Tue, Dec 25
11:00AM
Tue, Dec 25
11:00AM

winter spectacular!

A Celebration of Jerusalem in Music and Art sing with DIVAHN and their Mideastern Grooves

YUM presents Singer Galeet Dardashti and her all-female ensemble, playing cello, doumbek (North Africa), riq (Egypt), tabla (India) & Balkan and Arab violin: Live at 1:30 and 3 pm

Family activities throughout the day! For details, please call 212-294-8330.

Ticket includes one concert performance and YUM admission to a day of special activities.


Presented by:

winter spectacular!

Sun, Dec 16
02:00PM
Sun, Dec 16
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Jerusalem Motifs - Block Printing Workshop

Ages 6 and up
Workshop Picture the landmarks of Jerusalem as you see them in rare photographs taken in 1850 – now on exhibit at YUM. Transfer these familiar images onto printing blocks to carve and ink. Then print a mizrach or greeting card. (Younger children will use scratchboards)


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Sun, Dec 16
03:00PM
Sun, Dec 16
03:00PM

gallery talk

Lisa Small on Orientalism in Art

Lecture Lured by the fascination with what was then called "the Orient," 19th-century artists traveled to the lands of the Ottoman Empire, much of which forms the contemporary Middle East. The resulting images of desert caravans, historic and Biblical sites, and exotic people and costumes freely combined reality, romance, fact, and stereotype, and proved irresistible to collectors and art audiences throughout Europe and the United States. Early photographic images from the Middle East, like the photographs of Jerusalem in the exhibition Picturing Jerusalem: James Graham and Mendel Diness, Photographers, were used by “armchair” Orientalist painters as models when they could not go abroad themselves. Art historian Lisa Small, curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts, explores a wide range of Orientalist imagery and discusses how European artists perceived and interpreted Eastern culture through Western eyes. The talk will be preceded by a curator-led tour of the exhibition.


Presented by:

gallery talk

Sun, Dec 16
04:00PM
Sun, Dec 16
04:00PM

discussion

From Rome to Tangier, the Journey of a Jewish Doctor: The Life and Work of Lucia Servadio Bedarida

A conversation on the life of Lucia Bedarida (1900-2007) and the role of women in today’s debates on medicine, ethics, and Judaism.

With Lucia Bedarida's daughters, Mirella Shapiro Bedarida and Paola Bedarida, and Giti Bensinger, physician at Maimonides Medical Center and member of the International Organization for Womens' Health and Development.

On the occasion of the publication of the book "A Day with Lucia" by Olivia Fincato and Roberto D'Agostin.

Reservations only by e-mail.

For more information, please visit the Centro Culturale Primo Levi website or call 917-606-8200.


Presented by:

discussion

Thu, Dec 13
07:00PM
Thu, Dec 13
07:00PM

lecture

Jewish Law-Courts in the Soviet Era

Dr. Belkin will discuss the Soviet policy toward the Jews in the 1920s, primarily focusing on the numerous Jewish law-courts in the Ukraine. Using extensive primary sources, Dr. Belkin will address how the Yiddish law-courts became part of the early Soviet construction of the "Jewish nation" and how Ukrainian Jews responded to these legal and administrative policies.


Presented by:

lecture

Mon, Dec 10
02:00PM
Mon, Dec 10
02:00PM

cjh graduate seminar program

Exile Beneath the Palms: Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles

Jeremy Eichler, CJH Fellow 2006, Ph.D. Candidate at Columbia University, and Chief Classical Music Editor of The Boston Globe, presents: "Exile Beneath the Palms: Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles." Dr. Christopher Hailey, cultural historian, musicologist, and Independent Scholar in residence at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, responding; Professor Hasia Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor in American Jewish Studies, NYU, conducting.


Presented by:

cjh graduate seminar program

Mon, Dec 10
07:00PM
Mon, Dec 10
07:00PM

lecture & book signing

The Legacy of German Jewry by Hermann Levin Goldschmidt

In 1957, the philosopher Hermann Levin Goldschmidt produced a brilliant analysis of what he called a dialogue between the universality of German cultural aspirations and the particularity of Jewish cultural experience. Willi Goetschel and David Suchoff, the authors of the introduction to The Legacy of German Jewry, will discuss the relevance of Goldschmidt’s observations in a multicultural age, half a century after Goldschmidt cast the concept of modernity in a fresh light.

Presented by Leo Baeck Institute and Yeshiva College of Yeshiva University.


Presented by:

lecture & book signing

Sun, Dec 09
12:00PM
Sun, Dec 09
12:00PM

conference

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Registration will begin at 12 pm
Program begins promptly at 1 pm
The Promise of the Future: the Legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel Conference

An extraordinary gathering of scholars, educators, community leaders, activists and friends will gather to honor Dr. Heschel and to address some of the many facets of his impact on religious thought, Jewish scholarship and social engagement.

Co-sponsored by CJH, AJHS, ASF, LBI, YIVO, HUC-JIRIR , and JTS

More information is available at the conference website.

For full program schedule, please email the CJH Programs Department.


Presented by:

conference

Sun, Dec 09
02:00PM
Sun, Dec 09
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Jerusalem Motifs- Block Printing Workshop

Ages 6 and up
Workshop Picture the landmarks of Jerusalem as you see them in rare photographs taken in 1850 – now on exhibit at YUM. Transfer these familiar images onto printing blocks to carve and ink. Then print a mizrach or greeting card. (Younger children will use scratchboards)


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Thu, Dec 06
06:00PM
Thu, Dec 06
06:00PM

book signing & discussion

Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations

Lecture In 70 AD, after a war that flared sporadically for four years, three Roman legions under the future Emperors Vespasian and his son Titus surrounded, laid siege to, and eventually devastated the city of Jerusalem, destroying completely the magnificent temple that had been built by Herod only eighty years earlier. What brought about this conflict, with its extraordinary consequences? Martin Goodman, Professor of Jewish Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, will address these and other, questions as he discusses his recently published book Rome and Jerusalem.


Presented by:

book signing & discussion

Thu, Dec 06
07:00PM
Thu, Dec 06
07:00PM

lecture

The Future of Jewish Heritage in Europe: Case Study Slovakia Lecture

Dr. Maros Borsky will address the most important examples of synagogue architecture and Jewish heritage monuments in Slovakia today. He will provide insights into the current situation of the Slovak Jewish community and respond to common questions related to Jewish heritage preservation. A native of Bratislava, Dr. Borsky is the Director of the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center in Bratislava. His publication, Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia: A Memorial Landscape of a Lost Community was recently issued.


Presented by:

lecture

Wed, Dec 05
08:00PM
Wed, Dec 05
08:00PM

sephardic nightlife music series

GHETTO BEATS: Jewish Musical Nightlife, From Italy to New York

This performance pairs the repertoire of late-Renaissance and Baroque art music from Italy (such as the Hebrew Cantata “Ebraica in Dialogo,” by 17th century Venetian composer, Carlo Grossi) with the contemporary resurgence of Sephardic Jewish music in New York City neighborhoods. The Renaissance Jewish repertoire will be performed by the male choir of Congregation Shearith Israel, directed by Leon Hyman. It will be followed by an afterparty with DJ Handler, mixing contemporary beats based on the Sephardic musical heritage.

Presented by American Sephardi Federation and Yeshiva University Museum.

This series is supported by The New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthopy Advisors.


Presented by:

sephardic nightlife music series

Tue, Dec 04
06:30PM
Tue, Dec 04
06:30PM

film screening

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (SOLD OUT)

Please note: This event is SOLD OUT.

A City Lights Pictures release
2007 105 minutes In Portuguese, Hebrew, and Yiddish with English subtitles
Directed by Cao Hamburger

Brazil's Official Selection for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Set in the turbulent year of 1970 in Brazil, this poignant coming of age story thrusts 12 year-old Mauro into a maelstrom of political and personal upheaval. Mauro, unexpectedly left in the care of his Jewish grandfather’s neighbor, suddenly finds himself an exile in his own country and is forced to create an ersatz family from among the religiously diverse and colorful population of his new neighborhood.


Presented by:

film screening

Sun, Dec 02
01:00PM
Sun, Dec 02
01:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

A Taste of Hanukkah: Sing Along, Story Time, Dreidls, Latkes & Treats

Ages 5 & Up
Workshop Practice your dreidl skills and Hanukkah songs, listen to stories and sing with YUM Educator Sara and her guitar. Top it off by tasting some Hanukkah treats.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Sun, Dec 02
05:00PM
Sun, Dec 02
05:00PM

hanukkah celebration

Bubbe Meises, Bubbe Stories

Ellen Gould (Actor/ Singer/Writer) brings her hit Off-Broadway and Emmy award-winning musical "Bubbe Meises, Bubbe Stories" (Cherry Lane Theater, PBS-TV) to the American Jewish Historical Society for one performance only. A joyous celebration of family, tradition and identity, Gould's one-woman show is a granddaughter's passionate journey through time and memory to recall her grandmother's stories as a way to understand her own life. The New York Times wrote "A loving tribute to immigrant grandmothers – their humor and native wit. Ellen Gould is graceful and disarming. This heartfelt play unites generations."

Performance will be preceeded by menorah lighting. Co-sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music and the American Jewish Historical Society.


Presented by:

hanukkah celebration

Thu, Nov 29
06:00PM
Thu, Nov 29
06:00PM

readings

From the Depths of My Heart: The Letters of Alfred and Lucie Dreyfus

6pm Exhibition Viewing
7pm Readings

In connection with the exhibition Alfred Dreyfus: The Fight for Justice, join us for an evening of theatrical readings of these letters and insight into Alfred Dreyfus' personal experience while the Dreyfus Affair raged in France.


Presented by:

readings

Wed, Nov 28
07:30PM
Wed, Nov 28
07:30PM

blavatnik chamber concert series

Jewish influences in Classical Music

The first concert in the season will feature music from the "Million Dollar Trio"– Heifetz, Feuerman and Rubinstein. The program includes Chopin’s Nocturne, Heifetz's arrangement of Prokofiev’s duet for violin and piano, Brahms' trio in C minor, and Schubert’s Trio in B major. These pieces will be performed by the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky. This program is made possible through the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Blavatnik.


Presented by:

blavatnik chamber concert series

Tue, Nov 27
07:00PM
Tue, Nov 27
07:00PM

concert

2007 Grammy Award Winner The Klezmatics : Up Close

Prior to their first concert at YIVO, The Klezmatics engaged in a lively and in-depth discussion with the audience about their creative process. Later in the evening, The Klezmatics performed their irresistible, eclectic, and provocative music embracing klezmer and blending multi-cultural sounds drawn from YIVO's Max and Frieda Weinstein Sound Archives.

Seen in this video are (l-r): Lorin Sklamberg, Richie Barshay (special guest), Lisa Grant, Matt Darriau, Frank London.


Presented by:

concert

Tue, Nov 20
07:00PM
Tue, Nov 20
07:00PM

jewish music forum

Yiddish Folksongs from the YIVO Music Archive (SOLD OUT)

Please Note: This concert is SOLD OUT.

Join us in a celebration of the new book, "Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive" (August 2007), edited by Professor and Ethnomusicologist Mark Slobin, and YIVO Music Archivist Chana Mlotek. The authors will be on hand to present their collaborative research. A live performance, featuring Zalmen Mlotek and Eleanor Reissa, will follow the discussion.

This Jewish Music Forum special event is sponsored by the AJHS and the ASJM, and co-sponsored by YIVO.


Presented by:

jewish music forum

Sun, Nov 18
02:00PM
Sun, Nov 18
02:00PM

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Trick or Treat – Family History Web Searches

Explore web research tricks! Start with the basics. Work with “new” or “ignored” resources on well-known genealogy sites. Bring the data into your own system for customized and detailed analysis. Start from any general search engine (Google for example). Learn how to dig deep, follow a thread or a clue, and maybe find family treasure in the most unexpected websites. Grab targeted lists from “protected” websites (legally) and set up the information to do your own sorting and selections. Combine search results from both free and paid databases into your own analysis tool. This program has something for everyone – from the newest genealogist or computer user to the experts.

Speaker David M. Kleiman has been a family historian for over 35 years and is chair of the NY Computers and Genealogy SIG. He is the developer of both software and on-line databases for genealogists and served on the JGS-NY executive council. David does genealogical consulting for several current publishing projects and is president of Heritage Muse, Inc., an ePublishing company producing digital texts in the humanities and custom, multi-media books for family historians.

The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute will be open 12:30 to 1:45 PM for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computers.


Presented by:

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Sun, Nov 18
02:00PM
Sun, Nov 18
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Festive Stained Glass Panel

Ages 5 & Up
Display the miracle of Hanukkah! Enhance your window with a stained glass backdrop for your Hanukkiah that will be illuminated by the Hanukkah candles. Based on traditional Hanukkah and universal holiday motifs, you will create your own colorful design using non-toxic paints and plexiglas.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs, children ages 6 and older will enjoy designing and creating an object for their personal use. Take home the project of the day, such as a pinwheel, a spice box or a stained glass panel. Program dates are September 16 & 30, October 14, 21, & 28 and November 4, 11 & 18.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Wed, Nov 14
07:00PM
Wed, Nov 14
07:00PM

lecture

The Battle for Rome: A Jewish Chaplain at War

The Jewish Chaplains of World War II were part of the Greatest Generation. David Kertzer, Provost of Brown University and a leading scholar on the Italian history and the Inquisition, will discuss his father's service as a Chaplain during and after the war, and issues regarding anti-Semitism and Europe. Kertzer's father was a chaplain on the Italian front during the war, and his paper’s are part of the AJHS chaplain collection.


Presented by:

lecture

Tue, Nov 13
06:30PM
Tue, Nov 13
06:30PM

panel discussion

Immigration To New York City: 100 Years Of Transformation

Over the past one hundred years, New York City and its richly diverse population have transformed each other in previously unimaginable ways. Neighborhoods, both constant and changing, are reflections of cultures and traditions that mingle with each other, offering challenges and opportunities for life in this contemporary urban landscape.

A distinguished panel including a historian, demographer, political scientist, and journalist/author will explore the changing face of New York City in light of its history and discuss the implications of those changes for our contemporary life in the city. Professor Hasia Diner, NY U, Dr. John Hull Mollenkopf, the Graduate Center at CUNY , and Joseph J. Salvo, Director of the Population Division at the New York City Department of City Planning. The discussion will be moderated by Joseph Berger, National Education Columnist for the New York Times and author of "The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the New New York." Co-sponsored by AJHS and the Governor Hugh Carey Center for Reforming State Government at Wagner College.


Presented by:

panel discussion

Sun, Nov 11
01:00PM
Sun, Nov 11
01:00PM

open house

Jewish Chaplains at War

This day of events, in honor of Veterans Day, will feature the American Jewish Historical Society's Chaplain exhibition.


Presented by:

open house

Sun, Nov 11
02:00PM
Sun, Nov 11
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Thanksgiving Place Card Holders

Ages 6 & Up
Sculpt and paint a set to hold the name of each guest at your table. We will use white modeling material and washable color paints, including gold, to create keepsake mini-sculptures to treasure. Just in time for Thanksgiving–or any other dinner occasion.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs, children ages 6 and older will enjoy designing and creating an object for their personal use. Take home the project of the day, such as a pinwheel, a spice box or a stained glass panel. Program dates are September 16 & 30, October 14, 21, & 28 and November 4, 11 & 18.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Sun, Nov 11
03:00PM
Sun, Nov 11
03:00PM

artist's gallery talk

Miriam Stern on Ezrat Nashim

Artist Miriam Stern, a painter and printmaker, will speak about her gallery art installation, Ezrat Nashim.


Presented by:

artist's gallery talk

Thu, Nov 08
06:30PM
Thu, Nov 08
06:30PM

where is home? a film and discussion series

Return to Oulad Moumen

1994, 50 minutes French with English subtitles Directed by Izza Genini

Filmmaker Genini uses a family reunion to retrace the history of her large and widely scattered family back to its beginnings in a small village in Morocco.

Discussant: Joelle Bahloul, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and of Anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington

About the Series:
The search for a place to call home is a longstanding quest in Jewish life. Thanks to the modern practices of tourism and filmmaking, these journeys are conceived and documented in unprecedented ways. For many, the search for home is a journey of self-discovery in which travel occurs not only across space but also through time, and is as much an internal search as it is an encounter with places and people. Where Is Home? examines how filmmakers document these journeys - whether their own or others', imaginary or actual - as means of interrogating Jewish notions of time and space, whether personal or national, past or present. Curated and moderated by Professor Jeffrey A. Shandler, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University.


Presented by:

where is home? a film and discussion series

Wed, Nov 07
06:30PM
Wed, Nov 07
06:30PM

panel discussion

You Never Call! You Never Write!
An Exploration of the Contemporary Jewish Mother

Through personal reflection and stories, an illustrious panel of mothers and daughters will provide an intimate, heartfelt, affectionate... and, of course, critical look at the contemporary Jewish Mother based on Joyce Antler’s recent book: You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother.

Moderated by Fran Klagsbrun, writer and lecturer, with the participation of Joyce Antler, writer and scholar; Lauren Antler, comedian; Marjorie Ingall, columnist; Carol Ingall, Professor of Jewish Education; Patricia Volk, writer; Polly Blitzer, editor; Nessa Rapoport, writer; and Mattie Kahn, student. Co-sponsored by AJHS and The Jewish Women’s Archive


Presented by:

panel discussion

Mon, Nov 05
07:00PM
Mon, Nov 05
07:00PM

panel discussion

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy - A Critical Response

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s new book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, has understandably generated an enormous response in the Jewish community. This evening’s response provides a rigorous focus on two issues - the long history of the debate over Jewish power and the role of AIPAC and other members of the Israel lobby in American foreign policy and military policy. The program featured a panel discussion moderated by Nicholas Lemann, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.


Presented by:

panel discussion

Sun, Nov 04
02:00PM
Sun, Nov 04
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Thanksgiving Place Card Holders

Ages 6 & Up
Sculpt and paint a set to hold the name of each guest at your table. We will use white modeling material and washable color paints, including gold, to create keepsake mini-sculptures to treasure. Just in time for Thanksgiving-or any other dinner occasion.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs, children ages 6 and older will enjoy designing and creating an object for their personal use. Take home the project of the day, such as a pinwheel, a spice box or a stained glass panel. Program dates are September 16 & 30, October 14, 21, & 28 and November 4, 11 & 18.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Sun, Nov 04
02:00PM
Sun, Nov 04
02:00PM

film and workshop

Childhood Trauma In Film: Unzere Kinder (Our Children)

This last Yiddish-language film made in Poland features famous Yiddish comedians Szimon Dzigan and Yisroel Szumacher who play all the parts in a Sholom Aleichem story for an audience of children who survive the Holocaust. The film, featuring children living in a Jewish orphanage in post-war Poland, is a remarkable document of the first Jewish responses to the Holocaust.

The screening will be followed by a workshop on representations of psychological trauma in film.

Introduced and moderated by Dr. Maurice Preter and Dr. Isaac Tylim with the participation of Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn, Harvard Medical School; Professor Shimon Redlich, Ben-Gurion University; Marek Web, YIVO Historian; Dr. Eva Weil, Paris Psychoanalytic Society; and Dr. Eva Kantor, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, NYC.

Co-sponsored by the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and YIVO.


Presented by:

film and workshop

Sun, Nov 04
07:00PM
Sun, Nov 04
07:00PM

reception and readings

An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba

Anthropologist and poet Ruth Behar documents her journey back to Cuba to find out what remains of the Jewish community she left behind at the age of five in her new book, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba. Behar will read from her book and presents slides of her journey. Following the reading, there will be a Cuban-style reception.


Presented by:

reception and readings

Thu, Nov 01
06:30PM
Thu, Nov 01
06:30PM

where is home? a film and discussion series

Voyages

1999, 111 minutes French, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, Yiddish, with English subtitles Directed by Emmanuel Finkiel

Three distinct but related sequences, set in France, Poland, and Israel, trace a moving interplay of stories of communion, memory, and language among Holocaust survivors.

Discussant: J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic for the Village Voice

About the Series:
The search for a place to call home is a longstanding quest in Jewish life. Thanks to the modern practices of tourism and filmmaking, these journeys are conceived and documented in unprecedented ways. For many, the search for home is a journey of self-discovery in which travel occurs not only across space but also through time, and is as much an internal search as it is an encounter with places and people. Where Is Home? examines how filmmakers document these journeys - whether their own or others', imaginary or actual - as means of interrogating Jewish notions of time and space, whether personal or national, past or present. Curated and moderated by Professor Jeffrey A. Shandler, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University.


Presented by:

where is home? a film and discussion series

Tue, Oct 30
06:00PM
Tue, Oct 30
06:00PM

panel discussion

From Darkness to Life: A Conversation on Art, Freedom and Creation

6pm Exhibition Viewing
7pm Panel Discussion

Laura Murlender's paintings in the exhibition From Darkness to Light are emotional and reflective of her journey from Argentina, where she was kidnapped during the "Dirty War", to Israel, where she rebuilt her identity through the process of creating art while studying at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Ruth A. Bevan, Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva College and Director of the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs, speaks with Mulender, along with writers, artists and scholars, about the process of creating art as a crucial response to personal experiences of political oppression and human rights abuse. Co-sponsored by the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs.


Presented by:

panel discussion

Tue, Oct 30
06:00PM
Tue, Oct 30
06:00PM

exhibition opening

Hanns Wolters: Emigré Impressario
Berlin/Palestine/New York

With a career that went from “discovering” Marlene Dietrich to representing young American actors Sylvester Stallone and F. Murray Abraham, Hanns Wolters was a theatrical agent and impressario who fled the Nazis, emigrated to Palestine, and ultimately arrived in New York – using his great dramatic flair to improvise productions all along the way. Together with his wife, actress Mitzi Bera, Wolters put on shows in the desert for British and Australian troops. Thanks to his successful career in Berlin, Wolters was able to attract musicians, singers and actors who were either emigrating to or passing through Palestine on the way to safety.

Wolters made his way to New York to continue his career as an agent whose eye for discovering promising new talent never left him Leo Baeck Institute is proud to present the details of this fascinating life through photos, letters, playbills, posters and other documents that have never before been shown, bringing to life several decades of history that have escaped widespread attention until now.


Presented by:

exhibition opening

Mon, Oct 29
07:00PM
Mon, Oct 29
07:00PM

book event, exhibit, and performance

Tu Boca en Los Cielos

Artist Gladys Benaim Bunan will discuss her new book, presenting the culture and Judeo-Spanish (Haketia) language of the Sephardim of Morocco. Ms. Bunan, born and raised in Tangiers, Morocco, combines her father’s words with her own lush watercolor illustrations, creating a rich, multi-layered graphic synthesis, bringing many facets of Sephardic culture to life. Her original watercolors will be on view. Following Ms. Bunan, international performer and comedian Solly Levy will bring his wit and talent to our stage. Born in Tangiers, he performs in Spanish, Haketia, English, Hebrew and French. A reception will follow.


Presented by:

book event, exhibit, and performance

Sun, Oct 28
02:00PM
Sun, Oct 28
02:00PM

film and discussion

Did Herzl Really Say That?

Double Feature Screening and Discussion with Filmmakers
Hebrew with English subtitles / Running Time : 50 minutes each episode

Oren Harman and Yanay Ofran, two 30-something Jerusalemites now living in Tel Aviv, embarked on a deeply personal journey across Israel and abroad asking hard-hitting questions about what defines Israeli identity today. Each episode in the series explores the boundaries of identity within a different group of Israeli society. What are the old and new identities? How is the current, often tumultuously changing, process of identity formation affecting that group and society at large? What does this process mean for tomorrow’s Israel? Following the screening of The Transparent Kippa and O, My Homeland to a sold-out house in April 2007, YIVO is proud to present the American premiere of the latest episodes from the series.

ISRAEL - OUR HOME?
A fascinating look at the immigrants from the relics of the former Soviet Union - approximately 1,200,000 people who made it to Israel throughout the nineties. How are they identified by Israeli society at large? How do they identify? How do the cultures of the Former Soviet Union influence the “old” Israeli society?

WE WILL RETURN ... EVENTUALLY
This episode examines the growing number of Israelis, particularly in academia, business and the arts, who are transferring their core activities abroad. It asks questions about the tensions between Israel acting as a central international spiritual force and its presence on the periphery in many ways.

RESPONSE : Sorting Out the Jews - Russians in Israel and Israelis in America
Zvi Gitelman - Professor of Political Science and Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor


Presented by:

film and discussion

Sun, Oct 28
02:00PM
Sun, Oct 28
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Spice Up The Fall! Besamim/Potpourri Creations Workshop

Ages 6 & Up
Inhale the aromas of spices such as cloves, cinnamon and frankincense, which have been used for aromatherapy since antiquity. Create a container for the spices – or besamim – that will carry the sweet smell of Shabbat through your work week. We will fill it with supplies from our medieval market featured in YUM’s experiential exhibition Exploring the North Atlantic.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs, children ages 6 and older will enjoy designing and creating an object for their personal use. Take home the project of the day, such as a pinwheel, a spice box or a stained glass panel. Program dates are September 16 & 30, October 14, 21, & 28 and November 4, 11 & 18.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Thu, Oct 25
06:30PM
Thu, Oct 25
06:30PM

where is home? a film and discussion series

Roots

2004, 107 minutes Russian with English subtitles Directed by Pavel Loungin

This farcical comedy follows the exploits of a Jewish con-artist who turns a small town in provincial Ukraine into a fake site of heritage tourism for unsuspecting Americans.

Discussant: Olga Gershenson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

About the Series:
The search for a place to call home is a longstanding quest in Jewish life. Thanks to the modern practices of tourism and filmmaking, these journeys are conceived and documented in unprecedented ways. For many, the search for home is a journey of self-discovery in which travel occurs not only across space but also through time, and is as much an internal search as it is an encounter with places and people. Where Is Home? examines how filmmakers document these journeys - whether their own or others', imaginary or actual - as means of interrogating Jewish notions of time and space, whether personal or national, past or present. Curated and moderated by Professor Jeffrey A. Shandler, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University.


Presented by:

where is home? a film and discussion series

Thu, Oct 25
07:00PM
Thu, Oct 25
07:00PM

choseed memorial lecture

The Invention of Love? How the Yiddish Poets Read Heinrich Heine

Speaker: Jeffrey Grossman, Associate Professor, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia

This lecture explores the ways in which the work of several poets affiliated with the "Di Yunge" responded to Heine. It argues that the poets of "Di Yunge" were drawn to Heine not for his expressions of "Weltschmerz, sweet melancholy, and sentimental love for all mankind" (Sol Liptzin), but rather for the complexity and irony with which Heine explored those and other emotional states in his poetry.


Presented by:

choseed memorial lecture

Wed, Oct 24
02:30PM
Wed, Oct 24
02:30PM

cjh graduate seminar program

Dana Heman presents: Salvaging Cultural Remains: Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. after World War II

Dana Herman, CJH Fellow 2006, and Ph.D. Candidate at McGill University presenting: Salvaging Cultural Remains: Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. after World War II; Ronald Zweig, Marilyn & Henry Taub Professor of Israel Studies, Professor of Judaic Studies, and Director of the Taub Center for Irael Studes, NY U, responding; Hasia Diner, Paul S. & Sylvia Steinberg Professor in American Jewish Studies, NY U, conducting.


Presented by:

cjh graduate seminar program

Tue, Oct 23
06:30PM
Tue, Oct 23
06:30PM

lecture

Articulating an Educational Vision through Architecture: Yeshiva University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The architectural visions for two Jewish universities, Yeshiva University in New York and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem were laid out by building committees and architects early in the 20th century. Art historian Samuel Albert will present an illustrated lecture comparing the stylistic choices and outcomes of the architectural plans for both prominent institutions and discuss the different visions for Jewish learning.


Presented by:

lecture

Tue, Oct 23
07:00PM
Tue, Oct 23
07:00PM

book signing & discussion

Who Will Write Our History?

Who Will Write Our History? (Indiana University Press : 2007) - the new monograph by Samuel D. Kassow, the Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College, which tells the gripping story of Emanuel Ringelblum and his determination to use historical scholarship and the surreptitious preservation of Jewish documents to resist Nazi oppression.

A panel discussion with Professor Kassow and Robert Shapiro, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College and author of Lodz Ghetto: A History (Indiana University Press with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum : 2006) explored the historical significance of ghetto archives in occupied Poland and the relationship between Emanuel Ringelblum, Isaiah Trunk and the YIVO. Joanna Michlic, Associate Professor and The Helene and Allen Apter Chair in Holocaust and Ethical Values at Lehigh University, discussed the recent turn of historians toward Jewish testimonies, in particular the publications of the testimonies from the Ringelblum Archives.


Presented by:

book signing & discussion

Sun, Oct 21
11:30AM
Sun, Oct 21
11:30AM

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Gesher Galicia Regional Meeting

Gesher Galicia, the special interest group for those with Jewish roots in the former Austrian province of Galicia, will hold their annual regional meeting. The agenda will include a report on the Lviv (Ukraine) Archive research project involving landowner records and cadastral maps from the 19th century, an update on Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, a shtetl trip/cemetery restoration report, an update on Daniel Mendelsohn's Bolechower Jewish Heritage Society, and a screening of the short film, Past Lives: The Stanley Diamond Story. This program will conclude at 1PM to be followed by town and region research groups and birds-of-a-feather networking during the lunch hour (1:00 to 2:00). Pamela Weisberger is the Gesher Galicia research coordinator. More info at the Gesher Galicia website.

This meeting is open to all interested researchers and is free of charge.


Presented by:

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Sun, Oct 21
02:00PM
Sun, Oct 21
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Spice Up The Fall! Besamim/Potpourri Creations Workshop

Ages 6 & Up
Inhale the aromas of spices such as cloves, cinnamon and frankincense, which have been used for aromatherapy since antiquity. Create a container for the spices – or besamim – that will carry the sweet smell of Shabbat through your work week. We will fill it with supplies from our medieval market featured in YUM’s experiential exhibition Exploring the North Atlantic.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs, children ages 6 and older will enjoy designing and creating an object for their personal use. Take home the project of the day, such as a pinwheel, a spice box or a stained glass panel. Program dates are September 16 & 30, October 14, 21, & 28 and November 4, 11 & 18.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Sun, Oct 21
02:00PM
Sun, Oct 21
02:00PM

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Recreating Your Shtetl – Why and How: Creating a Research Group and Website Dedicated to your Ancestral Town with Susana Leistner Bloch

Memorializing and learning about our ancestral hometowns (shtetlach) is key to understanding our past. This program will discuss the methodology and benefits of creating a research group and a cyberspace memorial to the vanished world of our ancestors. Susana Leistner Bloch is project coordinator for JewishGen ShtetlLinks and the international support desk and coordinates the Kolbuszowa Region Research Group and the Suchostaw Region Research Group, producing two extensive websites of 270 shtetl pages that serve as memorials to destroyed Eastern European communities. Her published articles have appeared in The Galitzianer and East European Genealogist.

The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History will be open from 12:30 to 1:45 PM on October 21 for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computer resources.


Presented by:

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Thu, Oct 18
06:30PM
Thu, Oct 18
06:30PM

where is home? a film and discussion series

On My Way to Father's Land

1995, 98 minutes Hebrew with English subtitles Directed by Aner Preminger

The filmmaker brings his father back to his native Vienna as part of a quest to understand his history as an Austrian, a Jew, a communist, and a Zionist.

Discussant: Matti Bunzl, Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

About the Series:
The search for a place to call home is a longstanding quest in Jewish life. Thanks to the modern practices of tourism and filmmaking, these journeys are conceived and documented in unprecedented ways. For many, the search for home is a journey of self-discovery in which travel occurs not only across space but also through time, and is as much an internal search as it is an encounter with places and people. Where Is Home? examines how filmmakers document these journeys - whether their own or others', imaginary or actual - as means of interrogating Jewish notions of time and space, whether personal or national, past or present. Curated and moderated by Professor Jeffrey A. Shandler, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University.


Presented by:

where is home? a film and discussion series

Wed, Oct 17
07:00PM
Wed, Oct 17
07:00PM

concert

The Philosopher Sings: Concert based on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche

Presented by Leo Baeck Institute in cooperation with Elysium – Between Two Continents

Introduction: Michael Lahr
Musical Direction: Dan Franklin Smith
with Jeannie Im (Soprano), and
Gregorij H. von Leitis (Recitation)

The 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was a thorn in the side of the traditional moralists of the society and culture of his time. In his writings he transgressed borders and opened the way to existentialism and postmodern thinking. He was a foreigner in his own generation, calling himself a "posthumous thinker" whose time would come in the future.

Many regard Nietzsche as the pioneer of a new objective morality, not bound by any religious framework, while others blame him for being the forerunner of Nazi ideology. Nietzsche often presented his ideas in the form of aphorisms—short clear statements that several composers subsequently set to music. This concert features compositions by the Jewish exiled composers Walther Hirschberg and Leopold Spinner, as well as by others. The introductory lecture will examine the intricate relationship between Nietzsche and German Jews.


Presented by:

concert

Sun, Oct 14
11:00AM
Sun, Oct 14
11:00AM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Culture Fest

Join us in Battery Park for our Metal Embossing Workshop at the YUM booth!


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Thu, Oct 11
06:00PM
Thu, Oct 11
06:00PM

exhibit opening and reception

Ezrat Nashim: Installation by Miriam Stern

This site-specific installation addresses how the issues of separateness, prayer and feminism are defined within spiritual communities — issues symbolized by the mechitzah (partition) that sets apart the women’s area (Ezrat Nashim) from men’s seating in a traditional Jewish synagogue.

Miriam Stern lives in Teaneck, New Jersey. Her work has been included in various exhibitions in the United States and Israel, including the Newark Museum in New Jersey, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, and the Artist House in Jerusalem. Her work is represented in the collections of Yeshiva University Museum and Johnson & Johnson Corporation.


Presented by:

exhibit opening and reception

Thu, Oct 11
07:00PM
Thu, Oct 11
07:00PM

lecture

The Untold Story of Yungvald, Vilna’s Last Literary Generation

Join Justin Cammy, assistant professor of Jewish Studies and comparative literature at Smith College, for the story of Yungvald, a group of young Yiddish writers who, during the winter and spring of 1939, published four issues of a literary miscellany under the mentorship of the parodist poet Leyzer Volf. Who were these writers and how did their writing reflect the political moment?


Presented by:

lecture

Tue, Oct 09
02:00PM
Tue, Oct 09
02:00PM

award ceremony

Saul Viener Book Award Ceremony

The American Jewish Historical Society awards the Saul Viener Prize, named in honor of a past president of the Society, for the outstanding book published in a two-year period in the field of American Jewish history. We will be honoring co-winners Eric Goldstein for The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity, and Cheryl Lynn Greenberg for Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century, as well as runner-up Tony Michels for A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York. Presentation will be followed by tea.


Presented by:

award ceremony

Tue, Oct 09
07:00PM
Tue, Oct 09
07:00PM

discussion

Leopold Bloom and Irish Jewry

This event will be taking place at the Glucksman Ireland House, New York University 1 Washington Mews (Fifth Ave. between Washington Square North and Eighth St.)

Leopold Bloom, like his creator James Joyce, knew his Dublin well. Still, he is a fallible guide to the city’s small Jewish community of a century or so ago. Cormac Ó Gráda’s talk, building on his recent Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce (Princeton, 2006), pits Joyce's fictional character against a rather different historical reality. Glucksman Ireland House NYU co-sponsored by CJH.


Presented by:

discussion

Fri, Oct 05
Fri, Oct 05

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Simchat Torah


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Thu, Oct 04
Thu, Oct 04

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Shemini Atzeret


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Wed, Oct 03
02:00PM
Wed, Oct 03
02:00PM

early closure

The Center will close at 2:00PM for Erev Shemini Atzeret


Presented by:

early closure

Sun, Sep 30
02:00PM
Sun, Sep 30
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Simchat Torah In Style: Model Torah Scroll Workshop

Ages 6 & Up
Create your own model Torah scroll from scratch to celebrate with on Simchat Torah! Learn about common Jewish motifs in historic Torah ornaments from the YUM collection. Handle models of both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Torahs. Children will assemble their own scroll on wooden rollers and then decorate their Torahs, designing a mantle, crown and breastplate, using fabrics, metallic materials and trimmings.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Fri, Sep 28
Fri, Sep 28

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Sukkos


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Thu, Sep 27
Thu, Sep 27

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Sukkos


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Wed, Sep 26
02:00PM
Wed, Sep 26
02:00PM

early closure

The Center will close at 2:00PM for Erev Sukkos


Presented by:

early closure

Fri, Sep 21
02:00PM
Fri, Sep 21
02:00PM

early closure

The Center will close at 2:00PM for Erev Yom Kippur


Presented by:

early closure

Wed, Sep 19
07:00PM
Wed, Sep 19
07:00PM

jews and justice

Jewish Lawyers in the Civil Rights Movement

Jewish Lawyers in the Civil Rights Movement – part of Jews and Justice, the longest running program series at the Center for Jewish History – featured a blue ribbon panel that explored the Jewish community's involvement in this important historical movement in the United States.

Panelists included:
Jack Greenberg, Alphonse Fletcher Jr., Professor of Law at Columbia University
Mr. Greenberg has been at the forefront of many of the landmark civil-rights cases of the 20th century, including serving as co-counsel with Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954. He succeeded Mr. Marshall as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, a position he held until in 1984.

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
During his 30-year tenure as Director of the RAC, Rabbi Saperstein has advocated on a broad range of social justice issues emphasizing civil rights concerns. For over two decades, he has served on the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and has been the only Jewish member of the National Board of the NAACP

Anne Roiphe, an American Jewish journalist and author
Ms. Roiphe writes about many issues – including civil rights and Jewish relations with other communities, their collaborations and their struggles.

Jews and Justice is made possible by the David Berg foundation.


View Video


Presented by:

jews and justice

Sun, Sep 16
02:00PM
Sun, Sep 16
02:00PM

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Four Lives of Gregory Meisler: Jew, Warrior and Polish Patriot

Speaker: Valery Bazarov

This biography of a Polish officer, reconstructed from scratch, highlights a relatively unknown page of Jewish life in Poland between the two wars, as well as the treatment of Jewish prisoners of war in Nazi camps. Enlisted in the Polish armed forces a year before Polish independence, Gregory Meisler learned how to be a Jew and an officer in the anti-Semitic Army. He later spent six years as a POW in Stalag VII at Murnau, Germany.

Valery Bazarov is the director of the HIAS Location and Family History Service. During the 1990s he assisted with the arrival of more than 200,000 Jewish refugees who came from the former Soviet Union to the U.S. under HIAS auspices. Today he helps immigrants of different generations to find family members and friends – often in other countries – with whom they lost contact over the years.

The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History will be open from 12:30 to 1:45 PM on September 16 for networking with other researchers and access to research materials and computer resources.


Presented by:

jewish genealogical society programs at cjh

Sun, Sep 16
02:00PM
Sun, Sep 16
02:00PM

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Pinwheels for Peace: International Day of Peace

Ages 6 & Up
Make and decorate a pinwheel for display outdoors in honor of the International Day of Peace, observed worldwide on September 21.

Join us in our Discovery Room on a series of Sunday afternoons to create and recreate! Inspired by the holidays of the seasons and our treasury of traditional designs, children ages 6 and older will enjoy designing and creating an object for their personal use. Take home the project of the day, such as a pinwheel, a spice box or a stained glass panel. Program dates are September 16 & 30, October 14, 21, & 28 and November 4, 11 & 18.


Presented by:

creative workshops for families @ yum studio

Fri, Sep 14
Fri, Sep 14

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Rosh Hashana


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Thu, Sep 13
Thu, Sep 13

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Rosh Hashana


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Wed, Sep 12
02:00PM
Wed, Sep 12
02:00PM

early closure

The Center will close at 2:00PM for Erev Rosh Hashana


Presented by:

early closure

Tue, Sep 11
07:00PM
Tue, Sep 11
07:00PM

lecture

The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry

Dr. Scott Ury of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will examine the allure of radical politics and revolutionary movements for the Jews of Warsaw, in particular in view of the city as a center of immigration.


Presented by:

lecture

Tue, Sep 11
07:00PM
Tue, Sep 11
07:00PM

discussion and reading

The Frank Family That Survived

YI VO and AJHS are proud to co-sponsor a conversation and book reading with Gordon Sander discussing The Frank Family That Survived. Sander’s book tells the story of another Frank family, his grandparents and mother, and their gripping odyssey from the deceptively good life of Berlin in the 1920s, through the rise of Hitler and their flight to apparently safe Holland, the nightmarish ordeal of their thousand-day-long “submersion” in a small apartment in The Hague, to the joy and pain of liberation and their final journey to America.


Presented by:

discussion and reading

Sun, Sep 09
12:00PM
Sun, Sep 09
12:00PM

Come Visit the CJH Booth at the JewzaPalooza Festival at Riverside Park

Join thousands in a free all-day extravaganza of music, food and all things Jewish, outdoors in lovely Riverside Park.

Enjoy the breeze off the river, wander through the informational booths (including ours), enjoy a nosh and a glass of kosher wine and listen to some of the hottest sounds in new Jewish music.

Remember - this all-day show is absolutely free and open to all ages, creeds, and religions!

Bring a blanket, grab your sunscreen and make a day of it!

For more information and an up to date concert line-up, please visit the oy!hoo website.


Presented by:

Mon, Sep 03
Mon, Sep 03

holidays and closures

The Center is closed for Labor Day


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Sun, Jul 22
02:00PM
Sun, Jul 22
02:00PM

architecture workshop

Tisha B'Av Temple Architecture Workshop

Ages 5 and up

Commemorate the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B’Av by learning about the history of the Temple and its precursor, the Mishkan. Build your own model of the Temple to take home.


Presented by:

architecture workshop

Thu, Jul 19
06:30PM
Thu, Jul 19
06:30PM

book signing & discussion

Fathers and Daughters: A Literary Journey

Join Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lucinda Franks and Wall Street Journal reporter Lucette Lagnado in a conversation about the deep, mysterious love between daughters and the fathers they've written about.

Sandee Brawarsky, book critic for The Jewish Week, will moderate the discussion.

THE MAN IN THE WHITE SHARKSKIN SUIT, by Lucette Lagnado, is about a Jewish family's exodus from Cairo to Paris to New York. Beautifully written, the memoir recreates the majesty and glamour of old Cairo, and the pain of exile in New York. Lucette Lagnado is married to Doug Feiden, an investigative reporter for the Daily News.

MY FATHER'S SECRET WAR, by Lucinda Franks, is a rich and riv-eting memoir about a reporter who unearths secrets in her father’s past that bring them together after decades of estrangement. The remote man that the author grew up with had in fact been a daring spy behind enemy lines in World War II, and had witnessed Nazi atrocities that he had promised never to reveal. Lucinda Franks is married to Rob-ert Morgenthau, New York CountyDistrict Attorney.


Presented by:

book signing & discussion

Thu, Jul 12
07:00PM
Thu, Jul 12
07:00PM

book signing & discussion

An Evening with Eugene Drucker

Mr. Drucker will play his violin (a Bach piece, for about 15 minutes), followed by a talk/reading, Q&A, and book signing.


Presented by:

book signing & discussion

Wed, Jul 11
06:30PM
Wed, Jul 11
06:30PM

film

Beyle Shekhter-Gottesman: Harbstlid

Beyle Shekhter-Gottesman: Harbstlid (Autumn Song)


Presented by:

film

Wed, Jul 04
Wed, Jul 04

holidays and closures

Happy Fourth of July!


Presented by:

holidays and closures

Wed, Jun 27
07:00PM
Wed, Jun 27
07:00PM

concert

Laurent d'Aumale Sings

Laurent d’Aumale sings songs of the famous Yiddish folkpoet, Mordechai Gebirtig


Presented by:

concert

Wed, Jun 20
06:00PM
Wed, Jun 20
06:00PM

exhibition opening

Recent Acquisitions

Recent Acquisitions will showcase materials that have found a new home at the LBI, thanks to the generosity of donors whose gifts have enhanced the rich mosaic that is German-Jewish culture. Among these new treasures: a photo of five sons from a German-Jewish family all of whom volunteered to serve on the front during World War I, papers from the Leopold Zunz family that offer new insights into the life of the man so closely connected to the Wissenschaft des Judentums, the scholarly study of Jewish culture and religion; a very rare 18th century German book on the horse trade, affording a glimpse into the world of cattle dealers, including a glossary of German-Jewish words that will enable the prospective non-Jewish buyer to engage the Jewish seller in an intelligent conversation.

A number of new oil paintings and portraits from the 19th and 20th centuries show men and women who left their mark on central European history: Benedikt Salomon Goldschmidt became the patriarch of a banking dynasty, whose network of descendants reached beyond his native Frankfurt to London and Naples; Julius Blumenthal was a prominent business man from Hamm, the last president of the Hamm synagogue, and ultimately a victim of the Holocaust. His portrait is by Max Westfeld, an artist who enjoyed great success in Düsseldorf, until he was forced out by the Nazis, and ended up in Nashville, Tennessee. The variety of documents, books and art objects suggest not only the rich culture of German-speaking Jewry of Central Europe but also the remarkable treasures of Leo Baeck Institute.


Presented by:

exhibition opening

Tue, Jun 19
07:00PM
Tue, Jun 19
07:00PM

tell memorial lecture

Lithuanian Yeshivot in Eastern Europe Between the Two World Wars

Ben-Tsiyon Klibansky (Tel Aviv University)


Presented by:

tell memorial lecture

Mon, Jun 18
06:00PM
Mon, Jun 18
06:00PM

exhibit opening and reception

Remembering Old Bukhara

In the mid-1980's , Roth traveled to Bukhara, the famous city along the Silk Road, and documented the people, traditions and daily life of the Jewish community there. An incredible people with a colorful 2,000 year history. The exhibition will include selected objects from the Bukharian Jewish Museum, the collections of the American Sephardi Federation, and a selection of photographs from the collection of Amnun Heifitz.

Reception Schedule:

6:00pm View the Exhibit
7:00pm Performance by the Maqam Ensemble
7:45pm Reception


Presented by:

exhibit opening and reception

Sun, Jun 17
01:00PM
Sun, Jun 17
01:00PM

tours, talks, workshops, and tasting

Worlds of our Fathers and Mothers

Activities include Gallery Talk, a garment factory workshop, a slide show of the Lower East Side, then and now. Featured guest speaker Sharon Lebewohl, daughter of Abe Lebewohl, legendary owner of the 2nd Avenue deli will discusses its history and special place in the hearts and stomachs of generations of New Yorkers.


Presented by:

tours, talks, workshops, and tasting

Thu, Jun 14
06:30PM
Thu, Jun 14
06:30PM

exhibition viewing/dance performance

A Jew in Poland

Risa Jaroslow performs her 1995 piece, A Jew in Poland, and will discuss how she developed the autobiographical choreography that combines dance with theater.


Presented by:

exhibition viewing/dance performance

Sun, Jun 10
12:00PM
Sun, Jun 10
12:00PM

film screening and discussion

Film Day: Jews in Poland, 1930's

Films shown include Children Must Laugh, Yiddle with his Fiddle, and Pre-World War II Polish-Jewish Travelogues

Guest Speaker: Sharon Pucker Rivo


Presented by:

film screening and discussion

Sun, Jun 10
05:30PM
Sun, Jun 10
05:30PM

annual spring concert

Music in Our Time: A Concert of Music by Contemporary Jewish Composers

Composers include Leo Kraft, Joel Mandelbaum, and Yehudi Wyner.


Presented by:

annual spring concert

Wed, Jun 06
06:00PM
Wed, Jun 06
06:00PM

lecture

Gerhard Sonnert: What Happened to the Children Who Fled Nazi Persecution

Nearly thirty thousand children and adolescents were among the refugees who fled from National Socialist persecution in Central Europe to the safety of the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. Despite arriving under disadvantageous and traumatic circumstances—without means, language skills, often without parents, and haunted by harrowing memories—many of these resilient young refugees became extraordinarily successful in the United States. In a fascinating new book, Gerhard Sonnert and Gerald Holton have researched the lives of these young people who contributed so much to America. Co-author Gerhard Sonnert, Sociologist of science in the Department of Physics at Harvard University, will talk on the fascinating conclusions of this ground-breaking analysis. Professor’s Sonnert’s most recent book is Einstein and Culture.


Presented by:

lecture

Sun, Jun 03
02:00PM
Sun, Jun 03
02:00PM

concert

A Special Performance from Marta Eggerth

Marta Eggerth was a child prodigy and remains a wonder of the 21st century. She was already one of the most popular stars of operetta movies in Germany and Austria when she made a film with the dashing singer and actor, Jan Kiepura. They fell in love, were married, and were welcomed through out Europe as a dazzling pair. After the Nazis came to power Marta’s Jewish extraction became an issue, leading them to emigrate to the United States. All these years later, Ms. Eggerth has not lost her voice, her glamour, or her popularity. Still singing to sold-out audiences. Leo Baeck Institute is delighted to host this concert for Ms. Eggerth.


Presented by:

concert

Mon, May 28
12:00AM
Mon, May 28
12:00AM

the center is closed

Happy Memorial Day!


Presented by:

the center is closed

Thu, May 24
12:00AM
Thu, May 24
12:00AM

the center is closed

Happy Shavuot!


Presented by:

the center is closed

Wed, May 23
12:00AM
Wed, May 23
12:00AM

the center is closed

Happy Shavuot!


Presented by:

the center is closed

Tue, May 22
02:00PM
Tue, May 22
02:00PM

early closure

Erev Shavuot


Presented by:

early closure

Sun, May 20
02:00PM
Sun, May 20
02:00PM

gallery talk

Illuminating the Torah

An accomplished illustrator and scholar discusses the materials and techniques he uses to produce beautifully rendered, realistic illustrations. With Rabbi Yonah Winrib.


Presented by:

gallery talk

Wed, May 16
07:00PM
Wed, May 16
07:00PM

discussion

Stories as Equipment for Living: Last Talks and Tales of Barbara Myerhoff

Join presenters Thomas Cole, Rose Dobrof, Marc Kaminsky, Penninah Schram, Mark Weiss, and Steve Zeitlin who will engage us with Myerhoff's stories and the profound impact she had through her extraordinary life and work.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish History, City Lore, Elders Share the Arts, and the Brookdale Center on Aging.


Presented by:

discussion

Tue, May 15
02:00PM
Tue, May 15
02:00PM

cjh graduate seminar program

A Drama of Faith and Family: Custody Disputes, Universalism, and Ethnicity in Post Liberation France

Daniella Doron, Ph.D. Candidate in History, and Hebrew and Judaic Studies, NYU presenting.

Edward Berenson, Professor of History and French Studies, and Director of the Institute of French Studies, NYU, responding.

CJH Graduate Seminars are conducted by:
Hasia Diner, Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor in American Jewish Studies, NYU

RSVP: via Email or by phone: (212) 294-8325


Presented by:

cjh graduate seminar program

Thu, May 10
07:00PM
Thu, May 10
07:00PM

book signing & discussion

Henry L. Feingold presents "Silent No More" Saving The Jews of Russia, The American Jewish Effort, 1967-1989

It is a remarkable story that three decades after the Holocaust, Jewish activists in America were instrumental in liberating the Jews of Russia. While Berlin in the 1930s strove to make itself Judenrein at any cost, the Soviets for thirty years tried to prevent Jews from leaving the country. Haunted by what it felt was its ineffectiveness during the Holocaust, a more confident generation of American Jews pulled the power levers to rescue its kin. This episode may well go down in history as American Jewry’s finest hour.

Henry Feingold is well known for his research on the rescue of German and Soviet Jewry and has written widely on themes in American Jewish history. He is Professor Emeritus of History at the Graduate Center of CUNY and Director of the Jewish Resource Center of Baruch College. He also chairs the Academic Review Committee of the newly organized Archives for Soviet Jewry of the AJHS.


Presented by:

book signing & discussion

Tue, May 08
07:30PM
Tue, May 08
07:30PM

jewish music forum

Kurt Weill's Kol Nidre and Jewish Memory

Prof. Tamara Levitz, UCLA

Prof. Levitz will explore Kurt Weill's use of the Kol Nidre melody in three Jewish works composed in American exile: The Eternal Road; We Will Never Die; and A Flag is Born.

Her lecture will be illustrated with a live music performance featuring rarely heard Judaic songs by Kurt Weill, sung by noted soloists, Vale Rideout, and Jeannie Im.


Presented by:

jewish music forum

Mon, May 07
07:30PM
Mon, May 07
07:30PM

blavatnik chamber concert series

The Opera So Stellar: Heinrich Heine in Music

The season finale of the Blavatnik Chamber Concert Series will examine the influence of Heinrich Heine and his poetry on 19th Century classical music through the powerful works of Schumann, Schubert, Grieg, and Beethoven. This final concert will feature the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble under the director of Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky. The performance will be preceded by a short presentation on Heine and his times.

This program is made possible through the generous support of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Blavatnik.


Presented by:

blavatnik chamber concert series

Thu, May 03
07:00PM
Thu, May 03
07:00PM

book presentation

The Mystery of the Kaddish

How did the Kaddish become the most famous and familiar prayer in Jewish liturgy? Author, Presidential advisor and television personality Leon Charney will discuss his new book which charts the origins and development of the Mourner's Prayer against the full backdrop of Jewish history.


Presented by:

book presentation

Wed, May 02
07:00PM
Wed, May 02
07:00PM

discussion

Hannah Arendt Rediscovered

Join Richard Bernstein, distinguished philosopher and Jerome Kohn, co-editor of this new volume for a fascinating discussion of Arendt's insights.

One of the most controversial political philosophers in recent memory, Hannah Arendt wrote a great deal about the fate of Jews in the twentieth century. The publication of The Jewish Writings, much of which has never appeared before, casts light on her perceptions of Jews and Jewishness.


Presented by:

discussion

Tue, May 01
07:00PM
Tue, May 01
07:00PM

lecture

Taking Care of Unfinished Business
The Max Stern Art Restitution Project

In the two years since the Stern Project began, public awareness of restitution matters has risen dramatically. Legal triumphs by the Bloch-Bauer and Goudstikker heirs combined with increased participation of major art institutions in addressing provenance problems have compelled the art trade to start accepting that these issues are not going away.

Dr. Clarence Epstein, who oversees the Stern Project, will give an illustrated talk on the international web of art collectors, museums, academics, auction houses and governments implicated in ongoing research, negotiations and settlements.


Presented by:

lecture

Mon, Apr 30
06:00PM
Mon, Apr 30
06:00PM

film screening

Last Stop Kew Gardens: A Film by Robert H. Lieberman

Hosted by Jerry Springer

The story of first generation American children who grew up and prospered despite the enormous losses of their immigrant parents. Novelist and film-maker Robert H. Lieberman returns to the boyhood hometown he once fled to explore what happened to the other kids like himself who grew up in the unique refugee community of Kew Gardens, Queens.

6 pm : Cocktails and hors d’ouevres
7 pm : Film Screening followed by Q&A with the Director The 7pm Screening is sold out.

Due to overwhelming demand a second showing has been added and will take place at 9:30 pm.

The 9:30pm Screening is also sold out.


Presented by:

film screening

Sun, Apr 29
12:00PM
Sun, Apr 29
12:00PM

new york festival of ideas

What's He Doing Here? Jesus in Jewish Culture

Jesus was a Jew, but Jews do not accept his divinity. In What's He Doing Here? Jesus in Jewish Culture, an all-star lineup of writers, critics, filmmakers, and scholars explores the legacy of this paradox from the Gospels to medieval martyr stories to the paintings of Chagall to Woody Allen and Sarah Silverman.

Presented by Nextbook and the Centro Primo Levi.

For more information visit the Festival Website.


Presented by:

new york festival of ideas

Thu, Apr 26
06:00PM
Thu, Apr 26
06:00PM

exhibition opening

Poets/Portraits: Works on Paper by Zvi Lachman, Tel Aviv

Poets will read poetry by Yehuda Amichai, Natan Zach and Dalia Ravikovitch. The program will be introduced by Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Emeritus), Yale University.


Presented by:

exhibition opening

Wed, Apr 25
01:00PM
Wed, Apr 25
01:00PM

cjh graduate seminar program

Before Memory Will Fade

Laura Jockusch, CJH Fellow 2006, Ph.D. candidate in History and Jewish Studies, NYU, presenting: Before Memory Will Fade: Jewish Historical Commissions and the Beginnings of Holocaust Research in Europe, 1943-1953.

Professor Atina Grossmann, Cooper Union, responding
Professor Hasia Diner, New York University, conducting


Presented by:

cjh graduate seminar program

Tue, Apr 24
06:30PM
Tue, Apr 24
06:30PM

Fiorello's Sister; Gemma's Brother

On the occasion of the publication of Fiorello's Sister: Gemma La Guardia Gluck's Story, the memoir by Gemma La Guardia Gluck, edited by Rochelle G. Saidel (Syracuse University Press). Opening remarks by Marjorie B. Tiven, Commissioner, City of New York. Speakers: Matilda Raffa Cuomo, Katherine LaGuardia, Rochelle G. Saidel. And a special appearance by Tony Lo Bianco presenting excerpts from the show Fiorello.

Public conversation, slide show, film, and radio clips exploring the early years of the La Guardia family; the political career of Fiorello La Guardia and his public and personal involvement with the American Anti-Nazi-Fascist campaigns, the Jewish Labor Committee, and civilian relief during and after World War II; and Gemma's experiences in Nazi Europe and afterward.

Mayor La Guardia's "Talks to the People" and "Comic Readings" on WNYC are a well-known part of New York City history. However, few people know that in July 1945 the "Little Flower" also used his public passion with the radio to connect to Berlin and speak with his sister Gemma, who had survived Ravensbrück concentration camp with her daughter and baby grandson. At the core of Gemma's memoir is her recollection of deportation as a political hostage of the Nazis, because of her famous brother. Her story is set against the backdrop of the Italian and Jewish stories of their parents, Triestine Irene Luzzatto Coen and Sicilian Achille La Guardia, their coming to the United States in 1880, the family's return to Trieste in 1898, and Fiorello's pursuit of his passion for politics.

For more information please visit the Centro Primo Levi.


Presented by:

Mon, Apr 23
06:00PM
Mon, Apr 23
06:00PM

lecture and book signing

An Evening with George Konrad

Join Acclaimed Essayist, Novelist, and Former International PEN President, George Konrad, as he discusses his new book A Guest In My Own Country: A Hungarian Life.

In this touching and poignant chronicle, Konrad explores the resilience of wit in the face of adversity through the lens of his own childhood. With A Guest in My Own Country, Konrad opens the door to the events that shaped his remarkable life and often seditious politics.


Presented by:

lecture and book signing

Sun, Apr 22
02:00PM
Sun, Apr 22
02:00PM

film

Did Herzl Really Say That?

American Series Premiere: Hebrew with English subtitles Post-screening discussion with filmmakers. Last year, Oren Harman and Yanay Ofran, two 30-something Jerusalemites now living in Tel Aviv, traveled across Israel and produced a series of films, asking hard questions about changing identities in Israeli society today. The Transparent Kipa explores the phenomenon of a growing number of Israelis who do not feel at home with observant Jews or the secular majority. Too worldly to lead a fully religious life, but too spiritually-minded to remain wholly secular,the people we meet in this episode will revisit a dichotomy that has defined Jewish society in Israel for many years. In O, My Homeland we encounter one of Israel's most complex national paradoxes. They speak impeccable Hebrew. They are intimately familiar with Israeli culture. But in their hearts they yearn for their brothers and sisters in the occupied terrorities. Feeling rejected by Israel because they are Arab and shunned by Palestinians because they are Israeli, this episode explores the young Arab citizens of Israel who are fighting for their place. Please visit the YIVO website for more information.


Presented by:

film

Sun, Apr 22
02:00PM
Sun, Apr 22
02:00PM

family workshops

The World of Rashi: Traders, Scholars, and Vikings

Ages 4 and up. A recreation of Rashi’s study in Troyes (France); the market in the Irish trading town of Limerick; and a two-and-a-half-foot model of a Viking trading ship (knorr) take us back to the year 1000, a time when all books were written by hand. While bold Vikings explored a world across the Atlantic previously unknown to them, Jewish traders provided a global commercial network. Visit a medieval market and handle typical commodities such as parchment, quills, reindeer hides, replicas of Viking chess pieces and medieval coins, especially struck for this exhibition. You will even board a Viking trading ship!


Presented by:

family workshops

Mon, Apr 16
06:00PM
Mon, Apr 16
06:00PM

roundtable discussion

Mediterranean Dialogues: Histories of Jewish-Muslim Coexistence

6:00 pm - Roundtable
7:30 pm - Mediterranean Buffet
8:15 pm - Gala Concert

Centro Primo Levi invites you to an evening dedicated to the cultures of the Mediterranean lands featuring Charles Manekin (Bar Ilan University), Miriam Goldstein (Hebrew University), Jessica Goldberg (University of Pennsylvania), moderator: Ross Brann (Cornell University), and performer Miriam Meghnagi. The evening begins with a conversation among fellows of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and is conceived to share with the general public their exploration of the historical crossover of imagery and ideas in Mediterranean lands, its relevance within academia, and its impact on the society at large.

The fellows have been involved for the past year with the prestigious CAJS programs that this year brought together experts from different disciplines who deal with aspects of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim life within pre-modern Islamic spheres of influence, seeking to broaden the perception of Islamic societies and foster new views of their religious, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. After the roundtable and a delightful Mediterranean buffet, a gala concert with the renowned Libyan Italian singer Miriam Meghnagi will draw the audience into the chants, melodies, and poetry of the Mediterranean shores. Meghnagi uses her virtuoso and contemporary take on languages and styles from Tripoli to Turkey, Yemen, Italy, Spain and back to North Africa, Safed, and Jerusalem, to explore the similarities among these cultures as well as their differences within a long historical conversation.

For more information visit the Centro Primo Levi.

Held in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in New York and the American Sephardi Federation.


Presented by:

roundtable discussion

Mon, Apr 16
07:00PM
Mon, Apr 16
07:00PM

workmen's circle/dr. emanuel patt memorial lecture

The People's Torah: Ansky and the Invention of Jewish Ethnography

Nathaniel Deutsch (Associate Professor of Religion, Swarthmore College)


Presented by:

workmen's circle/dr. emanuel patt memorial lecture

Tue, Apr 10
12:00PM
Tue, Apr 10
12:00PM

the center is closed

Happy Passover!

The Center is closed in observance of the Eighth Day of Passover.


Presented by:

the center is closed

Mon, Apr 09
12:00PM
Mon, Apr 09
12:00PM

the center is closed

Happy Passover!

The Center is closed in observance of the Seventh Day of Passover.


Presented by:

the center is closed

Sun, Apr 08
02:00PM
Sun, Apr 08
02:00PM

early closure

Happy Passover!

The Center is closed at 2:00pm today in observance of the Eve of the Last Day of Passover.


Presented by:

early closure

Wed, Apr 04
12:00PM
Wed, Apr 04
12:00PM

the center is closed

Happy Passover!

The Center is closed in observance of the Second Day of Passover.


Presented by:

the center is closed

Tue, Apr 03
12:00PM
Tue, Apr 03
12:00PM

the center is closed

Happy Passover!

The Center is closed in observance of the First Day of Passover.


Presented by:

the center is closed

Mon, Apr 02
01:30PM
Mon, Apr 02
01:30PM

early closure

Happy Passover!

The Center will close at 2:00pm today in observance of the Eve of Passover.


Presented by:

early closure

Sun, Apr 01
02:00PM
Sun, Apr 01
02:00PM

family workshops

Metal Embossing: Haggadah Cover

Ages 6 – 12. Create an embossed aluminum book cover to beautify your Haggadah or another book you treasure. Using a decorative technique common in silver Judaica, we will create raised designs for our book covers using metal tooling techniques. As a final touch, we will add faux gems. Remember to bring your book for measuring!


Presented by:

family workshops

Wed, Mar 28
07:00PM
Wed, Mar 28
07:00PM

Arguing the World: The Legacy of the New York Intellectuals

Film exerpts from PBS's Arguing the World and conversation with Michael Walzer, Nathan Glazer, and Ruth Wisse.

Co-sponsored with new voices magazine & Azure and the 36th Annual National Student Journalism Seminar.

For conference information email Ilana Sichel at or call 212 675-1168.


Presented by:

Tue, Mar 27
09:30AM
Tue, Mar 27
09:30AM

conference

Immigration and Cultural Exchange: German Jewish Presences in the U.S. and in Post Cold War Germany

A conference sponsored jointly by the Center for European Studies, New York University; and Leo Baeck Institute, New York

This conference will focus on the impact of Jewish refugees from Germany and Central Europe on American culture, society and scholarship. The first day of the conference will address the issue of how the refugees and the following generations were shaped by the American environment. The second day will examine immigration and cultural exchange in the context of the growing Jewish community in contemporary Germany, including their dialogue with the Turkish minority in Germany, and their interaction with American Jews studying German-Jewish issues in Berlin.

Day 3

Panel 4: Americans addressing German Jewish Issues in Berlin

Panel 5: German and Russian Jews – Cultural Encounter, Social Intergration

Panel 6: German Jews as a Model: A Jewish – Turkish Dialogue

Concluding Remarks: Anson Rabinbach


Presented by:

conference

Mon, Mar 26
09:00AM
Mon, Mar 26
09:00AM

conference

Immigration and Cultural Exchange: German Jewish Presences in the U.S. and in Post Cold War Germany

A conference sponsored jointly by the Center for European Studies, New York University; and Leo Baeck Institute, New York

This conference will focus on the impact of Jewish refugees from Germany and Central Europe on American culture, society and scholarship. The first day of the conference will address the issue of how the refugees and the following generations were shaped by the American environment. The second day will examine immigration and cultural exchange in the context of the growing Jewish community in contemporary Germany, including their dialogue with the Turkish minority in Germany, and their interaction with American Jews studying German-Jewish issues in Berlin.

Day 2

Panel 1: Personal and Historical Reflections on Immigration and Transformation in Different Countries of Refuge

Panel 2: Cultural experiences of German Jewish refugees and their impact on Culture, Society, and Scholarship in the U.S.

Panel 3: Refugee's Impact on Professions, Welfare System, and Popular Culture

Round Table Discussion: Media, Business, and Politics

Robin Hirsch Perfomance: "Last Days at the Hotel Kempinsky"


Presented by:

conference

Sun, Mar 25
11:00AM
Sun, Mar 25
11:00AM

conference

Uriel Weinreich: The Father of Yiddish Scholarship in America

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is holding an academic symposium in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the death of Uriel Weinreich, an exploration of the legacy of this premier scholar of Yiddish linguistics in America. The “state of the art” in varied arenas of Yiddish scholarship in America will be probed with reference to Weinreich’s singular contributions.

Uriel Weinreich (1926-1967) was the leader in the field of Yiddish language and linguistics in America, and indeed was instrumental in contouring an academic “field” in this sphere where none existed in this country. He is the father of modern Yiddish studies in American universities. In his short life, Weinreich made watershed contributions to Yiddish language (notably his Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary), education (the groundbreaking College Yiddish, a model text that first appeared in 1949 and is now in its 51st printing used by over 50 universities, written when Weinreich was just twenty years old), and Yiddish literature and culture.


Presented by:

conference

Sun, Mar 25
03:00PM
Sun, Mar 25
03:00PM

gallery talk

A Talent of Pure Gold: Artist Barbara Wolff

Medieval manuscripts offer us a visual entry into the miniature worlds of flowers, fruits and landscapes. New York artist Barbara Wolff creates a Jewish miniature world in her illuminated manuscripts on display in the exhibition, "A Talent of Pure Gold." The artist will speak about her process of using medieval and Renaissance artists' techniques and materials, including burnished gold on vellum. The program includes a short film showing Wolff recreating two unfinished pages in the Jewish Theological Seminary's 700-year-old Prato Haggadah, using the materials, colors and techniques of the 14th century.


Presented by:

gallery talk

Sun, Mar 25
04:00PM
Sun, Mar 25
04:00PM

family workshops

Women's History Month - Garment Factory Workshop

Ages 6 and up. The garment industry in New York has always relied on young immigrant women to work in its factories. The huge immigration to America at the end of the 19th century is one of the reasons that New York City became a center for the garment industry. This workshop offers you the chance to experience what "piece-work" was like. Try out the foot-pedal on our antique Singer sewing machine, and work in a team with other piece-workers to mass-produce denim utility aprons resembling the blue jeans pioneered by entrepreneur Levi Strauss. Each participant will take one home!


Presented by:

family workshops

Sun, Mar 25
05:00PM
Sun, Mar 25
05:00PM

conference

Immigration and Cultural Exchange: German Jewish Presences in the U.S. and in Post Cold War Germany

A conference sponsored jointly by the Center for European Studies, New York University; and Leo Baeck Institute, New York

This conference will focus on the impact of Jewish refugees from Germany and Central Europe on American culture, society and scholarship. The first day of the conference will address the issue of how the refugees and the following generations were shaped by the American environment. The second day will examine immigration and cultural exchange in the context of the growing Jewish community in contemporary Germany, including their dialogue with the Turkish minority in Germany, and their interaction with American Jews studying German-Jewish issues in Berlin.

Keynote Address: Michael Blumenthal


Presented by:

conference

Fri, Mar 23
12:30PM
Fri, Mar 23
12:30PM

yiddish language seminar

Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Kotsk Rebbe

Jonathan Boyarin (Professor of Modern Jewish Studies, University of Kansas)


Presented by:

yiddish language seminar

Sun, Mar 18
02:00PM
Sun, Mar 18
02:00PM

jewish genealogical society monthly meeting

Remembrance of Synagogues Past: The Lost Civilization of the Jewish South Bronx

Speakers: Seymour J. Perlin, Ed.D. and Rita Perlin, Ph.D


Presented by:

jewish genealogical society monthly meeting

Sun, Mar 18
02:00PM
Sun, Mar 18
02:00PM

family workshops

The World of Rashi: Traders, Scholars, and Vikings

Ages 4 and up. A recreation of Rashi’s study in Troyes (France); the market in the Irish trading town of Limerick; and a two-and-a-half-foot model of a Viking trading ship (knorr) take us back to the year 1000, a time when all books were written by hand. While bold Vikings explored a world across the Atlantic previously unknown to them, Jewish traders provided a global commercial network. Visit a medieval market and handle typical commodities such as parchment, quills, reindeer hides, replicas of Viking chess pieces and medieval coins, especially struck for this exhibition. You will even board a Viking trading ship!


Presented by:

family workshops

Fri, Mar 09
10:30AM
Fri, Mar 09
10:30AM

jewish music forum

The Media and the Messenger: Transforming the Cantor's Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Dr. Jeffrey Shandler, Rutgers University

Respondents: Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York University, and Dr. Mark Slobin, Wesleyan University
Co-sponsor: Working Group on Jews/Media/Religion at the Center for Religion and Media, New York University

Jeffrey Shandler, a scholar of modern Jewish culture and associate professor at Rutgers University, will discuss how American cantors' interactions with new media of the past century transformed their art and their stature as performers. Their engagement with sound recordings, sheet music, motion pictures, and radio and television broadcasting created new possibilities for cantors that tested the limits of their traditional role as shliah tsibur (communal messenger). Of special interest is how cantors have become subjects of mediations, especially in narratives in which the cantor's life and career figure as exemplary tales of the encounter of Jewish tradition with the challenges of modernity.


Presented by:

jewish music forum

Wed, Mar 07
06:30PM
Wed, Mar 07
06:30PM

lecture

Come to Eretz Israel! Tourism and Hotel Architecture in British Mandate Palestine

During the British Mandate in Palestine, travelers who visited Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa were treated to grand Art Deco architecture and a warm welcome. Daniella Ohad Smith takes us on a visual journey through the lobbies and around the grand exteriors of hotels in Palestine where Jewish architects and tourism promoters created an experience designed to encourage settlement (aliyah) and support for the Zionist cause. Dr. Ohad Smith is a faculty member in the department of Architecture, Interior Design, and Lighting at Parsons School of Design.


Presented by:

lecture

Sun, Mar 04
02:00PM
Sun, Mar 04
02:00PM

a renaissance purim fest

Purim Family Workshop and Fest

The program includes an afternoon family workshop open to children and adults of all ages and designed as a journey into the sounds, songs, and imagery of a Renaissance Purim Fest. Period instruments, multi-language story-telling, and a touch of that Italian-Jewish theater that once went from Florence to Shakespearean England, will change forever the way in which we celebrate Queen Esther.

For more information visit the Centro Primo Levi.


Presented by:

a renaissance purim fest

Sun, Mar 04
07:30PM
Sun, Mar 04
07:30PM

a renaissance purim fest

La Istoria de Purim: Music and Poetry of the Jews in Renaissance Italy

This unprecedented Purim treat is part of the Centro Primo Levi's public programs on Italian Jewish history, and is the ensemble's first stop in an eight-concert tour with a program that has delighted audiences and critics alike in thirty-five concerts from Paris to Budapest.

The repertoire, vast and entertaining, includes music originating in a fertile crossover of cultural forms and ideas, that became the shaping principle of the history and distinguished intellectual output of Italian Jewry. Drawing on a variety of coexisting Italian sources, including Judeo-Italian poetry; Yiddish and Hebrew literary canons; the liturgical oral and written traditions of the communities of Northern and Central Italy; and the instrumental and vocal music of the era, Lucidarium attempts to recreate the soundscape of Jewish life in 16th Century Italy.

For more information visit the Centro Primo Levi.


Presented by:

a renaissance purim fest

Wed, Feb 28
07:00PM
Wed, Feb 28
07:00PM

winter wednesdays: "a century of film on the lower east side"

Arguing the World

New York's City College, during the 1930s, was a hotbed of Jewish intellectualism. This film tells the story, and follows the careers, of four of the greatest minds to emerge from that environment -- Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, Irving Howe, and Irving Kristol -- and provides a powerful record both of American intellectual history and of the peculiar role of a generation of Jewish thinkers in shaping that history.

Director: Joseph Dorman
USA, 1998. 106 mins

Guest Speaker: Dr. Henry Feingold, Director, Jewish Resource Center, Baruch College; Professor of History, Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY.


Presented by:

winter wednesdays: "a century of film on the lower east side"

Wed, Feb 21
07:00PM
Wed, Feb 21
07:00PM

winter wednesdays: "a century of film on the lower east side"

Crossing Delancey

Isabelle (Amy Irving) manages a New York City bookstore and her life revolves around the intellectual friends she meets there. She is trying to resolve the conflict she feels between her desire to fit into this “urbane” environment, and her more down-to-earth traditional Jewish upbringing. Her grandmother (Reizl Bozyk), unhappy with her unmarried status, intervenes, and contracts a matchmaker (Sylvia Miles) to introduce her to a nice Jewish man. Isabelle reluctantly agrees to date pickle salesman, Sam Posner, but the situation forces her to rethink some of her assumptions.

Director: Joan Micklin Silver
USA, 1988. 97 mins.

Guest Speaker: Beth Wenger, Katz Family Associate Professor of American Jewish History at University of Pennsylvania.


Presented by:

winter wednesdays: "a century of film on the lower east side"

Tue, Feb 20
07:00PM
Tue, Feb 20
07:00PM

lecture

Are We a People: The Anomalies of Jewish Identity

A People and Community of Faith; a Unique Coincidence of Nation and Religion

Considered one of America's pre-eminent political thinkers, Michael Walzer will offer new insights into age-old, provocative questions. How does being both affect how Jews describe and define themselves to themselves and others? In the diaspora and Israel, are the descriptions different? Given the new realities of the 21st century, what difficulties arise from these differences?


Presented by:

lecture

Mon, Feb 19
12:00PM
Mon, Feb 19
12:00PM

the center is closed

Happy Presidents' Day!

CJH is closed in honor of Presidents' Day.


Presented by:

the center is closed

Fri, Feb 16
10:30AM
Fri, Feb 16
10:30AM

jewish music forum

Sephardic Music on Record: A Century of Commercial Ladino Recordings

Professor Edwin Seroussi, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and Joel Bresler, independent researcher and discographer.

Respondent: Dr. Virginia Danielson, Harvard University. Co-sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation.


Presented by:

jewish music forum

Wed, Feb 14
07:30PM
Wed, Feb 14
07:30PM

The Blavatnik Chamber Concert Series on Jewish Influences in the Classical Music of the 19th Century: Music of Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was one of the greatest composers of the nineteenth century. Brahms was hailed as an heir to the romantic classicism of Felix Mendelssohn and the champion of the classical tradition against the modernity of Richard Wagner. Brahms’s circle of friends, associates, and benefactors included great musicians, intellectuals, and philanthropists of Jewish extraction, most notably Joseph Joachim, Eduard Hanslick, and Carl Wittgenstein. This concert is a part of the Blavatnik Chamber Concert Series performed by Phoenix Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky. The concert will be preceded by a short presentation on the life and times of Johannes Brahms.


Presented by:

Mon, Feb 12
07:00PM
Mon, Feb 12
07:00PM

max weinreich center: hort memorial lecture

Dervayterte shtifbrider - Yiddish Modernism and the Zionist State

Itay Zutra, Doctoral candidate, Jewish Literature, Jewish Theological Seminary


Presented by:

max weinreich center: hort memorial lecture

Sun, Feb 11
01:00PM
Sun, Feb 11
01:00PM

Lower East Side Day

Join us for an afternoon of activities – docent tours, video screening, discussion on the Lower East Side with a scholar -- related to the current exhibition, A Photographic Study of the Lower East Side: 1934.


Presented by:

Wed, Feb 07
06:30PM
Wed, Feb 07
06:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

A Voice without a Face - Maktub Aleikh

Assaf Basson’s personal documentary is a tribute to his father, an Iraqi Jew who led a double life in Israel as a renowned singer of Arabic music and an agent for Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad. Known by his stage name, Magdi, Yitzhak Basson was forbidden to expose his true identity and for years performed only on the radio in order to maintain his anonymity.


Presented by:

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Wed, Feb 07
08:30PM
Wed, Feb 07
08:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Something Sweet/Mashehu Matok

A heartwarming romantic tale of inopportune love, Something Sweet is a frothy mélange centered on a love triangle between a beautiful Jewish-Moroccan pastry chef, her soon to be married younger sister, and the sister's handsome fiancé from London. Set against the backdrop of a small village in Northern Israel, mysterious superstitions, Moroccan ethnic music and sweet delicacies are intricately knotted into the triangle love affair and the tightly woven relationships.


Presented by:

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Tue, Feb 06
06:30PM
Tue, Feb 06
06:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Jews of Iran/Joden uit Iran

A Muslim-Iranian director, Ramin Farahani, turns the camera on his Jewish compatriots. His revealing documentary takes a voyeuristic look behind the veil that covers Iran, showing what remains of Iranian Jewry after the dramatic events of the 1979 revolution and the current marginalization. The film provides rare access into a community that is still thriving, despite the hard circumstances, in Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tehran.


Presented by:

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Tue, Feb 06
06:30PM
Tue, Feb 06
06:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Shalom Asmara

Shalom Asmara documents the untold story of the Jews of Eritrea, in western Africa. At the turn of the 20th century, Jews from the southern Arabian Peninsula and the coasts of the Mediterranean settled Asmara, then under Italian rule. They once formed a strong local community, but by 1975 few of them were left. Today, their story is preserved with jealous nostalgia by the elders and by followers of other religions.


Presented by:

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Tue, Feb 06
09:00PM
Tue, Feb 06
09:00PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Gorgeous/Comme t’y es belle!

French director Liza Azuelos’ debut romantic comedy traces the misadventures of four deliciously sassy and exuberant women living in Paris, bound by friendship and their Moroccan Sephardic heritage. With wit and levity, they deliver insight into the daily struggles of family, friendship and love, masterfully juggling child-raising, endless dieting, complicated love affairs, and illegal immigrant nannies needing work permits. Always beautiful, always funny, always together, they try, above all, to always be themselves.


Presented by:

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Mon, Feb 05
06:30PM
Mon, Feb 05
06:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Kululush

Set deep in an Iraqi-Jewish neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Kululush is the story of two brothers, Avi and Ronnen, who play out the tension between responsibility to tribe and self, against the background of the pillars of modern Israeli society: family, café, synagogue, and soccer field. Avi’s world shifts when his brother returns from Europe, a middle-aged shadow of the one-time soccer star.


Presented by:

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Mon, Feb 05
08:30PM
Mon, Feb 05
08:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Something Sweet/Mashehu Matok

A heartwarming romantic tale of inopportune love, Something Sweet is a frothy mélange centered on a love triangle between a beautiful Jewish-Moroccan pastry chef, her soon to be married younger sister, and the sister's handsome fiancé from London. Set against the backdrop of a small village in Northern Israel, mysterious superstitions, Moroccan ethnic music and sweet delicacies are intricately knotted into the triangle love affair and the tightly woven relationships.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Sun, Feb 04
12:00PM
Sun, Feb 04
12:00PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

A Voice without a Face - Maktub Aleikh

Assaf Basson’s personal documentary is a tribute to his father, an Iraqi Jew who led a double life in Israel as a renowned singer of Arabic music and an agent for Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad. Known by his stage name, Magdi, Yitzhak Basson was forbidden to expose his true identity and for years performed only on the radio in order to maintain his anonymity.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Sun, Feb 04
02:00PM
Sun, Feb 04
02:00PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Kululush

Set deep in an Iraqi-Jewish neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Kululush is the story of two brothers, Avi and Ronnen, who play out the tension between responsibility to tribe and self, against the background of the pillars of modern Israeli society: family, café, synagogue, and soccer field. Avi’s world shifts when his brother returns from Europe, a middle-aged shadow of the one-time soccer star.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Sun, Feb 04
07:00PM
Sun, Feb 04
07:00PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Three Mothers/Shalosh Imahot

Winner of the 2006 Jerusalem International Film Festival and nominated for Best Picture, Israeli Academy Awards, Three Mothers is the extraordinary saga of a Sephardic family, from King Farouk’s Egypt to modern Israel, spanning three generations. Born in Alexandria, the triplets Rose, Yasmin and Flora lead lives shrouded in secret and deadly deceit. The film stars one of Israel’s most acclaimed performers, Gila Almagor.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Sat, Feb 03
07:30PM
Sat, Feb 03
07:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Salonika, City of Silence/Salonique, ville du silence

In his roots journey to Salonika, Maurice Amaraggi explores the port city that once was a thriving cosmopolitan Jewish center, until its Sephardic community was destroyed in the Holocaust. Today’s mix of new immigrants and buildings ­– including a University, built over a Jewish cemetery of 10,000 graves – hides a rich and dark past. The Sephardic history of Salonika is so completely buried, that even the ghosts do not have anywhere to wander.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Sat, Feb 03
09:30PM
Sat, Feb 03
09:30PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Gorgeous/Comme t’y es belle!

French director Liza Azuelos’ debut romantic comedy traces the misadventures of four deliciously sassy and exuberant women living in Paris, bound by friendship and their Moroccan Sephardic heritage. With wit and levity, they deliver insight into the daily struggles of family, friendship and love, masterfully juggling child-raising, endless dieting, complicated love affairs, and illegal immigrant nannies needing work permits. Always beautiful, always funny, always together, they try, above all, to always be themselves.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Thu, Feb 01
07:00PM
Thu, Feb 01
07:00PM

11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Opening Night: Three Mothers/Shalosh Imahot

The annual cinematic exploration of Sephardic Jewish history, cultures and traditions returns for the 11th season with screenings of critically acclaimed feature films and documentaries, U.S. premieres, and conversations with filmmakers.

Striving to move the Sephardic heritage away from exoticism and into mainstream Jewish and American culture, this year’s festival will focus on the Sephardic voices in Israeli Cinema. The Israeli industry champions the international scene producing successful films that often depict characters and themes contrasting with the common stereotypes about Jewish culture outside the Western world.

Three Mothers/Shalosh Imahot
Winner of the 2006 Jerusalem International Film Festival and nominated for Best Picture, Israeli Academy Awards, Three Mothers is the extraordinary saga of a Sephardic family, from King Farouk’s Egypt to modern Israel, spanning three generations. Born in Alexandria, the triplets Rose, Yasmin and Flora lead lives shrouded in secret and deadly deceit. The film stars one of Israel’s most acclaimed performers, Gila Almagor.

For full details on films, speakers and tickets call 212-294-8350.


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11th sephardic jewish film festival in new york

Tue, Jan 30
07:00PM
Tue, Jan 30
07:00PM

reading

Voices From Salvaged Pages

Storyteller, Peninnah Schram, Professor of Speech and Drama, Yeshiva University’s Stern College, will introduce an afternoon of inspired readings from the Holocaust diaries of young adults who documented their day-to-day struggle to survive. The first person narratives were collected by author, Alexandra Zapruder, and published in her award-winning book, Salvaged Pages: Diaries of the Holocaust. The author and selected Yeshiva University students will read.


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reading

Sun, Jan 28
02:30PM
Sun, Jan 28
02:30PM

commemoration

Giorno Della Memoria

Presented by the Centro Primo Levi, New York University Casa Italiana Zerilli Marim�, and the Italian Cultural Institute, under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy. Since the year 2000, the day in which the Soviet army entered Auschwitz has been chosen by many European countries to commemorate the victims of the Shoah and to combat xenophobia. The Commemoration was initially supported and ratified by the French chairmanship of the International Task Force for Holocaust Remembrance, the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, and the European Ministers of Education. In 2006 it has been recognized by the United Nations.


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commemoration

Sun, Jan 21
02:00PM
Sun, Jan 21
02:00PM

The Voice of the People: The Bialystoker Stimme and the Landsmanshaft Press as a Genealogical Research Tool

Speaker: Rebecca Kobrin, the Knapp Assistant Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University. Jewish Genealogical Society and Center Genealogy Institute.

(RSVP: 212.294.8326 / email)


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Tue, Jan 16
07:00PM
Tue, Jan 16
07:00PM

discussion

Galicia Mon Amour: Leon Wieseltier in conversation with Daniel Mendelsohn

Leon Wieseltier, author of Kaddish, and Literary Editor, The New Republic; Daniel Mendelsohn, author of THE LOST: A Search for Six Of Six Million, and Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities, Bard College.

For the first time last fall, Leon Wieseltier travelled to the remains of his parents' towns in Galicia. As it happens, Daniel Mendelsohn's family, also largely destroyed in the Holocaust, came from a town only a short distance away. These two distinguished Galicianers will discuss the torments and the exhilarations of their pilgrimages to the past, and compare notes on the ruins of their common origins.

Please Note: Only Simulcast Seats are available for this event. All Auditorium Seating is completely SOLD OUT. The Simulcast Seats will be set up outside of the auditorium and you will be able to view the lecture live via video feed in its entirety on a large screen. These tickets will be discounted at $10 for adults/seniors and $5 for students.


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discussion

Sun, Jan 14
12:00PM
Sun, Jan 14
12:00PM

Puppet Festival (Ages 5 and up)

Bracha Ghilai’s handcrafted puppets, on display in the exhibition, At the Altar of Her Memories, are examples of a Central European tradition of puppet-making and performance which was brought to Israel. This program includes family workshops, demonstrations, film and gallery tours. Performances by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, Chinese Theatre Works, and the Greek Shadow Puppet Theater.


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Fri, Jan 12
12:00PM
Fri, Jan 12
12:00PM

yiddish language seminar

Hersh Gros and his Boyberik Band � The First Klezmer Revival?

Jeffrey Wollock, Professor of English and Performance Studies, Texas A&M University


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yiddish language seminar

Tue, Jan 09
06:00PM
Tue, Jan 09
06:00PM

gallery talk

Valentin Lustig and Art After Auschwitz

Artist Valentin Lustig will speak about his work in the exhibition, The Holocaust Paintings of Valentin Lustig. The artist, born in Cluj after WWII, portrays the pre-war landscapes of his native Romania haunted by Holocaust victims. Andrew Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Art History, Fashion Institute of Technology, will introduce Lustig and discuss how the artist’s surrealist paintings relate to the work of other contemporary artists whose work deals with the Holocaust.


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gallery talk

Mon, Jan 08
07:00PM
Mon, Jan 08
07:00PM

max weinreich center: racolin memorial lecture

Jewish Life in Kiev at the Turn of the 20th Century

Victoria Khiterer, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Central Arkansas; Doctoral candidate, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University.


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max weinreich center: racolin memorial lecture