Rabbi Jacob Herber (Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid, Milwaukee) writes:
Alanna is a phenomenal speaker, very knowledgeable and engaging. I highly recommend her.
Peggy Kurtz (Queens Y) writes:
Alanna Cooper's talk at the Central Queens Y was a fascinating review of the history of the Bukharan community and its diaspora today, as told through her experiences with the community in Bukhara itself and abroad. Her talk was lively and engaging, intelligent but very accessible to the general public.
Michael Zank (Professor of Religion, Boston University) writes:
HERE is what I liked about Alanna's talk: in a kind of "transactional anthropology" Alanna not just introduced us to the story of a Bukharan family that had relocated to New York, a family that experienced what it meant to be split up and spread out; Alanna applied this to a new story about the Jews in general, one that deviates from the traditional narratives and renders the Bukharans less exotic, less wild, less "other" and more representative of the Jewish experience more broadly. This was remarkable on so many levels: it made us confront our assumptions about what it is we were going to learn (Central Asia, Samarkand, silk road, Soviet Jewry, ....) and realize the human-all-to-human (and at the same time very jewish) dimension of the Bukharan experience. (Read Alanna's book if you want to learn more!)
Sarah Leventer (Program Coordinator, Boston University) writes:
"WE couldn't have said it better ourselves! Alanna brings such lucidity and passion to the topic--we hope to have more events like this in the future!"
Alanna is a phenomenal speaker, very knowledgeable and engaging. I highly recommend her.
Peggy Kurtz (Queens Y) writes:
Alanna Cooper's talk at the Central Queens Y was a fascinating review of the history of the Bukharan community and its diaspora today, as told through her experiences with the community in Bukhara itself and abroad. Her talk was lively and engaging, intelligent but very accessible to the general public.
Michael Zank (Professor of Religion, Boston University) writes:
HERE is what I liked about Alanna's talk: in a kind of "transactional anthropology" Alanna not just introduced us to the story of a Bukharan family that had relocated to New York, a family that experienced what it meant to be split up and spread out; Alanna applied this to a new story about the Jews in general, one that deviates from the traditional narratives and renders the Bukharans less exotic, less wild, less "other" and more representative of the Jewish experience more broadly. This was remarkable on so many levels: it made us confront our assumptions about what it is we were going to learn (Central Asia, Samarkand, silk road, Soviet Jewry, ....) and realize the human-all-to-human (and at the same time very jewish) dimension of the Bukharan experience. (Read Alanna's book if you want to learn more!)
Sarah Leventer (Program Coordinator, Boston University) writes:
"WE couldn't have said it better ourselves! Alanna brings such lucidity and passion to the topic--we hope to have more events like this in the future!"
