Nobody Tells Me Anything dept.

Take a look at this:

What does it mean to create Jewish culture and perform Jewish identity in Europe and North America in the twenty-first century? Ranging from the klezmer revival in the clubs of Warsaw to the Lower East Side irreverence of Heeb magazine, the ReJewvenation conference will create a space for scholarly discussion of a Jewish cultural renaissance in the making. This conference will bring together a diverse group of scholars and artists in order to address six major aspects of contemporary Jewish culture: ritual, music, new media, visual arts, literature and performing arts. Some of the questions the conference will address include: What does it mean to be part of a Jewish diaspora culture in a global village? How does twenty-first-century Jewish culture negotiate the ever-shifting boundary between religion and secular life or between culture and religion? How have changing attitudes toward gender roles and homosexuality fundamentally re-shaped Jewish culture? What impact has the internet had on the creation (and reception) of Jewish culture? How does the ongoing dialogue among diaspora Jews about Israeli politics and culture manifest itself in contemporary Jewish culture? To what extent do twentieth-century events – such as East European immigration to North America , the Holocaust, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union – still have an impact on the creation of Jewish culture in the twenty-first century?

Why didn't I know about this? Where do I sign up to keep up with such things? If you're out there, and plan to go, let me know how it went!

Back to grading. Then off to get the kids. Oy, oy, oy, it's hard to be a Dad. I mean professor. I mean Jew. (Actually, it's not so hard--but if I can't kvetch here, where can I?)

More soon, including a long message from Robert about Jewish American poetry, which has languished in my inbox for a month now. Sorry, Robert! I'll get it up here soon, with responses, I promise!

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