News and Information

232 SHOFAR Winter 1996 Vol. 14, No.2 NEWS AND INFORMATION Conferences and Calls for Papers qHS Annual Conference Papers are invited for the Canadian Jewish Historical Society Annual Conference which will take place on Sunday and Monday, June 2-3, 1996, at B!,ock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, during the 1996 Learned Societies Congress. Papers on all topics related to the Canadian Jewish experience are welcome. This conference will concentrate on topics focusing on the Jewish experience in small Canadian communities. Possible themes include: settlement patterns, leadership, culture, observance and identity, farming, and literature. Other themes under consideration are Canadian Jewish writers, Jewish genealogy, arid Jews and social activism. If you are interested in presenting a paper or have other ideas for sessions, please contact Dr. Paula Draper, 142 Pears Ave., #C4, Toronto, Ontario M5R IT2; fax: 416-967-7742. Jewish Studies in Canada On June 9-10, 1996, the Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies at Concordia University and the Centre for Jewish Studies at York University will bost a conference at Concordia entitled "A Heritage in Transition: Jewish Studies in Canada." The conference is partially funded by a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage (Multiculturalism). The conference will feature presentations by Canadian scholars representative of the most recent research and methodologies in the areas which form the field of Jewish Studies. It is designed to give Canadian scholars in the field, for the first time, a Canadian forum in which to exchange their ideas. The conference, which will be open to the public, will serve to underline the breadth and depth ofJewish studies in Canada. It will also focus on the relationship between the scholar and the community. The format of the conference will include presentations in· the following areas: Social Scientific Study of Jews and Judaism, Holocaust News and Information 233 Studies, Jewish Thought, Classical Textual Study, Women's Studies, Cultural Studies, and Jewish History. For further information, please contact: Prof. Ira Robinson, Department ofReligion, Concordia University, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1M8; phone: 514-848-2066; fax: 514848 -4541; e-mail: robinso@vax2.concordia.ca Victim and Group Identity in Contemporary Europe A session is proposed for the 1996 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting to be held in San Francisco on November 20-24, 1996, to explore the ways in which victimhood is being redefined and renegotiated in contemporary Europe. Since the second World War, vietimhood has been an important element in the cultural and political world of Europe. Victim identity has served as a basis for group selfdefinition , for moral legitimacy, and for claims against other social entities. Papers are soughtwhich provide ethnographic and historical accounts, as well as analytical treatments. Please send abstracts or inquiries to: Andrew Buckser, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University, 1365 Stone Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1365; phone: 317496 -2857; fax: 317-496-1476; e-mail: bucksera@sri.soc.purdue.edu. Ethics After the Holocaust On May 6-8, 1996, the University of Oregon will host an international conference on ethics after the Holocaust, featuring the world's leading thinkers on this topic. The conference will focus on the broader questions raised by the Holocaust: the nature of good and evil, the possibilities of human goodness, and the conditions ofresistance to hatred and genocide; it will also focus on some of the leading writers associated with postHolocaust philosophy. Some of the speakers will be: Elie Wiesel, Emil Fackenheim, Debra Lipstadt, Stephane Moses, Raul Hilberg, and Alan Grossman. For more information on how to attend or contribute e-mail, write to: wolverene@aol.com. 234 SHOFAR Winter 1996 Vol. 14, No.2 Jerusalem: City of Law and Justice The third International Conference on the Sources of Contemporary Law, entitled "Jerusalem: City of Law and Justice," will be held at the Sheraton Plaza Hotel, Jerusalem, Israel, July 8-12, 1996. The aim of this conference is to underscore the themes of law and justice and their special link to the values and ideals that Jerusalem symbolizes. The participating lawyers, judges, rabbis, theologians, law professors, and scholars will deal with the relevance of those values, reflecting on topics including human rights and constitutional law, environmental conservation...