New Republic editor Wieseltier to discuss U.S. foreign policy in Middle East

Released on 09/28/2004, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2004

WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St. (Oct. 12); Jewish Community Center, 333 S. 132nd St., Omaha (Oct. 13)

Lincoln, Neb., September 28th, 2004 —

Leon Wieseltier, a literary editor of the New Republic since 1983, will speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Oct. 12 in the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues and the Kripke Lecture Series.

Wieseltier will discuss "Power and Virtue: American Policy in the Middle East after Sept. 11" at 3:30 p.m. in the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St. The lecture is a collaboration between the Thompson Forum and UNL's Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judiac Studies. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be broadcast live on the UNL Web site (www.unl.edu), UNL radio station KRNU (90.3 FM) and Channel 21 on Time Warner Cable television in Lincoln. Jeffrey Spinner-Halev, professor of polical science at UNL, will deliver a pre-lecture talk at 3 p.m. in the Lied Center's Steinhart Room.

In a second lecture in the Kripke series, Wieseltier will discuss "The Silence in American-Jewish Culture: Unhappy Reflections on Jewish Literature" at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Jewish Community Center, 333 S. 132nd St. in Omaha. This lecture is also free and open to the public.

After three years as a graduate student in Jewish history at Harvard University, Wieseltier became a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard from 1979 to 1982. Wieseltier is the author of "Nuclear War Nuclear Peace," "Against Identity" and "Kaddish." The last book, concerning Wieseltier's father's death, was lauded by the New York Times Book Review as "an astonishing fusion of learning and psychic intensity; its poignancy and lucidity should be an authentic benefit to readers, Jewish and gentile."

The Thompson Forum series, a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, the Lied Center and UNL, has a mission of promoting better understanding of world events and issues to all Nebraskans. In 1990, the name of the series was changed in honor of Thompson (1913-2002), who served as president of the Cooper Foundation from 1964 to 1990 and as its chairman from 1990 until his death.

CONTACT: Annette Wetzel, University Communications, (402) 472-8524