You're Invited: Professor Jay Geller To Speak About German Jews At U of M's Center For Jewish Studies

Even after the Holocaust, Jews chose to settle in Germany.  Who were these Jews, and why did they decide to remain in a country that had been hostile to their very existence only a few years earlier?
Professor Jay Geller of Case Western Reserve University will attempt to answer these questions and provoke a deeper understanding of the topic when he presents a lecture entitled, “Rebuilding the Community: Jewish Life in Germany after the Shoah.”  The lecture, part of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Jewish Studies’ 9^th annual Community Lecture Series, will explore why nearly 200,000 Jews remained in Germany, and how they dealt with antagonism from their neighbors, and isolation from Jewish groups abroad.  Through his talk, Professor Geller will examine the circumstances that led to a renewed Jewish community in post-Holocaust Germany and the alliances that permitted it to flourish.
“It’s exciting for the Center for Jewish Studies to welcome Jay Geller to the Twin Cities as the first speaker in this year’s Center for Jewish Studies Community Lecture Series,” said Leslie Morris, a professor in the department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch at the University of Minnesota.   “Jewish life in Germany today is an interesting and controversial topic, and Jay Geller will, I am sure, give us all much to think about.”  Prof. Morris was the director of the Center for Jewish Studies from 2002 until 2009, and is the co-editor, along with Prof. Geller, of a new volume entitled, Three-Way Street: Germans, Jews and the Transnational.
The Center for Jewish Studies presents the annual series in cooperation with synagogues and other sponsoring partners across the Twin Cities.  The series features writers and thinkers from varied fields, who will address questions relevant to the Jewish experience today.  One of the goals of the Center is to support the work of both prominent and emerging scholars, and to create bridges for community dialogue.  By partnering with local synagogues to host public talks by leading academics in the field of the Jewish studies, the Center hopes to foster a broader understanding of Jewish culture and history.
Jay Geller specializes in Jewish history and modern European history, with a focus on Germany.  He is the author of Jews in Post-Holocaust Germany and he is currently at work on a biography of Gershom Scholem and his family.
This is a guest post by Laura Lechner, the Outreach and Program Coordinator at the Center for Jewish Studies. Professor Jay Geller will speak on Sunday, October 28th, at 7:30pm at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park. For more information, contact Laura at [email protected] or at 612-624-4914.