The University of Virginia’s Jewish Studies Program will host its second annual Conference on Jewish Life in the Diaspora on November 10-11. The conference will focus on the lives and works of three prominent Jewish writers and scholars: Daniel Mendelsohn (columnist, essayist, author of The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million), Samira K. Mehta (professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, author of The Racism of People Who Love You: Essays on Mixed Race Belonging), and Shulem Deen (writer, translator, and author of All Who Go Do Not Return). Their discussion will include accounts of immigration, religious innovation, family histories from the Holocaust, and diasporic identity – as well as their critical reflections on the past, present, and future of American Jewish life.

On the evening of Sunday, November 10, UVA Jewish Studies Professor Caroline Kahlenberg will moderate a panel discussion with the three speakers on American Jewish Life. On the following Monday, November 11, each speaker will host a learning session about one of their written works. Both the panel and learning sessions are open the public. See the panel event page and the learning sessions page to RSVP.

The Conference on Jewish Life in the Diaspora is funded by Samuel A. Waxman. The first annual conference took place last November and focused on Sephardic lives, with a keynote address by novelist Andre Aciman and scholarly panels focusing on the lives of Sephardic women.