TBA Bloom Lecture “ The Media and The Holocaust” with Prof. Jeffrey Shandler, Rutgers University

On Wednesday, February 15 and Wednesday, March 1, 7:00 PM, Temple B’nai Abraham’s 2017 Bloom Lecture Series will offer perspectives on The Media and the Holocaust with lectures on “The Anne Frank Phenomenon” and “The Holocaust on American Television” led by Professor Jeffrey Shandler, Chair, Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. This lecture series, supported by the Bernard and Muriel Bloom Memorial Lecture Fund, is free and open to the community. The temple is located at 300 E Northfield Road, Livingston, entrance on East Cedar Street. Acclaimed as an exciting and stimulating lecturer, Professor Jeffrey Shandler has focused his scholarly research on Yiddish history and literature, the intersection of media – especially digital media – and Jewish life, and perceptions of the Holocaust, the focus of his Temple B’nai Abraham lectures. He received a PhD in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University and has held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University. Shandler has also been a visiting scholar at the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Center, Tel Aviv University; the Center for Religion and Media, New York University; the Jewish Studies Program, University of California Berkeley; the Shoah Foundation, University of Southern California; and the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University. Shandler’s books include While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture a study of contemporary Yiddish culture; Jews, God, and Videotape: Religion and Media in America which analyzes the impact of new communications technologies and media practices on American Jews’ religious life, from early recordings of cantorial music to hasidic outreach on the Internet; and Shtetl: A Vernacular Intellectual History), an examination of how Jewish life in East European provincial towns has become the subject of extensive creativity, memory, and scholarship, from the early modern era to the present. Among other titles, Shandler is the editor of Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust and co-editor of Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Anne Frank Unbound: Media, Imagination, Memory. His work has been translated into French, German, Japanese, and Polish. He has curated exhibitions for The Jewish Museum of New York, the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Shandler has served as president of the Association for Jewish Studies and is a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research. Professor Shandler’s first lecture at TBA on Wednesday, February 15, 7:00 PM will consider “The Anne Frank Phenomenon.” One of the world’s most widely read books, Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl has inspired responses of singular range and scope: dozens of musical compositions, thousands of YouTube videos, a museum visited by millions, as well as numerous works of fine art, biography, fiction, poetry, dance, film, broadcasting, and pedagogy. These many engagements with Anne Frank’s life and work are a phenomenon worthy of scrutiny in their own right. Taken together, they demonstrate how the encounter with this widely read diary inspires individuals around the world to express their own attachment to this book and its author in practices of remembrance, imagination and contestation. The next lecture on Wednesday, March 1, 7:00 PM will examine “The Holocaust on American Television.” The Holocaust has become a powerful presence in the American moral landscape, and television, this presentation argues, has played a leading role in forging this remarkable relationship. Illustrated with video clips from telecasts ranging from the 1950 to the 1990s, this lecture considers the different ways that the medium of television has enabled Americans to feel that they are morally charged witnesses to one of the most disturbing chapters of history. Examples include excerpts from early documentaries, popular weekly drama series, and news reports. You are welcome to attend a single lecture or the entire series. Register online at www.tbanj.org or call 973.994.2290