Dr. Birger Vanwesenbeeck (left), with Dr. Mark Gelber, at the Be’er Sheva symposium.
English professor Birger Vanwesenbeeck was invited to participate in a one-day symposium, held in Be'er Sheva, Israel, on Oct. 31, devoted to the work and career of the Israeli literary scholar Mark Gelber on the occasion of the latter's retirement.
An internationally renowned expert on German-Jewish literature and culture, Dr. Gelber is also one of the world's foremost scholars on the works of Stefan Zweig, a prominent author of the early 20th century, and has done extensive research over the past 30 years in Fredonia's Zweig archive, including for one of his most recent books, “Stefan Zweig, Judentum, und Zionismus” (Studienverlag, 2015). He was also the inaugural speaker at Fredonia’s biennial Stefan Zweig lecture in 2012.
Together with Dr. Vanwesenbeeck, Gelber also edited the scholarly volume “Stefan Zweig and World Literature” (Camden, 2015), which has received unanimous praise from critics.
At the symposium, Gelber was honored with a medal of honor (Ehrenkreuz) from the Austrian government for his decades-long contributions to the study of Austrian literature. He also received a copy of the newly published Festschrift ("honorary volume") devoted to his work and titled “Wegweiser und Grenzgänger: Studien zur Deutsch-Jüdischen Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte.”
In his chapter contribution to this volume, Vanwesenbeeck explores the relevance of Gelber's notion of "Jewish sensibility" for the Stefan Zweig story "Die Wunder des Lebens" (The Miracles of Life).
More information about the volume may be found online.
Vanwesenbeeck is currently serving as a Fulbright senior lecturer at Bogaziçi University in Turkey, where he teaches courses in American literature and critical theory.
