UNT Jewish Studies Program to host two guest speakers

Monday, September 30, 2013 - 15:56

What: Dr. Yoav Gelber, head of Nevzlin Center for Jewish Peoplehood in Herzliya, Israel, and Sam Lehman-Wilzig, associate professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, will both speak at the University of North Texas this fall. Their lectures are sponsored by UNT's Jewish Studies program, the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County and the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas.

When/Where: Gelber will speak at 4 p.m. Oct. 23 (Wednesday) in Room 255 of UNT's Eagle Student Services Center, which is located at 1147 Union Circle, Denton. Lehman-Wilzig will speak at 4 p.m. on Nov. 7 (Thursday) at UNT's Willis Library, which is located at 1506 West Highland St, Denton.

Cost: Free

Contact: Nanette Behning, administrator coordinator for the Jewish Studies Program, 940-369-8926

Note to editors: The news release that you received yesterday about the Jewish Studies lectures at the University of North Texas contained the wrong title for one of the speakers, Sam Lehman-Wilzig. His title is correct in the news release below.  

DENTON (UNT), Texas-- University of North Texas students, faculty, staff members and others will hear a firsthand account of the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel and learn about religion as a part of everyday Israeli life and government during two lectures sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program in October and November.

The first lecturer is Dr. Yoav Gelber, head of Nevzlin Center of Jewish Peoplehood, which is part of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. Gelber will speak at 4 p.m. Oct. 23 (Wednesday) in Room 255 of the Eagle Student Services Center, which is located at 1147 Union Circle, Denton.

His lecture is titled "The War that Nearly Destroyed Israel? A Soldier's and Historian's Account of the Yom Kippur War." He will discuss his own experiences as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces in the war as well as the conflicting war narratives of the Arabs and of the Israelis. Gelber will explore how collective memory historical study endeavors to navigate between two interpretations of the war.

The second speaker is Dr. Sam Lehman-Wilzig, associate professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He will speak at 4 p.m. Nov. 7 (Thursday) at UNT's Willis Library, which is located at 1506 West Highland St, Denton.

Lehman-Wilzig will give a lecture titled "The Paradoxes of Religion and State in Israel." He will explore the inconsistencies of religious standards in day to day Israeli life. He will discuss topics ranging from the rights of women and the lesbian and gay communities in Israel to pork sales, analyzing the changing face of religion and society in Israel and how this has recently affected the more formal religion and state legislative relationship. Lehman-Wilzing will speak within the context of two types of religion/state regimes: America's constitutional separation of the two, and the Muslim world's attempts to mesh them inextricably.

For more information, contact Nanette Behning, administrator coordinator for the Jewish Studies Program, at 940-369-8926.

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