Rutgers Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life Presents Dance, Music and Lectures Exploring Jewish Life and Culture

NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. An evening of Sephardic dance and music; a lecture on the story Tevye the Dairyman, adapted for the classic Fiddler on the Roof; and a panel discussion on the The Passion of the Christ will be featured in the coming months by Rutgers Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life.

The centers spring season begins Tuesday, Feb. 15, with a performance, Tales and Controversies: An Evening of Sephardic Dance and Music.

Dancer, choreographer and storyteller Judith Brin Ingber will be joined by musicians Sarah Aroeste and Yoel Ben-Simhon to present a view of Sephardic and Israeli culture inspired by ancient stories and current controversies. The event is cosponsored by the department of dance at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, where Ingber is an artist-in-residence, and funded, in part, by the Sagner Family Foundation and Mason Gross Presents. The event begins at 8 p.m. at the Nicholas Music Center, 85 George St., New Brunswick. Tickets, priced at $8 for the public or available free to Rutgers students with a valid student ID, may be obtained by contacting the Mason Gross School of the Arts box office at (732) 932-7511 or by visiting www.masongross.rutgers.edu.

Three lectures exploring Jewish culture, film and history, listed below, also are planned. All will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Trayes Hall of the Douglass College Center, George Street and Nichol Avenue, New Brunswick. The talks are free and open to the public; advance registration is requested.

Sholem Aleichems beloved story, Tevye the Dairyman, made famous in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, will be discussed Monday, Feb. 28, by Anita Norich, associate professor of English and Judaic studies at the University of Michigan. How Tevye Learned to Fiddle, the Avram Matlofsky Memorial Program funded by the Karma Foundation, will include video clips from several film adaptations. A dessert reception will follow.

The challenges faced by American Jews caught between their desire to be accepted by American society and their emotional commitment to their European brethren will be discussed Thursday, March 10, at the centers Toby and Herbert Stolzer Endowed Lecture, An Unsettling Past: American Jews during the Nazi Era. Lecturer Gulie Neeman Arad, a visiting faculty member at Yale who teaches American and European history at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, is the author of numerous books and articles on the Nazi era, postwar Germany and historical memory. A dessert reception will follow.

One year after the release of The Passion of the Christ, debate continues on its impact on film, culture and religion. On Thursday, March 31, the Raoul Wallenberg Annual Lecture, funded by the Leon and Toby Cooperman Fund, presents a panel discussion examining the social and political implications of the film. Panelists for The Passions Surrounding The Passion: A Look Back at a Controversial Film, include Elizabeth Castelli, associate professor of religion at Barnard College; Stuart Klawans, film critic for The Nation; and Jeff Sharlet, editor of the Web magazine, The Revealer: A Daily View of Religion and the Press. Jeffrey Shandler, assistant professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers, will moderate.

All events are subject to change. For the latest information or to RSVP, visit

www.jewishstudies.rutgers.edu, send email to csjlrsvp@rci.rutgers.edu or call (732) 932-2033.

The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life is committed to the pursuit of academic excellence, fostering faculty research and sponsoring a variety of community outreach programs.

Contact: Pam Orel

732/932-7084 ext. 614

porel@ur.rutgers.edu