June 1, 2010
Karen Schierman, who is retiring as associate director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning of the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, sent this note of thanks to the St. Thomas community:
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2009-2010
2009-2010, News
Author’s back injury forces cancellation of ‘Stories of Serving and Surviving the Nazis’
Jim Winterer ’71 | April 15, 2010 Events, University News
“Stories of Serving and Surviving the Nazis,” a program that was scheduled to take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, at the University of St. Thomas, had to be cancelled because of a back injury suffered by one of the program’s two speakers.
Ursula Mahlendorf, author of the recently published memoir, The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood, is suffering from a back injury and is unable to fly from California to Minnesota to speak at the program.
She and Maria Segal, author of Maria’s Story: Childhood Memories of the Holocaust, were going to discuss their memoirs and their very different experiences of childhood during World War II.
The program had been scheduled to be held in Owens Science Hall on the university’s St. Paul campus. It was sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at St. Thomas and St. John’s University.
The center apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the cancellation.
2009-2010, News
Two authors to share ‘Stories of Serving and Surviving the Nazis’ at program here April 21
Jim Winterer ’71 | April 13, 2010 Events
Two recently published memoirs – The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood by Ursula Mahlendorf and Maria’s Story: Childhood Memories of the Holocaust by Maria Segal – convey very different experiences of childhood during World War II.
The authors will share and discuss stories from their memoirs at a program from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, in Owens Science Hall, located near the intersection of Summit and Cretin avenues on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
The program, “Stories of Serving and Surviving the Nazis,” is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at St. Thomas and St. John’s University.
Mahlendorf is professor emerita of German, Slavic and Semitic Studies at the University of Catlifornia, Santa Barbara, where she also served as associate dean of the College of Letters and Science. She drew on her experiences and on research in teaching about how Germans deal with their Nazi past.
Segal is a docent for the “Portraits of Survival” permanent exhibition in Santa Barbara, Calif. One of the 37 Santa Barbara Holocaust survivors profiled in the exhibit, Segal was a small child when the Nazis invaded her home country of Poland in 1939. She was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust and speaks to many groups about her experiences during and after World War II.
More information about the April 21 program is available on the Center for Interfaith Learning Web site.
Jim Winterer ’71 | April 9, 2010 Events
Each year, 10,000 orphans die in Ethiopia. A boy named Bewoket was one who survived, with the help of a Jewish humanitarian and physician, Rick Hodes, who will speak after the screening of the film.
Hodes first went to Ethiopia as a famine relief worker in 1984. He returned in 1990 to set up medical clinics and has since devoted his life to providing medical care to the poor and sick. He is medical director for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Ethiopia and senior attending physician at Mother Teresa’s Mission in Addis Ababa.
The film, free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University, and Temple Israel of Minneapolis. It is part of the Sabes JCC Jewish Film Festival that runs through April 18.
More information is available on the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning Web site.
Jim Winterer ’71 | April 7, 2010 Events
The topic will be discussed by Leslie Morris, associate professor of German literature at the University of Minnesota, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, at Mount Zion Temple, 1300 Summit Ave.
The talk, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at the University of St. Thomas and St. John’s University.
For decades after World War II, Germany had a small Jewish population and little Jewish cultural life. It also was difficult for Jews worldwide to separate Germany from the Holocaust. Morris will explore the enormous changes that have taken place since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, including the role of the American Jewish community in the rebuilding of Jewish life in Germany.
The program will include a photographic tour of Jewish Berlin.
Morris, who was former director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Jewish Studies, is author of a book on history and memory in postwar Austrian poetry and co-editor of two volumes on contemporary writing in Germany and the German- Jewish relationship. She is completing a book on Jewish memory in Germany.
2009-2010, News
March 19 lecture here to examine ‘Underhanded Means of Addressing Marginalization in Genesis’
March 11, 2010
Author Dr. Beth Kissileff will discuss “The Way of Women is Upon Me: Underhanded Means of Addressing Marginalization in Genesis” from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, March 19, at the Luann Dummer Center for Women, Room 103, O’Shaughnessy Educational Center, on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
Free and open to the public, the talk is part of the Feminist Friday series of lectures sponsored by the center for women; this month’s presentation is co-sponsored the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning. Bring your lunch; dessert and beverages will be provided.
2009-2010, News
World religions scholar to discuss the value of interfaith relations in talk here March 11
February 25, 2010
Harold Kasimow, a prominent scholar of world religions, will discuss “How Interfaith Engagement Enriches Our Lives” in an 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. lecture Thursday, March 11, in the chapel of the St. John Vianney Seminary, located on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
November 11, 2009
Congregations from four Jewish synagogues and four Muslim mosques will pair off throughout the Twin Cities this weekend, Nov. 13 to 15, for a “Weekend of Twinning” that is designed to break down stereotypes, promote interfaith understanding and combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
October 20, 2009
Please remember in your prayers Rabbi Max A. Shapiro, rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel, Minneapolis, and co-founder and former director of the Center for Jewish- Christian Learning at the University of St. Thomas.
September 22, 2009
John Merkle, professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, has been named director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, which is co-sponsored by St. John’s University and the University of St. Thomas.