A new adult educational collaboration, “The Buzz,” will begin next month with a community discussion, “That’s Funny … You don’t LOOK Jewish: Being Jewish in America Today” with Amy Hirshberg Lederman.
The series is a collaborative effort of the Coalition for Jewish Education of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Arizona. This year’s focus is on the American Jewish experience, the concept of Jewish peoplehood and its relevance today.
The series of four community discussions will connect to and expand the Shaol and Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series (although attendance at the Pozez lectures is not a requirement).
All “Buzz” classes will be held on Mondays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the JCC, beginning with Lederman’s class on Dec. 2. Lederman is an award-winning author and columnist.
The series continues with “How the Pioneer Jews Became the Power Brokers of Southern Arizona” by Eileen Warshaw, executive director of the Jewish History Museum on Dec. 9 and “Talmudic Law and the Modern American Jew” by Madeline Kochen, adjunct professor at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies on Jan. 30. It concludes with “Our Jewish Cultural Mosaic” by David Graizbord, associate professor at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, on Feb. 10.
The cost for the series is $50; individual sessions are $15. Register online at www.jewishtucson.org/the buzz or contact Suzanne Amador at 577-9393.
The free Shaol and Louis Pozez Memorial Lectures, presented by the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, also take place at the JCC on Mondays at 7.
The Pozez lectures includes “Walkers in the City: Young Jewish Women with Cameras” by Deborah Dash Moore of the University of Michigan on Dec. 16; “Judaism and the Contemporary Pursuit of Happiness” by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson of Arizona State University on Jan. 13, “Complicit: The Story of the SS St. Louis” by author and playwright Robert Krakow on Feb. 3, “Archaeology and the Bible: Two Witnesses to Ancient Israel” by Elizabeth Bloch Smith of St. Joseph’s University on Feb. 24, and “Civics Lessons: Jews and American National Holidays” by Beth Wenger of the University of Pennsylvania on March 10.
For more information about the Pozez lectures, call 626-5758.
