Photoessay #2083 - Jew Dub Talks

Last night Dennis and I attended a special program Jew Dub Talks at the UW.  I heard about it from my class "Jews and German Culture."  They wanted to emulate the popular Ted Talks format.  Well-produced entertaining short talks from accomplished people (in this case faculty associated with the Jewish Studies department) in front of a live audience with the idea of featuring them on the internet to further interest in their program.

Very entertaining plus we didn't have to pay the big bucks for TED plus a nice kosher buffet at the end.  They expected 50 and maybe got a little more.

The four talks, clearly rehearsed for time and with pretty elaborate video production:

Prof. Barbara Henry - about Yiddish featuring a short expressive Yiddish poem.  Later I asked her why my 19th century forebears spoke German rather than Yiddish, she said that Yiddish had died out in Germany by then.

Prof. Shalom Sabar - about the Jewish tradition of the bridegroom breaking the glass as part of the wedding.  Israeli visiting scholar,  likes to use a lot of images.  I'm so tempted to take his class about images of Jersualem next quarter but it's so late in the afternoon.

Prof. Sarah Stroup - featuring three figures of ancient Jewish, Greek and Roman culture.  With the theme of Jewish adaptability

Prof. David Naar - about researching his family from Salonnika Greece who perished in the holocaust.  Also about the nature of knowledge of catastrophic events.  Learning to read Ladino from letters in a dusty box from the closet.

Really enjoyed it, gave me a chance to see the some faculty members and get some ideas about future classes for myself.  Love the UW!