Family Foundation Spring 2025 Lecture with Dr. Raanan Rein

Lecture Begins at 7:00pm

Pre-Lecture Reception at 6:00pm

This presentation explores the challenges of reestablishing Jewish communal life in Madrid under the Franco regime, whose ideology was shaped by both Fascist and Catholic influences. It examines the campaign to obtain legal recognition for the Jewish community, the founding of the first synagogue in Spain since the 1492 expulsion, the creation of a Jewish school, and the eventual repeal of the expulsion edict. Central to this revival was Max Mazin, a Holocaust survivor who arrived in Spain in the early 1950s. A successful businessman and influential figure, Mazin forged relationships with key political leaders and became a vocal advocate for Jewish and Zionist causes.

Dr. Raanan Rein is the Alexander Grass Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Florida, Gainseville. Former Vice President of Tel Aviv University and president of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA), Rein is the author of numerous books, most recently Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina (2020), Jewish Self Defense in South America: Facing Anti-Semitism with a Club in Hand (2023), and the co-edited volumes (2024) and (2024). Rein has won a large number of awards, including the title of Commander in Spain's Order of Civil Merit, granted by King Felipe VI, the title of Commander in the Order of the Liberator San Martin by the Argentine Government, and the Reimar Lüst Award for outstanding humanities scholars (co-sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation).

This lecture is a part of the Gale Family Foundation Lecture Series.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

To Be Determined, 2240 Southwest 32nd Avenue, Miami, United States