Rabbi Donniel Hartman (President of Shalom Hartmann Institute) May 19, 2016 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel One of the few constants throughout Jewish history years is that Jewish identity has never been simple, and the answer to the question of “Who is a Jew? – far from...
Eva Kor May 5, 2016 / 7:30 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion An exhibition of the Letters of Dr. Josef Mengele will be on display in the UCSB Library (8th Floor Lobby) from April 11 - May 27 courtesy of the Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation. Sponsored by...
Ruth Wisse (Emeritus Research Professor in Yiddish and Comparative Literature, Harvard University) April 14, 2016 / 7:30 PM Congregation B'nai B'rith Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In her critically-acclaimed book, No Joke: Making Jewish Humor, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius...
Anat Hoffman (Executive Director, the Israeli Religious Action Center) Thursday, March 10, 2016 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road, Santa Barbara Jerusalem is a harsh city to live in. It is a city in struggle, a struggle between narrow-minded Judaism and pluralistic Judaism,...
David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) February 24, 2016 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall As the Mideast chaos has focused elsewhere, the Israeli and Palestinian issue has been largely sidelined. Negotiated peace, the classic paradigm for the last few decades, has been...
Shaul Bassi (Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy) Tuesday, January 26, 2016 / 8:00 PM Corwin Pavilion Two landmark anniversaries will coincide in 2016: the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Jewish Ghetto of Venice, a place that...
Ambassador Dennis Ross Friday, November 20, 2015 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Ambassador Dennis Ross will discuss and sign copies of his just-released book, Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama, at 3:00 p.m., Friday, November 20 at UCSB (Location To Be Announced)....
Yoram Peri (Abraham S. and Jack Kay Chair in Israel Studies at the University Maryland at College Park) Sunday, October 18, 2015 / 8:00 PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall Professor Yoram Peri will present a free, public lecture on "The Second Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the...
Monday, November 9, 2015 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall A superlative saga of courage and compassion, Run Boy Run tells the extraordinary true story of a Polish boy who seeks the kindness of others in his solitary struggle to outlast the Nazi occupation and keep...
Monday, May 18 / 7:00 PM New Vic Theatre 33 West Victoria Street, Santa Barbara FREE This feature-length documentary recounts the history of Zionism, its leaders, its influence on the Jewish and Palestinian peoples and the inevitable differences between its ideals and its real world embodiment....
Glenn Kurtz (author) Thursday, April 16 / 8:00 PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall In Europe in August 1938, one year before the outbreak of World War II, Glenn Kurtz’s grandfather captured three minutes of ordinary life in a small, predominantly Jewish town in Poland on 16mm Kodachrome color...
Ambassador Marc Ginsberg (CEO of OneVoice) Ghaith al-Omari (Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Wednesday, February 25 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Ambassador Marc Ginsberg and Ghaith al-Omari, two leading authorities on the Middle East will discuss U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of...
Paul Mendes-Flohr (Modern Jewish History and Thought, University of Chicago Divinity School) Monday, February 9 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero del Mar, Isla Vista One of the most significant Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century, Martin Buber was born in Vienna (1878) and died in...
Eric Lichtblau ( investigative reporter, The New York Times) Monday, January 26 / 8:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion Eric Lichtblau unveils the secret history of how America became home to thousands of Nazi war criminals after World War II, many of whom were scientists and spies...
Ari Shavit (Senior Correspondent, Haaretz) December 02, 2014...
Rabbi David Wolpe (Sinai Temple, Los Angeles) Sunday, November 16 / 3:00 PM UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall Out of all the figures in the Bible, David is one of the most perplexing and enigmatic. Rabbi David Wolpe takes a fresh look at the biblical David in an...
Kati Marton (former NPR and ABC News Correspondent, author of The Great Escape) Wednesday, October 29, 2014 / 8:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion In her critically-acclaimed account of The Great Escape, Kati Marton follows nine survivors over the decades as they flee fascism and anti-Semitism, seek sanctuary in...
Rabbi Laura Geller (Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills) Wednesday, May 28 2014 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Geller was raised in Brookline, Massachusetts until she was 15, when her family moved to New York City. She attended the Dalton School, then graduated from Brown University in 1971.Geller...
Monday, April 28 / 7:30 PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall The Santa Barbara premiere screening of Aftermath, winner of the Yad Vashem Chairman's Award at last year’s Jerusalem Film Festival. The riveting story of two Polish brothers who come to terms with their village’s long hidden role...
Ambassador Dennis Ross (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ghaith al-Omari (Executive Director, the American Task Force on Palestine) Wednesday, March 5 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Veteran Middle East peace negotiators, Ambassador Dennis Ross (counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington...
E. Randol Schoenberg (Burris, Schoenberg & Walden, LLP) Thursday, February 20 / 8:00 PM Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall The recent disclosure of more than 1,400 artworks found hidden in the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt has generated renewed interest in the subject of Nazi-looted art. The upcoming release...
Barbara Mann (The Jewish Theological Seminary) Thursday, January 23 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista This event has been cancelled due to illness. Jews have historically been considered “the people of the book,” a rootless, diasporic collection of communities whose true “place” is...
Gideon Raff (Director, Prisoners of War) Sunday, November 24 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Gideon Raff, creator, writer and director of the award-winning Israeli television drama series, Prisoners of War (Hatufim), which served as the inspiration for its critically acclaimed US adaptation, Homeland, shows clips from...
Leon Wieseltier (Literary Editor, The New Republic) Thursday, November 14 / 7:30 PM Congregation B'nai B'rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Leon Wieseltier, noted writer, critic, and literary editor of The New Republic, is the author of Kaddish (1998), which was a finalist for the National...
Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer Sunday, October 20 / 3:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion With Palestinian-Israeli peace talks underway, it is more imperative than ever to learn and apply the lessons of past negotiations, so as to create an opportunity for a peaceful resolution of the longstanding...
Karen Wilson (History, UCLA) Thursday, May 30 / 7:30 PM Congregation B'nai B'rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Limited Seating and RSVP Required: 964-7869 or audrey@cbbsb.org Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic, a groundbreaking exhibition on display at the Autry National Center in Griffith Park, tells the...
John Connelly (History, UC Berkeley) David Nirenberg (History, The University of Chicago) Monday, May 6 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista This event marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and features a dialogue between John Connelly, author...
Sunday, April 7 / 3:00 PM Lotte Lehman Concert Hall Josh Aronson (director, Orchestra of Exiles) Orchestra of Exiles recounts the dramatic story of Bronislaw Huberman, the celebrated Polish violinist who rescued some of the world’s greatest musicians from Nazi Germany and then created one of the world’s...
David Makovsky (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ghaith al-Omari (The American Task Force on Palestine) Wednesday, February 27 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for...
Dov Waxman (Political Science, CUNY) Monday, February 11 / 8:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion One in five citizens of Israel is Palestinian. What does this mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish state and for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This talk tackles these crucial questions and...
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth) Tuesday, November 27 / 8:00 PM Campbell Hall For Jews and for Judaism the twentieth century brought unprecedented suffering and incredible achievements - but as a new century gets going, their role in the future is up for...
Martin S. Indyk (Vice President, Director for Foreign Policy, the Brookings Institution) Sunday, November 4 / 3:00 PM Corwin Pavilion Ambassador Martin S. Indyk will analyze the dramatic developments in the Arab world and their impact on Iran’s bid for dominance in Israel’s neighborhood, including through its nuclear...
Maggie Anton (Author, Rashi's Daughters) Wednesday, October 17 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista Maggie Anton, award-winning author of the historical fiction series Rashi’s Daughters, discusses her latest novel, Rav Hisda’s Daughter, which brings to life the world of the Talmud from...
Rabbi Rick Jacobs (President-Elect, Union for Reform Judaism) Sunday, May 20 / 8:45 AM Breakfast $5.00 Suggested Contribution Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road The Future of Judaism Lecture Series Inaugural Event At this dramatic moment of Jewish history, we must harness the innovation...
Lawrence Baron (History, San Diego State University) Monday, May 14 / 8:00 PM Pollock Theater Ever since it premiered in 1927, "The Jazz Singer" has been considered the paradigmatic film about the Americanization of the children of Jewish immigrants. The movie has inspired remakes and retakes on the...
Yehuda Bauer (Academic Advisor, Yad Vashem) Thursday, April 19 / 8:00 p.m. Campbell Hall Holocaust Remembrance Week Inaugural Event What do we mean by “genocide”? Why are humans the only living creatures that kill their own kind in huge numbers? What place does the Holocaust occupy...
David Makovsky (Director, the Project on the Middle East Peace Process) Ghaith al-Omari (Executive Director, the American Task Force on Palestine) Wednesday, February 15 / 5:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Foundation Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies at UCSB Fifteenth Anniversary...
Ron Hassner (Political Science, UC Berkeley) Monday, February 6 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar Holy places create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, as evidenced by the ongoing struggle over Jerusalem. Drawing on his recent book, War on Sacred Grounds, Ron...
Dara Horn (author of In the Image, The World to Come, and All Other Nights) Monday, January 23 / 7:30 PM Congregation B’nai B’rith 1000 San Antonio Creek Road Award-winning novelist Dara Horn will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing American Jewish writers, and will share many adventures from...
La Rafle (The Round Up) directed by Roselyne Bosch, 2010, 115 min. Wednesday, November 16 / 7:30 PM UCSB Campbell Hall In picturesque Montmarte, three children wearing a yellow star play in the streets, oblivious to the darkness spreading over Nazi-occupied France. Their parents do not seem...
Simon Sebag Montefiore (International Best-Selling Historian, author of Catherine the Great & Potemkin, Stalin, and Young Stalin) Thursday, November 3 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires,...
Helmi Kittani (Executive Director, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development) Eytan Biderman, (Director, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development) Sunday, October 16 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Fifteenth Anniversary Inaugural Event Helmi Kittani, an Arab Israeli economist, became Executive Director of the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic...
Samuel Heilman (Sociology, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY) Sunday, May 8 / 3:00 PM UCSB MultiCultural Center From the 1950s until his death in 1994, Menachem Mendel Schneerson--revered by his followers worldwide simply as the Rebbe--built the Lubavitcher movement from a relatively small sect within Hasidic...
Deborah E. Lipstadt (Religion, Emory University) Sunday, May 1 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Lipstadt offers a compelling reassessment of the groundbreaking trial that has become a touchstone for judicial proceedings in which victims of genocide confront its perpetrators. As the world continues to confront the ongoing...
Marek Halter Wednesday, March 30 / 5:00 PM Bronfman Family Jewish Community Center, 524 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara In The Jewish Odyssey, Marek Halter charts the course of Judaism from its origins in Mesopotamia to its place in the world today. Predating all Western culture, its early development...
Judy Klitsner (Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem) Sunday, February 6 / 8:45 AM Congregation B'nai B'rith, 1000 San Antonio Road, Santa Barbara What do the infertile, tent-dwelling mothers of Genesis have in common with the military and spiritual leaders of the book of Judges? In our...
Pierre Sauvage, Documentary Filmmaker of Weapons of the Spirit Tuesday, January 18 / 8:00 p.m. Campbell Hall Pierre Sauvage, award-winning documentary filmmaker and child survivor of the Holocaust, screens and discusses excerpts from his upcoming feature documentary And Crown Thy Good: Varian Fry in Marseille (2011), as well...
Sue Fishkoff, National Correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Thursday, November 11 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista In this captivating account of a Bible-based practice that has grown into a multibillion- dollar industry, journalist Sue Fishkoff travels throughout America and to...
Moshe Halbertal & Raghida Dergham Sunday, October 17, 2010 / 3:00 PM UCSB Corwin Pavilion A dialogue between Moshe Halbertal, noted Israeli pholosopher, award-winning author, and Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at Hebrew University and Raghida Dergham, columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat,...
Russell Steinberg, composer/pianist Mitchell Newman, LA Philharmonic violinist Monday, October 11 / 8:00 PM Geiringer Hall Featuring music by Russell Steinberg and text by Daniel Pearl, performed by LA Philharmonic violinist Mitchell Newman and composer/pianist Russel Steinberg. Limited seating, reservation required: please call (805) 893‐2317. Presented in conjunction with...
Ian Buruma (Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism, Bard College) Tuesday, May 11 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Award-winning author and journalist Ian Buruma will discuss the debates about Muslim radicalism, immigration, and the challenge from religion in several European countries where anti-immigrant populism is on the rise...
Norman H. Gershman Sunday, April 11 / 3:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall Fine art photographer Norman Gershman spent five years collecting the stories of Albanian Muslims who, at grave risk to themselves and their families, harbored Jewish refugees during WWII as part the Islamic tradition of Besa,...
Michael Fishbane (Jewish Studies, University of Chicago) Tuesday, March 2 / 7:30 PM Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista Michael Fishbane will discuss the role of spiritual practices in Judaism -- through ritual and meditation -- which cultivate different types of consciousness and awareness. He...
Ethan Bronner (Jerusalem Bureau Chief, New York Times) Monday, February 8 / 8:00 PM UCSB Campbell Hall - Free Ethan Bronner, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The New York Times will combine diplomatic and political analysis with behind-the-scenes stories from his reporting to explore the challenges faced by a...
Harold M. Schulweis, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, CA Sunday, December 6, 2009 / 8:45 a.m. / $5.00 Admission to Breakfast and Talk Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road, Santa Barbara...
An Evening with Anita Diamant 8:00 p.m. / Thursday, November 12, 2009 / Free UCSB Campbell Hall...
David Makovsky, Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Ghaith al-Omari, Advocacy Director for the American Task Force on Palestine Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009 / 8:00 p.m. / Free UCSB Campbell Hall...
Rabbi Reuven Firestone Professor of Medieval Jewish and Islamic Studies, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion Tuesday, May 19, 2009 / 8:00 p.m. / Free Santa Barbara Hillel, 781 Embarcadero Del Mar, Isla Vista...
Screening Followed by Panel Discussion Featuring local Holocaust survivors, Stan Ostern and Edith Ostern, and photographer Rick Nahmias moderated by Dr. Richard Hecht...
Rabbi David Saperstein Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Washington, DC Sunday, March 22, 2009 / 3:00 p.m. / Free Victoria Hall, 33 West Victoria Street, Santa Barbara Co-presented with the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion and Public Life at UCSB as part of its...