Dr. Vadim Putzu, Religious Studies Assistant Professor, gave a lecture Thursday, November 29, at the Johnson Library and Museum in Osceola, MO. Tom Johnson, the grandson of Thomas Moore Johnson (whom Dr. Putzu has been writing about in the past year), invited him to talk about “Judaism Past and Present” for their semi-annual lecture series. He briefly discussed various historical manifestations of Judaism including those extant in the Ozarks, and I mentioned TMJ’s peculiar interests for Judaism and Kabbalah. A couple of dozen people travelled from Springfield (including Tom Peters and Anne Baker from the MSU library) and elsewhere to gather in Johnson’s old Victorian house, surrounded by his 70,000-volume library. The lecture was recorded and will eventually be available through MSU library archives as well as in the Johnson Library Journal. Since the 100th anniversary of TMJ’s death falls next year, Tom Johnson, other scholars and Dr. Putzu are considering organizing a symposium to commemorate this relatively unknown Ozarkian Platonist who, through his writings and leadership, was instrumental in establishing occult and esoteric groups—such as the Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and the Sufi Order—in late 19th century America.