9/24/2003
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Jewish Studies Program at Michigan State University will focus on the complex and often contested history of Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish relations through a variety of special lectures and events during the 2003-04 academic year.
The year-long series, "The Jewish Experience in the Polish Lands," will include a screening of Roman Polanski's "The Piano," about survival in the Warsaw ghetto; a presentation that places the Academy Award-winning film in its Polish context; a lecture on inter-war Polish-Jewish relations; a talk on rural anti-Semitism; and a discussion of the contemporary Jewish community in Prague, Czech Republic - a community that shares many traits with Jewish groups in Poland today.
"Poland has long been a difficult topic for many American Jews," said Keely Stauter-Halsted, director of the Jewish Studies Program and associate professor of history. "It is both the site where the Holocaust was largely executed and, not coincidentally, the home of the vast majority of the world's Jews for most of the modern period.
"Jews found governmental protection as well as legal and religious autonomy there, established their own unique shetl communities, and later, when migration to the U.S. and Western Europe began, migrated to growing Polish cities. At the same time, some of the most virulent anti-Semitic attacks against Jews occurred on Polish territory, and these continued even in the wake of the Holocaust."
Stauter-Halsted noted that in the years since the fall of communism, Poland has experienced a dramatic resurgence of interest in and practice of Judaism, although the Jewish community in Poland remains small. Synagogues and community buildings are being restored, cemeteries refurbished, and courses on Judaism, Jewish history, and the Yiddish and Hebrew languages are increasingly popular at Polish universities.
All events for "The Jewish Experience in the Polish Lands" are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Jewish Studies Web site: www.msu.edu/user/jewishst/
"THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE IN THE POLISH LANDS"
Events sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program
Michigan State University
Thursday, Oct. 2, 6:30 p.m.
Hillel Jewish Student Center
360 Charles St., East Lansing, (517) 332-1916
Film screening: "The Pianist," directed by Roman Polanski
Nominated for seven Academy Awards and winner of three, including Best Actor for Adrien Brody and Best Director for Polanski, "The Pianist" is a harrowing and emotional look at one man's struggle to survive in the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust. Based on the true story of Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. Running time: 148 minutes. Pizza served at 6:30 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m.
MSU Library, North Conference Room (fourth floor-west)
Annual Esther and George Kessler Lecture on Jewish Film and Media
Speaker: Izabela Kalinowska-Blackwood, SUNY Stony Brook
Professor Kalinowska-Blackwood will speak on "The Vicissitudes of Remembrance: From Early Polish Cinema's Depiction of World War II to Roman Polanski's 'The Pianist.'" She will situate "The Pianist" in the context of other Polish-made films about World War II and compare it to Polanski's other films. Refreshments will be served.
Friday, Oct. 24, noon - 1:30 p.m.
321 Linton Hall, MSU campus
Jewish Studies Noon Colloquium
Speaker: Sean Martin, University of Phoenix
Professor Martin will speak on "Reconsidering Relationships: The Public and Private Lives of Jews and Poles Between the Wars." Martin, a recent Ph.D. graduate (Ohio State University), has been in the forefront of recent research re-evaluating relations between Poles and Jews on the eve of the Holocaust. Bagels, fruit and beverages will be provided.
Tuesday, Nov. 11, 4 p.m.
Honors Lounge, Eustace-Cole Hall, MSU campus
Speaker: Samuel Cooper, Bar Ilan University, Israel
Professor Cooper will examine the resurgence and reinvention of the Jewish community in Prague, Czech Republic, a city with a thousand-year-old tradition of Jewish settlement that is now recreating Jewish ritual and traditions with limited historical memory. Cooper, a cultural anthropologist trained at Johns Hopkins University, has published widely on immigrant development towns, mental hospitals and the Israel Defense forces. Refreshments will be served.
Friday, Dec. 5, noon - 1:30 p.m.
321 Linton Hall, MSU campus
Jewish Studies Noon Colloquium
Speaker: Keely Stauter-Halsted, Michigan State University
Professor Stauter-Halsted will speak on "The Roots of Modern Anti-Semitism in Rural Poland." Stauter-Halsted is a specialist on East European history at MSU whose research focuses on Poland, East European Jewry and anti-Semitism. Her book, "The Nation in the Village" (Cornell, 2001), was awarded the Orbis Prize for Polish Studies. She is currently working on a study of Christian-Jewish relations in the nineteenth-century Polish countryside. Bagels, fruit and beverages will be provided.