LECTURE TO TAKE PLACE IN SAN SALVADOR

Dear Readers,
For those of you living in El Salvador (or nearby), please note the following invitation to my outgoing lecture. I will also give various lectures in the Houston area throughout the month of August. Details to follow.
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La Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador: An Oral History
June 22, 2006 @ 7pm
Centro Cultural Salvadoreno
www.centroculturalsalvadoreno.com

With the first documented Jew arriving to the shores of Cuscatlan in 1868, La Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador is young but vibrant. Jessica P. Alpert, Fulbright Scholar and Oral Historian, will present a summarized history of El Salvador's Jewish community through photographs and audio oral testimonies. Changed and challenged by two world wars, conflicts in the State of Israel, and a violent war in their adopted home, this small community presents a fascinating study for any historian, storylistener, and curious citizen. Highlighted topics will include issues of nation and identity, conversion and intermarriage, migration and exile. For more information on the project, please visit: www.storylistener.blogspot.com

Jessica P. Alpert is originally from Houston, Texas. Her own mother Ruth Reich de Alpert, the daughter of German immigrants Ernesto Reich and Wilma Bloch de Reich, was born and raised in El Salvador's Jewish community. After studying political science at Columbia University's Barnard College, Jessica moved to Washington DC to work for the United States Department of Justice. After two years dedicated to the area of international legal development, she decided to pursue the Fulbright Award. Other oral history projects and publications include "Las Curanderas: Indigenous Female Healers in Chile's Atacama Desert and Patagonia Regions;" "Muted Testimony: Rape and Gendered Violence During the Holocaust;" "Weaving Stories: The Arpillera Women's Cooperative Pre and Post-Pinochet;" "A Shtetl Marriage: Jewish Hasidic girls and their Matchmakers in Crown Heights Brooklyn;" "We Are Running: Women Reflect on 9/11;" and "Mosaics: The Oral History of Wilma B. Reich."

Jessica will begin her doctoral work on the history of Central American Jews at Indiana University-Bloomington in August 2006.