iStock.com

A man prays at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

When professor David Shneer joined the University of Colorado faculty in August from the University of Denver, his intention was to help bring contemporary Jewish culture to the Boulder campus.

As the director of CU's Program in Jewish Studies, he has launched the inaugural Goldberger Week of Jewish Culture, which begins Wednesday.

There will be five events spanning 12 days, including a visit from renowned underground comic artist and graphic novelist Art Spiegelman on Jan. 25.

Shneer says the Goldberger fund was created before he made the move to CU and he thought the program should do something "amazing" with the money they had sitting around.

"Bringing the cutting-edge of local, national and international Jewish culture to Boulder is important to highlight what is going on in the world," Shneer says.

Jamie Polliard, program assistant for the Program in Jewish Studies, says the Boulder community has been very supportive of the event.

"We're having tremendous response from the community -- they are so excited," Polliard says. "People are just really looking forward to something that's at this level -- particularly with a very contemporary perspective.

"The Boulder community is just really hungry for something like this."

Shneer says that since Colorado is relatively physically removed from the centers of international Jewish culture, he wants a chance to expose the community to the ethnicity local residents normally may not see.

"We want to put Boulder on the global Jewish map," he says.

Wednesday night, the b.side lounge will host a talk and performance by Jalda Rebling, a Yiddish theater actress, cantor and specialist in European Jewish music.

Thursday, Berlin-based freelance artist Anna Adam, along with Rebling and Shneer, will discuss "Jewish Life in Today's Berlin."

"I had given talks on that subject before and it is always a full house," Shneer says. "Because people think Germany and Jews, they think the Holocaust. They don't think Germany, Jews and amazing Jewish life."

On Jan. 25, Pulitzer Prize-winning Spiegelman will speak at Macky Auditorium.

Polliard and Shneer are very excited about Spiegelman's visit.

"He's known in the world of comics as a cutting-edge cartoonist and a lot of his work appears in the New Yorker," Shneer says. "In the Jewish world, he's known as one of the most important writers of the Holocaust memory."

Spiegelman's prize-winning "Maus: A Survivor's Tale" is a graphic novel recounting his father's survival of the Holocaust as a Polish Jew, with Jews in the book depicted as mice (maus is German for mouse).

Shneer says he collaborated with the English Department, which has been trying to get Spiegelman to campus all year. The English Department's current exhibit, "Graphia: Comics, Graphic Novels and the Humanities on the Front Range," is on display at the art gallery in the UMC through Feb. 13.

"Art Spiegelman is ... responsible for a whole genre of comics and graphic novels which has really changed that whole narrative," Polliard says.

Shneer says every event is free and open to the public. He is asking for RSVPs though, because each event is filling up very quickly.

Shneer says it was an easy decision to make the events free.

"Too often there are barriers to accessing this kind of culture -- whether it's financial or a perception that only certain people can go," Shneer says.

Polliard and Shneer want to welcome all ethnic backgrounds to the events to learn more about Jewish culture.

"This is a way to dive in," Polliard says. "This is really looking at some contemporary issues within Jewish studies and these are some of the most noted artists and scholars working in their area around the world, quite honestly."