Media Type: Video
A Conversation with Holocaust Survivor Rose (Raisa) Lefkowitz Rosenkranz
Join Rose Rosenkranz, a Holocaust survivor and “miracle baby” born in a Siberian Slave Labor Camp in the heart of the war, as she shares her story of resilience and hope. The Grant Center for the American Jewish Experience at Tulane University will present an evening of powerful narratives and personal reflections of life in the United States after the Holocaust.
Mrs. Rosenkranz’s remarkable story will not only educate but serve as the inspiration for the upcoming immersive theatre production titled “Only Miracles”, Written and Directed by Tulane Visiting Assistant Professor, Dodd Loomis. This captivating production, that took place in mid-April at the historic Touro Synagogue, will bring to life the experiences of Mrs. Rosenkranz, her parents and others who lived through this dark chapter in history.
Ballots, Babies, & Banners of Peace
“Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace – Rottman Family Lecture Series with Dr. Melissa Klapper
This talk with Dr. Melissa Klapper will explore the social and political activism of American Jewish women from the 1890s through World War II, focusing on three mass women’s movements of the day: suffrage, birth control, and peace. No history of first wave feminism is complete without understanding the outsize impact of Jewish women on these movements and the powerful effect of their activism on contemporary American life.”
Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Lecture – Dr. Mike Cohen Lecture at SJHS
In 2021, Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter made by the largest single philanthropic gift in the society’s history. Dr. Kanter has been a long-time member of the society, as well as an active contributor to Jewish life in the Jacksonville area where he has worked and lived for more than 30 years. His gift will support lectures and research grants through the society, as well as the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans and the Department of Jewish Studies at Tulane University, Larry’s alma mater, to whom he gave similar gifts recognizing our joint desire to impact the future of southern Jewish scholarship. The second Kanter lecture was given in October 2022 by Dr. Michael Cohen during the society’s annual conference in Charleston, SC.
Evolving Representations of the Holocaust Survivor in the Post-War World
David Slucki and Golan Moskowitz discuss how public perceptions and representations of the Holocaust survivor have evolved from 1945 through the present, considering shifting cultural trends, political factors, intergenerational dynamics, and varied aesthetic approaches.
Golan Moskowitz introduces his book Wild Visionary
Wild Visionary reconsiders Maurice Sendak’s life and work in the context of his experience as a Jewish gay man. Maurice (Moishe) Bernard Sendak (1928–2012) was a fierce, romantic, and shockingly funny truth seeker who intervened in modern literature and culture. Raising the stakes of children’s books, Sendak painted childhood with the dark realism and wild imagination of his own sensitive “inner child,” drawing on the queer and Yiddish sensibilities that shaped his singular voice. Interweaving literary biography and cultural history, Golan Y. Moskowitz follows Sendak from his parents’ Brooklyn home to spaces of creative growth and artistic vision—from neighborhood movie palaces to Hell’s Kitchen, Greenwich Village, Fire Island, and the Connecticut country home he shared with Eugene Glynn, his partner of more than fifty years. Further, he analyzes Sendak’s investment in the figure of the endangered child in symbolic relation to collective touchstones that impacted the artist’s perspective—the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and the AIDS crisis. Through a deep exploration of Sendak’s picture books, interviews, and previously unstudied personal correspondence, Wild Visionary offers a sensitive portrait of the most beloved and enchanting picture-book artist of our time. For more information: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31783
Holocaust Survivor Holograms: A Conversation with Golan Moskowitz and David Slucki
Golan Moskowitz and David Slucki discuss both advantages and critiques made of recent technological innovations employed for representing Holocaust survivor testimonies.
Histories of Migration and Global Capitalism Conference: Impact of this Conference for those who don’t work on Jewish History
Historians Andonis Piperoglou, Mae Ngai, Hasia Diner, Suzanne Rutland, and Ruth Balint discuss the impact of the Histories of Migration & Global Capitalism Conference for those who don’t work on Jewish history.
Field Update: Studies on Jewish American Art
When I set out to write this essay, the first thing I did was check for recent dissertations on Jewish American art. I was surprised by what I found—or didn’t find. A keyword search for “Jewish American art” yielded only a handful of results. I had expected to find studies that treat Jewishness as part of a multifaceted picture of American art or of an artist’s oeuvre. But art history departments were producing very few indeed.
Current American Jewish Music Studies
The study of Jewish music in America is not as robust and diverse as other topics in Jewish Studies. For one thing, most approaches to Jewish Music are Eurocentric (which is true of Jewish Studies in general). But the main reason might be that the subject falls into a kind of academic no-man’s-land.