Summer 2017 @ OASIS Abq

Great Courses @ OASIS:  Abq Jew is pleased to inform you that

OASIS Albuquerque has just announced

their Summer 2017 line-up of classes!

Registration opens on
Wednesday May 3

but you can Wish List your selections now.

The mission of OASIS (as stated on the organization's website) is

To promote healthy aging through a three-fold approach: lifelong learning, healthy living
and social engagement. 

OASIS Albuquerque Executive Director Kathleen Raskob continues (as always) to work enthusiastically to bring you new and interesting class offerings, and continues to make sure there are plenty of courses of Jewish interest. This session's courses and instructors include but are by no means limited to:

Hallelujah: The Life & Times of Leonard Cohen
Tue 16 May 2017 @ 1:00 pm - #59
Instructor: Jane Ellen
What It Is: Singer, songwriter, musician, poet, novelist -- there appeared to be no limit to the talents of Leonard Cohen (1934-2016). A man of remarkable complexities and seeming contradictions (a devout Jew and an ordained Buddhist monk, for example), his work was intelligent and evocative, exploring the definitive issues of human life. A recording artist for 50 years, he released a trilogy of albums during the last four years of his life, including 2016's "You Want It Darker."

Spies in Los Alamos During World War II
Fri 19 May 2017 @ 10:30 am - #109
Instructor: Richard Melzer
What It Is: The project to develop the world's first atomic bomb was to be the most secure operation of World War II. It was not. This presentation describes how security at Los Alamos was supposed to work but soon failed, leading to easy access for three spies: David Greenglass, Klaus Fuchs, and Ted Hall, and their Communist handlers. Using autobiographies, oral histories, and previously classified information, Richard Melzer tells this absorbing story, complete with anecdotes and ironic humor.

The Opposite of Comfortable
Fri 26 May 2017 @ 10:30 am - #9
Instructor: Sharon Nir
What It Is: No matter what prompts the need to shake a life, it is always possible to reposition or rejuvenate yourself. Yet the ability to succeed is strongly and positively correlated with the ability to overlook every concept you lived by that cannot fit into your new reality. Follow Sharon Nir's journey through the baffling and grueling process of professional immigration in the United States. Struggling through difficult and rapidly changing circumstances, she eventually found fulfillment, balance, and happiness.

Life Under Two Dictatorships
Wed 7 Jun 2017 @ 1:00 pm - #43
Instructor: Evy Woods
What It Is: It was unbelievable for assimilated German Jewish families that their birth country, a great cultural center, would threaten their very lives. After all, their grandfathers had fought bravely in the trenches during the Great War for the Kaiser. This is the personal story of an assimilated German Jewish family and their terrifying flight from Hitler's Final Solution, followed by liberation and three-year detention by the advancing Russian Army.

Memoir Writing: How to Tell Your Story
Tue 13 Jun 2017 @ 1:00 pm - #84
Instructor: Norma Libman
What It Is: Everyone has a story to tell, and now is the time to tell yours. In her memoir writing workshop, Norma Libman shows you how to retrieve memories you thought were forgotten, how to get them written down, and how to organize them into your own life story. Whether you want to record your story for your children and grandchildren, just for yourself, or even for publication, this class gets you started. Bring paper and pen for writing and Norma promises you will have written a start to your memoir when the workshop is over.

Soul On Fire: The Work of Elie Wiesel
Thu 29 Jun 2017 @ 10:30 am - #56
Instructor: Paul Citrin
What It Is: The late Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, storyteller, and voice for a decent human future, was a prolific writer, teacher, and "rabbi to humanity." Examine some of his writing, his commitments and his message to us. His life and work bear witness to the human capacity for evil and to our much greater strength to affirm life, justice and hope.

Pope Pius XII: Hitler's Pope or Friend of the Jewish People?
Thu 27 Jul 2017 @ 10:30 am - #91
Instructor: Christopher Zugger
What It Is: Recent research challenges 30 years of presumptions of Pope Pius XII, Nazis, the Holocaust, and what is often called The Silence of Pius. Examine Pius, the Catholic Church as it was in the late 1930s, and how Hitler and Mussolini themselves viewed the Church and its Pope. See what Stalin did post-War to crush the Catholic Church in Soviet-ruled Europe and a special campaign against Pius himself.

The Korean War & Its Aftermath
Wed 2 Aug & Wed 9 Aug 2017 @ 10:30 am - #47
Instructor: Noel Pugach
What It Is: The Korean War broke out in June 1950 and has been coined as the "forgotten war." But it transformed American involvement in East Asia after World War II. This course examines the causes of the war and US participation in it as well as its very important consequences. We then survey America's continuing relationship with North and South Korea over the following decades.

Remembering Lenny: The Life of Leonard Bernstein
Mon 21 Aug 2017 @ 1:00 am - #72
Instructor: Jane Ellen
What It Is: Composer, conductor, and perhaps most importantly, a born teacher, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was a unique voice in American music of the 20th century. His creative energies appeared boundless, encompassing Broadway, symphonic works, film scores, ballets, opera, chamber music, and concerts designed for children. He gave lectures and authored books, famously helped define jazz alongside Louis Armstrong, and gave of himself as a philanthropist as well as a political and social activist.