Event Archive 2016 - Present

Introduced by Yael Perlov, daughter of David Perlov, and followed by a panel discussion featuring Joel Snyder (UChicago), Leora Auslander (UChicago), Na'ama Rokem (UChicago), and Noa Steimatsky (UC-Berkeley). Screening courtesy of The Yad Vashem Visual Center and KAN 11 – IBC. David Perlov lays layer upon layer of memory in his film Memories of the Eichmann Trial, a unique historic and cinematic document, composed of interviews conducted by Perlov in his Tel Aviv apartment seventeen years after the Eichmann trial. Those interviewed are Israeli Holocaust survivors and members of their generation, children of survivors and young “Sabras”. They reflect upon how the Eichmann trial transformed Israeli perceptions of the Holocaust and the survivors and the way it affected them and their families. Among those interviewed in the film are: Raffi Eitan, who took part in Eichmann's capture in Argentina, Rivka Yosselevska, who gave testimony at the trial - a survivor of the killing pits of the Jews of Pohost- Zagorodski, Belarus, where her entire family was murdered by members of the einsatzgruppen and local collaborators in the summer of 1942, and Stephania and Henryk Ross, who also testified at the trial. Ross, a photographer forced by the Nazis to work at the Lodz Ghetto 'Statistics Department', secretly photographed transports to the death camps. 'The moment Roth shows Perlov the hasty movement of drawing out his camera from under his coat and hiding it again is one of the most memorable scenes in the history of the Israeli cinema' (Uri Klein, 'Ha'aretz'.) Broadcast only once on Israeli television in 1979, Memories of the Eichmann Trial was rediscovered and restored in 2011. Introduced by Yael Perlov, daughter of David Perlov, and followed by a panel discussion featuring Joel Snyder (UChicago), Leora Auslander (UChicago), Na'ama Rokem (UChicago), and Noa Steimatsky (UC-Berkeley). (David Perlov, Israel, 1979, 65 min., digital, b/w, documentary, Hebrew with English subtitles, Produced by: Israel Broadcasting Authority- Channel 1, Camera: Danny Shneor , Editor: Era Lapid ) Restoration (2011) produced by Yad Vashem – The Visual Center, with the support of the Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Memory in Israel. Courtesy of Yad Vashem’s Visual Center and IBA-Israel. Producers: Liat Benhabib, Yael Perlov.

Lecture will explore the tension between universality and particularities in his recent art projects about history, utopia, multilingualism, Soviet Yiddishism, and queer aesthetics Vs aesthetics of the closet and in such projects as The Lenin Museum, Cruising Birobidzhan, and Soviet Moscow's Yiddish-Gay Dictionary. 12:00-2:00 Harper Memorial 130

Dorit Rabinyan will discuss 'All the Rivers.' Presented in partnership with The Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. At the Co-op About the book: A controversial, award-winning story about the passionate but untenable affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, from one of Israel’s most acclaimed novelists. When Liat meets Hilmi on a blustery autumn afternoon in Greenwich Village, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Charismatic and handsome, Hilmi is a talented young artist from Palestine. Liat, an aspiring translation student, plans to return to Israel the following summer. Despite knowing that their love can be only temporary, that it can exist only away from their conflicted homeland, Liat lets herself be enraptured by Hilmi: by his lively imagination, by his beautiful hands and wise eyes, by his sweetness and devotion. Together they explore the city, sharing laughs and fantasies and pangs of homesickness. But the unfettered joy they awaken in each other cannot overcome the guilt Liat feels for hiding him from her family in Israel and her Jewish friends in New York. As her departure date looms and her love for Hilmi deepens, Liat must decide whether she is willing to risk alienating her family, her community, and her sense of self for the love of one man. Banned from classrooms by Israel’s Ministry of Education, Dorit Rabinyan’s remarkable novel contains multitudes. A bold portrayal of the strains—and delights—of a forbidden relationship, 'All the Rivers' (published in Israel as 'Borderlife') is a love story and a war story, a New York story and a Middle East story, an unflinching foray into the forces that bind us and divide us. “The land is the same land,” Hilmi reminds Liat. “In the end all the rivers flow into the same sea.” About the author: Dorit Rabinyan is the bestselling author of the acclaimed 'Persian Brides,' 'Strand of a Thousand Pearls,' and 'All The Rivers.' She is the recipient of the Itzhak Vinner Prize, the Prime Minister’s Prize, The ACUM award and the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Award. Her most recent book, 'All the Rivers,' was banned from use in high schools curriculum by Israel's Ministry of Education. The book was #1 bestseller in Israel for over a year. and was awarded the prestigious Bernstein Prize.

Amir Engel discusses 'Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography.' He will be joined in conversation by Paul Mendes-Flohr. Presented in partnership with the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago. At the Co-op About the book: The famous Kabbalah scholar, Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) occupies a central role in our intellectual imagination. He was “the creator of an academic discipline,” according to Martin Buber and is discussed by historians, literary scholars, and philosophers. Yet despite his charismatic personality and the many books and articles he wrote, there is something about him that remains mysterious and somewhat enigmatic. Who was Gershom Scholem and what is it that he contributed, most decisively to our understanding of culture, history, and politics? In this talk I will address the 'Gershom Scholem enigma' and describe the path I took in my book 'Gershom Scholem: An Intellectual Biography' in order to unravel some of its most intriguing aspects- between his historiography of the Kabbalah and the stories that he told about his life known simply as “from Berlin to Jerusalem.” About the author: Amir Engel teaches at the German department at the Hebrew University. He studied philosophy, literature and culture-studies at the Hebrew University and completed his PhD. at the German Studies department at Stanford University. He also taught and conducted research at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. His current project is a historical analysis of the term 'Jewish mysticism' and a project on the Postwar European Culture, titled 'After the Shock: The uniqueness of the Immediate Postwar'. About the interlocutor: Paul Mendes-Flohr is the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought in the Divinity School and Associate Faculty in the Department of History. He is a co-editor of the 'Complete Works of Martin Buber' and of the anthology 'The Jew in the Modern World.' His books include: 'Divided Passion: Jewish Intellectuals and the Experience of Modernity' and 'German Jews: A Dual Identity.'