By Scott Rappaport, UCSC Newscenter
The Center for Jewish Studies at UC Santa Cruz will present a two-day conference, “Liminal Spaces and the Jewish Imagination” on campus February 18-19, at the Humanities 1 Building.
The Venice Ghetto will serve as the starting point for the conference to address questions of modern Jewish spaces and identity. The site has played a central role in Jewish and European culture since the Jews were first sequestered in the Ghetto in 1516.
“Venice is the place where the Jews in the modern world got their first location—not by choice,” noted Murray Baumgarten, professor of literature and co-director of the Jewish Studies program at UC Santa Cruz.
“They were located there when they were forced out of Spain. The Ghetto is still there in Venice as an island, and we are looking at how it has impacted modern Jewish life and European life,” he added.