This year, the full group sessions (8:15-9:15 pm) explore 
Cosmopolitan Jewish Communities at the Edge of Modernity.

The sessions will cover three of the large Jewish communities that developed in central and western Europe in the centuries after the expulsion of Jews from Spain. These communities were significant for their rich cultural and social diversity, intellectual and religious vibrancy, and their engagement with the non-Jewish world.

The first session, on February 5, will explore
The Jewish Community of Amsterdam
presented by Dr. Dean P. Bell.

The second session, on February 12, will explore
The Jewish Community of Venice 
presented by Dr. Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern. 

This third session, on February 19, will explore
The Jewish Community of Prague 
presented by Dr. Benjamin Frommer.

Dr. Benjamin Frommer is the Wayne V. Jones Research Professorship in History at Northwestern University. A historian who specializes in the history of Central Europe, he received his PhD from Harvard University in 1999. His research and writing have been supported by the Fulbright Program, the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna). In spring 2007, Dr. Frommer received the Weinberg College Distinguished Teaching Award.