The Viterbi Family Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies
The Viterbi Family Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies is the first of its kind at a university. Endowed by Erna and Andrew Viterbi and their three children, the program builds on a trend in historical studies to look beyond traditional political boundaries in order to understand transnational commercial and intellectual connections between different groups of people. Each year the Viterbi program brings a distinguished scholar to campus for one quarter of instruction. The endowment also funds quarterly seminars on Jewish communities in Italy, France, Spain, the Balkans, North Africa, Egypt or Israel. We are grateful to the Viterbi family for their vision in establishing The Viterbi Family Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies and are deeply honored that they chose the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies as the Program’s home.
May 11, 2010 - Seth Schwartz (Columbia University)
"Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism"
March 10, 2010 - Sergio DellaPergola (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) "The Jews of Italy's Response to Challenge: Past, Present and Future" sergio_dellapergola_3_10_2010.mp3
May 21, 2009 - Federica Francesconi
"Moisè Formiggini and His New Jewish Society:
An Italian Path toward Emancipation from the Ghetto to the Napoleonic Age"
April 22, 2009 - Moshe Idel (Hebrew University)
"Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov: New Perspectives on the Founder of Hasidism"
October 27, 2008 - Brian Copenhaver (UCLA)
"Jews Masons and Cabalists: The Renaissance as Ideology and the Italian Rosorgimento"
"Azariah de' Rossi (1511-1577): An Exceptional Italian Jew of the Renaissance"
Viterbi Symposia
May 18, 2008 - "Remembrance of Things Past"
This symposium, cosponsored by the UCLA Department of Italian, focused on the ways in which Jews and Christians remembered and wrote about the past in medieval and early modern times. It featured three leading scholars of European and Jewish history. Podcasts of their lectures are available here:
May 13, 2007 - "Intellectual Relations between Jewish and Christian Scholars in Renaissance Italy"
Francesca Bregoli (University of Pennsylvania) Brian Copenhaver (UCLA) Fabrizio Lelli (Lecce/UCLA)
May 7, 2006 - "The Italian Jewish Kitchen: A Gastronomic and Historical Tour"
Luigi Ballerini (UCLA) Gino Angelini (Master Chef, Angelini Osteria)
March 5, 2006 - "Di Razza Ebraica: Jewish Intellectuals, Fascism, and Anti-Semitism in 20th-Century Italy"
Simon Levis Sullam (Italian Academy, Columbia University) Michele Sarfatti (Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica contemporanea CDEC) Guri Schwarz (University of Pisa)
