Sunday, March 11, 2007
Get me to Tel Aviv!
A conference that I really must be at is happening on March 20-21 at the "Université de Tel Aviv," ie Tel Aviv University. First of, waah! I'm here writing about Alain Finkielkraut and French-Jewish national identity, when some of the greatest minds on this subject, including Finkielkraut himself, will be discussing these matters for two whole days. Not only all things French and Jewish, but they've even thrown in a panel on, "Y a–t-il une littérature juive de langue française?", which might, just might, be of interest to someone studying French Jews while in a French literature department. Yeah, might be maybe a little relevant. And it's all happening in Tel Aviv. I do my best keeping up with events at my own university and in NYC in general, but I'm now kicking myself for not noticing this until just now. Hope there are minutes or something...
I have this friend who is a sort of insanely optimistic, hare-brained, juggernaut-dynamo-bundle-of-kinetic-lunacy type of guy. And he even got one of his handful of graduate degrees in Jewish Studies, making him even more relevant to the story.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, if a misfortune like this befell him, he would immediately dash off a few pithy and impertinent e-mails to every Jewish bureaucracy and/or wealthy/prominent Jew within 100 miles. (And you live in Manhattan, so that's, like, all of them.)
Seriously, the dude had no shame and he would actually get pissed off when the checks that came in were smaller than the checks he had envisioned.
Anyway, you should point people to this blogpost, stick out your hand, and make like a schnorrer. Aside from your dignity, what do you have to lose?
Dear Mr. Steinhardt...
I live in Manhattan? Hope it's a nice place!
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