NYU history professor Katherine Fleming will discuss the plight of Greek Jews during this year’s Catharine Pelican Annual Memorial Lecture in Greek Culture at UMSL.

In her 2008 book, “Greece: A Jewish History,” Katherine Fleming gives a comprehensive account of Greece’s Jewish citizens, their diaspora in Israel and the U.S. and their near extinction at the hands of the Nazis.

Fleming, the Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization and Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at New York University, will discuss “Neither Jew Nor Greek – Greek Jews After the War” at 7:30 p.m. March 13 in Century Room A of the Millennium Student Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. The evening will start with a 7 p.m. reception. The event is free and open to the public.

The lecture will examine the varied ways in which Greek Jews experienced World War II and describe the particularly difficult circumstances in which Greek Jewish survivors found themselves after it. She’ll also explore the ways in which religion, culture, race and language shaped Greek Jewish identity during the war and beyond.

Fleming’s discussion is part of the Catharine Pelican Annual Memorial Lecture in Greek Culture, which is presented by the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies at UMSL and International Studies and Programs at UMSL. It was established by Dr. and Mrs. George Pelican and Mrs. Maria P. Kafelenos in memory of their mother.