Compiled by Sharon Wisch-Ray
Beth Shalom to welcome
Pelletier at breakfast series
As part of its Brotherhood Breakfast Speaker Series, Congregation Beth Shalom will welcome Aimée Israel-Pelletier at its featured speaker at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, March 25, at the synagogue.
Israel-Pelletier is Professor of French at UT Arlington. An author of books and articles on 19th- and 20th-century French literature, art and film, she has written on the Holocaust through a non-European lens and on issues of identity and politics in postcolonial texts with special focus on the Jews of Arab lands. Israel-Pelletier was born in Cairo. She left Egypt for the United States in 1961. She grew up in New Jersey and calls herself a Jersey girl through-and-through. Her book, On the Mediterranean and the Nile: The Jews of Egypt, published by Indiana University Press, was released this month.
The book examines the lives of Middle Eastern Jews living in Islamic societies in this political and cultural history of the Jews of Egypt. By looking at the work of five Egyptian Jewish writers, Israel-Pelletier confronts issues of identity, exile, language, immigration, Arab nationalism, European colonialism and discourse on the Holocaust. She illustrates that the Jews of Egypt were a fluid community connected by deep roots to the Mediterranean and the Nile. They had an unshakable sense of being Egyptian until the country turned toward the Arab East. With Israel-Pelletier’s deft handling, Jewish Egyptian writing offers an insider’s view in the unique character of Egyptian Jewry and the Jewish presence across the Mediterranean region and North Africa.
The book is available for $30 in paperback and $80 in hardback and can be purchased on Amazon and through Indiana University Press. The cost is the same either way. Bring your copy with you if you wish to have it signed!
A complimentary breakfast will be served at 9:30, with Aimee’s presentation at 10:30. Please RSVP by March 22. Call the CBS office at 817-860-5448 or email Thressa at info@bethshalom.org.
—Submitted by
Stuart Snow
Time to RSVP for
Israel@70 Gala
If you haven’t received it, be sure to check your mailbox for an invitation to a historic event — the Israel @ 70 Gala, a celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary.
Whether you were born before the establishment of Israel or have lived your entire life knowing that the Jewish homeland exists, whether you have visited Israel or plan to visit, whether you are a Jew or Gentile or if you are a part of Tarrant County’s dynamic Israeli community, everyone will gather at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 22, to celebrate the modern miracle of Israel.
This amazing event is being planned by the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth & Tarrant County. The evening will include a sumptuous, authentic Israeli dinner held at the historic Ashton Depot in downtown Fort Worth with music from Goga Denisov and a program honoring the establishment of the Jewish state.
The Israel @ 70 Gala is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth & Tarrant County with financial support from the Foundation of the Jewish Federation, the Dan Danciger/Fort Worth Hebrew Day School Supporting Foundation, Harold Gernsbacher, Suzie and Ben Herman, Linda and Jeffrey Hochster, Terri and Rich Hollander, Isadore Garsek Lodge of B’nai B’rith, Rebecca and Stuart Isgur, Diane and Sam Kleinman, Monica O’Desky, Naomi and Mark Rosenfield, Sendara Title and Tarrant County B’nai B’rith Housing.
Expect a phone call from members of the host committee encouraging you to come to the event. It’s been 10 years since the last gala, so answer the call. Host committee members are Julie and Joseph Berman, Michal and Rabbi Andrew Bloom, Jane and Marc Cohen, Adena and Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Al Faigin, Phyllis and Robert Fenton, Julie and Red Goldstein, Noreen and Bill Houston, Shoshana and Ben Isgur, Karen Kaplan, Shirry and Teddy Knitel, Ilana and Kurt Knust, Linda and Ebi Lavi, Marcia and Harold Malofsky, Neta and Corey Mandel, Posey and Dale McMillen, Marcy Paul, Beverly and Michael Ross, Cindy and Robert Simon, Cheryl Visosky, and Mimi and Rabbi Brian Zimmerman.
For further info, contact Angie Friedman at 817-569-0892 or a.friedman@tarrantfederation.org.