The Department of Jewish Studies is proud to present many exciting guest speakers and events throughout the year. Please consult the list below.
If you are a McGill employee and would like to promote an event please complete the form here.
Welcome Event (2024-2025 Academic Year)
- Date: September 4, 2024
- Time: 5:30-7:00 pm
- Location: Arts 160
- RSVP: https://forms.office.com/r/Kj1PbzXztR
An opportunity to learn about the Department of Jewish Studies, to launch a year of teaching, events, and research, and to gather and reconnect. Food and drink will be served. RSVP required.
Jewish Identity in Contemporary Morocco: Memory, Reconciliation, and Citizenship
Aomar Boum (Professor and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, UCLA)
- Date: September 10, 2024
- Time: 5:30-7:00 pm
- Location: Leacock 232
On July 13, 2022, King Mohammed VI approved the establishment of three new national representative bodies of the Jewish community which include, in addition to the traditional National Council of the Community and its regional committees, a National Commission of Moroccan Jews Living Abroad as well as a Foundation of Moroccan Judaism. Although the recent political, social and economic context of “Moroccan-Israeli normalization” may look as the leading impetus for these royal and statal decisions, I argue that these much-needed measures were decades in the making and are part of the Moroccan state’s engagement with the “Jewish Question” during the reign of Mohammed VI. While this official program started during the reign of King Hassan II, its rhythm accelerated and took different forms, particularly in media, civil society, and non-academic circles, after the enthronement of King Mohammed VI in 1999. I revisit the issue of “reconciliation” of Moroccan society with its Jewish memory through an analysis of its expression through history, literature, media, and intergenerational memory especially in the last two decades. I underline reconciliation here because the history of human rights abuses and the state’s record during the Years of Lead (1956-1999) left their imprint on all Moroccans, independently of their religion. The monarchy has indeed, since the time of Mohammed V, maintained strong relations with its Jewish subjects in the Jewish communities across the country, Morocco, as a nation, continues its own search for a way to “recognize and accept” its Jews while being sentient to the question of Palestine.
With support from the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President (ODPSLL), the Equity Team, and the Dean of Arts Development Fund.
RSVP: https://forms.office.com/r/Dj6YpFrdng
“Jews and Other Poles”: A Tribute to Gershon Hundert (z”l)
- Dates: September 22-23, 2024
This two-day symposium celebrates the remarkable legacy of our dear colleague and friend, Gershon Hundert (1946-2023). Over the course of his 48 years at McGill University, Gershon left an indelible impact on faculty and students. Not only was his scholarship influential but his warmth and generosity as a mentor, colleague, and teacher were legion. Beyond Montreal, scholars across the world recognize Gershon as one of the most significant Jewish historians of his generation. His pioneering research on the Jews of Eastern Europe reshaped our understanding of Jewish history and continues to inspire new generations.
“Jews and Other Poles” brings together some of the most creative and innovative minds in Polish and Eastern European Jewish history to reflect on the state of the field and its future––a fitting tribute to Gershon’s enduring influence.
The symposium begins on Sunday, September 22 with a keynote address by Olga Litvak (Cornell University) entitled “Remapping Jewish Modernity: The Legacy of Gershon Hundert.” Litvak’s talk will set the tone for what promises to be a series of thought provoking discussions.
On Monday, September 23, the tribute continues with a full day of panels by scholars who have drawn inspiration from Gershon’s extraordinary contributions. Joining us are Israel Bartal, Jeremy Brown, Maria Cieśla, Natalie Cornett, Ofer Dynes, Esther Frank, Uriel Gellman, Ula Madej-Krupitski, Moshe Rosman, Nancy Sinkoff, and Adam Teller.
Together, we will honour Gershon’s memory and continue the important conversation he started half a century earlier
Day 1:
Sunday, September 22, 2024, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Congregation Dorshei Emet [18 Cleve Rd, Hampstead, Quebec H3X 1A6]
Keynote: Olga Litvak (Cornell University), “Remapping Jewish Modernity: The Legacy of Gershon Hundert”
Free, RSVP required: https://forms.office.com/r/0wpvSFA9p4
Day 2:
Monday, September 23, 2024, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Faculty Club, Billiard Room, McGill University
Program:
- 9:00 – 10:30 - Session 1: Borders, Borderlands, and Boundary Crossing in the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth
Chair: John Zucchi
Adam Teller, Beeswax and Books: Connections Between Polish-Lithuanian and Ottoman Jews at the End of the Sixteenth Century
Mania Cieśla, Microhistories of Coexistence: Jews and non-Jews in an Urban Context in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Moshe Rosman, Two Models of Female Piety: Beyla Falk (Sixteenth Century) vs Leah Horowitz (Eighteenth Century) (delivered remotely)
- 10:30 – 11:00 - Coffee Break
- 11:00 – 12:00 - Session 2: Crowns, Courts, and Thrones: Rethinking Jewish Paths to Modernity
Chair: Heidi Wendt
Uriel Gellman, Tradition in Transition: Social Engagement in Early Hasidism
Ofer Dynes, The Legend of Saul Wahl: A Reconsideration
- 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch (on site, per invitation only)
- 1:00 - 2:30 - Session 3: Poetry as Memory, Memoires as History
Chair: Olga Litvak
Jeremy Brown, Revivals of Ancient Piety from Medieval Spain to Modern Poland-Lithuania
Esther Frank, The Literary Relation between Memory and History in Rokhl Korn's Village Poetry
Israel Bartal, Glikl, Birkenthal, and Spivakoff: Three Centuries of Ashkenazi Memoires (1691-1964) (delivered remotely)
- 2:30 – 3:00 Coffee Break
- 3:00 - 4:30 Session 4:“Jews and Other Poles” in the Modern Period
Chair: Christopher Silver
Nancy Sinkoff, Reporting on the Spanish Civil War through Polish Jewish Eyes: S. L. Shneiderman's Krig in Shpanyen: Hinterland
Natalie Cornett, Exploring the Impact of Women’s Education on Polish-Jewish Relations in Nineteenth-Century Poland
Ula Madej-Krupitski, Zakopane as a Jewish Space? A Reevaluation of the 1920s and 1930s.
4:45 Closing Remarks
6:00 Dinner, (off site)
Free, RSVP required: https://forms.office.com/r/PKBwg3aKFZ
Centuries Surround Me With Fire: On a Late Celan Translation of Mandelstam
Stephen Ross (Concordia University)
(part of Jewish Studies Seminar)
- Date: October 30, 2024
- Time: 4:00-6:00 pm
- Location: TBA
Coffee, tea, and pastries will be served.