Jewish Studies Sunday Book & Discussion Group   Tags: jewish  

When you enter the campus from Lincoln Boulevard,  let the guard at the kiosk know that you are coming to the Hannon Library and he will instruct you to keep going up the road to the 3^rd stop sign. On the right is the entrance to the Drollinger parking structure.
At this point, if you look to your left, you will see the round-shaped Hannon Library.  Go into the structure and park anywhere you can. 

There is no charge for visitor parking on Sundays.

The driving instructions to campus are as follows:

From LAX:
Travel north on Sepulveda Blvd. Remain in either of the left two lanes and merge onto Lincoln Blvd. Follow Lincoln Blvd north past Manchester Blvd. Turn right onto LMU Drive.

From the South:
Travel on 405 North, exit on La Tijera, make a left onto La Tijera. Take La Tijera until Manchester Boulevard and make a right (traveling west).  Stay on Manchester until you reach Lincoln Boulevard and make a right.  On Lincoln Boulevard, proceed for approximately 3/4 of a mile until you arrive at our main entrance on the corner of Lincoln and LMU Drive. 

From the North:
Travel on 405 South, exit on Jefferson Blvd., and turn right. Head west and make a left onto Lincoln Blvd. Head south and turn left into the campus on LMU Drive. 

Sunday,  August 17, 2014 @ 2:00-3:30pm
Crossing Cairo: A Jewish Woman’s Encounter with Egypt
By Rabbi Ruth Sohn
Rabbi Sohn will be here in person to discuss, sell and sign her book

In Crossing Cairo, Rabbi Ruth Sohn has written an exceptional family portrait of the experience of living in Egypt with her husband and children. Advised not to share the fact that they are Jewish, they discover what it means to hide and then increasingly share their identity. Would it be possible to cross the boundaries of language, culture and religion to form real friendships and find a home among Egyptians? As she navigates new routines of daily life to make friends, find an Arabic teacher, and get to know the mysterious veiled woman that came with the rental of their apartment, Sohn takes us on a remarkable journey as she encounters the many faces of Cairo. In the Epilogue she returns to Cairo after the fall of Mubarak to find a newly exuberant and infectious patriotism and hope. Throughout this probing contemplation of self and other in a world that is foreign and in many ways inimical to her own as an American Jew, Sohn shows how even the seemingly mundane events of daily life can yield unexpected discoveries. "With remarkable evenhandedness and...openness, Sohn has written a provocative and mesmerizing book of extraordinary passion and insight. I could not put it down!" Rabbi David Ellenson, President Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Sunday,  September 14, 2014 @ 2:00-3:30pm
Bearing the Body
by Ehud Havazelet
Facilitated by Dr. Holli Levitsky, Professor of English, & Director of Jewish Studies, LMU
At the start of Bearing the Body, Nathan Mirsky learns that his older brother has died in San Francisco, apparently murdered after years of aimlessness. On the spur of the moment, Nathan leaves his job as a medical resident and heads west from Boston to learn what he can about Daniel's death. His father, Sol--a quiet, embittered Holocaust survivor--insists on coming along. Piecing together Daniel's last days, Nathan and Sol are forced to confront secrets that have long isolated them from each other and to being a long process of forgiveness.

Sunday,  November 2, 2014 @ Film Screening: 2:00-4:00pm

The Gatekeepers 
Directed by Dror Moreh (2012, 101 mins.)

"Charged with overseeing Israel's war on terror, both Palestinian and Jewish, the head of the Shin Bet, Israel's Secret Service, is present at the crossroads for every decision made. This documentary features interviews with six former heads of the agency who have agreed to share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions. The Gatekeepers offers and exclusive account of the sum of their successes and failures. It validates the reasons that each man individually and the six as a group came to reconsider their hard-line positions and advocate a conciliatory approach based on a two-state solution.” Academy Award Nominee - 2012 Best Documentary

Sunday,  November 16, 2014 @ 2:00-3:30pm
Our Holocaust
By Amir Gutfreund
Facilitated by Margarete Feinstein
Assistant Professor, LMU Jewish Studies Dept.

Amir and Effi collected relatives. With Holocaust survivors for parents and few other 'real' relatives alive, relationships operated under a "Law of Compression" in which tenuous connections turned friends into uncles, cousins and grandparents. Life was framed by Grandpa Lolek, the parsimonious and eccentric old rogue who put his tea bags through Selektion, and Grandpa Yosef, the neighborhood saint, who knew everything about everything, but refused to talk of his own past. Amir and Effi also collected information about what happened Over There. This was more difficult than collecting relatives; nobody would tell them any details because they weren't yet Old Enough. The intrepid pair won't let this stop them, and their quest for knowledge results in adventures both funny and alarming, as they try to unearth their neighbors' stories. As Amir grows up, his obsession with understanding the Holocaust remains with him, and finally Old Enough to know, the unforgettable cast of characters that populate his world open their hearts, souls, and pasts to him.

The Sunday Book and Discussion is FREE. However, to make sure we have room, please contact Rhonda Rosen at rrosen@lmu.edu or 310-338-4584.  The bookgroup meets on Level 3 of the William H. Hannon Library.