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October 6, 2008 | Temple University | Paley Library Lecture Hall, Ground Floor | 10:30 AM till 5:30 PM | Open to the Public |
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EXPLORING RACE IN CONTEMPORARY JEWISH LIFE: A SYMPOSIUM ON JEWISH DIVERSITY
Presenters:
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John L. Jackson, Jr., University of Pennsylvania |
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The Bodied Politic: Ethnobiology, Anti-Religiosity and the Reckoning of Black Hebrewism
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Edith Bruder, University of London |
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African Judaism: Ancient Myths and Modern Phenomena
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Yeganyahu Avishai Mekonen & Shari Rothfarb Mekonen, the filmakers will show and discuss their film |
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400 Miles to Freedom
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Moderators and Commentators from Temple University:
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Zain Abdullah, Religion Department |
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Rebecca Alpert, Religion Department
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Jane Gordon, Political Science Department
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Lewis R. Gordon, Philosophy Department
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Laura Levitt, Religion Department, Jewish Studies
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Terry Rey, Religion Department
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CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CONFERENCE FLYER |
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SCHEDULE |
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10:30am - 11:00am | OPENING REMARKS |
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Lewis Gordon
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11:00am - 12:30pm | SESSION 1 |
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John L. Jackson, Jr., University of Pennsylvania:
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The Bodied Politic: Ethnobiology, Anti-Religiosity and the Reckoning of Black Hebrewism
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Moderator: Terry Rey
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Opening discussion: Zain Abdullah
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12:30pm - 1:00pm | Box Lunch
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1:00pm - 2:30pm | SESSION 2 |
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Edith Bruder, University of London:
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African Judaism: Ancient Myths and Modern Phenomena
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Moderator: Lewis Gordon
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Opening discussion: Rebecca Alpert
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2:30pm - 3:00pm | Break
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3:00pm - 5:15pm | SESSION 3 |
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3:00pm - 4:30pm | 400 MILES TO FREEDOM
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4:30pm - 5:15pm | Discussion with Avishai Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb
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Moderator: Jane Gordon
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Opening discussion: Laura Levitt
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5:15pm | CONCLUDING REMARKS |
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Lewis Gordon
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CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SCHEDULE
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About the Participants.... |
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Presenters |
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John L. Jackson, Jr
 John L. Jackson, Jr., is an anthropologist, author and filmmaker who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the Richard Perry University Associate Professor of Communication and Anthropology in the Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Penn, Jackson taught in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and spent three years as a junior fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows. He was also a Lilly Endowment Fellow at the National Humanities Center. Jackson received his BA in Communications (Radio, TV, Film) from Howard University in 1993 and his PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University in 2000.
Jackson is author of Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (University of Chicago Press, 2005), and Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness (Basic, 2008). As a filmmaker, Jackson has produced a feature-length fiction film, along with documentaries and film-shorts that have screened at film festivals internationally. Jackson is currently conducting anthropological research for a book examining global Black Hebrewism. He is also working on an ethnographic film about conspiracy theories in contemporary urban America.
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Edith Bruder
 Edith Bruder PhD, is currently Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and at the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique. Dr Bruder lives in Paris, France where she got his early education. She holds a Ph. D in Ethnology and History (SOAS, University of London), a DESS (French post-graduate degree) in Clinical Psychology,(University Paris 7, France) and a DEA (French post-graduate degree) in Art History, (Pantheon-Sorbonne University Paris 1, France).
Her main subjects of research concern African Judaism and religious Diasporas, new religious movements, globalization of religions, shifting identities and marginal religious societies.
Dr Bruder is the author of The Black Jews of Africa, History, Identity, Religion (New York, Oxford University Press, 2008) which provides scientific information and a comprehensive list of references on the issue of Judaism in Africa.
She also authored a number of articles such as ″Constructions d’identités juives en Afrique sub-saharienne″ (Constructions of Jewish Identities in Sub-Saharan Africa) and “Tribus perdues d’Israël en Afrique″ (Lost Tribes of Israel in Africa) in Juifs et Noirs, du mythe à la réalité, Paris, Pardes, 2008; "Noirs et Juifs: Les Black Jews aux Etats Unis, Genèse d 'un mouvement judaïsant au 20ème siècle" (Blacks and Jews : Black Jews in the United States – Genesis of a Judaizing Movement in the 20th Century) in Diasporas, Histoire et Sociétés 9 (2006), CNRS, France; “The Beit Avraham of Kechene: The Emergence of a New Jewish Community in Ethiopia”, SOSTEJE Conference Publication, Florence, October 2007 (forthcoming 2008).
As an art historian, she has been the coordinator of several artistic projects in France and the director of important private collections for which she has authored exhibition catalogues and catalogues essays.
She is currently involved in the diffusion of African contemporary art in France. |
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Yeganyahu Avishai Mekonen
 Avishai Mekonen is a filmmaker and photographer who emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel in 1984 as part of Operation Moses. He emigrated again in 2001, from Israel to New York City. Together with his wife and partner, Shari Rothfarb Mekonen, he is currently directing and producing 400 Miles to Freedom, executive produced by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and Pacific Street Films. The one hour documentary explores racial and ethnic diversity in Judaism through the story of co-director Avishai Mekonen, whose disappearance in Sudan as a boy launches a quest that leads him to other African, Asian and Latino Jews in Israel and in the U.S. The trailer for the film-in-progress toured the U.S from 2005-2007 as part of the exhibition, The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography, which originated at the Jewish Museum, NYC, and traveled to the Skirball Museum, L.A. and the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum. The trailer was hailed by the NY Village Voice as “revelatory” and, along with the exhibition, reviewed positively by the New York Times and other press. The targeted completion date for the film is early 2009.
Mekonen’s 2000 award-winning documentary, Video Flour, follows two Ethiopian Israeli stand-up comedians and their journey as they decide to produce a videotape of comic acts in Amharic, providing a critical glimpse of Ethiopian life in Israel. It screened primetime on Israel’s Channel 1 and at many festivals in Israel, Europe, and the U.S., including the Tel Aviv Cinemateque, the Jerusalem Cinemateque, Haifa Jewish Film Festival, Italy Film Festival, Makor, NYC, Sheba Film Festival, Maine Jewish Film Festival, the International Competition Documentary Festival, Czech Republic, and the National Geographic Film Festival in Washington, D.C. Mekonen also directed Generations of a Family, Anchor and Hothouse, broadcast on Israel’s Channels 1 & 2. He produced the internationally acclaimed documentary Menelik; assistant directed the dramatic feature Caravan 841; and has worked as a freelance director, producer and sound recordist on many other film and video projects in Israel and in the U.S. Acting credits include the lead role in the Israeli television film, Layla be Addis.
For his photography-based project Seven Generations, Mekonen recently received a 2007-2009 Six Points Fellowship, a partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub Records, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture, made possible with major funding from UJA-Federation of New York. Through photographs, sound recordings and video, Seven Generations explores a dying Ethiopian Jewish oral history custom while examining the relationships between the elder and younger generations of Ethiopian Jews in Israel.
Mekonen has lectured on the subject of Ethiopian Jews in the U.S. and in Israel both independently and through the NY Israeli Consulate. He holds a B.A. in Fine Arts, Film, from Tel Chai College of Haifa University/Hebrew University.
Click Here for the website of the film, 400 Miles to Freedom
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Shari Rothfarb Mekonen
 Shari Rothfarb Mekonen is filmmaker and artist whose work has been in numerous international museums, galleries, and film festivals.
Her solo exhibition at The Jewish Museum in NYC, Water Rites (consisting of her short 16mm dramatic film, Ocean Avenue, and her experimental video installation, Water Rites, both of which explored the subject of mikvah) received many positive reviews in the national press. Water Rites toured in Europe as part of the Aquaria exhibition in Austria, Germany, and Italy.
Ocean Avenue has gone on to screen at over 50 international film festivals such as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, the Alcala Short Film Festival in Spain, and numerous Jewish film festivals including Vancouver, Boston, Atlanta, Palm Beach, Contra Costa, Maine, The Screening Room Repertory Film Series of The Washington Jewish Film Festival and NYJCC/Manhattan Short Film Festival. The film also received a “Best Director” Reel Award at the New Works Festival, Director’s Guild of America.
Her 1998 short film, Fur, has also screened at numerous film festivals including AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival, Women in the Director's Chair International Film and Video Festival & national tour, the Athens International Film and Video Festival, and NYC’s Screening Room, where it received the “Filmmaker Magazine Audience Award.” Fur also received the “Best Film” Award, New Works Festival, Directors Guild of America.
Together with her husband and partner, Avishai Mekonen, she is currently co-directing and producing 400 Miles to Freedom, executive produced by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and Pacific Street Films. The one hour documentary explores racial and ethnic diversity in Judaism through the story of co-director Avishai Mekonen, whose disappearance in Sudan as a boy launches a quest that leads him to other African, Asian and Latino Jews in Israel and in the U.S. The trailer for the film-in-progress toured the U.S from 2005-2007 as part of the exhibition, The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography, which originated at the Jewish Museum, NYC, and traveled to the Skirball Museum, L.A. and the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum. The trailer was hailed by the NY Village Voice as “revelatory” and, along with the exhibition, reviewed positively by the New York Times and other press. The targeted completion date for the film is early 2009.
Additional exhibition venues for her art have included the Whitney Museum of American Art, Yeshiva University Museum, and galleries in NYC and around the United States. She is also an editor of documentary and narrative films and videos. She was accepted into and attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, Studio, and is a graduate of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, NYC, where she received a B.F.A. in Fine Arts. She received an M.F.A. in film directing from Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, where she graduated with honors. She has taught at Rutgers University and is currently associate professor of video production, digital editing, scriptwriting & media studies at City University of New York/ BMCC, where she is the director of the Video Arts & Technology Program and the lead author and Sr. Principal Investigator of a million dollar National Science Foundation ATE funded project, Creating Career Pathways for Women and Minorities in Digital Video Technology.
Click Here for the website of the film, 400 Miles to Freedom |
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Temple University Moderators and Commentators
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Zain Abdullah
 Dr. Abdullah primarily works on identity formation and how the intersection of religious, racial, and ethnic processes influences its construction. His research interests include such areas as Islam in America, African Diaspora studies, ethnography, globalization and transnationalism, international migration, urbanism, gender and sexuality, material culture, film and visual anthropology. He is working on a book about West African immigrants and how they incorporate themselves into the urban landscape by negotiating the boundaries of their Muslim, Black, and African identities.
Click here for Dr. Abdullah's faculty page |
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Rebecca T. Alpert
 Rabbi Rebecca T. Alpert is Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies at Temple University. She is the co-author of Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach, author of Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition and Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism and editor of Voices of the Religious Left: A Contemporary Sourcebook as well as numerous articles. She teaches in the areas of religion and contemporary social issues: sexuality, the politics of race and gender, and medical ethics. She is currently at work on a book on Jews in Black Baseball.
Click here for Dr. Alpert's faculty page
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Jane Gordon
 Jane Anna Gordon teaches in the Department of Political Science at Temple University, where she also is Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought and the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies. She is the author of Why They Couldn’t Wait: A Critique of the Black-Jewish Conflict Over Community Control in Ocean-Hill Brownsville, 1967–1971 (Routledge, 2001), which was listed by The Gotham Gazette as one of the four best books recently published on Civil Rights, and editor of “Radical Philosophies of Education,” a special issue of Radical Philosophy Review. She also is co-editor of A Companion to African-American Studies (Blackwell’s, 2006) and Not Only the Master’s Tools (Paradigm Publishers, 2005). Her current work focuses on problems of legitimacy in democratic societies.
Click here for Dr. Gordon's ISRST page
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Lewis Gordon
Lewis R. Gordon is Director of the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. He also is Director of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies and a Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University and President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Professor Gordon has written many works in race theory, Africana philosophy, postcolonial phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political philosophy, film and literature, philosophy of education, philosophy of human sciences, and a variety of topics in the public interest. Before joining Temple, he taught at Brown University for eight years, during which the program in Afro-American Studies became the Department of Africana Studies under his leadership as chairperson. He also taught at Purdue University and Yale University, and he is Ongoing Visiting Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. Professor Gordon has presented lectures internationally, and has been a recipient of numerous awards and distinguished fellowships.
Click here for Dr. Gordon's ISRST page
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Laura Levitt
 Dr. Levitt just published a book that uses family photographs to address some of the legacies of ordinary loss that have shaped 20th century American Jewish history and memory. The book, American Jewish Loss after the Holocaust insists on lifting these images and stories up from under the shadow the Holocaust. Dr. Levitt is also affiliated with the faculty of the Women's Studies and Dance Departments.
Click here for Dr. Levitt's faculty page
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Terry Rey
Dr. Rey specializes in the anthropology and history of African and African diasporic religions, having over ten years of field experience in Zaire and Haiti . He is currently finishing two books on Caribbean immigrant religion in Miami , and writing another on the application of Pierre Bourdieu's social theory to the study of religion. After these, he intends to focus his research on the various roles of religion in the Second Congo War (1998-2003) and its aftermath, and on the history and development of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Click here for Dr. Rey's faculty page
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Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought
Anderson Hall (022-28) - 1114 West Berks Street - Philadelphia, PA 19122-6090
Phone: (215) 204-5621 - Fax: (215) 204-2535 - Email: isrst@temple.edu |
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