September 22, 2011

Report of academic activity of the Liwerant Center for the period 10/10-9/11

Seminar of Interdisciplinary Study:

Principal subject of the interdisciplinary seminar:

"Trans-nationalism and Latin American Jews"

The seminar was attended by around 20 young and veteran investigators from Social Sciences and Humanities from the Hebrew University and from other universities aroundthe country. The seminar was held once every three weeks throughout the year and at every meeting one investigator presented his field of research. The goal was to consolidate a dynamic and interactive forum in order to promote the principal research project of the Center, and broaden the diverse aspects of the question of trans-nationalism of Latin American Jews. Moreover, the seminar provided an opportunity for group debate of the subject.

Seminars held during the academic year:

  1. 21 October, 2010: Presentation of the principal research project of the Center "Latin American Jews in a Trans-national World: Redefining Experiences and Identities in Four Continents"- Editors: Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Prof. (Emeritus) Sergio DellaPergola, y Dr. Leonardo Senkman.
  2. 11 November, 2010: Dr. Margalit Bejarano

"Miami as a research laboratoryof trans-national Diasporas: The case of Latin American Jews".

  1. 2 December, 2010: Dr. Batia Siebzehner

"Redefining of pertinence limits: Trans-nationalism and religion in the Judaism of Panama".

  1. 23 December, 2010: Dr. Yossi Goldstein

"Trans-nationalism and Jewish Education: Spaces and circulation of the Jewish identity in the globalization era. Regulations of immigration and transformationin the identity of Jewish educators of Latin America".

  1. 13 January, 2011: Dr. Silvia Schenkolewski-Kroll

"The ideological trans-nationalism of Zionism: theoretical aspects and application of non formal education in Latin America since 1968".

  1. 24 February, 2011: A methodological discussion regarding the book- "Belonging and Otherness. Jews in Latin America/ forty years of change"- Coordinators: Prof. Judit Bokser-Liwerant, Prof. Sergio DellaPergola y Dr. Leonardo Senkman.
  2. 31 March, 2011: Dr. Silvina Chamma Gesser

"Reflectionson identity politics, minorities and difference in Post-Franco Spain".

  1. 7 April, 2011: Mrs. Florinda Goldberg

"Loss and reconstruction of identity in (Judaism) Latin American literature".

  1. 5 May, 2011: Dr. Diego Olstein

"Diasporas: global or trans-national?".

  1. 19 May, 2011: Prof. Rivka Raijman

"Economic integration of South American immigrants: a comparative view with other immigrant groups".

Principal Research Project:

"Latin American Jews in a Transnational World: Redefinition and Relocation of Jewish Experiences and Identities on four Continents"

Globalization processes have brought to the creation of a new reality in the Ibero-American region. However, the impact of these changes on Jewish life and migration has yet to be profoundly assessed. Therefore, the objective of this project will be to examine the immigration of Latin American Jews to the four continents in the context of a trans-national world.

The formulation of this project was the product of an integrative work on the part of Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Prof. Sergio DellaPergola and Dr. Leonardo Senkman.

Scholarships of the Center:

During the last academic year, the Liwerant Center granted 4 scholarships to doctoral students of the Hebrew University, whofocused their investigation ondisciplinary fields related to the academic interests of the Center. The scholarship recipients of the Center study different disciplines such as- Communications, Education, Romance and Latin American Studies and Contemporary Jewry- forming a first generation of young investigators.

Scholars' names and their research proposals:

  1. Fabian Galgovsky: "New identities, new curriculum:Thecaseof the Scholem Aleijem School and Argentine Jewry after globalization".
  2. Oshrit Zmora: "Narrative space:Towards a theoretical model based on the work of Marco Denevi".
  3. Eduardo Torres: "Return or primordial entrance to Judaism: frontier identities between Latin American immigrants in Israel (1990-2008)".
  4. Orly Haimovich: "Between local and global presentations Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities in Argentina’s, Mexico’s and Venezuela’s newspapers during the 2000′s".

Publication of books:

  1. Haim Avni, Judit Boskers Liwerant, Sergio DellaPergola, Margalit Bejarano, Leonardo Senkman (coordinators)Belonging and Otherness. Jews in Latin America/ forty years of change(Madrid, Iberoamericana Vervuert-Centro Liwerant, 2011.870 pp, index onomastic and thematic).
  2. East Jews in the West (Editors: Yom-Tov Asís, Margalit Bejarano and Leonardo Senkman). The book is at its first phase of editing, and is based on the conference "East Jews in the West", that took place in June 2010. The conference was under the auspicesof the Ben-Tzvi Institute, the Liwerant Center and the Institute for Contemporary Jewry.

Book launch events:

  1. 23 February, 2011: In Bet-Hatfutsot, University of Tel Aviv. Participants: Suzana Gun de Hasenson,Ambassador of El Salvador, Dean of the ambassadors of Latin America and the Caribbean's in Israel, Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Prof. Sergio DellaPergola, Prof. Natan Lerner, Prof. Mario Sznajder and Dr. Leonardo Senkman. Coordinator: Prof. (Emeritus) Haim Avni.
  2. 28 February, 2011: In the Van-Leer Institute, as part of the discussion panel: "Belonging and Otherness. The Jews in Latin America/ forty years of change". In the panel took part Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Prof. Sergio DellaPergola, Prof. Haim Avni, Prof. Eliezer Ben Rafael and Dr. Margalit Bejarano. Coordinator: Prof. Ruth Fine.
  3. 21 April, 2011: As part of "The International Fair Book" in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Participants: The President of the Argentinean Friends of the Hebrew University of JerusalemEng. Robert Nul, the editor of the book Klaus Vervuert. The interdisciplinary discussion panel also included Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Dr. Carlos Escude, Daniel Goldman (Rabbi), Arc. Ricardo Feierstein and Dr. Leonardo Senkman;the introductionof the participants and coordination of the debate was led by Lic. Anita Weinstein.
  4. 29 April, 2011: The second presentation in Buenos Aires. It was organized by and under the academic auspices of the University Torcuato di Tella. In the discussion panel participated two local professors- Dr. Karina Galperin and Dr. Andres Reggiani; and also two of the book editors- Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant and Dr. Leonardo Senkman. The general presentation was led by Dr. Klaus Gallo, director of the Department of History from the host university.
  5. 25-26 May, 2011: At the university of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil. As part of "The International forum about the battle against the Racism, the Xenophobia and the Discrimination", organized by the Laboratory of Studies about Ethnicity, Racism and discrimination (LEER) - The Department of History FFLCH, and the virtual archive of the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism of the USP, in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Sao Paulo (Fisep). The general coordination of the forum was led by Dr. Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro (History Department) of the USP.
  6. 12-14 June, 2011: As part of "The XV International Research Conference of LAJSA", Arizona State University, USA. In the discussion panel participated Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Prof. Sergio DellaPergola and Dr. Leonardo Senkman, who discussed the complementary aspects of the analytic and theoretic conception that constitute the book as a whole. The presentation was led by the founder and ex president of LAJSA Judith Laikin Elkin (University of Michigan), and the debate was coordinated by Darrell B. Lockhart (University of Nevada, Reno).
  7. 6 September, 2011: A presentation in the auditorium "Jaime Torres Bodet" of the National Museum of Anthropology and History, Mexico City. The presentation was a part of a series of conferences at UNAM and COLMEX led by Prof. Sergio DellaPergola and Prof. Mario Sznajder, in collaboration with Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant (UNAM). Also participated: Prof. Alicia Gojman Backal, Prof. Roberto Blancarte Pimentel, Prof. Gilda Waldman and Dr. Daniel Fainstein.
  8. 27 October, 2011 (Future presentation): In the University of Miami.Co-sponsored by The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, The Liwerant Center, UM's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies and UM's Center for Latin American Studies. The shared conference will be led by Prof. Judit Bokser Liwerant, Prof. Sergio DellaPergola and Dr. Margalit Bejarano.

Visitors of the Hebrew University and the Liwerant Center (in cooperation with the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies):

  1. 6 October,2010: Mr. Jose Judkowski, investigator of popular culture in Rio de la Plata

"Tango, History with Jews".

  1. 28 November, 2010: Mr. Daniel Scioli, Governor of the Buenos Aires Province (Argentina)

"The Buenos Aires Province and Argentina: a glance towards the future".

  1. 1 December, 2010: Evening in the honor of the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 LiteratureNobel Prize

"Mario Vargas Llosa at the mirror of Latin America".Participants: Prof. Ruth Fine, Prof. Nahum Megged, Prof. Mario Sznajder and Sr. Ioram Melcer. The presentation of the participants and the coordination of the debate were led by Dr. Leonardo Senkman.

  1. 20 December, 2010: Prof. Javier GarciaDiego Dantan, President of The School of Mexico (COLMEX)

"Popular participation during the Mexican independence revolution".

  1. 22 December, 2010: Prof. Miguel Vale de Almeida, member of the Parliament of Portugal and Prof. at ISCTE

"Portugal's colonial complex: From colonial Lusotropicalism to postcolonial Lusophony".

  1. 23 December, 2010: Mr. Eyal Sela, Ambassador of Israel in Ecuador

"The socio-political situation in Ecuador and its influence on the relations with Israel".

  1. 31 December, 2010: Prof. Oscar Oszlak, UBA CEDES-CLAD

"The quality of democracy in Argentina today: Lessons from grass roots level".

  1. 5 January, 2011: Prof. Andrés Malamud, Lisbon University

"Spillover in European and South American integration: A comparative evaluation".

  1. 17 February, 2011: Tomas Hirsch, ex candidate of the presidency of Chile

"Around the Latin American Process of integration: New perspectives in the region".

  1. 31 March, 2011: Prof. Rafael Olea Franco, COLMEX

"Language and identity in Latin America"

  1. 4 May, 2011: Prof. Jeffrey Lesser, Emory University

"Birth names, false names and code names: Militant ethnics and ethnic militancy during the Brazilian military dictatorship".

  1. 16 May, 2011: Dr. Manuel Antonio Munoz Borrero, Honorary Consul of Ecuador

"The salvation of Jews through the use of Latin American Passports".

Conferences and congresses in collaboration with or under the auspices of the Liwerant Center:

  1. 5 May, 2011: "The dynamics of democracy in Latin America: Elections in the Southern cone 2010-2011".

International conference organized by the Truman Institute, the Liwerant Center and the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies. Participants: Prof. Steve Kaplan (Truman), Prof. Sergio DellaPergola (Liwerant), Prof. Ruth Fine (Romance and Latin American Studies), Dr. Batia Siebzehner (Truman), Prof. Mario Sznajder(Liwerant), Dr. Alberto Spektorowski (University of Tel Aviv), Prof. James Green (Brown University), Prof. Carlos Waisman (University of California-San Diego), Dr. Leonardo Senkman (Liwerant), Prof. Avraham Sela (Davis Institute) and Dr. David Lehmann (Cambridge University).

  1. 18 may, 2011: Award ceremony Raul Kirtchuk for the year 2011 to Ph. D. student Oshrit Zemora, (with the collaboration of the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies).

Conference led by Prof. Carlos Waisman (University of California-San Diego):

"How democratic are the new democracies in Latin America?"

Coordinator: Prof. Mario Sznajder.

  1. 1-2 June, 2011: First Hispanics national congress: "De Sefarad a Jerusalén: rumbos y perspectivas del Hispanismo en Israel".

Organized by theDepartment of Romance and Latin American Studies, in auspices of "La Asociación de Hispanistas de Israel" and the Liwerant Center.

Other activities:

The Liwerant Center continued its support of Latin American Judaism MA courses, offered by the Department of Jewish History and the Institute of Contemporary Jewry (Division Latin America, Spain and Portugal), led by Dr. Margalit Bejarano:

  1. "Non Latin minorities in Latin America: Jews, Polish and Arabs" (course num. 33713).
  2. "The Jewish communities in Latin America" (course num. 33803).

Conclusion:

The Liwerant Center put as its objective the creation of an academic community of young and veteran investigators. In order to achieve this goal, the Center has been collaborating with different departments and research units of the Hebrew University with similar research fields;making possible the integration of disciplinary differences and creating new courses of academic thoughtfor the investigators.Our collaboration withresearch institutesand units includes: S. Truman Institute, Leonard Davis Institute and the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies.

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