Schwalb Center Events

Upcoming Events

Unless stated stated, events are held at UNO. Download Campus Parking Maps

Date	Event	Register
SEP 4, 2024	When Alexander the Great Did NOT Visit Jerusalem: the Revolt of the Jerusalem Street in 169-67 BCE Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic Part of the Repercussions of Violence under Alexander and the Successors: 9^th Annual Alexander the Great Symposium

Past Events

Date	Event	Media Link
MAY 9, 2024	2024 Sokolof Lecture: The Israel-Hamas War and the Contest of Wills: Public Opinion vs International Law featuring John Spencer, Modern War Institute, West Point Military Academy
APR 5, 2024	Pushkin's Jewish Femmes Fatales: Demonic Sexuality and Extraordinary Freedom Elena Petrova, PhD Student in Slavic Languages, University of Southern California
APR 4, 2024	Conjuring Literary Jewish Witches: The Cauldron of Antisemitism in 19th c. Russia Elena Petrova, PhD Student in Slavic Languages, University of Southern California
FEB 22, 2024	Shared Society in a Time of War: Interreligious Voices from Israel Dr. Jeannette Gabriel, Schwalb Center Director,
SEP 21, 2023	The Plight of Jewish Deserted Wives Dr. Haim Sperber, Visiting Israeli Scholar from Western Galilee College
APR 20, 2023	Performance at Jewell Jazz Club UNO Jazz Students who and Internal Compass Jazz College students from Israel performed together	N/A
APR 23, 2023	UNO Passover Seder	N/A
SEPT 18, 2022	Maxwell Street Klezmer Band Performance Part of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association Conference.	Watch Now
MAY 12, 2022	Trapped in Rome Without a Home: The Plight of Post-Chernobyl Jewish Refugees — Alla Shapiro , M.D., Ph.D.	Watch Now
APR 5, 2022	Jewish Histories of Iran Dr. Lior Sternfeld, an Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University	Watch Now
MAR 29, 2022	Student Presentation: Saving the Holy Middle Ground: Reimagining the Future of Conservative Judaism Tristan Newman, a senior at UNO in Religious Studies and History	Watch Now
MAR 20, 2022	Chernobyl Responder, Jewish Refugee, Radiation Expert Dr. Alla Shapiro Alla Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D.	Watch Now
MAR 10, 2022	Behind the Scenes of This Immortal Life Also — Nancy Shank, Playwright, and Timothy Scholl, Director/Producer discuss the process of creating a new play about celebrated theologian and pacifist Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer is drawn into a web of lies and deceit as a double agent in World War II Germany. He struggles to live with integrity while fighting against National Socialism in a landscape of secrets, broken promises, fierce love, and dangerous alliances.	N/A
MAR 1, 2022	Welcoming the Immigrants: Refugee Resettlement in Jewish Iowa	Watch Now
FEB 22, 2022	2022 Ruth and Phil Sokolof Lecture: Three Modern Blood Libels About Israel: Vaccines, Evictions, and Apartheid — Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Antonin Scalia School of Law, and Director, Center for International Law in the Middle East at George Mason University.	Watch Now
SEPT 19, 2021	The Stony Ground Bore Fruit – Stories of Jewish Homesteaders and Descendants — Rebecca E. Bender, discussed her book, Still (North Dakota State University Press), a biography/memoir that she coauthored with her father Kenneth M. Bender about two family generations who were Jewish farming homesteaders near Ashley, North Dakota.	Watch Now
JUN 2, 2021	Ilana Masad Author Talk: On Writing & Nuance — a conversation with Ilana Masad is a queer Israeli-American writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism.	N/A
APR 29, 2021	What's Jewish About the Jewish State? Examining Israel’s Fierce Debate on the Nation-State Law — The 2021 Sokolof Lecture was presented by Simon Rabinovitch, Ph.D., Associate Professor in History at Northeastern University. Dr. Rabinovitch examined and analyzed the impact of Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law. The passage of the law sparked protests from Israel’s Druze population and raised questions about balancing minority rights and national self-determination.	Watch Now
APR 28, 2021	Religious Freedom and the Jews: Collective Rights and Modern States — Dr. Simon Rabinovitch, Associate Professor in History and Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, joined ‘Breadbreakers’ to present a lecture on his forthcoming book that compares legal cases in Europe, North America, Africa, and Israel where civil courts have decided on matters of Jewish law and communal identity.	Watch Now
APR 22, 2021	Forgotten Histories of Jewish Women in Iowa: Community Discussion — Dr. Jeannette Gabriel, Director, Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies, led a discussion on the connections between family collections and broader Jewish and American history, examining Jewish women's lives from complex perspectives, and placing family collections in archives.	N/A
MAR 30, 2021	More Than Housewives: The Forgotten Lives of Iowa's Jewish Women — Dr. Jeannette Gabriel examined why Jewish women's contributions have been neglected in Iowa history and discuss The Jewish Women in Iowa Collection at the Iowa Women's Archives - University of Iowa. The discussion was moderated by Karen Michaeli from the Jewish Federation of the Corridor (Iowa).	N/A
FEB 17, 2021	German, Jew, Muslim, Gay: The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus — Professor Marc David Baer, International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, spoke about his new publication that was released in April 2020 with the Religion, Culture, and Public Life series, Columbia University Press.	Watch Now
JAN 7, 2021	Zionism for Generation Z: Drawing from Jewish Ethics — Tristan Newman, a Religious Studies major, gave a presentation as his final project for the History of Zionism course. The primary focus of his study was on the development of Zionist ideas prior to 1903 and how those ideas impacted the development of the State of Israel.	Watch Now
OCT 14, 2020	Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the 17th Century — Professor Adam Teller, History and Judaic Studies, Brown University, spoke about his new book as part of the Schwalb Center's series on new research on Jewish Migratory Studies.	Watch Now
SEP 15, 2020	From Jerusalem to Omaha: Michael Staenberg's Vision for a Jewish Future — Michael Staenberg, president of The Staenberg Group (TSG), joined The Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies for a discussion of the vision that drives his philanthropy work.	Watch Now
APR 23, 2020	A Conversation with Unorthodox — this discussion featured the Director of Unorthodox, Maria Schrader, and Actor, Eli Rosen. This event was offered as part of the Schwalb Center's 10th Anniversary programming.	Watch Now
MAR 5, 2020	Israeli Elections X3: What Happens Next? — On March 2, 2020, Israelis went to the polls for the third time in a year in an attempt to form a new governing coalition. This discussion about the results of this election and what it means for democracy in Israel was conducted by Dr. Steve Caplan is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (UNMC), Dr. Curtis Hutt is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies (UNO), and moderated by Dr. Jeannette Gabriel.	N/A
FEB, 2020	Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison — Ahmet Kuru, Ph.D., professor of political science and the former director of the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies at San Diego State University, discussed his new book.	N/A
JAN 25, 2020	Working an Archive: Rescuing Jews and their Past — Rebecca Erbelding and Ron Coleman, historians and archivists of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, discuss their work.	N/A
NOV 14-16, 2019	21st Annual Batchelder Conference For Archaeology and Biblical Studies — Speakers included Dr. Shimon Gibson UNC Charlotte Mount Zion Archaeological Project (Jerusalem), Dr. Menahem Mor, Haifa University, Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE), and Dr. Eric Cline, George Washington University, Digging up Armageddon (Megiddo).	N/A
OCT 27-28, 2019	Jews and Gender: Tradition and Change — The 32nd Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization; keynote by Gail S. Labovitz, Ph.D., American Jewish University "Poskot in the Palace of Torah: A Preliminary Study of Orthodox Feminism and Halachic Process."	N/A
SEP 26, 2019	Bak In Conversation	N/A
SEP 24, 2019	Are Reparations Possible? Lessons to the United States from South Africa 25 Years After Apartheid — presented by the Honorable Richard Goldstone and Prof. Lewis Gordon. Goldstone is a former judge in South Africa and former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunals. Gordon is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and an internationally-renowed scholar.	N/A
APR 4, 2019	That Obnoxious Order: Ulysses S. Grant and the Jews— Ruth and Phil Sokolof Lecture	N/A
Jan. 20, 2019	Left vs. Right: The Battle for Israel's Soul — a conversation on Israel hosted by Jonathan Tobin and J.J. Goldberg.	N/A
May 1, 2018	"Humans of Tel Aviv" \| A Photo Exhibition — A one-day exhibit documenting the lives of the Tel Aviv residents that photographer Erez Kaganovitz met on the street.	N/A
Oct. 28-29, 2018	31st Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization — Authority and Dissent in Jewish Life	N/A
Dec. 13, 2018	Collecting Unfinished Stories: African-American & Jewish Collaboration and Conflict — students contextualized the oral histories within broader themes surrounding African-American and Jewish collaboration and conflict.	N/A
Feb. 20, 2017	Virtual World Project: Exploring the Ancient World with Virtual Reality — Dr. Nicolae Roddy and Dr. Ronald Simkins from the Theology Department at Creighton to present the website and resource, Virtual World Project, which provides interactive virtual tours of the ancient world (Israel & Jordan). The tours allow visitors of the site to “wander” through various archaeological sites.	N/A
March 2, 2017	The Politics of Memory: Muslim Perception of Jews in Post-colonial Morocco — Dr. Aomar Boum of UCLA presented the keynote lecture at the Missouri Valley History Conference.	N/A
April 11, 2017	Dramatic Reading of The Whipping Man — a dramatic reading of The Whipping Man, by the Performing Arts Collective. Immediately following, Slavery Then & Now: Passover Reflections will be presented by Jane Gordon, Ph.D, University of Connecticut.	N/A
April 27, 2017	2021 Sokolof Lecture – Russia & Israel: New Emerging Powers in the Middle East — presented by Jonathan Adelman, a professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.	N/A
March 3, 2016	The Crescent on the Temple — a lecture by well-known art historian and filmmaker Dr. Pamela Berger on her latest book.	N/A
Oct. 27, 2016	"The Settlers" Screening and Director Discussion — Panelists for the post-show discussion include Dotan; Bill Blizek, UNO professor of Philosophy and Religion; and Rabbi Sholmo Abramovich, visiting scholar at Beth Israel Synagogue. Curtis Hutt, assistant professor of Religious Studies, moderated the event.
Oct. 30-31, 2016	29th Annual Symposium on Jewish Civilization — Is Judaism Democratic? Reflections from Theory and Practice Throughout the Ages	N/A