Schwalb Center Events

Past Events

Date	Event	Video Link
Sept. 18, 2022	Maxwell Street Klezmer Band — the 11-piece Maxwell Street Klezmer Band from Chicago performed Eastern European Jewish folk music, Jewish-American jazz and dance music and film music and theater songs. Featured guest artists include Cantor Pavel Roytman and vocalist Lisa Fishman. This event was part of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association Conference.	Watch Now
May 12, 2022	Trapped in Rome Without a Home: The Plight of Post-Chernobyl Jewish Refugees — Alla Shapiro discussed her experiences as a stateless refugee in Rome fleeing the Soviet Union after Chernobyl. The event included a discussion with a book signing.	Watch Now
April 5, 2022	Jewish Histories of Iran — a lecture with Dr. Lior Sternfeld, an Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University.	Watch Now
March 29, 2022	Saving the Holy Middle Ground: Reimagining the Future of Conservative Judaism — Tristan Newman, a senior at UNO in Religious Studies and History, examined the history and current state of Conservative Judaism and advocate for maintaining plurality of practice.	Watch Now
March 20, 2022	Chernobyl Responder, Jewish Refugee, Radiation Expert Dr. Alla Shapiro — Alla Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., discussed her experiences fleeing anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and becoming a stateless person before resettling in the United States. She gave a series of lectures on being a Chernobyl first responder, her radiation research, and her experiences as a Jewish refugee.	Watch Now
March 10, 2022	Behind the Scenes of This Immortal Life Also — Nancy Shank, Playwright, and Timothy Scholl, Director/Producer discuss the process of creating a new play about celebrated theologian and pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer is drawn into a web of lies and deceit as a double agent in World War II Germany. He struggles to live with integrity while fighting against National Socialism in a landscape of secrets, broken promises, fierce love, and dangerous alliances.	N/A
March 1, 2022	Welcoming the Immigrants: Refugee Resettlement in Jewish Iowa	Watch Now
February 22, 2022	2022 Ruth and Phil Sokolof Lecture: Three Modern Blood Libels About Israel: Vaccines, Evictions, and Apartheid — Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Antonin Scalia School of Law, and Director, Center for International Law in the Middle East at George Mason University.	Watch Now
Sept. 19, 2021	The Stony Ground Bore Fruit – Stories of Jewish Homesteaders and Descendants — Rebecca E. Bender, discussed her book, Still (North Dakota State University Press), a biography/memoir that she coauthored with her father Kenneth M. Bender about two family generations who were Jewish farming homesteaders near Ashley, North Dakota.	Watch Now
June 2, 2021	Ilana Masad Author Talk: On Writing & Nuance — a conversation with Ilana Masad is a queer Israeli-American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism.	N/A
April 29, 2021	What's Jewish About the Jewish State? Examining Israel’s Fierce Debate on the Nation-State Law — The 2021 Sokolof Lecture was presented by Simon Rabinovitch, Ph.D., Associate Professor in History at Northeastern University. Dr. Rabinovitch examined and analyzed the impact of Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law. The passage of the law sparked protests from Israel’s Druze population and raised questions about balancing minority rights and national self-determination.	Watch Now
April 28, 2021	Religious Freedom and the Jews: Collective Rights and Modern States — Dr. Simon Rabinovitch, Associate Professor in History and Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, joined ‘Breadbreakers’ to present a lecture on his forthcoming book that compares legal cases in Europe, North America, Africa, and Israel where civil courts have decided on matters of Jewish law and communal identity.	Watch Now
April 22, 2021	Forgotten Histories of Jewish Women in Iowa: Community Discussion — Dr. Jeannette Gabriel, Director, Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies, led a discussion on the connections between family collections and broader Jewish and American history, examining Jewish women's lives from complex perspectives, and placing family collections in archives.	N/A
March 30, 2021	More Than Housewives: The Forgotten Lives of Iowa's Jewish Women — Dr. Jeannette Gabriel examined why Jewish women's contributions have been neglected in Iowa history and discuss The Jewish Women in Iowa Collection at the Iowa Women's Archives - University of Iowa. The discussion was moderated by Karen Michaeli from the Jewish Federation of the Corridor (Iowa).	N/A
Feb. 17, 2021	German, Jew, Muslim, Gay: The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus — Professor Marc David Baer, International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, spoke about his new publication that was released in April 2020 with the Religion, Culture, and Public Life series, Columbia University Press.	Watch Now
Jan. 7, 2021	Zionism for Generation Z: Drawing from Jewish Ethics — Tristan Newman, a Religious Studies major, gave a presentation as his final project for the History of Zionism course. The primary focus of his study was on the development of Zionist ideas prior to 1903 and how those ideas impacted the development of the State of Israel.	Watch Now
Oct. 14, 2020	Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the 17th Century — Professor Adam Teller, History and Judaic Studies, Brown University, spoke about his new book as part of the Schwalb Center's series on new research on Jewish Migratory Studies.	Watch Now
Sept. 15, 2020	From Jerusalem to Omaha: Michael Staenberg's Vision for a Jewish Future — Michael Staenberg, president of The Staenberg Group (TSG), joined The Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies for a discussion of the vision that drives his philanthropy work.	Watch Now
April 23, 2020	A Conversation with Unorthodox — this discussion featured the Director of Unorthodox, Maria Schrader, and Actor, Eli Rosen. This event was offered as part of the Schwalb Center's 10th Anniversary programming.	Watch Now
March 5, 2020	Israeli Elections X3: What Happens Next? — On March 2, 2020, Israelis went to the polls for the third time in a year in an attempt to form a new governing coalition. This discussion about the results of this election and what it means for democracy in Israel was conducted by Dr. Steve Caplan is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (UNMC), Dr. Curtis Hutt is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies (UNO), and moderated by Dr. Jeannette Gabriel.	N/A
Feb. 13, 2020	Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison — Ahmet Kuru, Ph.D., professor of political science and the former director of the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies at San Diego State University, discussed his new book.	N/A
Jan. 25, 2020	Working an Archive: Rescuing Jews and their Past — Rebecca Erbelding and Ron Coleman, historians and archivists of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, discuss their work.	N/A
Nov. 14-16, 2019	21st Annual Batchelder Conference For Archaeology and Biblical Studies — Speakers included Dr. Shimon Gibson UNC Charlotte Mount Zion Archaeological Project (Jerusalem), Dr. Menahem Mor, Haifa University, Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE), and Dr. Eric Cline, George Washington University, Digging up Armageddon (Megiddo).	N/A
Oct. 27-28, 2019	Jews and Gender: Tradition and Change — The 32nd Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization; keynote by Gail S. Labovitz, Ph.D., American Jewish University "Poskot in the Palace of Torah: A Preliminary Study of Orthodox Feminism and Halachic Process."	N/A
Sept. 26, 2019	Bak In Conversation	N/A
Sept. 24, 2019	Are Reparations Possible? Lessons to the United States from South Africa 25 Years After Apartheid — presented by the Honorable Richard Goldstone and Prof. Lewis Gordon. Goldstone is a former judge in South Africa and former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunals. Gordon is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and an internationally-renowed scholar.	N/A
April 4, 2019	That Obnoxious Order: Ulysses S. Grant and the Jews— Ruth and Phil Sokolof Lecture	N/A
Jan. 20, 2019	Left vs. Right: The Battle for Israel's Soul — a conversation on Israel hosted by Jonathan Tobin and J.J. Goldberg.	N/A
March 2, 2017	The Politics of Memory: Muslim Perception of Jews in Post-colonial Morocco — Dr. Aomar Boum of UCLA presented the keynote lecture at the Missouri Valley History Conference.	N/A
March 3, 2016	The Crescent on the Temple — a lecture by well-known art historian and filmmaker Dr. Pamela Berger on her latest book.	N/A