Panel discussion and symposium will look at Jewish immigration to the United States

A panel discussion and symposium about Jewish immigration to the United States, including many who came to Richmond, will be held at the University of Richmond Feb. 27, 5:30 p.m. The program will be held in Queally Hall, Ukrop Auditorium. 

Joyce Antler, Samuel B. Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture and Women’s and Gender Studies at Brandeis University, will lead the symposium, titled “I, a New Being: (Re)Inventing the American Jewish Immigrant Story.”  She will discuss the immigrant experience of approximately one million Jews who left the Soviet Union in the 1980s and 1990s as part of Operation Exodus. The Richmond Jewish community came together to welcome more than 800 of them. 

The symposium is part of the yearlong series, “Draw Back the Curtain,” which will culminate in a premiere of a documentary film produced by Richmond students, alumni and community members. An exhibit on the Fourth Wave of Soviet Jewish immigration titled “The American Dream, Right? Exhibiting Soviet Jewish History in Richmond,” began the series. It will remain on view at the Carole Weinstein International Center, the Wilton Companies Gallery at UR Downtown and University Museums’ Lora Robins Gallery until April 22. Jewish Family Services, University of Richmond Hillel and University Museums are coordinating the series, which was funded in part by the Richmond Jewish Foundation and the university’s Cultural Affairs Committee.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception from 7 – 8 p.m. in the Lora Robins Gallery will follow the symposium. For more information, contact Laura Browder, 804-289-8312 or lbrowde2@richmond.edu.