The Texture of (Un)Remembrance: Holocaust Legacy and Immigrant Writing in the 21st Century
A talk and reading by Maxim Shrayer
7 p.m. | Tuesday, April 18, 2023
McIntosh Center , University Hall 3999
Loyola Marymount University
Please join us for an evening with acclaimed author and Boston College professor Maxim D. Shrayer as he reads from and discusses his new book Immigrant Baggage: Morticians, Purloined Diaries, and Other Theatrics of Exile. In this literary memoir, Shrayer writes about the legacy of his family’s past in Eastern Europe and about traversing the borders and boundaries of the three cultures that have nourished him―Russian, Jewish, and American.
Kosher reception to follow.
Praise for Immigrant Baggage
“Maxim D. Shrayer is a precious object: a kind of living Rosetta Stone who embodies multiple literary cultures."
-Marcel Theroux, author of The Sorcerer of Pyongyang and Far North
“The past is present, and made alive again, in this most engaging memoir.”
-Elizabeth Poliner, author of As Close to Us as Breathing and Mutual Life & Casualty
About Maxim Shrayer
Maxim D. Shrayer, bilingual author, scholar, and translator, is a Professor at Boston College. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Shrayer’s many books include Waiting for America, I SAW IT, and Of Politics and Pandemics. Shrayer’s works have been translated into ten languages. Visit his website at www.shrayer.com
About
Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. The Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and the Jewish Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University honor Yom HaShoah with special programming each year.
Past Events
-
2022: Mute Memorials
Date: Thursday, April 28, 2022
A Virtual EventFeaturing:
- Keynote speaker: Jacqueline Osherow
Background Information:
LMU Jewish Studies welcomed Jacqueline Osherow, a distinguished professor of English at the University of Utah, for a talk on Mute Memorials. There was also a live performance by a graduate cantorial student from the Academy for Jewish Religion California.
-
2021: The Right to Human Dignity
Date: Thursday, April 8, 2021
A Virtual EventFeaturing:
- Keynote speaker: Professor Thane Rosenbaum
- Student responses: Jonathan Amiri '22 & Taran Drummond '21
- Musical interludes: Eva Robbins
- Remarks: Jonathan Bar-El, Rabbi Anne Brener, & Rabbi Mel Gottlieb
Background Information:
LMU Jewish Studies welcomes Thane Rosenbaum, who will speak on the right to human dignity, an integral theme at the core of all Holocaust remembrance. The commemoration will also include LMU student responses and musical accompaniment from members of the Academy for Jewish Religion of California.
-
2019: A Golem for Berlin
Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Location: VDA Family Suite, 3rd Floor, William H. Hannon LibraryFeaturing:
- Artwork and Lecture by Joshua Abarbanel
Background Information:
In Jewish folklore, the golem is an inanimate creature brought to life by ritual incantations and sequences of Hebrew letters. In most tales the golem is conjured by a human and becomes a helper, companion, or rescuer of an imperiled Jewish community (when Berlin’s Weissensee Jewish Cemetery was spared destruction during the Holocaust, some said it was because a golem resided on its grounds). Often the creature runs amok and becomes a threat.
For generations, the golem has inspired artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars who have been intrigued by the tale’s metaphors about creativity, hubris, the potency of words, and the conundrums of power. In 2015, Joshua Abarbanel was commissioned by the Jewish Museum Berlin to create a large-scale golem sculpture for their 2016 exhibition Golem. Abarbanel’s dramatic sculpture of a golem in repose is composed of thousands of wooden letters and was a centerpiece of the exhibition. A scale model of the larger sculpture was on display in the Library’s 3rd floor atrium throughout April 2019.