JEWISH STUDIES LECTURE IS AUG. 30

Old Dominion University's Women's Studies Department and the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding present "Female Jewish Identity in a Hostile Climate: Secret Jews from the Inquisition Through the Holocaust to Today," a lecture by Trudi Alexy, author of "The Mezuzah in The Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews," at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, in room 921 -- the Burgess Room -- of the Batten Arts and Letters Building.

Alexy, whose Jewish family converted to Catholicism for its safety during the late 1930s, found refuge, as did thousands of other European Jews, in Spain, the same country that had expelled all practicing Jews in 1492 and was allied with Hitler and Mussolini during WWII.

Alexy's research recovers Spain's role as rescuer nation during the Holocaust and the story of the Secret Jews of Spain and the New World. This is the first event in the College of Arts and Letters yearlong exploration of diaspora as a theme in human history.

For more information, call 683-3875.