Jewish past becoming part of non-Jewish national patrimony is a recent trend in Polish and European memory culture. In the case of Krakow, Poland, where only a handful of Jews remains, non-Jewish cultural entrepreneurs are actively recreating a “Jewish” presence through cafés and a world-class annual summer cultural festival. On Thursday, October 22 at 5:00pm, FIU’s Judaic Studies Program is hosting a symposium featuring Jack Kugelmass, Professor of Anthropology and the Sam Melton Professor and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. The symposium interprets this phenomenon in terms of demographic shifts currently underway throughout much of Europe. FIU faculty will participate in the symposium as discussants. The symposium is co-sponsored by FIU’s European Studies Program, Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence, and FIU European Students’ Association. The event is free and open to the public and will be held in GC 243 at FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus.
 

Jack Kugelmass received a BA from McGill University, and an MA and PhD from the New School for Social Research. He is the editor of Jews, Sports and the Rites of Citizenship (Illinois, 2006), Key Texts in American Jewish Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2003); author of The Miracle of Intervale Avenue: The Story of a Jewish Congregation in the South Bronx (Columbia University Press, 1996), and co-author of From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry (Indiana University Press, 1998).

 

To RSVP and for more information, call 305-348-5949 or email calyc@fiu.edu...More info>