between modern fantasy literature and religion. We will consider fantasy as a response to and manifestation of secular modernity, its use by Christian fantasists such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and how Jewish history and theology have been explored in fantasy literature (Weingrad, OFFERED ON FOUR SUNDAYS: 1/13, 1/27, 2/10, 2/17, 1pm-6pm).
JST/HST 318U Jewish History II: From the Middle Ages to the Present (Meir, Mon/Wed, 2pm-3:50pm).
JST 324U: Historical Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Spielman, Tue/Thu 2pm-3:50pm).
JST/HST 379U: History of Zionism (Weingrad, Mon/Wed 12:00-1:50pm)
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Grandmother and grandson study Jewish history together at PSU
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Sitting side by side in Prof. Natan Meir’s Jewish History survey course earlier this year were Linda Monk and Max Blust, the first grandparent-grandchild pair to take a Judaic Studies course together. Max, who hails from Juneau but has spent long stints in Hungary and Guatemala, is a Poli Sci major whose interest in politics goes back many years; in fact, he set up what he called “Kid City,” an independent, child-ruled polity with its own president in his backyard when he was six years old. An interest in genocide led him last year to take the Holocaust history course offered by Judaic Studies, and that course piqued his interest in other courses relating to Jewish identity. Max grew up secular but with strong connections to Jewish community and identity -- he has led cultural Passover seders at PSU for his friends, both Jewish and non-Jewish -- but it wasn’t until he took the Holocaust course that he found within himself a desire to explore what Jewishness meant within his frame of reference as an adult, which ultimately led to his declaring a Judaic Studies minor. He plans to study abroad in Kenya and hopes to travel to Israel in the near future on a Birthright trip.
Linda is a New York City native with, in her words, “a very interesting history.” Her mother was a first-generation American Jew but her father, born in Hungary and orphaned at a young age, was raised in a Christian orphanage and ultimately returned to Judaism when he married. She married a man with a secular Yiddishist background and they soon moved to Idaho, where they raised three children and “were the only Jews that anybody had ever seen before.” After her husband’s death, she married a United Methodist minister and together they came to Portland in 1971. Although she never joined a synagogue, her Jewish identity remains strong and has always had a connection to Jewish life. She was thrilled when she found out that Max was planning to take Judaic Studies courses at PSU.
In addition to taking the Jewish history course together, Max and Linda also took the History of Antisemitism course that the Judaic Studies Program offered in April. For Max, auditing the course with his grandmother was “a great way to see you twice a week” -- while for Linda, it was an opportunity to bring her grandson home-cooked food (including chopped liver!).
Becoming a minor in Judaic Studies has enabled Max to forge a connection to his Jewish identity, something that can be challenging for secular Jews like himself who don’t always feel welcomed by campus Jewish organizations and sometimes even question whether their Jewishness is “less real” than that of Jews raised in families that observe Jewish traditions.
The Judaic Studies Program is delighted to count among its majors and minors students of a wide range of backgrounds, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and is honored to have Max as a student.
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Shayna Snyder, Academic Advisor |
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Welcome Shayna Snyder, Judaic Studies Department Academic Advisor
Shayna Snyder is dedicated to student success and to helping students understand and realize their professional and personal goals. She has worked in higher education since 2009 in multiple teaching and advising roles. She taught Spanish for seven years and is a lover of world languages. In her current role as Academic Advisor she serves students studying majors in the Language, Culture and Meaning Pathway which includes the departments of Judaic Studies, World Languages, Speech and Hearing Sciences and Applied Linguistics. When she is not teaching or advising, Shayna can be found on the trail doing training for long running races or getting her hands covered in clay or paint. Shayna joined the Judaic Studies Department in Spring of 2018 and is thrilled to be a part of our team!
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Why Were There So Many Jews in Eastern Europe?
Oct. 11, 2018, 5pm
Lecture by Shaul Stampfer, Professor Emeritus of Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Free. Location: Smith Memorial Student Union, room 298.
In the Middle Ages, there only a few hundred Jews in Poland. But in 1930, the Jewish population of Warsaw and Vilna was equal to that of the Jewish population of all of Germany, while the Jewish population of Krakow was greater than the entire Jewish population of France. How did this happen? Was it something special about the Jews? About Poland? Or both? In an attempt to provide some answers, this lecture delves into the unique demographic and socioeconomic circumstances of the Jews of Eastern Europe.
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Lorry I. Lokey ProgramNov. 8, 2018, 6pmdocumentary screening and Q&A with filmmaker LeeAnn Dance
LeeAnn Dance is an award winning television producer and groundbreaking investigative reporter who began her career more than 25 years ago. She has worked as a freelancer in East Africa and as a producer with CNN’s investigative and documentary unit. She now has her own boutique production company outside Washington, D.C. "My Dear Children" is her first independent documentary production.
View video trailer of the film, featuring a cameo appearance of Prof. Natan Meir:
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|  | Click image to view video trailer of the film "My Dear Children" | |
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| 14th Annual Gus and Libby Solomon Memorial Lecture January 24, 2019, 7:30pm
Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl
Being a Stranger — a Story of a Wandering Jew Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl serves as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City, the first woman to lead the large Reform congregation in its 180-year history. Rabbi Buchdahl has been featured in dozens of news outlets including the Today Show, NPR, PBS and was listed as one of Newsweek’s “America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis.” Read more...
Please save the date of January 24, 2019 and plan to join us!
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Events are made possible by our community supporters -- thank you! The programs offered by the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies are always free and open to the public. If you'd like to help us continue to bring this kind of high-caliber and thought-provoking programming to Portland, please consider making a contribution.
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Prof. Michael Weingrad published an essay in the new book What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew. Reflecting on the failure of most American Jews to take on the challenge of mastering Hebrew, Weingrad looks at a counter-example: the poet and non-native speaker of Hebrew Robert Whitehill-Bashan. Originally from Texas and currently residing in California, Whitehill-Bashan has published extensively in Israel. Weingrad considers the connection between creativity and writing in an adopted language, and he emphasizes how Hebrew has served as an avenue for the poet to access hidden recesses of the soul. What We Talk about When We Talk about Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans) is a collection of essays that address the challenges and joys of being a Hebraist in America in the twenty-first century and explore ways to rekindle an interest in Hebrew studies.
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Meir’s contribution, entitled “Home for the Homeless? The Hekdesh in Eastern Europe,” explores the historical development and significance of the hekdesh, the Jewish poorhouse of eastern Europe, from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries. Often portrayed in the lowliest of terms and associated with illness and death, the hekdesh was at once a home (of sorts) and a symbol for the cast-offs and misfits of Jewish society. Its ubiquity throughout eastern Europe, however, suggests that it also occupied a place of some significance in the mental landscape of East European Jewry.
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Prof. Meir leads an unforgettable trip to Central and Eastern Europe this October. He will serve as Scholar-in-Residence on Ayelet Tours’ “Traveling University” tour of Jewish heritage sites in Prague, Budapest, Krakow, and Warsaw, Oct. 8-18. Next June, Meir will lead a Jewish heritage tour along the Danube River from Budapest to Nuremberg.
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Prof. Nina Spiegel will be on sabbatical leave in academic year 2018-19, working on her latest project. “The New Israelis: Cultural Development and Exchange in the Early Years of the State” is a study of the development of Israeli culture in the post-state era, focusing on the early years of the state in the 1950s and early 1960s.
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Party in the Park Sep. 27, 2018Come to Party in the Park in the PSU Park Blocks on Thursday September 27th from 11am to 3pm to talk with people from the different clubs on campus! In addition to the other clubs on campus, the Jewish Student Union (JSU) and the Cultural Historical Association for Israel (CHAI) will be there at their tables and offering snacks. Stop by and say hi to them if you want to learn about their upcoming events, get on their email list, or put your name in for the chance to win cool swag.
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OJMCHE 724 NW Davis Street, Portland
Saturday–Sunday: Noon to 5pm
Tuesday–Thursday: 11am-5pm; Friday: 11am-4pm
Culture Shock September 27, 6-8pm, Tickets: $10 per person
A Museum After Dark event for young adults 35 and under! Enjoy drinks and small bites on the museum’s beautiful rooftop with views of downtown and then join Bruce Guenther, Adjunct Curator for Special Exhibitions, for a private tour of our exhibit R.B. Kitaj, A Jew Etc., Etc. This is the first in a series of Culture Shock events and is sponsored by Multnomah County Cultural Coalition.
The Last Journey of the Jews of Lodz October 9, 2018 – February 24, 2019 at Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
Memory Unearthed: The Lodz Ghetto Photographs of Henryk Ross October 27, 2018 – February 24, 2019 at the Portland Art Museum
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Speaker for National Coming Out Day: Captain Ofer Erez
October 11, 2018, 7pm at Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. In honor of National Coming Out Day, a Wider Bridge is bringing Captain Ofer Erez to Portland. Ofer is the first transgender service member to rank as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. Now, Ofer is the CEO of the Jerusalem Open House, a long time LGBTQ community center in Jerusalem and the organizer of the Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance.
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Oregon Jewish Community FoundationA Taste of Giving: Oct. 4OJCF’s Giving Council will once again hold its annual Taste of Giving event. Join current Giving Council members at Opal 28 for an evening full of good food, drink and conversation.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Opal 28, 510 NE 28th Avenue, Portland Tickets are $40 per person.
Proceeds of the evening will benefit Maayan Torah, Maimonides and Portland Jewish Academy day schools through the Arthur P. Krichevsky Memorial Scholarship Fund of OJCF that provides financial assistance for student tuition.
CLICK HERE to register and purchase tickets.
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Thank you to our donors
Miriam and Robert Epstein
Wendy Mednick
Linda Monk
Arlene Schnitzer and Jordan D. Schnitzer
Judith and Simon Trutt
The Oregon Jewish Community Foundation
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Every gift makes it possible for us to continue serving our students and community.
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Portland State University | Judaic Studies PO Box 751 | Portland, OR 97207-0751 US
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