TORONTO, February 27, 1998 -- One of Israel's best-known novelists and a professor of Jewish Art will each deliver lectures on Sunday, March 1 as part of York University's Leonard Wolinsky Lectures on Jewish Life and Education.

At 1:30 p.m., novelist Natan Shaham will lecture on the subject "Out With the Old, In With the New: Hebrew Literature Before and After 1948." Professor Bezalel Narkiss, from the Centre for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will talk at 3:15 p.m. about creating an art for the new state, in a lecture entitled "A Temple in the Desert: Creating Jewish Art in Eretz Yisrael."

The lecture series, organized by York's Centre for Jewish Studies, is being held in honour of the 100th anniversary of Zionism and the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. The series is supported by a donation from the Leonard Wolinsky Foundation, a Toronto-based foundation that supports religious, charitable and educational causes.

Prior to the lectures on Sunday, the Center for Jewish Studies is holding a brunch to recognize the generous contributions of the Wolinsky Foundation, including its $50,000 donation in support of York students pursuing part of their education in Israel. The brunch will also recognize the generous support of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, which has donated $2 million towards programs for York students to study in Israel. (This donation will be matched by the provincial government, for a total contribution of $4 million).

The brunch runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Master's Dining Room of Vanier College at York University, 4700 Keele Street. Shaham and Narkiss will lecture in the Vanier College Study Hall, and lectures are open to the public and free of charge.

The Wolinsky Lectures are sponsored by the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Faculty of Arts, and the Faculty of Education at York University, in cooperation with the Toronto Board of Jewish Education. Professor Narkiss's visit has been arranged with the cooperation of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.

York's Centre for Jewish Studies was established in 1989, bringing together more than 60 faculty members to offer research, courses, degree programs and community activities. The Centre aims both to strengthen existing programs and to open up new areas of research and teaching in Jewish Studies, particularly those with an interdisciplinary perspective.

For more information, please contact:

Sine MacKinnon
Sr. Advisor, Media Relations
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087
email: sinem@yorku.ca

Alison Masemann
Media Relations Officer
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
email: masemann@yorku.ca

The Centre for Jewish Studies
(416) 736-5823
YU/017/98