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Reinhard’s Vision

Prof. Kenneth Reinhard, the newly appointed director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, is upbeat about the future of his academic field.
[additional-authors]
September 14, 2000

Prof. Kenneth Reinhard, the newly appointed director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, is upbeat about the future of his academic field.

There is a national renaissance in Jewish studies, he says, invigorated by moving beyond the traditional pillars of ethnic identity, Hebrew, and biblical and Holocaust studies – important as they remain – to a broader view.

Two developments are underway, Reinhard posits. One is the infusion of specific Jewish research in fields as diverse as musicology, art history, philosophy, medi-cine, art criticism and the social studies.The other is the evolving concept of an encompassing Jewish civilization and its role in Western – indeed, world – civilization.

“Wherever Jews live, they have transformed the host civilization and been trans-formed by it,” says Reinhard. Viewed from this perspective, he adds, “Jewish civilization is of universal, not only Jewish, interest.”

The intellectual under-pinnings of this concept are being developed by Reinhard and his colleague Prof. Richard N. Myers and will transform the Jewish studies major at UCLA.

Key to the transformation will be a three-year program on “Jewish Civilization and Its Discontents.” The title and content draw on the works of two of the premier Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, Mordechai Kaplan, the father of the Reconstructionist movement, and Sigmund Freud.

Not coincidentally, the 42-year-old Reinhard is somewhat of a renaissance man himself in the breadth of his intellectual interests.

His title is associate professor of English and comparative literature and his “official” specialty is English and American literature. But he is also deeply into psychoanalysis, philosophy, music, modern poetry, Bible and Midrash, and documentary films.

There is also an emotional or spiritual aspect to Reinhard’s Jewishness, which he credits largely to his wife, whom he met while both were studying at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Reinhard, the son of a Holocaust survivor, grew up in a Reform home, with more emphasis on social action than religion.

Julia Lupton was raised by her parents, both lapsed Catholics, in a secular environment. Some time after she married Reinhard 12 years ago, she told him that she wanted to convert to Judaism, and the couple started studying with Rabbi Elie Spitz of Congregation B’nai Israel in Tustin.

“He is a fantastic teacher,” says Reinhard. “Julia and I discovered Judaism together; we discovered how rich and beautiful it is.”

The Reinhards now keep a kosher home and are Sabbath observers. Their home in Irvine was enlivened four months ago with the arrival of triplets, joining 3-year-old Hannah.

The couple has not only a strong religious bond but an intellectual one, as well. Like her husband, Julia Lupton Reinhard is an associate professor of English and comparative literature, but on the University of California, Irvine campus.

The two professors have collaborated extensively in their research and publications.UCLA’s Reinhard is planning an ambitious series of lectures and symposia for the 5-year-old Center for Jewish Studies.

A conference on “Yiddish in American Literature” will be held in October. In the works are plans for a conference on “Confronting the Past,” and for a retrospective next spring, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s monumental “Dekalog/The Ten Commandments.”

The late Polish director created 10 television films, each representing a biblical commandment, reflected through the drab reality of Polish life in the 1980s.

Reinhard, while primarily serving his academic and student constituency, is looking to the broader community to participate in the UCLA center’s program and support his goal of “making our Jewish studies center one of the three best in the country.”

Persons interested in the center’s activities can call (310) 825-5387 ore-mail cjs@humnet.ucla.edu

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