'Nahum Glatzer and the German-Jewish Tradition' premiers Wednesday

Filmmaker and art historian Judith Glatzer Wechsler's new documentary, “Nahum Glatzer and the German-Jewish Tradition,” will be screened at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in the auditorium of the Mandel Center for the Humanities.

This is the North American premier of the film, which is a moving portrait of the life and work of Wechsler’s revered father, the scholar Nahum N. Glatzer, who was professor of Jewish history and philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis from 1951 to 1973.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Wechsler and Jonathan Sarna, the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History.

A foremost disciple of philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, Glatzer succeeded Martin Buber at the University of Frankfurt in 1932. Fleeing Hitler, the Glatzers immigrated to Palestine in 1933 and then came to the United States, where he served as editor-in-chief of Schocken Books and published early English editions of Franz Kafka.  With over 260 books and articles on Jewish history, philosophy, and Midrashic literature, Glatzer was a pioneer in the field of Jewish studies at Brandeis and throughout the United States.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies with support of the Martin Weiner Fund, the National Center for Jewish Film and the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry.