EVENTS

Olan Lecture Series presents Robert Pinsky

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 • 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION CHANGE: Olan Sanctuary

"David: The Autobiographical Hero of the Jews"
Reception to follow in Tobian Auditorium with cookies and coffee. Copies of Pinsky's book will be available for purchase.

Our speaker: Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky, 67, U.S. Poet Laureate and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1997–2000) was born in Long Branch, New Jersey. He received his M.A. from Rutgers University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Pinsky’s academic career has included teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Wellesley College, the University of California at Berkeley and, since 1988, in the graduate writing program at Boston University. His quick intelligence, wit and a profound sense of moral seriousness distinguish his writings as well as his teaching. Dr. Pinsky and his wife Ellen reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

David is a hero, albeit a flawed hero, whose depths of life, triumph and failure are explored by Robert Pinsky in his book “The Life of David.” Pinsky brings to life the poet, warrior and king who has loomed large in myth and legend through the centuries.

“Pinsky’s David is a shape-shifting trickster, a seductive but treacherous lover, a God-haunted visionary, a bloodstained warrior, a crafty, murderous politician with the soul of a great poet.”
~Stephen Greenblatt
Professor of Humanities, Harvard University

The Lecture Series:
The Rabbi Levi A. Olan Lecture Series was established in 1973 to honor Rabbi Olan, whose scholarship, perception and humanity enlightened Temple members and the city of Dallas. Today the lecture series seeks to engage the congregation and the community in a dialogue about leading intellectual ideas, moral views and theological beliefs from a universal and provocative perspective. It is made possible by an endowment from Hannah Hochman in memory of Yetta Hochman.