Obama, Sarah Silverman and Black-Jewish Relations

The Program in Jewish Studies welcomes Daniel Itzkovitz, Associate Professor of American literature and culture at Stonehill College in Massachusetts on Tuesday, April 20 at 7 PM in CU’s University Memorial Center room 235. This event is free and open to the public.  RSVP’s are encouraged and can be made at www.jewishmovers.org or by calling 303.492.7143.

This discussion is part of a book he’s working on titled “Fixing the Jews” that examines 21st century attempts to fix the meanings of Jewishness, and in the process, to fix what’s wrong with the Jews. This lecture returns us to the heady days of the 2008 presidential election to think about Jews, blacks, and “black-Jewish relations.” It will explore how the legacy of Jews in the Civil Rights movement gets used to tell idealized stories about 21st century Jews. At the center of the discussion is comedian Sarah Silverman, racial gadfly and unorthodox Jew extraordinaire.

Daniel Itzkovitz has published articles on Jewish studies, queer theory, film, and American literature, and is the editor of Fannie Hurst’s novel “Imitation of Life” (Duke University Press, 2004) and “Queer Theory and the Jewish Question” (Columbia University Press, 2003), which he co-edited with Daniel Boyarin and Ann Pellegrini. He is currently working on a book entitled “Fixing the Jews.”

This program is presented as part of MoVeRs: Jewish Mavericks, Visionaries and Rebels. This  year-long series of events examines how Jews have often been at the forefront of social, cultural and political change. Through lectures, concerts, films, classes and performances, guests from around the world have been coming to the Boulder/Denver metro area to explore who such MoVeRs have been throughout history and what is it about Jewish culture that inspires such radicalism. The fifteen collaborating organizations who worked to make MoVeRs possible are Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado, ADL, Congregation Bonai Shalom,Boulder JCC, Hadassah, Congregation Har HaShem,Hillel – University of Colorado, Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity,Limmud Colorado, Menorah:Arts, Culture and Education at the JCC, Nevei Kodesh, Pardes Levavot, Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado, Soul Food and Tuv Ha’aretz. Events continue through May!

MoVeRs is presented with support from Rose Community Foundation, SCFD and the Goldberger Fund for Jewish Culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. For more information, visit www.jewishmovers.org or call 303.492.7143.