Concert and Symposium at the Museo ItaloAmericano and UC Santa Cruz


Italian Jewish Culture in the Age of the Ghetto
Presented in association with the exhibit
Il Ghetto: Forging Italian Jewish Identities, 1516 – 1870
Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz
January 24 – 26, 2009

An international gathering of scholars on Italian Jewish history and culture presented by the Diller Family Jewish Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, with support from the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, the Siegfried Puknat Fund of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation, and A.C. Little.

Click here download the word document for the agenda.

To listen to the audio files, simply click on the Audio links provided in the respected sections. To close the player, click on the same link again.

Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 8 pm

Concert: “Suoni dal Ghetto: A Musical Offering”
Location: Museo ItaloAmericano

Sunday, January 25, 2009 Symposium at the Museo

9:30 am – Registration, Coffee, Biscotti, exhibit viewing

10:00 am - Greetings: Paola Bagnatori, Director, Museo ItaloAmericano; Mary Serventi Steiner, Museo ItaloAmericano | sound Audio

10:10 – 11:00 am - Setting the Table
Symposium Moderators: Murray Baumgarten, Director, UCSC Jewish Studies

  • David M. Rosenberg-Wohl, Curator, “Il Ghetto: Integration and Separation: The Power of Trade in Renaissance Italy --exhibit overview” | sound Audio
  • Marina del Negro Karem, “Representations of Jews in Venetian Painting”, Spalding University, Louisville, Kentucky | sound Audio
  • Respondent: Andrew Canepa, Member, Museo ItaloAmericano | sound Audio
11:00 am – 12:45 pm - Culture and Symbolic Capital
Moderator: Murray Baumgarten

  • Joanna G. Harris, “The Art that Left the Ghetto: Jewish Dancing Masters, the Commedia dell’Arte, and Shakespeare,” Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, Berkeley
  • Deanna Shemek, “Renaissance Women Between the Palace and the Ghetto: Isabella d’Este of Mantua (1474 – 1529) and Sara Copia Sullam of Venice (c. 1592 – 1641), Cowell College, UC Santa Cruz | sound Audio
  • Respondent: Dana Katz, Reed College
12:45 – 1:30 pm - Lunch Break
Box lunch from Green’s Restaurant for Speakers and Registrants

1:30 pm - Exhibit walk through with Curator Rosenberg-Wohl

2:15 – 3:45 pm - New Readings: Classical Hebrew Texts in Renaissance Italy
Moderator: Murray Baumgarten

  • Paul Hamburg, “The Biblia Rabbinica: Printing Hebrew Books and the Venice Ghetto”, Judaica Librarian, UC Berkeley | sound Audio
  • Rabbi Mimi Weisel, “Kabbalah and Venice”
    Director, Clinical Pastoral Care, California Pacific Medical Center
  • Respondent: Rabbi Steven Pearce, Temple Emanu’el
3:45 – 4:00 pm - Break

4:00 – 5:00 pm - The Oldest Jewish Community in Europe
Moderator: Scott Lerner, Franklin and Marshall College

  • Daniela di Castro, The Enduring Legacy: History of the Rome Jewish Community, Director, Jewish Museum of Rome | sound Audio
  • Respondent: Rabbi Lawrence Raphael, Temple Sherith Israel
5:00 – 5:30 pm - Closing Reception at the Museo

Monday, January 26, 2009, Symposium at UC Santa Cruz

All sessions at Humanities 1, Room 202, UCSC

11:15 am – 12:00 pm - Registration and Brunch

12:15 pm – Welcome to UCSC
Dean of Humanities, UC Santa Cruz, Georges Vanden Abbeele
Symposium Moderator: Murray Baumgarten, Director, UCSC Jewish Studies, Continuing our Deliberations

12 :30 – 2:30 pm - Boundaries and Crossings
Moderator: Murray Baumgarten

  • Josh Holo, “Venetian Jews at the Crossroads, Facing East”, Jewish Studies Program, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles | sound Audio
  • Dana Katz, “’Clamber Not You Up To The Casements:’ The Gaze of the Ghetto,”
    Reed College, Oregon
  • Benjamin Ravid, “The Achievement of Venetian Jewry”, Brandeis University | sound Audio
  • Respondent: Lisa Pon, Southern Methodist University | sound Audio
2:30 – 3:00 pm - Coffee and Cecchetti

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm - Inside and Outside
Moderator: Murray Baumgarten

  • Francesco Spagnolo, “L’Ebreo: Music and the Jewish Subject in Renaissance Italy”, Head of Research, the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley | sound Audio
  • Michael Thaler, ”The Jewish Doctor of Venice: Body Language and the Ancestral Faith”, UC San Francisco/UC Santa Cruz | sound Audio
  • Respondent: Deanna Shemek, UC Santa Cruz | sound Audio
4:30 pm – 4:45 pm - Break

4:45 – 6:30 pm - Jewish Spaces: Ghettos and Communities
Moderator: Daniela Di Castro, Director, Jewish Museum of Rome

  • Charlotte Fonrobert, “Eruv and Shtetl”, Stanford University | sound Audio
  • Scott Lerner, “Beyond the Ghetto: Reclaiming the Jewish Signifier”
    Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania
  • Respondent: Nathaniel Deutsch, University of California, Santa Cruz
6:30 pm – 7:45 pm - Concluding Reception



           Sponsor - Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation