LOUISVILLE, Ky. — University of Louisville history scholar Lee Shai Weissbach will give a free, public talk April 9 about “The Jewish History of Small-town America.”
His 7:30 p.m. talk in Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Libracy, is part of the UofL Naamani Memorial Lecture Series. The series is named for former UofL political scientist Israel Naamani and highlights prominent scholars involved in Jewish, Middle East and Islamic studies.
Weissbach’s lecture will focus on how Jewish communities emerged in small towns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how they differed from Jewish communities of larger and midsize U.S. cities. His slide presentation will show images that capture the influence of Jewish culture in small towns. There will be a question-and-answer session and dessert reception afterward.
A social history scholar, Weissbach wrote the 2005 book “Jewish Life in Small-town America: A History,” books about synagogue architecture and 19th century French history and many articles for journals pertaining to Jewish history. He has been a Fulbright fellow at University of Haifa in Israel and has had fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Haifa American Jewish Archives. Weissbach also has been a member of the American Jewish Historical Society’s academic council and a trustee of the Southern Jewish Historical Society.
For more information, contact Jasmine Farrier at 502-852-3310 or j.farrier@louisville.edu