Sylvia Barack Fishman

Dr. Sylvia Barack Fishman, chair of Brandeis University’s Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and professor of contemporary Jewish life, will be the keynote speaker for the 32nd Annual Ryterband Symposium, to be held this year at the University of Dayton on Wednesday, Oct. 27 in the Sears Auditorium of the Jesse Philips Humanities Center.

A co-director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and a faculty affiliate at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis, Fishman is the author of The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness, Choosing Jewish: Conversations About Conversion, A Breath of Life: Feminism in the American Jewish Community, and Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage.

She is the author of numerous articles on Jewish education, the American Jewish family, changing roles of Jewish women, and American Jewish literature, film and popular culture.

At 3:30 p.m., Fishman will present the lecture, Jewish Gender Roles In Transition followed by University of Dayton Sociology Department Chair Sister Laura Leming, who will discuss Catholic Women In America.

At 7:30 p.m., Fishman will talk about Changes In American-Jewish Hyphenated Identity.

Ohio University Assistant Professor of Classics and World Religions Loren Lybarger will respond with the presentation, Muslims In America.

The Ryterband Symposium is a collaboration of United Theological Seminary, the University of Dayton, and Wright State University.

Both lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, call Wright State University Prof. of Judaic Studies Dr. Mark Verman at 775-2461.