Published: March 6, 2015
David Shneer Through Soviet Jewish Eyes Chicago Opening

To a packed house of more than 400 people, on Sunday, February 22, David ShneerLouis P. Singer Endowed Chair in Jewish History and Professor of History, Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, gave the keynote lecture at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center for the opening of Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust, the photography exhibition based on his award-winning book.  The next morning, in honor of the Day in Honor of Defenders of the Fatherland, a Soviet-era holiday that once was called Soviet Army Day, Shneer gave the same talk in Russian to a crowd of 150 Soviet Jewish war veterans and Holocaust survivors.

This is the first time the show has been presented bilingually in Russian and English, and one of the few shows travelling the country in Russian.  The Chicago Russian-speaking community warmly received Shneer, gave him materials that are now being deposited in the Mazal Holocaust Collection in the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Archive, and made sure to let him know that his mother must be proud.

Shneer was also featured on local Chicago radio station, WBEZ 91.5, highlighting his new exhibit.

Read the full-length article about the opening

Listen to Shneer's WBEZ radio interview


On Wednesday, March 25 at 7PM (local time), Shneer’s new book, Trümmerfrau der Seele, about the Dutch Jewish, Yiddish singer and Holocaust survivor Lin Jaldati, will have its formal launch at the Berlin Jewish Community headquarters, Fasanenstrasse 79-80.  In Shneer’s absence, Jaldati’s daughter and Shneer’s collaborator, Jalda Rebling, will give a talk about her mother’s life.  This event will be in German.


This past Saturday, March 7 from 1PM – 4PMCU on the Weekend hosted Shneer for a mini-course seminar exploring the new and growing field of Post-Holocaust American Judaism studies. This is the Program in Jewish Studies’ inaugural event at the new CU South Denver campus in Parker. Post World War II America is often characterized negatively by suburbanization and the rise of a bland consumer culture obsessed with accumulation rather than reflection. But it is also the period when the United States became the fertile petri dish for new kinds of Judaism.  From Brooklyn-based Chabad Lubavitch Hasidism to 1960s ‘Do-It-Yourself’ Judaism and American Zionism, this mini-course examined American Judaism from World War II to the present. Professor Shneer will paid particular attention to materials now housed at the University of Colorado Library Archives and Special Collections Post Holocaust American Judaism Archive, which contains materials documenting this movement, from Arthur Waskow’s Freedom Seders to Zalman Schachter Shalomi’s early ideas about deep ecumenicism.