The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, along with the European Union Center, will host a lecture by Alfred Tovias, Walter Rathenau Professor in European Economics and chairman of the Department of International Relations at Hebrew University. Tovias will present “Israel, the Mediterranean, and the EU” on Monday, February 27, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Miller Center Auditorium, 105 Merrick Building. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP to [email protected] or call 305-284-6882.

The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Chair in Middle East Peace Studies will host a lecture by Gershon Baskin, co-founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information and co-chair of the IPCRI Board of Directors, on Thursday, February 23, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Miller Center Auditorium, 105 Merrick Building. Baskin will present “Is Israeli-Palestinian Peace Still Possible? Reflections of a Committed Israeli Peace Activist.” The lecture is free and open to the public. RSVP to [email protected] or call 305-284-6882.

The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies will host Rabbi Solomon Schiff, director emeritus of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Chaplaincy Service and the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, on Wednesday, February 15 at 8 p.m. at the Miller Center Auditorium, 105 Merrick Building. Schiff will speak on his recently published memoir, Under the Yarmulke: Tales of Faith, Fun, and Football. The lecture is free and open to the public. RSVP to [email protected] or 305-284-6882.

Professor Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, will speak at the University of Miami on “Reimagining the Ivory Tower: The Responsibility of Academia to Society.”

The event will take place at the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies auditorium, 105 Merrick Building, on UM’s Coral Gables campus on Tuesday, February 7 at 8 p.m. Professor Carmi will be introduced by UM President Donna E. Shalala.

The first woman to serve as president of an Israeli University, Professor Carmi is the sixth president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She also serves as chair of Israel’s Committee of University Heads. She made history in 2000 when she was appointed the first female dean of a medical school in Israel, also at Ben-Gurion University.

She is the incumbent of the Kreitman Foundation Chair in Pediatric Genetics. Professor Carmi was born in Israel and is a graduate of Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in neonatology at Soroka University Medical Center, with an additional two-year fellowship in medical genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her research included the identification of 12 new genes and the delineation of three new syndromes, one of which is known as the Carmi Syndrome.

Last year, UM and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev signed an agreement to collaborate in areas that include joint research, academic cooperative, and student exchange programs. Carmi and Shalala, who received an honorary doctoral degree from BGU on May 30, 2011, signed the agreement.

The event is free and open to the UM community and the public. Seating is limited. RSVP to [email protected], or call 305-284-6882.

The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies will host a lecture by Adam Chalom, rabbi at Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation and dean for North America at the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, on Thursday, January 19 at 8 p.m. at the Miller Center Auditorium, 105 Merrick Building. Rabbi Chalom will present “Beyond Apikorsut: A Judaism for Secular Jews.” The lecture is free and open to the public. RSVP to [email protected] or call 305-284-6882. Light refreshments will be served on the Scharlin Patio prior to the event. Seating is limited. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Dave and Mary Alper Jewish Community Center on the Jay Morton-Levinthal campus.