Lander College of Arts & Sciences to Host Free Community Lecture Series on Jewish History
Gabe Kahn
212-463-0400 x5404
gabriel.kahn@touro.edu
New York, N.Y.—Touro’s Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush (LAS) is introducing a weekly lecture series, “Jewish History @ Avenue J.” Presented by LAS academic dean Henry Abramson, the lectures will be open to the community and free of charge.
Before coming to LAS this summer, Dr. Abramson served as dean of academic affairs and student services for Touro College South in Miami, Florida, where he originated his Jewish history lecture series.
“Dr. Abramson is a highly skilled scholar with an impressive array of publications and teaching awards,” said Dr. Robert Goldschmidt, executive dean of LAS and the vice president for planning and assessment of Touro College. “He’s an erudite student of history with an entertaining manner of delivery, and we’re proud to make his lectures available as a service to the larger community.”
Dr. Abramson earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto in 1995, writing a dissertation on the Jews of Ukraine. Before joining Touro College as the dean of the Miami Beach campus, Dr. Abramson held post-doctoral and visiting appointments at Harvard, Cornell, Oxford and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a tenured Associate Professor of History and University Scholar of Judaica at Florida Atlantic University of Boca Raton.
He has published several books on Jewish history and thought, including “A Prayer for the Government: Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, 1917-1920” (Harvard, 1999); “Reading the Talmud: Developing Independence in Gemara Learning” (Feldheim, 2006); and the forthcoming “The Kabbalah of Forgiveness: The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Date Palm of Devorah” (Smashwords, 2014). Dr. Abramson has received many distinguished awards for his research and teaching, including fellowships from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he received the Excellence in the Academy Award from the National Education Association.
Lectures will be on Monday evenings from 7-8 pm on the LAS campus at 1602 Avenue J in Flatbush, beginning October 19 on the topic of Judah Maccabee. Subsequent lecture dates and topics include:
- October 26: Apion
- November 2: Rabbi Meir
- November 9: King Bulan
- November 16: Rabbi Bachya
- November 23: Count Emicho
- November 30: Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam
- December 14: Dona Gracia Nasi
- December 21: Uriel Da Costa
- December 28: Rabbi Chaim Vital
Touro’s Lander College in Flatbush, with separate schools for men and women, enrolls 2,500 students annually in fall, spring and summer semesters. It offers a choice of 25 majors and pre-professional programs in disciplines including accounting (CPA program), finance, management, computer science and multimedia web design, pre-medicine/pre-dentistry/pre-pharmacy, the allied health sciences (occupational and physical therapy, physician assistant, nursing), education, psychology, biology, political science/prelaw, mathematics/actuarial studies and speech language pathology.
About the Touro College and University System
Touro is a system of non-profit institutions of higher and professional education. Touro College was chartered in 1970 primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American and global community. Approximately 18,000 students are currently enrolled in its various schools and divisions. Touro College has branch campuses, locations and instructional sites in the New York area, as well as branch campuses and programs in Berlin, Jerusalem, Moscow and Paris. New York Medical College, Touro University California and its Nevada branch campus, as well as Touro University Worldwide and its Touro College Los Angeles division are separately accredited institutions within the Touro College and University System. For further information on Touro College, please go to: www.touro.edu/news/.
