Getting a Jewish Education at Wesleyan

There is an incredible resource of Jewish learning at our neighborhood university up the block.  This past October, a number of CAI members attended a wonderful cultural evening hosted by Jeremy Zwelling, chair of the Jewish and Israeli Studies Department, which focused on the history of Vilna, the Jewish Capital of Eastern Europe.  This event included viewing the new documentary, The World Was Ours, by Mira Jedwabnik Van Doren and narrated by Mandy Patinkin, followed by a live performance of Vilna ghetto songs by Vilna native Maria Krupoves, whose lilting voice and stirring guitar moved from dreamy melodies to rebellious marches—and whose singing was captured in the film soundtrack, which was then followed by a panel discussion of the film by Connecticut Jewish scholars, and filmmaker Jedwabnik Van Doren, herself one of the last Jewish survivors of Vilna.  As I, myself, am a fourth generation immigrant of Vilna (just over 50% of my family), this was an incredibly powerful and moving experience, which left me feeling much more connected to my roots and the relatives whose pictures I keep in my living room, but I never met.  Our synagogue now owns a copy of the DVD of this film (Thank you, Jeremy!), which will be added to the CAI video library for easy viewing—please consider watching it on the Nester Center’s large flat screen TV. 

More recently, Dalit Katz, an Israeli film expert and adjunct professor in the Jewish and Israeli studies department, organized a Middle Eastern film festival through November, including films from Israel (The Band’s Visit), Syria (The Extras), and Egypt (Dunya), and she is planning her next Israeli film festival for the Fall, which typically includes six films in February, March, and April.  These events are free and include extremely stimulating discussions by filmmakers and critics (visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/jis/events_cal.html for more information and to keep track of added events).  Please be sure to take advantage of Dalit and Jeremy’s hospitality to our CAI community when they extend invitations to such events.   Todah Rabah to the entire Jewish and Israeli studies faculty!

L’Shalom,

Seth Axelrod