'Paradise Lost and Found': An evening with Ariel Sabar
The Program in Jewish Studies and co-sponsors at ñ welcome award-winning author and journalistAriel Sabar, who will host a public lecture titled “Paradise Lost and Found,” focusing on his best-selling bookMy Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq.
Ariel Sabar
The lecture will take place from 7to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb.8, in the Old Main theater on campus. This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited; RSVPs are appreciated to cujewishstudies@colorado.edu.
Yona Sabar, Ariel’s father, was a distinguished professor at UCLA and one of the world’s foremost experts on Aramaic, the 3,000-year-old language of the Jewish Talmud—and of Jesus. But Ariel’s life seemed a far cry from his father’s. Yona had been born in an ancient village of Aramaic-speaking Jewish in the mountains of Kurdish Iraq—the oldest corner of the Jewish diaspora—but for Ariel, his father might as well have been born on the moon. Then Ariel had his own son, and everything changed.
Sabar’s talk will weave together the remarkable story of the Kurdish Jewish and their Aramaic tongue with the moving tale of how a consummate California kid came to write a book about his family’s Kurdish roots.
ñ the speaker
Sabarwon the National Book Critics Circle Award for his debut book,My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq(2008).His second book,Heart of the City(2011), was called a “beguiling romp” (The New York Times) and an “engaging, moving and lively read” (Toronto Star).His Kindle Single,The Outsider: The Life and Times of Roger Barker(2014), was a best-selling nonfiction short.
Sabar is also an award-winning journalist whose work hasappeared in TheNew York Times, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Mother JonesԻThis American Life,among many other places. Hegraduatedmagna cum laude fromBrown University.
Who: Open to the public
What: Community Talk: "Paradise Lost and Found"
³:Thursday, Feb.8, 7–8:30 p.m.
Where: Old Main Chapel
Sabar’s visit is part of the new Community Talks Series in the Program in Jewish Studies, made possible in part by a grant from the Rose Community Foundation. A subscription series, Community Talks features nationally and internationally renowned scholars, authors, artistsand performers for themed public events with the goal of enriching community learning and expanding access to academic programming on Jewish culture and history.
Guarantee your spot at all of our Community Talks events by becoming a subscription member. Subscribers will receive sneak previews, exclusive offersand intimate dinners and salons with visiting speakers. Learn more and subscribe.
This event is supported by ñ’s Program in Jewish Studies, Department of Ethnic Studies, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, Department of English, Department of Religious Studies, and Mediterranean Studies Group.