Event Description
The Judaic Studies Program and the Departments of Anthropology and History of Drexel University present “Jewish Students Start A Revolution: Leading the Way, The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry: 1964-1974” a multipart event, in recognition of SSSJ co-founders, Yaacov Birnbaum z”l and Glenn Richter.
Introduction:
Rakhmiel Peltz, PhD, PhD, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Anthropology Department, and Founding Director of the Judaic Studies Program
Words of Greeting and History:
Rabbi Avi Weiss, author of Open Up the Iron Door: Memoirs of a Soviet Jewry Activist (Toby Press, 2015), Rabbi-In-Residence of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale - the Bayit, The Bronx, New York, founding president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, founder of Yeshivat Maharat, and National Chairman of the SSSJ, 1982-1991.
Discussion:
Glenn Richter, National Coordinator, SSSJ, 1964-1991.
Freda Birnbaum, widow of Yaakov Birnbaum z”l.
Lazar Trachtenberg, PhD, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, refusenik who arrived in Israel from the USSR in 1972.
Concert:
Songs of Soviet Jewry (in Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish)
Cantor Natasha Hirschhorn
Music Director, Congregation Ansche Chesed, New York, NY.
Vice-President, Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music.
After studying at the Gnessin Music College in Moscow and the Kiev State Conservatory, Cantor Natasha Hirschhorn came to the USA in 1992, completing her training at the Academy for Jewish Religion.
Open Up The Iron Door by Avi Weiss will be sold by the Penn Book Center. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Support for this event comes from the Yiddish Studies Fund, the Louis and Bessie Stein Foundation, the Milton and Miriam Handler Foundation, and the Friends of Judaic Studies. |
