“The Scholems: A Story of the German-Jewish Bourgeoisie from Emancipation to Destruction”

The Siegal Lifelong Learning Program will host Jay Geller, the Samuel Rosenthal Professor of Judaic Studies, to present a lecture titled “The Scholems: A Story of the German-Jewish Bourgeoisie from Emancipation to Destruction” Wednesday, April 10, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Landmark Centre Building (25700 Science Park Dr., Beachwood).

About the lecture

Geller will illuminate the transformation—across four generations of 125 years—of traditional Jews into modern German citizens and the challenges they faced, beginning with Jews’ legal emancipation in 1812 and ending with their disenfranchisement under the Nazis.

Focusing on renowned philosopher and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem and his family, Geller will provide a view of the German-Jewish middle-class experience within a much larger context of economic advancement, the adoption of German culture and debates on Jewish identity, struggles for integration into society and varying political choices during the German Empire, World War I, the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era.

Register for the event through the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program website.