LBI London

Prof Lisa Appignanesi (King's College, London)

Losing the Dead – Before and After

6.30pm, 7th December 2017

Lisa Appignanesi teases out some of the hurdles she encountered researching her critically acclaimed family memoir, Losing the Dead. These extended post publication: memoir writing elicits the kinds of responses historical texts rarely do.

Please note: A short 15 minute film called: Ex Memoria, directed by Josh Appignanesi and starring Sarah Kestleman, will also be shown.

Lisa Appignanesi OBE is a writer and novelist. She is a Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, Chair of the Royal Society of Literature and Chair of this year’s Man Booker International Prize. Amongst her books are Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors and The Memory Man.

Ex Memoria (2006)

A film about memory, loss and survival; Eva Lipschitz is a survivor, but she is now locked away in the twilight world of Alzheimer’s disease. The film shows the world from Eva’s point of view, at her eye level, and how a chance encounter with a caring young nurse breaks through the barriers. Ex Memoria is directed by Josh Appignanesi and starring Sarah Kestleman.

Opening Words by

Pauline Paucker

Lecture by

Peter Pulzer (Oxford):

‘Arno Paucker, A Scholar Who Reached Out’

Panel: ‘Arno Paucker and German-Jewish History’

Peter Alter (Cologne)

Simone Erpel (Berlin)

Raphael Gross (Leipzig)

Chair: Daniel Wildmann(London)

The event was organized jointly by the Leo Baeck Institute London and the German Historical Institute London and took place at the German Historical Institute London, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NJ, on 30th of March 2017, at 6.30pm.

https://www.leobaeck.co.uk/events/special-events/arno-paucker-scholar-and-friend

Artist and author of The Hare with Amber Eyes

On the Eve of Departure: Art and Exile

During the talk Edmund de Waal discussed the telling of family stories through words and sculpture, touching on his writing of The Hare with Amber Eyes and works by Paul Celan and Walter Benjamin.

Organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, School of History. The lecture took place at Queen Mary University of London, Arts Two Lecture Theatre, Mile End Road, E1 4NS, on the 23rd of March 2017 at 6.30pm.

Panel Discussion

Leo Baeck Institute London in partnership with the Pears Institute for the study of antisemitism

‘If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.’ Prime Minister Theresa May, November 2016

In the aftermath of the vote for Brexit in 2016, Prime Minister Theresa May controversially broached a key issue of our times: how do we identify ourselves, and must our sense of belonging be defined by national borders? These questions are closely connected to the term cosmopolitanism, which has long been the subject of scholarly debate. Cosmopolitanism is often seen as providing a perspective on the world that looks beyond immediate borders and nation states. It is also a term that has been closely wedded to Jewish experiences of modernity, and to the politics of antisemitism. In addition, postcolonial theorists have explored how cosmopolitanism speaks to other minority experiences, both within Europe and beyond.

This event brings together four leading scholars to explore what cosmopolitanism means today.

Sander Gilman, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts at Emory College, co-author of Cosmopolitanism and the Jews (University of Michigan Press, 2017).

Cathy Gelbin, Senior Lecturer in Film and German Studies at the University of  Manchester, co-author of Cosmopolitanism and the Jews (University of Michigan Press, 2017).

Gurminder Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex, co-editor of European Cosmopolitanism: Colonial Histories and Postcolonial Societies (Routledge, 2017).

Bryan Cheyette, Professor of English Literature at the University of Reading, author of Diasporas of the Mind: Jewish and Postcolonial Writing and the Nightmare of History (Yale University Press, 2013).

Welcome and introduction by Daniel Wildmann, Director, Leo Baeck Institute, Queen Mary, University of London. Panel discussion chaired by Brendan McGeever, Acting Associate Director of the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London.

Panel discussion as a part of the Leo Baeck Institute Lecture Series: The panel discuss the complicated and multi-layered relationship of the European left with Zionism and the State of Israel, examining this broad subject from a historical perspective and shedding light on the different debates on various European countries.  

Panelists

Nick Cohen  The Observer and The Spectator   

Prof David Feldmann Birckbeck University of London   

Prof Christina Späti University of Fribourg, Switzerland   

Dr Peter Ullrich Technische Universität Berlin, Germany   

Chair: Dr Daniel Wildmann, Leo Baeck Institute London/Queen Mary University of London   Organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in collaboration with the German Historical Institute London as part of the European Leo Baeck Institute Lecture Series   

6:30pm, 16 March 2017 

Venue: German Historical Institute 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NJ   

Dr Michel Dreyfus (University of Paris) 

 6.30pm, 26th January 2017   

The Balfour Declaration (1917) boosted Zionism in France. Although the movement enjoyed the support of the Socialists in the inter-war period, it was denounced by the Communist Party (CP) and the ultra-left. The creation of the State of Israel marked the beginning of a new era. While support for Israel grew strongly among French socialists from 1954 due to their opposition to Nasser’s politics in Algeria, the CP took a more critical stance. Post 1967 changes in the French-Israeli relationship left the left sharply divided: While the Socialists continue to support Israel unconditionally, the CP backs the Arab countries. This vigorous debate continues until today.   

Michel Dreyfus is a Historian and Research Director at the CNRS (Centre d’histoire sociale du XXe siècle-Université de Paris 1). He has written about the Dreyfus Affair and published numerous books on the history of the French and the international labour movements. His work L’antisémitisme à gauche. Histoire d’un paradoxe (1830-2009) appeared in 2009 (2nd ed. 2011).  

Prof Christina Späti (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) 6.30pm, 8 December 2016   

The positions and attitudes of the political left in Germany, Austria and Switzerland towards Israel  have undergone many changes since 1948. If the 1950s and 1960s were characterized by a romanticizing, pro-Zionist alignment with Israel, mainly expressed by Social-democratic parties and trade unions, the rise of the New Left after 1968 considerably changed the perspectives on the Middle East conflict and eventually had an impact on wider sections of the political left. The lecture also looked into the various legacies, ranging from Holocaust to Internationalism, which influenced this development.   

Christina Späti is Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She received her PhD in 2003 with a thesis on the Swiss left and its positions on Zionism and Israel between 1967 and 1991. Her research focuses on processes of dealing with the National Socialist past, anti-Zionism, antisemitism and Orientalism, language politics in multilingual states, and 1968 in Western Europe, with a particular emphasis on Switzerland.  

Thursday, December 1, 2016 - 18:45

Panellists are Prof Neil Gregor, David Aaronovitch, and Prof Maiken Umbach, and the panel will be chaired by Dr Daniel Wildmann and Prof David Feldman. 

In Germany, until this year, it was illegal to print copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. The State of Bavaria held the copyright and banned publication of the book. In January 2016 the copyright expired and the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich published a scholarly edition which runs to two enormous volumes, complete with a lengthy introduction and copious annotation. The first print run was sold out before the publication date. In the UK, by contrast, Nazi literature is freely available and, unlike in Germany and Austria, there is no law against Holocaust denial. These events and the disparity between German and UK practice raise significant and intriguing questions. Does it make sense to ban Nazi literature in Germany today? Why was the annotated edition produced? Who in actuality are the readers? In the UK, should we regard Nazi effusions as an irritant that arises from invaluable freedoms or as an abuse that should be stopped?

About the speakers

David Aaronovitch is a columnist and broadcaster, he writes for The Times and Jewish Chronicle, presents BBC Radio 4's news programme, The Briefing Room, and has written on the role of conspiracy theories in shaping modern history.

Neil Gregor is a Professor of Modern European History. He has written extensively on twentieth century German history and the history of the Third Reich and recently (in German) on Mein Kampf: "Mein Kampf" lesen, 70 Jahre später.

Maiken Umbach is a Professor of Modern History and an expert on National Socialism, in particular its emotional and personal history, and on amateur photography in the Third Reich. Click here to read her piece on how ideology does, and doesn't work in Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The panel was chaired by David Feldman, Director of the Pears  Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London, and Daniel Wildmann, Director, Leo Baeck Institute, Queen Mary, University of London. It was held at Senate House, Chancellors Hall.

 https://www.leobaeck.co.uk/events/panel-discussion/mein-kampf-today-ideology-memory-and-question-censorship

Dr Brian Klug (University of Oxford, UK)

6.30pm, 24 November 2016

A significant part of the British left, especially since the June 1967 war, tends to denounce Israel as a state and Zionism as an idea. Ostensibly, these attitudes are grounded in the anti-colonialism and anti-racism which have been staple causes for the British left since the sun began to set on the Empire. These grounds, however, are called into question by those who detect the hidden hand of antisemitism at work. The lecture will examine key concepts and arguments in this controversy, seeking to bring the issues into sharper focus.   

Brian Klug is Senior research Fellow in Philosophy at St. Benet's Hall, Oxford, a member of the faculty of philosophy at the University of Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton. His most recent books are Words of Fire: Selected Essays of Ahad Ha'am (2015), Being Jewish and Doing Justice (2011) and Offence: The Jewish Case (2009).   

Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 18:30

Dr Wendy Pullan
University of Cambridge

German Historical Institute

In Jerusalem, the separation barrier has galvanized public opinion, both in its role as a hard barrier inside a divided city and as the visible ‘tip of the iceberg’ that reflects only a fraction of the political and military regime supporting the occupation. This lecture will acknowledge the wall’s political status but focus on issues to do with the iconicity of such a structure, including its power in situ in the human landscape, in the media and in its existential meanings.

Wendy Pullan is based at the University of Cambridge where she is Head of the Department of Architecture and Director of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research. Her recent publications include: Locating Urban Conflicts (2013), Architecture and Pilgrimage (2013) and The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places (2013). She is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. Further details: www.conflictincities.org; www.urbanconflicts.arct.cam.ac.uk