The event will feature a nosh and polish vodka tasting, a lecture with Glenn Dynner, PhD, director of the Bennett Center, and a musical performance by The John Madoff Trio.
On Wednesday, March 6 at 6 p.m., Fairfield University’s Bennett Center for Judaic Studies will host a book launch for The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust by Glenn Dynner, PhD, director of the Bennett Center, at the Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, Conn. The event will feature a nosh and polish vodka tasting with Yoni Miller and a lecture with Dr. Dynner, followed by a musical performance by The John Madoff Trio at 7 p.m.
The Light of Learning tells the story of a late-hour Hasidic revival in Poland powered by rigorous Torah study in yeshivas, Bais Yaakov schools, and eventually in underground bunkers during the Holocaust. Torah study emerges as a potent cultural resistance against assimilationist pressures, antisemitism, and anti-Jewish violence.
Dr. Dynner is the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Professor of Judaic Studies and director of Fairfield University's Bennett Center. Editor of the journal Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, he is a recent Guggenheim Fellow. His previous publications include the books "Men of Silk:” The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society (Oxford University Press, 2006), and Yankel’s Tavern: Jews, Liquor & Life in the Kingdom of Poland (Oxford University Press, 2014).
Reservations are requested at fairfield.edu/bennettcenter. Presented free of charge to the community in tribute to the memory of Dr. Hesh Romanowitz ז״ל. The event is co-sponsored by: United Jewish Federation of Stamford, New Canaan and Darien UJA, JCC Greenwich, Congregation Agudath Sholom, Temple Beth El, Temple Sinai, Young Israel of Stamford, Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County, Chabad of Stamford JFS – Greenwich, and Chabad of Greenwich.
