Programs and Classes
Class topics are chosen from members' suggestions to the Curriculum Committee, guided by the talents and capabilities of available members. Please see our general information section for further information.
Monday Programs
Germany and the Legacy of the Holocaust
Monday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Instructor: Professor Ernestine Bradley Ph.D.
Coordinator: Clancy Borns
Dr. Ernestine Bradley returns to Osher for a series of four independent but interlocking lectures that chart multiple German attitudes and efforts to cope with the perpetration of the Holocaust and its legacy from the end of the Nazi regime to the present time.
Dr. Bradley currently teaches comparative literature at New School University in New York City and is the wife of former Senator Bill Bradley. Her lectures this summer stem from an invitation to return after her inspiring televised Distinguished Lecture to Osher in May of 2007.
July 14: The Legacy of Divided Memories in East and West Germany
This lecture focuses on the East German manner of avoiding acknowledgement of the Holocaust crimes and will compare East and West German attitudes on German crimes against the background of the cold war between 1949 and 1990.
July 21: Signs of Revisionism?
The focus of this lecture is on German attitudes and actions after reunification and the broad realization that the legacy of the Holocaust would never go away.
July 28: The Re-emergence of Jewish Voices in Contemporary Germany
The re-emergence since 1990 of a fast growing and vigorous Jewish community in Germany and the motivations of Jews to settle in a country once committed to annihilate all Jews is the subject of this final lecture. This lecture will also explore how Jews are now received in Germany.
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Monday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Al Korobkin
Will the Democrats finally recapture the White House in November? Or will John McCain manage to hold on to the presidency for the Republicans? And, will the Democrats win enough new seats in the U.S. Senate to make the Senate filibusterproof? As we prepare for the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer, please join us to discuss the race for the White House, along with all of the hot political issues of the day, including the race for Mayor and City Attorney of San Diego. Everyone's thoughts and opinions are welcome and encouraged in this class.
August 4, 11, 18, and 25
Monday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Howard Jacoby
July 7: The Town Hall returns for its seventh summer as a current issues forum. Your moderator tries for subjects that you know about, care about and want to talk about. Most issues have important political significance but a few aim to affirm that in summer the livin’ is easy. Each session averages about six issues. The long-winded are strictly regulated.
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Monday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Darlene Palmer
July 7: Secondhand Lions (2003) 107 minutes. In 1960 Texas, timid teenager Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is forced to spend the summer with his rich and eccentric great-uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) on their farm. Over time he learns about their mysterious and dangerous pasts. Emmanuelle Vaugier plays an Arabian sultan’s daughter with whom Duvall’s character fell in love with years ago. Kyra Sedgwick and Nicky Katt co-star.
July 14: Beyond Silence (1996) 107 minutes. German-English subtitles. Laura (Tatjana Trieb) is a dutiful daughter to her hearing-impaired parents, Martin (Howie Seago) and Kai (Emmanuelle Laborit), sometimes to the detriment of her own needs. When an aunt (Sibylle Canonica) gives the young girl a clarinet, Laura discovers a hidden talent, and as a teen (Sylvie Testud) she attends a Berlin music school, on scholarship against Martin’s wishes and falls in love. But tragedy calls her back home.
July 21: Harold and Maude (1971) 91 minutes.
A self-absorbed, death obsessed teen (Bud Cort) and a geriatric, high-on-life widow (Ruth Gordon) find love in this comical cult favorite. Hassled by his domineering mother (Vivian Pickles) to play the dating game, the morbid Harold would rather attend funerals, which is where he meets the feisty Maude. The seemingly mismatched pair form a bond that turns into a highly unconventional but ultimately satisfying romance.
July 28: The Wedding Banquet (1993) 106 minutes This lyrical film by Ang Lee dares to expand the definition of love. Wei Tong (Winston Chao) is a successful Manhattan businessman enjoying a thriving relationship with his live-in lover, Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). Life is perfect except his parents don’t know he’s gay. So when they decide to visit from Taiwan, he asks his tenant, Wei Wei (May Chin) for help. She agrees to pose as his fiancée – a plan that goes a little too far.
August 4: Away From Her (2006) 110 minutes. Award winning director Atom Egoyan produced this film written and directed by actress Sarah Polley about a long-married but still very much in love couple whose lives are torn asunder when one of them must enter a rest home. Julie Christie plays the wife, and Gordon Pinsent plays the husband desperate to ensure her comfort in the new setting while burdened with guilt over past behavior. Olympia Dukakis co-stars in this film inspired by an Alice Munro short story “The Bear.
August 11: Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) 136 minutes. Susan Sarandon received an Academy Award nomination for her role as the mother of Lorenzo (Zack O’Malley Greenburg) a typical young child whose life is shattered when he is diagnosed with a terminal disease. His parents, Gusto (Nick Nolte) and Michaela (Sarandon) feel helpless as they watch their son slowly succumb to the illness. Not satisfied with modern medicine, they researched the disease and turned to a controversial remedy for help. Based on a true story.
August 18: The Italian (2007) 99 minutes. Russian (English subtitles). Six year old Vanya (Kolya Spiridonov) is about to be handed every Russian orphan’s dream. A loving Italian family wants to adopt him and take him away from the rundown orphanage he calls home. But Vanya can’t let go of his yearning for his birth mother. Determined to find her, he runs away and sets off on an adventure that leads him into a mysterious and sometimes perilous world. This moving drama received several international awards.
August 25: The Kite Runner (2007) 127 minutes. English and some subtitles. Years after fleeing the Taliban and immigrating to the United States, an Afghan man (Khalid Abdalla) returns to his war-ravaged homeland to try to repay his debt to a childhood friend whose trust he betrayed. Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) directs this touching story of family, friendship and bravery, based on the bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini.
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The First World War: Making Peace, 1919
Monday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 128
Facilitator: Neil Heyman
At the close of World War I, the great powers and many lesser states sent representatives to Paris to settle the issues the war had raised. This was the only time in the past two centuries that such a meeting had taken place, and it provides a clear example of the difficulties and successes of peacemaking. It also connects to the present time. As American diplomat Richard Holbrooke put it, “Some of the most intractable problems of the modern world have roots in decisions made right after the end of the Great War.”
We will read Margaret Macmillan’s highly praised recent account of the peace conference, Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World – (ISBN # 0-375-76052-0). In addition to being a noted historian, Macmillan is also the great-granddaughter of David Lloyd George, Britain’s prime minister and chief representative at the conference. Her book is widely available in the San Diego Public Library system. It can also be purchased in a paperback edition through Amazon.
July 7: Foreword, Introduction, Chapters 1-8
July 21: Chapters 9-16
August 4: Chapters 17-22
August 18: Chapters 25-30, Conclusion
Memories, Dreams and Reflections: Jung’s Psychology of the Imagination and the Unconscious as Revealed in His Memoirs
Monday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 128
Facilitator: John-Raphael Staude, Ph.D.
Carl Gustave Jung was one of the leading psychologists of the twentieth century. In this class we will read his memoir: Memories, Dreams and Reflections to discover the story of his life and the conditions under which he made his major discoveries.
July 14: Jung’s Early Life
July 28: Becoming a Psychiatrist
August 11: Jung and Freud
August 25: The Work, the Tower and Travels
Tuesday Programs
Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Coordinators: Michael Gray, Robert and Aurora King, Myron Joseph
Join us and experience the pleasure of sharing some aspects of your life by writing and reading to us short (not more than fifteen minutes) presentation (prose or poetry) that describes, expresses or is inspired by your memories of the past.
Think of your life as a gold mine and start unearthing the nuggets. We or our families come from many countries and have traveled many different routes to reach this stage of our lives. Our shared memories give us an opportunity to learn and appreciate the many different backgrounds our lives represent and the joys and sorrows that we have experienced.
Although we do not critique your writings, your written presentations will give you valuable experience in expressing yourself. Come and be amazed by the windows to your life as you contemplate your memoir.
July 8, July 22, August 5 and August 19
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Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
July 15: Stuart H. Hurlbert, Ph.D., “Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)”. Dr. Stuart H. Hurlbert is a retired professor at San Diego State University and presently serves on the Board of Directors of CAPS. His program presentation will focus on the demographic impact and environmental consequences of overall immigration rates, both legal and illegal, into the United States. Included in this presentation and discussion will be the voting records and political positions of our Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on this subject. Coordinator: Jim Plant
July 29: Professor Nellie Amondson, Behind Enemy Lines: I was a US Spy in World War II. Osher member Professor Nellie Amondson joined the WACs in June of 1942. After spy training she persuaded the military to teach her to fly, was sent to England, and flew missions into enemy territory where she was captured and rescued. Nellie thereafter flew missions behind enemy lines to rescue US soldiers and to aid the Danish Nazi resistance. These are just a few of her unique wartime assignments. Nellie received her Masters degree in Mathematics at SDSU and taught at Mesa College in San Diego for 35 years. She retired in 2002 when she was 81 years old. Please join us to hear Professor Amondson recount her trailblazing wartime missions as a spy behind enemy lines. Coordinator: Clancy Borns
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Classical Music: Specially Prescribed by Doctor “Harry”
Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Instructor: Dr. Harry Powell
Coordinator: Clancy Borns
Dr. “Harry” Powell M.D., D.Sc. our delightful Irish born storyteller returns to Osher with two classical music programs. Dr. Powell is a Professor of Pathology at UCSD School of Medicine and a genuine connoisseur and aficionado of classical music history and its great composers. Dr. Powell will play recordings of the highest quality and discuss the following topics:
August 12: From Gregorian Chant to the Symphony Orchestra
August 26: Chamber Music: Classical Perfection in Intimate Form
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Best Short Stories Illustrated on the Board
Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Barbara Greer
We return to The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction (ISBN-13: 9781400079766). These stories, and fragments, from Morocco to Iraq were written in classical Arabic. Illustrated and discussed, we will learn about the Middle East
July 8: From Diary of a Country Prosecutor (Egypt), from The Lamp of Umm Hashim, and (Egypt).
July 22: From The Net (Egypt), The Polymath (Morocco), and A Man of Letters (Egypt)
August 5: The Old Man (Egypt), Zaat (Egypt), The Committee (Egypt), Sabriya: Damascus Bitter Sweet (Syria), House of Flesh and City of Love and Ashes (Egypt)
August 19: The Dead Afternoon (Syria), In Search of Walid Masoud (Palestine), and The Hill of Gypsies (Egypt)
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Peer Perspectives—Dialogue Past, Present, and Future
Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Coordinator: Joyce Quintana
Peer Perspectives, through the exchange of lively conversation, evolves into a family, feeling free to discuss everything and anything. We will have a different moderator for each session. During our first meeting we will choose topics for the next session, allowing everyone attending to be part of the process.
July 15: Topics to be discussed. 1. Sex after Sixty—What about Viagra? 2. How have prescription drugs affected your life? 3. Do you have a gay child or grandchild? Are they in or out? Are they democrats or republicans? 4. Can John McCain be beaten and should we vote for a 72 year old candidate? Moderator: Pete Rodman
July 29: A Topic will be announced after our first meeting. Moderator: Dr. Herb Wolfson
August 12: A discussion on what our bodies need in our senior years. Moderator: Dr. Jack Geller
August 26: Topic to be announced. Moderator: Marcy Goldstone
Modern and Contemporary Authors
Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 128
Facilitator: Phyllis Rosenbaum
Journey to India with us this summer as we read the highly-acclaimed novel by Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss. Set in India in 1986, the story illuminates the consequences of colonialism in the modern world. Winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2006 and the National Book Critics Circle Award, the novel is “lit by a moral intelligence at once fierce and tender” (New York Times Book Review). It was also praised by the Chicago Tribune in 2006 as “one of the most impressive novels in English in the past year... you'll read it with your heart in your chest, inside the narrative, and the narrative inside you.”
We will be using the Grove Press edition, ISBN-10: 0-8021-4281-8
July 15: Chapters 1 through 16
July 29: Chapters 17 though 28
August 12: Chapters 29 through 40
August 26: Finish the novel.
Wednesday Programs
Music! Music! Music! (Master Class)
$20 Registration fee required. Make checks payable to UC Regents
This summer we are pleased to offer a program of music ranging from jazz to classical to opera at its best.
Our program will lead off with Mike Wofford, who is unquestionably one of the best jazz pianists in the world.
July 9: The Great American Songbook of the ’30s and ’40s will be played for us by Mike Wofford. This program is geared to the demographics of our membership. Come and enjoy reminiscing with Mr. Wofford about the songs you remember well and that were important in your life.
That will be followed by our own Gustavo Romero who has thrilled us for the past five years with his discussions and illustrations of the greatest classical music composers. Back in July, 2003, Gustavo Romero appeared for the first time at what was then The Institute for Continued Learning to teach us in his inimitable personal way about the genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He has been back every summer since to enhance our knowledge of the best of classical music composers.
July 16 and July 23: This year Mr. Romero will discuss the works of Richard Wagner as the musical bridge from the Romantic period to the Modern period.
The succeeding five sessions will be led by Dr. Ron Shaheen, Professor of Music, University of San Diego, Dr. Ron Shaheen has informed us about opera before. This summer he will enlighten us even more, and, in the process, prepare us for the 2009 San Diego opera season.
July 30: This lecture will focus on Rigoletto by Verdi as emblematic of the development of Italian Romantic Opera.
August 6: Continuing in historical order Dr. Shaheen will discuss French Opera in the latter part of the nineteenth century and in particular Don Quichotte by Jules Massenet.
August 13: Giacomo Puccini was a prolific composer, and the culmination of realism in opera at the turn of the century gave us Tosca.
August 20: Puccini, in a different mode, wrote Madame Butterfly during the time that Western European art and music were influenced by non-Western culture.
August 27: If we’re to understand contemporary opera, Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes is an essential study and closes our series.
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Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Burt Levine
New York, NY in four consecutive weeks. Shameless, nostalgic, patently sentimental, the class through video and personal recollections, will bring back joy to those who lived there and confirmation to those who didn’t but heard the stories.
July 9: The way it was: An overview from early 20th Century to the 1950s
July 16: A city of neighbors and neighborhoods, some good, some bad but never forgettable
July 23: Such ways to have fun—together and cheap too
July 30: A surprise finale—Don’t ask
American Ideals: Founding a “Republic of Virtue”
Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Dave Fish
This course will be based on the Great Courses lecture series on DVD by Professor Daniel N. Robinson of Oxford University and Columbia University. Professor Robinson’s half-hour lectures will be followed by a half-hour discussion session. The lectures combine an interesting historical narrative with philosophical and intellectual history to explain why and how the American nation was established. The balanced presentation of the British and American intellectual and political developments leading to the revolution, and its leaders, and the creation of the first written Constitution gives a clear, concise understanding of the foundation of the United States.
August 6, August 13, August 20, and August 27
Thursday Programs
Thursday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Howard Jacoby
The Town Hall returns for its seventh summer as a current issues forum. Your moderator tries for subjects that you know about, care about and want to talk about. Most issues have important political significance but a few aim to affirm that in summer the livin’ is easy. Each session averages about six issues. The long-winded are strictly regulated.
July 24, August 7 and 21
Classical Music: Specially Prescribed by Dr. “Harry”
Thursday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
Instructor: Dr. Harry Powell
Coordinator: Clancy Borns
Dr. “Harry” Powell M.D., D.Sc. our delightful Irish born storyteller returns to Osher with two more August classical music programs. Dr. Powell is a Professor of Pathology at UCSD School of Medicine and a genuine connoisseur and aficionado of classical music history and its great composers Dr. Powell will play recordings of the highest quality and discuss the following topics:
August 14: Instrumental Music and the Concerto
August 28: Sacred and Secular, The Human Voice As a Musical Instrument
Thursday at 10 a.m. in Classroom 129
July 31: Gregory J. Smith, San Diego County Assessor, The Future Valuation of San Diego County Property. Mr. Smith has been the County Assessor for 25 years and has achieved an excellent reputation for effective, professional administration. His office is now processing thousands of appeals for reassessment of property taxes based on the collapse of property values caused by the bursting real estate bubble. Coordinator: Dave Fish
Thursday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
July 31: Eastern Europe: Estonia to Albania, Dracula to Ceausescu. Faye Girsh presents a personal slide and narrative odyssey of her two month 2007 trip through 14 former Soviet countries. We will look at some World Heritage sites and cover a little history involving Tito, Stalin, Ceausescu and Milosevich. Along the way, she’ll show us some charming and inexpensive places that would be fun to live in. Plus, Ms. Girsh will describe the contrast of a luxurious Danube river boat cruise versus traveling alone in countries where currency and language change with each border crossing. Facilitator: Faye Girsh
August 14: Whose Life Is It Anyway? Maintaining Control and Dignity at the End of Life. “Eat wisely, exercise daily, die anyway.” Though death is inevitable, suffering, indignity, and loss of control are not. We will talk about advance directives, hospice, organizations that can provide information and support, and methods and resources available for those wishing to maintain control. Internationally there has been an expansion of choices for a planned death which we will cover. Handouts will be available covering books, groups, movies, etc. that can be useful in exploring options consistent with one’s values and beliefs. Facilitator: Faye Girsh
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Thursday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Facilatator: Ralph Vissell
Test your imagination. If you’re stuck and can’t get out of it, what do you do? IMPROVISE. Learn just how evil you can be in 3 easy classes.
July 10, July 24 and August 7
The First Qin Emperor and His Tomb Warriors
Thursday at 1 p.m. in Classroom 129
Facilitator: Les Bilsky
July 17: In 221 B.C.E., the Qin state created China’s first unified empire. Qin Shihuangdi, literally the Qin First Emperor, believed himself to be the first of a never-ending line of emperors. He determined to overawe those he had conquered with expressions of his rules vast power and permanent sway. An integral part of his plan was construction of a vast tomb symbolizing his dominance of not only China but of “All Under Heaven.” Prior to the Osher-arranged trip this fall to the Bowers Museum exhibition of the Qin Terracotta Warriors, this presentation will provide information about the rationale for the construction of the tomb, the nature of the tomb itself, and the surprise 1974 discovery of pits flanking the tomb containing a vast army of terracotta warriors.
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Friday, July 11: Osher members will be able to enjoy a guided tour of the Palomar Observatory on Palomar Mountain. The bus will leave the Osher parking lot at 10 a.m. and return about 4 p.m. There is a small cafe near the Observatory for lunch but members can also bring a sack lunch since there is a nice park/campground nearby. The price is $30. Reservations must be made by July 3 with Gloria Smith, Office Manager. Tour is limited to 30 people. Coordinator: Vivian Leahy
Saturday, October 4: The Terra Cotta Warriors will be on display at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana from May 18 to October 12. The exhibition includes a number of the world-famous terracotta warriors from Xi’an, China, which were buried alongside the tomb of the First Emperor in readiness for his afterlife, as well as some of the most striking recent discoveries made on the site. Bus transportation to the museum and admission fee is $50 per person. Audio tours are included with admission. The tour is limited to 50 people. Please sign up in the Osher office. This activity is being included in this catalog because it might influence your plans for the summer.
Coordinator: Vivian Leahy
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Friday Programs
We do not have classes during the summer quarter. Please call (858) 534-3409 for office hours.
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Osher Council & General Membership Meetings
1 p.m in Classroom 129
August 21: Osher Council Meeting
August 29: Summer quarter ends
September 29: Fall quarter begins
December 5: Fall quarter ends
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