The 11th Annual Gus & Libby Solomon Memorial Lecture featuring Dr. Shawn Landres will be Feb. 4 at 7 pm in 75 Lincoln Hall on the Portland State University campus.
Sponsored by The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies, this year’s lecture will be “From Jewish Interests to Jewish Values: American Jewish Politics in the 21st Century.” Landres will explore the shift in the American Jewish community from a focus on interest-group influence to a politics of Jewish values and significance, in large part due to the slow but steady Jewish demographic decline. Among other things, he’ll look at how Jews have been engaged in the public sphere in the past and how that is changing today.
Currently a civil society fellow at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Shawn Landres chairs the board of Impact Hub Los Angeles. He serves on the Los Angeles County Quality & Productivity Commission (and chairs its Strategic Foresight Working Group) and on the City of Santa Monica Social Services Commission. Co-founder and board co-chair of Jumpstart Labs, he is an active partner in early-stage ventures and social enterprises. He holds degrees from Columbia, Oxford and UC Santa Barbara.
This event is free and open to the public.
Additionally, Judaic studies is adding three new courses for the term beginning Jan. 4: Jewish Literature of the Arab World with Michael Weingrad, Judaism and Gender with Rabbi Ariel Stone, and The Jewish Experience in Latin America with adjunct professor Mollie Nouwen, author of Oy, My Buenos Aires: Jewish Immigrants and the Creation of Argentine National Identity.
“Please remind people that anyone 65 or older is eligible to audit courses at PSU for free, and we welcome auditors,” says Judaic Studies Academic Director Natan M. Meir.
For more information on the lecture or courses, email judaicst@pdx.edu or call 503-725-5048.
