City Lights - "Jewish Journeys to America"

Co-sponsored by Penn State Abington and Penn State Hillel
Cost: $25 Alumni Association members, $40 non-members

Tobias Brinkmann will discuss the harrowing yet inspiring story of Jewish journeys to America from the late 1800s through the turn of the century and beyond. Brinkmann will describe the grueling, months-long journey made by European Jewish immigrants to America before the turn of the century. He will also discuss the subsequent improvements in transportation and migration procedures during the heyday of Ellis Island, as the United States quickly garnered its legacy as a safe haven for the oppressed. In this inspirational program, attendees will also have the opportunity to tour the National Museum of American Jewish History to learn about the still relevant experiences of American Jewish immigrants.

Tentative schedule:

   5:30 p.m.   Reception

   6:15 p.m.   Welcome from Museum Board 

                     Chair Ronald Rubin and past 

                     Penn State Alumni Association

                     President Lew Gold ’59

   6:30  p.m.  Presentation by Assoc. Prof. Brinkmann

   7:30 p.m.   Dessert Reception and Museum Docent Tours

Tobias Brinkmann was the John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University from 2007 to 2008. He taught at the Department of History and the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton, and he is a member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society and the Board of the Leo Baeck Institute in London. A faculty member at Penn State since 2009, Brinkmann teaches courses in American immigration and ethnic history, modern Jewish history since 1492, European migrations, and diaspora. He is currently working on a study about Jewish migration from Eastern Europe between 1860 and 1950.

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