Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver
Telephone: 303-871-2956
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David Shneer has been called a "taboo-breaking scholar" by Tikkun Magazine and a "new Jewish superhero," by Jewcy.com. He is the director of the Center for Judaic Studies and an assistant professor of history at the University of Denver. His books include "Queer Jews", "Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture", "New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora", and "American Queer". His newest book project, tentatively titled "Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust," looks at the lives and works of two dozen World War II military photogrpahers to examine what kinds of photographs they took when they encountered evidence of Nazi genocide on the Eastern Front. He has worked as a scholar and writer throughout the U.S. and in Russia, Germany and Israel. He lectures widely on modern Jewish society and culture, especially Yiddish culture, Russian Jewish history, and Jews and sexuality.
Jews in Today's Berlin
Global History & Culture
After the Holocaust, the Jewish community of Berlin that had numbered near 100,000 was decimated. But with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the mass migration of Russian Jews, and generous immigration laws, Germany in general and Berlin in particular, has become one of the most important Jewish centers in Europe. We will learn about Jews in today's Germany with a focus on Berlin, learn about why Jews are there, what kinds of Jewish institutions exist, and the struggles this community faces as it emerges out of the shadow of the Holocaust.
On the Frontlines
Soviet Jews Confront World War II and the Holocaust
Global History & Culture
On January 1, 1942, in the Black Sea coastal city of Kerch, two Jewish photographers working for the Soviet press became the first liberators to photograph the Holocaust. Who were these photographers? What kinds of photographs did they take as photojournalists for the "other ally"? And why were Jewish photographers the ones documenting the war and the Holocaust for the Soviet population? Together, we will study the biographies of these photographers and the stories of their images as we uncover the lost history of the first liberator photographers.
Yiddish and the Jewish Underdog
Global History & Culture
For one thousand years, Yiddish has defined European Jewish culture. For most of that period, Yiddish was associated with Jewish underdogs, with those people who lacked power within the Jewish world. Together, we will study the history of Yiddish culture through the lens of those underdogs‹women, Hasids, socialists, workers, and gays and lesbians‹to see why Yiddish was, is, and perhaps will always be associated with those less powerful.
