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International Interdisciplinary Conference
"Jews of Czechoslovakia as Social Canaries? Questions of Memory and
Identity"

January 8-9, 2005

Munk Centre for International Studies
Room 108 North House
University of Toronto
1 Devonshire Place
(map: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/ContactUs/default.asp)

The conference is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAM

Saturday, January 8, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.
Reception and showing of the film Daleka cesta (Distant Journey). In
this film Alfred Radok (1948) tried to capture recent war experience.
Although not shown in his homeland for several decades this work gained
international acclaim. In fact, Alain Resnais cites it as an influence
on his famous Night and Fog (1955).

 

Sunday, January 9, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
9 a.m.
Opening remarks by conference organizers, Veronika Ambros (CREES,
University of Toronto) and Alena Heitlinger (Trent University)

9:30 a.m.
Ivan Kalmar (Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto), "Did
Prague Jews Make a Contribution to the Creation the Concept of Central
Europe?"

10-10:15a.m. Coffee break

Panel I: Jewish Identity in Pre-War Czechoslovakia
10:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
Chair and Discussant: Derek Penslar, Jewish Studies, University of Toronto
Presenters:
*Wilma Iggers (Professor Emerita, Canisius College, Buffalo), "Rural
Jews in Prewar Bohemia"
*Helen Epstein (Writer and Journalist, affiliate of Center for European
Studies, Harvard University), "Neither Kafka Nor Svejk: A Czech-Speaking
Provincial, Water Polo Player, Officer and Jew"
*Tatjana Lichtenstein (Department of History, University of Toronto),
"Clipping the Wings: Was Zionism a Way of Making Jews at Home in
Czechoslovakia?"

12:45-2 p.m. Lunch Break

2-2:45 p.m.
Yuri Dojc (Professional Photographer, Toronto), "Photographic Images of
Shoah Survivors"

2:45-3 p.m. Coffee Break

Panel II, Constructions of Jewish Memories in Postwar Czechoslovakia
3-4:30 p.m.
Chair and Discussant: to be announced
Presenters:
*Veronika Ambros (CREES, University of Toronto), "'In Search of an
Addressee': Early Depositions about Judenvernichtung in Czech Film and
Fiction (Alfred Radok and Jiri Weil)"
*Alena Heitlinger (Department of Sociology, Trent University),
"(Non)constructing Shoah Memorials, (non)celebrating Czech Jewish
Anniversaries in Postwar Czechoslovakia"
*Silvie Singer (Jewish Museum, Prague, Czech Republic), "Formation of
Jewish Identity in Kosice after Shoah and during Communism. Perspectives
of Jews from Kosice Today"

Panel III: Closing Discussion
4:30-5:30 p.m.
Participants to be announced.

5:30-6:30 p.m. Film: The second part of the trilogy Between a Star and
Half-Moon, directed by Martin Smok and Jan Bok. This part deals with the
anti-Semitism of the political show trials in the 1950s. The documentary
was shown on Czech TV in October 2003.

6:30-7 p.m. Closing remarks

Janet Hyer
Program Officer
Centre for Russian and East European Studies
Munk Centre for International Studies
University of Toronto
1 Devonshire Place
Toronto ON M5S 3K7

Tel: (416) 946-8994
Fax: (416) 946-8939
janet.hyer@utoronto.ca
www.utoronto.ca/crees/

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