Sam & Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies, UWM

04/07/2026

We are delighted to have Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein teaching a new course for us in Fall 2026! American Jewish Culture & History Through Music. Dr. Amanda Ruppenthal Stein holds a PhD in Musicology from Northwestern University and we can't wait for our students to learn from her! Fully online and open to students from other universities, with permission from the home institution.

04/07/2026

We are delighted to have two new courses for Fall 2026! First up, Q***r Religions, taught by Dr. Max Thornton, who holds a PhD in Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion from Drew University. Taught in partnership with UWM's LGBT Studies program. Fully online and open to students at other universities with permission from their home institution. Don't miss this opportunity to learn with Dr. Thornton!

03/25/2026

We were thrilled to welcome Nicolet High School students to campus last week! Our dual enrollment program with Nicolet Hebrew courses lets students earn college credit while still in high school.

02/23/2026

This Wednesday! Hope to see you there.

Book Launch: Lisa Silverman, "The Postwar Antisemite: Culture & Complicity After the Holocaust"

Lisa Silverman in Conversation with Alan Singer

Decades before the N**i persecution of the Jews would emerge as a master moral paradigm of evil in popular culture, the constructed Antisemite became part of a forceful narrative structure that allowed stereotypes about Jews to persist, even as explicit antisemitism became taboo. In the recently released The Postwar Antisemite, Lisa Silverman examines the crucial development and implications of the figural Antisemite in a range of events in Austria, Germany, and the United States including the trials of N**i star director Veit Harlan for crimes against humanity, the works of authors Anna Seghers and Rudolf Brunngraber, and films including Gentleman’s Agreement. Join us at Boswell for an important conversation about this history and what it reveals about antisemitism.

Register for event: lisasilvermanmke.eventbrite.com
https://uwm.edu/jewish-studies/event/book-launch-lisa-silverman-the-postwar-antisemite-culture-complicity-after-the-holocaust/

02/12/2026

This Sunday! 3:30 PM, Union Cinema. Talkback with Prof. Carolyn Eichner, Dept of History, following the film.

Too controversial to be shown on French TV when first released, the film follows seven surviving comrades of the executed members, found guilty of “terrorism”, from the immigrant section of the French Resistance during World War II. The documentary provoked unsettling debates about how the group was captured, and about why the French establishment (and history books) never fully embraced the immigrant and Jewish fighters who were the backbone of armed resistance in Paris. The film provides a powerful corrective to myths concerning the French Resistance.

Presented as part of the Albertine Cinémathèque program & co-sponsored by the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies & the Department of History

Sunday, February 15 • 3:30pm Des “terroristes” à la retraite (“Terrorists” in Retirement) Mosco Levi Boucault, DCP, 71 min France, 1983 (French) 1983 Cannes Film Festival & 2020 Cinéma du Réel Too controversial to be shown on French TV when

02/06/2026

How wonderful to see Michael Twitty on PBS's "Black and Jewish America", with episode one now streaming on PBS. We remember Michael Twitty's visits to the Stahl Center fondly and are glad to have this opportunity to continue to learn from him.

Episode One of BLACK AND JEWISH AMERICA explores overlapping struggles and forming bonds.

01/08/2026

We're thrilled to celebrate the publication of Prof. Lisa Silverman's book, THE POSTWAR ANTISEMITE: CULTURE & COMPLICITY AFTER THE HOLOCAUST, at Boswell Books on February 25th, at 6:30. To get a taste of this important book, listen to Dr. Silverman on the "New Books in Jewish Studies" podcast and then join us next month at Boswell's! Register for the book launch here: http://lisasilvermanmke.eventbrite.com

12/03/2025

TODAY!
Come to UWM on Dec 3 for two moving opportunities to engage with the Violins of Hope. Come to one or both!
At 6 pm, on the 4th Floor of the Golda Meir Library is the Opening event of Call and Response, with musicologist Gillian Roger and musician Jamie Hofman. More information at https://uwm.edu/libr.../event/violins-of-hope-opening-event/

After that, at 7 pm, come to UWM's Union Cinema for "Stories from the Violins of Hope" with an in-person talkback by the film's screenwriter, Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum. Produced by theatrical group The Braid in their signature style of Salon Theatre, Stories From the Violins of Hope is a 55-minute filmed performance featuring seven professional actors with music performed by five musicians from the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony. Check out the trailer below and join us next week! The Stahl Center is a partner on this event. Check out the trailer below. More information at https://holocaustcentermilwaukee.org/events/stories/

Interested in booking this show? Contact [email protected] website: https://the-braid.org

11/26/2025

Come to UWM on Dec 3 for two moving opportunities to engage with the Violins of Hope. Come to one or both!

At 6 pm, on the 4th Floor of the Golda Meir Library is the Opening event of Call and Response, with musicologist Gillian Roger and musician Jamie Hofman. More information at https://uwm.edu/libraries/event/violins-of-hope-opening-event/

After that, at 7 pm, come to UWM's Union Cinema for "Stories from the Violins of Hope" with an in-person talkback by the film's screenwriter,Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum. Produced by theatrical group The Braid in their signature style of Salon Theatre, Stories From the Violins of Hope is a 55-minute filmed performance featuring seven professional actors with music performed by five musicians from the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony. Check out the trailer below and join us next week! The Stahl Center is a partner on this event. More information at https://holocaustcentermilwaukee.org/events/stories/

Interested in booking this show? Contact [email protected] website: https://the-braid.org

11/19/2025

We're delighted to welcome Ofer Ashkenazi to campus tomorrow, 11/20 for his talk, "Navigating Profound Uncertainty: Jewish Photography in N**i Germany". 4 pm. In person in the Golda Meir Library, 4th Floor and on Zoom at https://bit.ly/4lX2yMe

The rise of National Socialism coincided with the unprecedented popularization of private photography, leading German Jews to avidly record their daily lives amid the regime’s escalating antisemitic measures. Drawing on a database of some 15,000 photographs taken by women and men of all ages, the talk examines how Jews documented their experiences within a rapidly changing German landscape.

More information at https://uwm.edu/jewish-studies/event/ofer-ashkenazi-navigating-profound-uncertainty-jewish-photography-in-nazi-germany/

09/25/2025

TONIGHT: The Stahl Center is pleased to cosponsor Boswell Book Company's event with Jason Diamond, author of the recently released novel, KAPLAN'S PLOT.

Thursday, Sept 25, 6:30 pm, at Boswell. More information and registration link at https://boswellbooks.com/.../2025-09-25/jason-diamond-author

Bestselling author Megan Abbott sums up Diamond's new book best: "A dazzling fictional debut, Jason Diamond’s Kaplan’s Plot calls to mind both John Irving’s darkly funny tales of family dysfunction and EL Doctorow’s evocative dives into the early 20th century American underworld. At the same, Diamond sneaks in deeper truths about family history, generational trauma and a quintessentially Midwestern sense of Jewish identity.”

Elijah is back home in Chicago. His mother is dying, his business flamed out, and he has nowhere to go. When he discovers his family owns a Jewish cemetery and a man he’s never heard of, his great-uncle Solomon Kaplan, is buried in a plot there, Elijah is handed a new sense of purpose, an excuse to talk more deeply with his mother, and a family mystery of extraordinary proportions that leads him to discover his grandfather Yitz was a powerful gangster in the 1920s. As secrets unravel, the past and present become intertwined, and Elijah and his mother begin to bond and accept each other, not as who they wish they were but as they both are.

Jason Diamond is author of Searching for John Hughes, The Sprawl, and coauthor of New York Nico's Guide to NYC. His work has been published by the New York Times, Esquire, The Paris Review, and many other outlets. He publishes the newsletter The Melt.

Boswellian Chris Lee chats with author Jason Diamond about his first novel, Kaplan's Plot, in advance of Diamond's visit to Boswell on Thursday, September 25...