Community Events

"The Sacred Table: Creeating a Jewish Food Eithic"
Speaker: Rabbi Mary Zamore
Member of Hazon's Jewish Food Educator Network

Rabbi Zamore will offer an historic jewish approach to eaching, discussing the Jewish values that shape our food ethics and ways to navigate successfully diverse choices.

See flyer.

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Please look forward to a year-long series of talks and events on the topic of

Jews, Food, and Sustainability: Silicon Valley

(click here for details about this program)

Upcoming Event

“Love the Earth and Eat Healthy!” – A Joyous Celebration of Tu B’Shevat
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 – 3:00-4:00pm
Chai House, 814 St. Elizabeth Drive, San Jose

(click here for flyer)

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Past Events

The Jewish Studies Program's Robert Levinson Memorial Lecture brings acclaimed speakers annually:

• Yaakov Katz, military correspondent and defense analyst for the Jerusalem Post discussed "Israel's Security Needs in a Changing Middle East. (Nov 2011)
• Venture capitalist and author Steve Pease spoke about "The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement," at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Library's Cultural Heritage Room. (Sept 2011)
• Professor in Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University and the Director of its Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, Efraim Inbar, presenting on “Israel, Turkey, and Beyond” (Jan, 2011)
• Chief Political Correspondent and Analyst for the Jerusalem Post, Gil Hoffman, discussing "Politics & Plutonium: An Israeli Insider 's Look at the Quest to Prevent a Nuclear Iran" (2009)
• Award winning Israeli political scientist Guy Ben Porat, addressing "Globalization, Peace and Discontent: Farewell to the New Middle East?" (2008)
• Father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, Judea Pearl, speaking on "Fighting the Ideology of Terrorism" (2007)
• SJSU Jewish Studies co-sponsored the Center for Literary Arts's Martha Heasley Cox lecturer, E. L. Doctorow, reading from his new work (May 2011).
• Working closely with Hillel of Silicon Valley, SJSU devoted two weeks in fall 2007 to the study of terrorism. Featured were Diane Covert's photo exhibit “Inside Terrorism: The X-Ray Project,” the talk by Judea Pearl, a Consuls General panel, and many more events.
• The SJSU Jewish Studies Program works with the Consulate General of Northern California, with Hillel of Silicon Valley, and with other SJSU departments to bring internationally recognized speakers to campus; all talks are open to the public.
• Senior Advisor on Jerusalemite Arab Affairs to then Mayors Teddy Kollek and Ehud Olmert and founder of IDAN, a non-profit grassroots initiative encouraging and empowering educators in Israeli society, Avi Melamed, offered a geostrategic analysis of the Middle East.
• Award-winning novelist , journalist, Israeli TV station director, and Academy Award Nominee Ron Leshem, discussed his Oscar-nominated film Beaufort, prior to its screening at Cinequest.
• Award-winning Israeli poet, novelist, and theater director Michal Govrin, read from her new novel, Snapshots.
• Director of the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy Amos Guiora, addressed "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Counterterrorism.”
• U.S. Holocaust Museum fellow Alexa Stiller, spoke on the Nazi plan of Germanization.
• Noted raconteur George Gilbert, told the story of the "Leica Freedom Train," the German Leitz family's brilliant use of their camera company to save hundreds of Jews from Nazism.

In addition, other community events have engaged students and the public:

• For the past four years, In collaboration with various South Bay public libraries, the ALA, and NextBook, Victoria Harrison, English Professor David Mesher, and several other guest speakers have led the popular Jewish literature series “Let’s Talk About It,” exploring a wide range of topics, closing the series with the discussion of Jewish graphic novels.
• Several departments at SJSU worked together with Hillel to host an outstanding week of programming on the Holocaust and other Genocides in April 2007. Together, we received a $25,000 gift from the Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Zisovich Award for Holocaust Education, which enabled us to learn from Lani Silver, Jonathan Roth, speakers from the and many others.