book talk
Bucharest Diary: Ambassador Alfred H. Moses in Conversation with Senator Joseph Lieberman
In the 1970s, American attorney Alfred H. Moses was approached on the streets of Bucharest by young Jews desperate to emigrate from Communist Romania to Israel. Helping them became his mission. In recognition of his work, Moses was appointed President Clinton’s first ambassador to Romania in 1994. In his compelling memoir, Bucharest Diary Romania’s Journey from Darkness to Light, Moses writes about his fascinating career and the previously untold story of the exodus of Jews from Communist Romania to Israel. Senator Joseph Lieberman joins Ambassador Moses to discuss his historic work and key diplomatic role in Romania’s transition from its Communist past to democracy - and from “darkness to light.” Book sale, signing and reception follow the program.
Ticket Info: With book: $30 general; $27 seniors; $25 CJH/Partner members, students. Without book: $15 general; $12 seniors; $10 CJH/Partner members, students at bucharestdiary.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
About the Speakers:
Alfred H. Moses, was appointed by President Clinton as the ambassador to Romania from 1994 to 1997 in recognition of his historic work on behalf of Romanian Jewry. In this role, Moses was instrumental in helping Romania move from its communist past to democracy, and in establishing a free economy, the fastest growing in East Europe. Ambassador Moses also facilitated negotiations between Romania and its neighbors, Hungary and Ukraine, resulting in treaties resolving border and other disputes and leading to Romania‘s invitation to join NATO and the European Union. Moses is the only American to receive the Romanian Government‘s Marc Cruce medal. An attorney and co-founder of Promontory LLC, Moses is past president of AJC , chairman of UN Watch, and co-chair of Beit Hatfutsot‘s Board of Governors.
Joseph I. Lieberman is a former Connecticut State Senator and Attorney General and the first Orthodox Jew to serve as U.S. Senator. During his tenure as Senator, he led the efforts to create the Department of Homeland Security. In 2000, Senator Lieberman was the Democratic candidate for Vice President alongside Al Gore, and the first Jew named to an American national ticket. Senator Lieberman is senior counsel at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP. He is the author of five books, including In Praise of Public Life and An Amazing Adventure. Chair in Public Policy and Public Service at Yeshiva University, Senator Lieberman is Honorary Chair of Beit Hatfutsot‘s Board of Governors.
Presented by:
book talk
panel discussion
Child Separation and Refugee Crises from the Kindertransport to Today
Mark Hetfield, CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and Alex Aleinikoff, Director of the New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration & Mobility and the former UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, discuss the history of popular opposition to refugees and especially how it has impacted children, from the Kindertransport to the Trump Administration’s child separation policy. NPR’s international correspondent Deborah Amos, who has reported extensively on refugees in the Middle East and across the globe, will moderate the discussion.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 LBI/CJH/Partner members, seniors, students at https://kindertransport-refugees.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
panel discussion
conversation
First Person: Fred Guttenberg - A Dad’s Mission after Parkland
Fred Guttenberg never planned on leading a public life. He didn’t envision himself giving interviews on national news programs or announcing legislation on Capitol Hill. “I was not a politically involved person before February 14th,” Fred said. But that day in 2018, his 14-year-old daughter Jaime was one of 17 people killed by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fred is now devoting his life to urgently advocating for stricter gun control and public safety laws. A native of Long Island, Fred says his Jewish upbringing instilled in him a commitment to family, service, and standing up for others. Matt Gutman, an ABC News Chief National Correspondent joins Fred for a conversation about speaking out, fighting back, and challenging elected officials to do more.
ASL interpretation will be provided at this event.
Ticket Info: $15 general; $12 seniors; $10 CJH/Partner members at bpt.me/4103496
About the Speakers:
Fred Guttenberg moved to Florida from Long Island in 1989 shortly after graduating from Skidmore College in New York in 1988. His brother Michael Guttenberg, a first responder during 9/11, died from cancer in 2017 as a result of ground zero exposure. After his daughter’s death, Fred founded Orange Ribbons For Jaime a 501(C)(3) foundation that supports causes important to Jaime in life, as well as those that deal with the way her life was tragically cut short. Donations are made to organizations in the world of dance and to organizations that deal with bullying and children with special needs. Fred, his wife Jennifer, and their son Jesse currently reside in Parkland, Florida.
Matt Gutman is an award winning ABC News Chief National Correspondent. He appears on all ABC News broadcasts and platforms, including World News Tonight with David Muir, 20/20, Good Morning America, and Nightline. Reporting for ABC from nearly 50 countries across the globe, Matt has covered many of the major stories of the past decade including the miraculous rescue of the boys’ soccer team from a cave in Thailand about which he wrote the 2018 book The Boys in the Cave: Deep Inside the Impossible Rescue in Thailand. In 2016, while reporting on the upheaval in Venezuela, he was detained for five days by the country’s secret police for “the crime” of reporting on the fatal shortages of medicine and food in the country’s hospitals. Experiencing the inside of one of Venezuela’s dreaded intelligence agency’s prisons further opened his eyes to the corrosive power of repressive governments. Before joining ABC News in 2008, Matt was a Jerusalem-based reporter for seven years, covering every major conflict in the Middle East, from the Palestinian uprising to the invasion of Iraq. He lives in California with his wife and two children.
Presented by:
conversation
lecture
The Exile-Film Jew Süss / Power (1934) and the Nazi Propaganda Film Jud Süss (1940)
Power/Jew Süss (UK, 1934), directed by Lothar Mendes with Conrad Veidt in the leading role is the first important film of the German-Jewish exiles. The film is based on the novel by Lion Feuchtwanger who cooperated, though in a critical vain, with the efforts to transfer his work to the screen. The film was intended to give an answer to the rise of German antisemitism. It was in many ways innovative and the Nazi film minister Goebbels was infuriated. The racist idea to transform the original story and the film into a visual piece of murderous antisemitism and to steal as much visuals as possible from the exiles` film was born at this time but it took years until the Nazi filmmaker Veit Harlan directed his antisemitic film Jew Süss.
The talk will illustrate the production, the ensuing discussion about the 1934 film, Feuchtwangers reaction and the Nazi endeavors to use the film of 1934 as supportive means for mass murder. The talk will compare film sequences and try to answer the question why the Nazi film today is much more known than the anti-Nazi film.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 LBI/CJH/Partner members, seniors, students at https://jew-suess-films.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
About the Speaker:
Frank Stern studied at the Free University Berlin, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and received his PhD from Tel-Aviv University where he taught Modern History and Culture. From 1997 to 2004 Professor for Modern German History and Culture and director of the Center for German Studies and the Austrian-German Studies Program at Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva, Israel, and 2002 Acting Chair at the Department of Film and Television at Sapir College, Sederot. Visiting Professor at Columbia University in the City of New York, at Georgetown University, Washington DC, at Humboldt University Berlin, and at Vienna University. Since 2004 teaching cinema and cultural history at the Institute for Contemporary History at Vienna University. He published widely on postwar Germany, on problems of philosemitism and anti-Semitism (the Whitewashing of the Yellow Badge), on American-German-Israeli relations, on German-Jewish issues, and particularly on German, Austrian and US-American film.
Presented by:
lecture
talk
Out of the Box: El Torero de la Torah or the Bullfighter from Brooklyn
A story from the Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society
Stepping into a bullfighting ring in Mexico for the first time in 1923, Sidney Franklin launched a decades-long career as the world’s first Jewish matador. Secretly gay, celebrated and befriended by the likes of Ernest Hemingway and starring alongside Paulette Goddard and Eddie Cantor, “El Torero de la Torah” traveled a long way from his upbringing as the fifth of nine children of Russian-born, Orthodox Jewish parents in Brooklyn. Rachel Miller, Director of Archive and Library Services at the Center for Jewish History, brings Franklin’s fascinating story Out of the Box.
About the Series
At the Center for Jewish History, there are tens of thousands of boxes in our partners’ archival collections. Boxes filled with photographs, journals, letters, and documents. Boxes filled with stories. Come see what we find! Join us for our new series, Out of the Box.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $7 seniors; $5 CJH/Partner members, students at torero.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
About the Speaker:
Rachel Miller is the Director of Archive and Library Services at the Center for Jewish History. After receiving her Masters in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University, she became an archivist at the Center for Jewish History in 2008 and worked on the Sidney Franklin collection in 2010. Rachel holds a BA in English from Barnard College and has translated contemporary Hungarian literature.
Presented by:
talk
concert and lecture
A Hebrew Liederabend – An Evening of Hebrew Song
An elegant illuminating retrospective program devoted to classic treasures of secular Hebrew song and the poetry that has inspired this rich variety of musical expression for more than a century.
Ticket Info: $15 general; $10 members, students at https://yivo.org/Liederabend2019 or 917-606-8290
Presented by:
concert and lecture
book launch
This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto
In this book, Suketu Mehta (NYU) in conversation with Nancy Foner (CUNY Hunter College), juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, nannies and others, from Dubai to Queens, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 AJHS members, seniors, students at bpt.me/4051835 or 800-838-3006; $12 at the door
Presented by:
book launch
book talk
An Innocent Bystander: The Killing of Leon Klinghoffer
This talk with author Julie Salamon and Warren Bass, Senior Editor at The Wall Street Journal, revisits the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the brutal murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer, which became a flashpoint in the intractable struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. Come learn about the geopolitical and personal consequences flowing from this shocking act of international terrorism that thrust an ordinary man into history and reshaped the destiny of three families.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 AJHS members, seniors, students at bpt.me/4051839 or 800-838-3006; $12 at the door
Presented by:
book talk
talk
Out of the Box: From Prague to Princeton, the Story of a German-Jewish Family
A story from the Archives of the Leo Baeck Institute
Devotion, heartache, intrigue, New Age spiritualism, the von Trapp family, a love triangle, and even Matthew Broderick! The Kulbach family had it all. Once members of the German Jewish intellectual elite, the Kulbachs survived wartime Germany, endured the trauma of immigration, and established new lives in the United States. Piecing together photos, letters, and other archival materials, Sarah Glover, Archivist at the Center for Jewish History, brings the Kulbach story Out of the Box and back to life.
About the Series
At the Center for Jewish History, there are tens of thousands of boxes in our partners’ archival collections. Boxes filled with photographs, journals, letters, and documents. Boxes filled with stories. Come see what we find! Join us for our new series, Out of the Box.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $7 seniors; $5 CJH/Partner members, students at kulbachfamily.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
About the Speaker:
Sarah Glover is an Archivist and Digitization Projects Liaison at the Center for Jewish History, where she has worked since 2015. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she studied English, History, and Jewish Studies and her Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan. Sarah uses her knowledge of German, Hebrew, and Yiddish in her archival work.
Presented by:
talk
lecture
For Young Professionals (20s-30s): Genealogy Happy Hour
Want to put your online snooping habits to good use? Join us for a unique after-hours opportunity to learn from our expert genealogy librarians. We’ll show you how to find out where your grandparents and great-grandparents lived, what kind of work they did, when they arrived in the U.S., and more. Then, you’ll dig into our treasure trove of online genealogy records. Afterwards, share your discoveries with your fellow family history sleuths. Wine and light refreshments will be served.
An ASL interpreter may be made available if requested in advance.
Ticket Info: $10 general; $5 CJH/Partner members and students at genealogy.bpt.me or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
lecture
conference
Uncommon Commonalities: Jews and Muslims of Morocco
ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience and Association Mimouna present a three-day scholarly and cultural conference exploring Moroccan Jewish heritage and the shared history and uncommon cultural commonalities of Jewish and Muslim Moroccans. The conference will feature 40 of the world’s leading academics and artists.
Ticket Info: Price TBA at asfmoroccoconference.org or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
conference
conference
Uncommon Commonalities: Jews and Muslims of Morocco
ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience and Association Mimouna present a three-day scholarly and cultural conference exploring Moroccan Jewish heritage and the shared history and uncommon cultural commonalities of Jewish and Muslim Moroccans. The conference will feature 40 of the world’s leading academics and artists.
Ticket Info: Price TBA at asfmoroccoconference.org or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
conference
conference
Uncommon Commonalities: Jews and Muslims of Morocco
ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience and Association Mimouna present a three-day scholarly and cultural conference exploring Moroccan Jewish heritage and the shared history and uncommon cultural commonalities of Jewish and Muslim Moroccans. The conference will feature 40 of the world’s leading academics and artists.
Ticket Info: Price TBA at asfmoroccoconference.org or 800-838-3006
Presented by:
conference
lecture
Death Records for Genealogical Research
Speaker: Phyllis Kramer
Records generated when a person dies are a great resource for the family genealogist. This presentation will cover in depth each type of record beginning with the death certificate and continuing with cemeteries, landsmanshaftn, gravestones, Social Security records, medical records, undertakers, newspaper obituaries and probate.
Phyllis Kramer is a practicing genealogist with primary interest in Eastern European Jewish research. As Vice President of Education at JewishGen.org, Phyllis created the Education Program and teaches courses and maintains 15 Kehilalinks for her ancestral shtetls.
Ticket Info: $5 at the door; free for JGS members
Presented by:
lecture
