News and Information

Vol. 10, No.3 Spring 1992 NEWS AND INFORMATION Conferences 207 Crisis & Creativity in the Sephardic World, 1391-1648 The Center for Israel and Jewish Studies of Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in collaboration with the Jewish Museum, announce an international conference commemorating the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain. The conference will be held November 8 through November 11, 1992, and all sessions are free and open to the public. Topics to be discussed include: Exile and Expulsion in Jewish History; Iberian Jewry: Culture and Society; Iberian Jewry: The Expulsions; Persecution as a Category of Jewish Thought; Continuity and Change: Communal Life; Continuity and Change: Intellectual Pursuits; and Continuity and Change: Cultural Dimensions. Mishpat Ivry and Talmudic Sources An international conference on Mishpat Jvry (Jewish Law) and Talmudic sources with consideration of practical applications in the State ofIsrael will convene in New York February 14-15, 1993. This conference is co-sponsored by Dor Hemshech-World Zionist Organization and the Institute of Traditional Judaism rabbinical school as well as Bar IIan University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, Hebrew University Law School, and the Torah Department of the World Zionist Organization. The conference will honor the memory of Professor Saul Lieberman, world renowned Talmudist, on the 10th anniversary of his passing. The conference will draw attention to the fact that the Talmud and Jewish Law continue to have a major influence on the lives ofJews both in Israel and throughout the world. The participants will consider what those influences are and in some cases what they should be. For further information please contact Dr. Adena K. Berkowitz, Dor Hemshech, 110 East 39th St., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022·1373. 208 Announcements American Rabbi Honored for Ecumenical Work in Poland SHOFAR Rabbi Dr. Byron L. Sherwin, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor ofJewish Philosophy and Mysticism at Spenus College ofJudaica in Chicago, was the first recipient of the "Dialogue Award" from the internationally recognized Polish Council of Christians and Jews at the University of Warsaw on May 12. Dr. Stefan Schreiner, a Protestant theologian from Berlin, shares the award, which has been established to honor individuals who have made important contributions toward the improvement of interfaith relations. Sherwin also delivered a series of lectures while he was in Poland to receive the award. The roots of Sherwin's efforts to build bridges of knowledge between Polish Catholics and Jews stem from the formal establishment of the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Center for the Study ofEastern European Jewry on July 22, 1987, at Spertus College of Judaica. In July 1989, 21 Polish Catholic priests/seminary professors and one Polish Orthodox seminary professor came to Chicago to study Jewish theology, liturgy, culture, and religious pluralism for seven weeks at Spertus College. This program led to Sherwin's being invited to Poland in April 1990 to lecture at seven seminaries in five cities. He was accompanied by Fr. Joseph Mytych, assistant to Bishop Alfred Abramowicz, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. In April 1991 Sherwin and Mytych returned to Poland to sign an agreement establishing the International Institute for the Study of Judaism cosponsored by Spertus' Bernardin Center and the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw. They also participated in a conference "Auschwitz: Symbol, History and Theology," where Sherwin delivered an address, "Holocaust 'Haggadah': Telling the Holocaust Story." Studies in AmericanJewish Literature We have received the following notice from Daniel Walden, Editor of Studies in AmericanJewish Literature: Studies in AmericanJewish Literature is in danger of disappearing. Kent State University, because of financial constraints, has notified me of its inability to continue publishing the journal. Although I have been trying for some months to interest a new publisher and/or a foundation, I have been unsuccessful. Vol. 10, No. 3 Spring 1992 209 It seems that many of you want to have the journal available but you do not want to subscribe to it. As a result, the subscription list has shrunk to the extent that any prospective publisher would incur a risk by taking it on. The future is now in your hands. At the present time, the last issue from Kent State...