Norman E. Alexander Lectures
In 2008, The Columbia University Libraries received a gift of $4 million to establish the Norman E. Alexander Library for Jewish Studies which included three new endowments: a Jewish Studies Librarian, the General Jewish Studies Collection and the Special Collections in Judaica. In gratitude for this generous gift, the Columbia University Libraries established the Annual Norman E. Alexander Lectures in Jewish Studies.
Lecture 2022
The 2022 Norman E. Alexander Celebration of Collections on November 14 featured Charles E. Steinman, Dr. Susan Einbinder, and Dan Klein. Collections discussed included a medieval French manuscript that echoes the expulsion of the Jews from France, a 17th century manuscript discussing the plague in Padua, and a 19th century Italian commentary of the Bible!
Lecture 2021
2021: Places and Space, Sights and Sounds in the Norman E. Alexander Library, featuring Dr. Francesca Bregoli, Dr. phil. habil. Lea Schäfer, and Dr. M. (Maarten) Hell. Collections featured include the Franchetti Archive, the Language and Culture Archive of Ashkenazic Jewry, and the Spinoza Collection.
Lecture 2020
2020: Celebrating Ten Years of the Norman E. Alexander Lectures in Jewish Studies
Lecture 2019
2019: Jeffrey Shandler (Rutgers University) Jewish Museum Practices: A Modern Cultural Innovation
Past Lectures:
LECTURE 2018
2018: Benjamin R. Gampel (Jewish Theological Seminary), "Reembracing the Lachrymose Theory of Jewish History: Dialogue with a Columbia Tradition"
LECTURE 2017
2017: Alexander Gorlin, FAIA (Alexander Gorlin Architects), "Kabbalah in Art and Architecture."
2016: Jenna Weissman Joselit (George Washington University), "Rock Solid: America's Relationship to the Ten Commandments."
2015: David Ruderman, "Missionaries, Meshumadim, and Maskilim: An Entangled History of Christians, Jews and Those In Between in Nineteenth-Century Europe"
2014: James Kugel, "Behind the Biblical Story of Joseph, or: The Divine Travel Agent"
2013: Neal Gabler, "How (and Why) the Jews Invented Hollywood"
2012: Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University, "Father's Court and Mother's Sabbaths: Fiction in Service of Truth that is Greater than Fiction"
2011: Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University, "General Grant and the Jews"
