holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, December 26 for Christmas.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, December 25 and Monday, December 26 for Christmas.
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holidays and closures
panel discussion
YIVO, Liberalism & the Jewish Response to Fascism
Founded in 1925 in Vilna (Lithuania, then Poland), YIVO is the only Jewish Institution of Eastern Europe to survive both the Holocaust and Soviet occupations. From its early years in the ‘20s to its looting by the Nazis in 1941, YIVO experienced and responded to the profound political, social, and spiritual transformations taking place throughout Eastern Europe, Russia, and the West. Under enormous political duress and organizational strain, the YIVO Institute maintained the integrity of its mission, and survived the war.
In light of recent political events in the United States, the question of how organizations and inpiduals respond to the emergence of authoritarianism—how we as a society maintain our integrity, both ethical and intellectual—is more pressing than ever. How, then, did YIVO respond to the rise of Fascist and nationalist movements in the ‘20s and ‘30s? What was the response of Jewish intellectuals then, and what parallels can be drawn to today?
Join us for a panel discussion with Paul Berman, Cecile Kuznitz, and Richard Wolin, moderated by Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s Executive Director, as we consider the perse responses to the emergence of Fascism throughout the 20th century—and on into the present.
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panel discussion
concert
Yuval Waldman 70th Birthday Concert Celebration
On the occasion of his 70th birthday, violinist and champion of Jewish music Yuval Waldman play a recital-lecture of works by Jewish composers which he commissioned or gave the premiere performance of. The program includes Thoughts and Feelings, a never before heard work by Joachim Stutschewsky which Stutschewsky wrote in 1981 at the age of 90, Variations on "Hatikvah" by Yehiel Goyzman, Waltz from an Unknown Country by Paul Alan Levi (U.S. Premiere), the world premiere of a new work by Alex Weiser, and Fantasy on "Jerusalem of Gold" by Yuval Waldman himself. All of the living composers were in attendance to introduce their works and celebrate this occasion at YIVO.
Program
Fantasy on “Jerusalem of Gold” – Yuval Waldman (1946- )
Thoughts and Feelings – Joachim Stutschewsky (1891-1982)
Waltz from an Unknown Country – Paul Alan Levi (1941- )
Premiere – Alex Weiser (1989- )
Variations on “Hatikvah” – Yehiel Goyzman (1849-1913)
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concert
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
DNA Leads an Adopted Daughter to her Birth Mother: Kelly's Story
Speakers: Karen Franklin and Kelly Moore
Kelly Moore, raised Catholic in Albany, NY, was told at an early age that she was adopted. In her mid-twenties, she starting searching for her birth parents. A simple FamilyTree DNA test yielded surprising results - she had many Jewish matches and one extremely close match. Karen Franklin was able to provide Kelly with extensive research about her family. Karen and Kelly will discuss the DNA analysis and matching methodology and share the story of Kelly's reunion with her birth parents.
Karen Franklin is director of Family Research at the Leo Baeck Institute, and is active in Jewish Genealogy and Jewish Museums. Kelly Moore has a B.A. in Sociology and a long held interest in genealogy, and is an aspiring search angel. Kelly has developed an extensive background in DNA analysis related to adoption.
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jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
music performance and special reception
Sigd: An Ethiopian Jewish Celebration
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music performance and special reception
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
Reclaim the Records: Using Freedom of Information Laws for Genealogical and Archival Research
Brooke Schreier Ganz, founder of Reclaim The Records, states:
“Tired of being told by archives, libraries, and government agencies that the records they hold are "unavailable" to the public, only available behind a paywall, or only available to view if you can visit them onsite? We were too, so we figured out how to do something about it.
We're Reclaim The Records, a new not-for-profit activist group. We use state Freedom of Information (FOI) laws to obtain copies of previously-inaccessible archival record sets, which we then freely post online, without any copyrights or usage restrictions. Our work has enabled the first-ever public access to millions of archival records from New York and New Jersey, from marriage records to registered voter lists to tax rolls. We started with a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York in 2015 -- and won! -- and are now spreading our legal work to other cities and states.
This presentation will walk through the history and legal basics of FOI laws, and will teach researchers how to file their own state FOI requests for any genealogical or archival records they may want to see returned to the public domain.”
Presented by:
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
curator's tour
Odessa: Babel, Ladyzhensky, and the Soul of a City
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curator's tour
book talk
Klezmer: Music, History and Memory
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book talk
lecture
The Yiddish Theater in America and Poland between the Two World Wars
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lecture
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
GenealogyIndexer.org: Searching Historical European Directories and Other Sources
GenealogyIndexer.org is a free website where you can search more than 800,000 pages of historical European directories (business, address, telephone), Yizkor books, Polish and Russian military documents, community and personal histories, Galician secondary school reports, and more. Containing millions of personal names – often with towns, street addresses, and occupations, and sometimes with vital dates or patronymics – this huge collection is mostly comprised of data not searchable elsewhere. Logan Kleinwaks, the website’s creator, will provide an overview of the more than 2,000 sources, primarily from 1844 to 1942, with a focus on newly added sources and new search functionality. He will also discuss the use of directories in a recently-announced restitution process for Warsaw properties.
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family history today: genealogy programs at the center
workshop
Hanukkah Craft Workshop
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workshop
concert
The Annual Chanukah Concert
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concert
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
How to Design and Construct a Family History Book Entirely by Yourself
There is probably no gift that can have greater impact on future generations than the book of your family history and stories. We all have spent considerable amounts of time gathering genealogical and historical materials and information. How do we take this mass of stuff and share it with our family?
While there are many professional editing and book design firms available to help you create your family history book, their fees can be expensive and they often have a limited set of templates they prefer to use. With today’s self-publishing software and digital printing vendors, taking a do-it-yourself approach to the entire process is an alternative worth considering. Elayne and Steve Denker, who have self-published four family history books, will discuss the practicalities of how to design and construct your family history book, including organization, page layout, aesthetics, and document reproduction.
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family history today: genealogy programs at the center
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
Workshop: Mapping your Family History
The Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute recently launched a searchable online map of New York’s historical synagogues (synagoguemap.cjh.org). Moriah Amit, the Institute’s senior reference librarian, will provide a tutorial on how to use this map to identify the synagogue(s) your immigrant ancestors most likely attended. She will then demonstrate how you can create your own map of locations relevant to your family history using Google Maps. Please bring a list of towns, such as your ancestors’ birthplaces, or specific addresses, such as your ancestors’ places of residence, to use during the guided practice portion of this workshop. If you do not already have a Google account, please create one in advance at accounts.google.com and bring your username and password.
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family history today: genealogy programs at the center
music
Yiddish Open Mic
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music
book talk
Leopold Zunz: Creativity in Adversity
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book talk
symposium
The Flavor of Jewish Life: An Exploration of Cooking, Culture and International Connection
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symposium
reading and discussion
Have I Got a Story for You
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reading and discussion
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
No Shushing Allowed: A Library Social Hour
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family history today: genealogy programs at the center
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
Genealogy Research at the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwartzman Building
A lecture at the Center for Jewish History
as part of the Family History Today series.
The New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is home to one of the largest research collections in the United States, making it an essential resource for genealogists everywhere. Philip Sutton, reference librarian at the Schwarzman Building’s Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, and Genealogy, will provide an orientation to family history source materials in the various research divisions of the Schwarzman Building.
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family history today: genealogy programs at the center
concert
Phoenix Favorites: Music by Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms
The Phoenix Chamber Ensemble will perform Beethoven’s "Ghost" Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No.1, Schubert’s Fantasie for violin and piano D934, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in C minor. Cyrus Beroukhim - violin; Andrew Gonzales - viola; Coleman Itzkoff - cello; Inessa Zaretsky and Vassa Shevel - piano.
This program is made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the Stravinsky Institute Foundation.
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concert
curator's tour
out of the whirlwind: Hugh Mesibov’s Book of Job
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curator's tour
lecture
We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern Jewish Communities
- scholarly, first-person reflections by award-winning writers Lucette Lagnado (The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World) and André Aciman (Out of Egypt)
- exhibition by Leslie Starobin (The Last Address, a multi-year, photo-montage and oral history and book project exploring the enduring texture of memory and culture in the lives of Sephardic families from dispersed Jewish communities, including Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon)
- exhibition by Zion Ozeri/David Suissa (who are presenting photographs that capture the last remnants of once vibrant Jewish communities in Yemen, Tunisia, and Morocco, as well as the perpetuation and reinterpretation of Sephardi traditions in Israel today)
- exclusive Diarna: Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life digital documentation on endangered sites and the last primary source generation
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lecture
lecture
Israel in Three Anthems
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lecture
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Friday, November 25 for Thanksgiving.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25 for Thanksgiving.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center will close at 2pm on Wednesday, November 23. It will remain closed Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25 for Thanksgiving.
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holidays and closures
celebration
Norman Manea Celebration
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celebration
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
Family Secrets, Jewish-Christian Relations and the Holocaust
Speakers: Professor Katharina von Kellenbach and Pastor Heidi Neumark
Professor von Kellenbach and Pastor Neumark are Lutheran theologians whose families carefully disguised their connections to Jews and Judaism. Both families tried to rebuild lives by disassociating and denying the trauma and guilt of the Holocaust. Neumark accidentally discovered that she was descended from a prominent Jewish German family and that her grandfather was murdered in a concentration camp. Von Kellenbach became inadvertently aware that her uncle belonged to the SS and was tried for the mass murder of the Jews in Pinsk, Belarus.These revelations compelled both speakers to go on a journey of discovery that led them through archives across several countries and into Jewish-Christian and Jewish-German dialogue.
Heidi Neumark is a graduate of Brown University and Lutheran Theological Seminary. She is the pastor of the multicultural, multilingual Trinity Lutheran Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side. In her book, "Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory and Faith", she tells of her discovery of her previously unknown German-Jewish ancestry, as well as antisemitism in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Katharina von Kellenbach is a Professor of Religious Studies at St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Honors College of the State of Maryland. She completed her PhD at Temple University. Her areas of expertise include Holocaust Studies, Jewish-Christian relations, feminist theology and interreligious dialogue. Her recent book, "The Mark of Cain: Guilt and Denial in the Lives of Nazi Perpetrators,"uses the archival documents of prison chaplains to examine Christian discourses of forgiveness and Nazi perpetrators' moral self-reflection in post-war West Germany.
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jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
family history today: genealogy programs at the center
No Shushing Allowed: A Library Social Hour
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family history today: genealogy programs at the center
music
The Ted Rosenthal Quintet Presents: The Great Jewish American Songbook
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music
discussion
Out of the Ghetto: Struggle, Resistance, and the Human Spirit. The Ringelblum Archive Publication Project
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discussion
curator's tour
Uncommon Threads: Clothing & Textiles from the Yeshiva University Museum Collection
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curator's tour
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
course
Gershom Scholem: Kabbalah, Messianism, and History
Join us for this four-week course taught by Dr. Yitzhak Lewis of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research that considers the work of Gershom Scholem, widely regarded as one of the 20th century's most important Jewish thinkers. The course will explore Scholem's thought on mysticism, nationalism, and history, among other themes, and contextualize his work within the intellectual and political movements of his time. Click here for the full course description. To enroll and claim your 10% CJH membership discount, please use this link.
Meets once weekly from Monday, November 14 – Monday, December 12 (except November 21) at 6:30 pm.
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course
staged reading
Benghazi-Bergen-Belsen
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staged reading
reading and discussion
Beauty Queen of Jerusalem
Join the American Sephardi Federation and author Sarit Yishai-Levi for a reading and discussion of her award-winning book, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem. Described by a reviewer as a “romantic and engaging novel [which] has been an Israeli bestseller for more than two years” and which is now an international bestseller available in English translation from St. Martin’s Press, Yishai-Levi explores the lives of four generations of Sephardi women who come together and apart in the vibrant city of Jerusalem from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the 1970s.
Sarit Yishai-Levi is a renowned Israeli journalist, notable for being the first Israeli to interview Yasser Arafat. She has also interviewed major political and cultural figures like Muhammad Ali, Ariel Sharon, Leah Rubin, and Hugh Hefner. In researching her novel, Sarit has become an expert in Israeli history and Sephardic culture (she is an eighth-generation Jerusalemite--a rare heritage to claim!), and as readers and reviewers alike have commented, the novel truly brings both to life in new and exciting ways.
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reading and discussion
book talk and reception
Celebration of the New Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary: the Annual Mordkhe Schaechter Memorial Program
A celebration of the first English-Yiddish dictionary in nearly fifty years. Now you can say almost anything you want in Yiddish!
The Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary is published by Indiana University Press in conjunction with the League for Yiddish.
Program:
Keynote Speaker: Sholem (Solon) Beinfeld, editor-in-chief of the Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (Indiana University Press, 2013)
Panel discussion: Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Paul Glasser, editors-in-chief and Chava Lapin, associate editor of the Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary; Leyzer Burko - moderator
Musical Program: Lorin Sklamberg, lead vocalist of The Klezmatics and YIVO Sound Archivist
Co-sponsored by the League for Yiddish
This program is in Yiddish and English.
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book talk and reception
lecture
Fountain of Judaism: JDC Aid to Traditionalist Jews in Poland
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lecture
concert
Young Jewish American Composers
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concert
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
Long Island's Jewish History
Speaker: Rhoda Miller
Publication of Jewish Community of Long Island, the story of Long Island's Jewish heritage, has brought earlier histories of Long Island's Jewry into a new perspective, and reflects the transition from an agricultural region to a suburban dream. Social history is an important part of genealogical research and much of this book was researched through the use of genealogical material.
Rhoda Miller is a Certified Genealogist and Past President of the JGS of Long Island. She is a co-author of the book, and a contributing author to the New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer.
She often presents at conferences and also teaches genealogy and Holocaust courses.
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jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
max weinreich fellowship lecture
Yiddish Writers Do the Holy Land: Yehoash, Tsivyon and Opatoshu's Travels to Palestine
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max weinreich fellowship lecture
gallery talk
Odessa: Babel, Ladyzhensky, and the Soul of a City
Join scholar Jess Olson for a gallery talk and tour of Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibition exploring the vital creative character and dramatic social context of pre- and post-revolutionary Odessa, Ukraine (formerly Russia) through the work of two of the city’s most important artists - the writer Isaac Babel and the painter Yefim Ladyzhensky.
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gallery talk
book talk
How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses? Women and Jewish American Identity in Contemporary Graphic Memoirs
Tahneer Oksman and New Yorker contributor Liana Finck discuss Oksman’s new book How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses: Women and Jewish American Identity in Contemporary Graphic Memoirs, drawing connections between graphic storytelling and the unstable postmodern Jewish self.
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book talk
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Tuesday, October 25 Simchat Torah.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, October 24 Shemini Atzeret.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, October 23 Erev Shemini Atzeret.
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holidays and closures
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
family workshop
Model Torah Workshop
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family workshop
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Tuesday, October 18 for Sukkot.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, October 17 for Sukkot.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, October 16 for Erev Sukkot.
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holidays and closures
course
Mysticism and Morality: Clarice Lispector in Context
Join us for this four-week course taught by Dr. Rebecca Ariel Porte of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. Central questions will include: In what way is Clarice Lispector’s writing moral? How does Lispector’s mysticism fit into, advance, or subvert traditions of Jewish mysticism? Where can we find traces of Lispector’s response anti-Semitic violence?
Meets once weekly from Thursday, October 13 - Thursday, November 3 at 6:30 pm.
For the full program description, click here. CJH members are entitled to a 10% discount which can be redeemed by enrolling here.
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course
concert
Fathers and Sons: Music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and Weinberg
Phoenix Chamber Ensemble performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Trio, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No.2, Op.67, and Weinberg’s "Toccata" from Piano Trio op.24. This program is made possible by the generous support of the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
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concert
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Wednesday, October 12 for Yom Kippur.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center will close at 2:00pm on Tuesday, October 11 for Erev Yom Kippur.
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holidays and closures
conference
The Blood Libel Then and Now: The Enduring Impact of an Imaginary Event
The blood libel accusation of Jews committing ritual murder has been the basis for hateful examples of organized anti-Semitism since its fabrication in the Middle Ages. This conference explores the impact of the blood libel over the centuries in a wide variety of geographic regions with a focus on how cultural memory was created, elaborated, and transmitted.
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conference
panel discussion and cle course
Women at the Wall, on the Bus, and in Front of the Court: Religious Women as Agents of Change through the Israeli Supreme Court
As societies evolve, are courts agents of or brakes on social change? Which should they be? These always important questions are especially salient in Israel in many contexts, none more so than with regard to the status of women. Religious women have increasingly turned to the courts to challenge particular ways in which women are marginalized or excluded, generally in the enforcement of religious dictates. This is a setting where Israel's dual commitment-to being both Jewish and democratic-creates particular tensions. In recent years, the Israeli Supreme Court has decided numerous cases of this sort, grappling with issues ranging from gender segregation on public transportation to state funding of political parties that exclude female candidates and from women's prayer services at the Western Wall (the three Women of the Wall cases) to the exclusion of women from radio broadcasts.
This evening will be in two parts. First, Asher Dan Grunis, the immediate past President of the Israel Supreme Court, will participate in a general conversation about the Court and its role. Then three experts-a law professor, a professor of gender studies, and an attorney who has brought such lawsuits-will describe and analyze the ways in which religious women and women's movements have become engines of social and legal change in Israel through litigation, particularly at the Israeli Supreme Court.
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panel discussion and cle course
book launch and food tasting
Sweet Noshings
Between Rosh Hashana's meals and Yom Kippur's fasting, join AJHS and the Center for Jewish History for a book launch and food tasting in celebration of the publication of Sweet Noshings, a new cookbook by popular blogger Amy Kritzer ("What Jew Wanna Eat"). Come hear her talk and try some of her delicious recipes!
"Sweet Noshings is for cooks of all religions who love to eat, try new recipes, and cook for others. It's just the best thing ever when someone takes a bite of my rugelach or brisket and you can see the joy on their face. Pure delight. I'm overjoyed to say each one of these recipes does that!" (Amy Kritzer).
Presented by:
book launch and food tasting
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Tuesday, October 4 for Rosh Hashana.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, October 3 for Rosh Hashana.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, October 2 for Erev Rosh Hashana.
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holidays and closures
book talk
Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece
How did the Jews of Salonica, once known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans, fashion a new identity as Greek Jews after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire? Devin E. Naar’s (University of Washington) new book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece, explores the history of the world's largest Sephardic Jewish community at the crossroads of Europe and the Middle East on the eve of the Holocaust. Join us for a conversation between Dr. Naar and Emily Greble (City College of New York). Jewish Salonica draws on research conducted at the Center for Jewish History in the archival holdings of the American Sephardi Federation and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
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book talk
conversation
Sacred & Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director
How did an 11th-century door to the Holy Ark of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo find its way to an American museum? Dr. Gary Vikan, former director of the Walters Art Museum, recounts this and other amazing tales from his remarkable 30-year career as a scholar, curator and museum director.
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conversation
panel discussion
Restitution, Justice, and Memory
In conjunction with the exhibition, Stolen Heart, which deals with expropriation of Berlin’s Jews, historian Elazar Barkan (Columbia University) will lead a panel of scholars and restitution-seekers in a discussion of the historical, legal, moral, and emotional aspects of restitution. Barkan is the author of The Guilt of Nations (2000), a historical survey of restitution from 1945 Germany to Bosnia.
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panel discussion
lecture
An Intimate Rivalry: The Jews and Classical Islam
Jewish-Muslim relations in the pre-modern era are popularly portrayed as a precursor of conflict in the contemporary Middle East. Drawing on religious texts, historical documents and other materials, cultural historian Ross Brann (Cornell University) offers a rich and more complex portrait of early Jewish-Muslim relations, one that is characterized by the creative dynamics of minority-majority interaction. This series is made possible by the generous support of Bruce Slovin, Chair Emeritus & Founder of the Center for Jewish History.
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lecture
lecture
The Other in the Mirror: Interpretations of Christian and Islamic Origins by Heinrich Graetz and Abraham Geiger
In the 59th Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture, Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College) compares the approaches of two Jewish historians whose work aimed not simply at assimilation into German culture and the German academic community, but something much more radical: a reconfiguration of the map of Western civilization.
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lecture
exhibition opening and artist performance
Holy Trash: My Genizah
According to Solomon Schechter, Genizah is “the storeroom or depository in a synagogue a cemetery in which worn-out and heretical or disgraced Hebrew books or papers are placed. In medieval times…their sanctity and consequent claim to preservation were held to depend on their containing the "names" of God.” What’s between the Genizah and today’s Jewish archive?
Holy Trash: My Genizah is a new project by fine arts and performance artist Rachel Libeskind created especially for the AJHS exhibition space in the great hall of the Center for Jewish History. My Genizah presents a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Genizah. Crafted with texts and objects formerly belonging to the AJHS collections, My Genizah is a hardedge, personal commentary on the making of the Jewish archive from the documents of the Genizah, and on today’s archival procedures of sorting, cataloguing, and organizing history.
Libeskind will perform her own original piece on opening night. The exhibition will be up through December 2016.
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exhibition opening and artist performance
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
book talk
Where the Jews Aren't - A Book Talk with Masha Gessen
Author Masha Gessen will discuss the complex, strange, and heart-wrenching story of Birobidzhan, the Soviet “Jewish Autonomous Region.”, and read an excerpt from her new book. YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent will join Ms. Gessen for a conversation, and lead an audience Q&A session.
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book talk
lecture
Jews and Racial Shifts in Early America
Laura Arnold Leibman will discuss her current book project, exploring definitions of race since the colonial era, and sources related to family histories of Jews of mixed African and Jewish descent in the United States and Caribbean prior to 1840.
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lecture
conference
SOLD OUT: The Ghetto and Beyond: The Jews in the Age of the Medici
Marking the 500th anniversary of the creation of the Venice ghetto, this conference presents new scholarship examining how the ghetto unexpectedly allowed Jewish culture and religion to flourish in spite of the restrictions and stigmatization it imposed. For more information, please visit cjh.org/ghettoandbeyond.
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conference
film
Berlin Films: Grand Hotel
In this lavish adaptation of the Austrian-Jewish writer Vicki Baum's genre-defining 1929 novel, Menschen im Hotel, plots and intrigue unfold among a cast of colorful Weimar-era characters. With film scholar Noah Isenberg (The New School). (USA, 1932. dir. Edmund Goulding)
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film
film
Berlin Films: Mendelsohn’s Incessant Visions
He drew sketches on scraps of paper and sent them from the WWI trenches to a young cellist in Berlin. She thought he was a genius and helped him become the busiest architect in Germany. Gav Rosenfeld (Fairfield University) introduces this cinematic meditation on Erich and Louise Mendelsohn. (Israel, 2011. dir. Duki Dror)
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film
curator's tour
Odessa: Babel, Ladyzhensky, and the Soul of a City
A curator’s tour of Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibition exploring the vital creative character and dramatic social context of pre- and post-revolutionary Odessa, Ukraine (formerly Russia) through the work of two of the city’s most important artists – the writer Isaac Babel and the painter Yefim Ladyzhensky.
Presented by:
curator's tour
film
Berlin Films: Menschen am Sonntag
Years before they became major players in Hollywood, a group of young Jewish filmmakers made this effervescent, sunlit silent about a handful of city dwellers enjoying a weekend outing, which offers a rare glimpse of Weimar-era Berlin. With film scholar Noah Isenberg (The New School). (Germany, 1930. dir. Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann)
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film
symposium
Rembrandt and the Jews
This cross-disciplinary symposium explores the character of Rembrandt’s depictions of biblical subjects, his perspective on Jewish sources, and the master’s place within the larger context of art history and theological discourse; with Steven Nadler, Shelley Perlove, Simon Schama, Meir Soloveichik, Leon Wieseltier, Jacob Wisse and Michael Zell.
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symposium
lecture
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Sholem Aleichem: Notes from a Yiddish Writer’s Biographer
Jeremy Dauber, professor of Yiddish at Columbia and the author of the first comprehensive biography of the writer, will talk about Sholem Aleichem's life, his work, and his legacy – and the struggle to encapsulate all of that between two hard covers. Sponsored by the Naomi Prawer Kadar Foundation, Inc.
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lecture
panel discussion and reception
The Newest Dish on Jewish Fish
6 pm Curatorial tour of Nourishing Tradition
7 pm Featured panel discussion
8 pm Book signing and cocktail reception
Discover the Jewish culinary renaissance of fishy fare from heimishe herring to lustrous lox with Ina Yalof, author of Food and the City, in conversation with Have I Got a Story for You editor Ezra Glinter, Modern Jewish Cooking author and food journalist Leah Koenig, and The Gefilteria founders Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern.
The program includes a special curatorial tour of the Center for Jewish History’s exhibition, Nourishing Tradition: Jewish Cookbooks and the Stories They Tell, as well as a book signing and reception over signature cocktails concocted by The Gefilteria, with the panelists' books available for purchase.
Presented by:
panel discussion and reception
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, September 5 in honor of Labor Day.
Presented by:
holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, September 4 and Monday, September 5 in honor of Labor Day.
Presented by:
holidays and closures
memorial
Nusakh Vilne Memorial: Revelations from the Archives and the Significance of History
Join us in commemorating the Jewish community of Vilna through poetry, music, and presentation. This year, Ruth Baran-Gerold and Michael Fox recite poetry; Pearl Teitelbaum and Lauren Brady perform music; and YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent delivers a presentation, “The YIVO Vilna Collections: Revelations from the Archives and the Significance of History." Chaired by Elliott Palevsky.
A reception will follow the presentations.
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memorial
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
concert
Alicia Svigals & Lauren Brody: A Zumer Concert
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concert
conversation
In Plain Sight: The Marvelous, Unlikely History of Bard Professor Justus Rosenberg
Refugee, smuggler, resistant, intellectual. Even before the age of 21, Professor Justus Rosenberg had lived many lives. Sarah Wildman — author of a major profile of Professor Rosenberg for the New York Times and the celebrated memoir Paper Love — will speak to Rosenberg about his life and work.
Professor Justus Rosenberg is believed the last living member of the American-sponsored Emergency Rescue Committee (headed by Varian Fry). Working out of Marseille, Fry's gang smuggled anti-fascist artists and intellectuals out of occupied Europe. Rosenberg himself was a refugee, born in 1921 in the Free City of Danzig. He was captured by the Gestapo in a round-up of mostly foreign Jews in Grenoble but escaped from a transit camp and joined the French Resistance. In the last year of the war, Rosenberg served the Americans in reconnaissance and, post-war, worked for UNWRA.
Professor Rosenberg is a Professor Emeritus of comparative literature at Bard College, where he still teaches, and the head of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation. Join us to hear his story on this special evening.
A reception will follow the program.
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conversation
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
lecture
Translation in Pre-Zionist Jewish Literature
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lecture
lecture
Rescue through Collaboration: The Rescue Activities of the Comité d’Aide aux Refugiés in Italian-Occupied Southeastern France
Luca Fenoglio received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Edinburgh. Fenoglio is a recipient of the 2016 Martin and Rhoda Safer/JDC Archives Fellowship. He will use the fellowship toward his research on the rescue activities of the Jewish Comité d’Aide aux Refugiés in Nice and Jewish self-help in Axis-occupied France.
This lecture will present the rescue activities of the Comité d’Aide aux Refugiés, known as Comité Dubouchage, during World War II. The Comité Dubouchage helped Jews prior to the great roundup across Vichy France of August 1942. It later assisted Jewish refugees in the Italian occupation zone between November 1942 and September 1943. This lecture will survey the organization’s origins and activities, and examine the roles of some of the Comité’s most prominent members.
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lecture
course
Primo Levi: Memory, Meaning, and the Holocaust
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course
holidays and closures
Happy Independence Day! The Center is closed.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
Happy Independence Day! The Center is closed.
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holidays and closures
theater
Othello
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theater
lecture
German-Jewish Women in the Czech Lands after the End of World War II: Multiple Geographical Displacements in Gendered Perspective (Magdalena Robitscher-Hahn – A Case Study)
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lecture
exhibition opening
Nourishing Tradition: Jewish Cookbooks and the Stories They Tell
To celebrate the exhibition Nourishing Tradition: Jewish Cookbooks and the Stories They Tell, the Center for Jewish History is excited to welcome Bonnie Slotnick, owner of Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks. Bonnie will share some of her experiences with Jewish cookbooks over many years of selling out-of-print cookbooks, and bring a fresh perspective to the real significance of historical and contemporary culinary texts. For a closer look at the materials on view, Curator Melanie Meyers will provide a brief tour of the exhibition. And—of course—refreshments will be served.
On view in The David Berg Rare Book Room at the Center for Jewish History, “Nourishing Tradition” features objects from the collections of all five Center partners—American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research—and they illustrate the diverse, rich traditions of Jewish cuisine worldwide.
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exhibition opening
theater
Othello
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theater
max weinreich center fellowship lecture
The Yingl Who Would be Pope: A Study in Jewish Cultural Plasticity
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max weinreich center fellowship lecture
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
You've Found the Town Name - Now What?
Speaker: Phyllis Kramer
Phyliis Kramer will review Eastern European historical geography and cover researching a town using JewishGen's town pages, maps and gazeteers, Routes to Roots, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Google and other key web sites. She will address what kinds of information might exist and where it might be found. She will discuss how to find others researching the same town or area, and what information to keep, how to organize it, and where to keep it.
Phyllis is the Vice-President for Education and Special Projects at JewishGen, and a long time member of JGS. She is a practicing genealogist with primary interest in Eastern European Jewish Research.
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jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
theater
Othello
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theater
theater
Othello
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theater
discussion
Jews and Popular Music in the Americas
The Jewish Music Forum in is a project of American Society for Jewish Music.
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discussion
theater
Othello
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theater
chelsea music festival
Daydreams in Music: Einstein and His Violin
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chelsea music festival
pop-up exhibition/celebration
A Family Fun Night of Baseball In Celebration of the Pop-Up Exhibition Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American
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pop-up exhibition/celebration
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, June 13 for Shavuot.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, June 12 for Shavuot.
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holidays and closures
panel discussion
From Vienna to New York: Jewish Exiles Remember "Austria" in the Aftermath of the Holocaust
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panel discussion
book talk & multimedia presentation
The Last Days of Stalin
Stalin’s sudden collapse and death in March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. In his new book The Last Days of Stalin, Joshua Rubenstein presents a fresh, riveting account of the dictator’s final active months, the vigil at his deathbed, and the unfolding of Soviet and international events that followed. Guiding us through video, photo, and personal accounts of the time, Joshua Rubenstein will share his research and compelling conclusions. Two witnesses will share accounts of Russian Jews’ reactions to Stalin’s death. He will then be joined by Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and author of Stalin’s Last Crime, for a discussion of the challenges—and significance—of studying this turning point in the twentieth century.
Following the presentations, a reception and book signing will be held in the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall.
This event is sponsored by a generous grant from Dina and Jonathan Leader.
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book talk & multimedia presentation
film
The New Land Film Festival
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film
film
The New Land Film Festival
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film
Women in Jewish History Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
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archival leaders advocate: annual seminar at the center
http://archivalleaders.cjh.org/
Imagining Archives Against Annihilation: Two Acts and A Proposition
Speaker: Michelle Caswell
In the 1970s, feminist communication scholars first proposed the term “symbolic annihilation” to describe the ways in which women are absent, underrepresented, or misrepresented in mainstream media. Taking this concept as a starting point, the first act of this talk examines the ways in which mainstream archival practice has symbolically annihilated communities of color and LGBTQ communities through absence, underrepresentation, and misrepresentation. In the face of such symbolic annihilation, marginalized communities have formed their own independent community-based archives that empower them to establish, enact, and reflect on their presence in ways that are complex, meaningful, and substantive. Based on interviews with dozens of community archives founders, staff, and users, this first act proposes a tripartite structure for assessing the impact of such archives on the individuals and communities they serve: ontological impact (in which members of marginalized communities get confirmation “I am here”); epistemological impact (in which members of marginalized communities get confirmation “we were here”); and social impact (in which members of marginalized communities get confirmation “we belong here”). In the second act, this talk examines the relationship between symbolic and actual annihilation. Symbolic annihilation both precedes and succeeds actual annihilation in that communities are rendered nonexistent, invisible, or expendable before they are subject to violence, and then, after violence, such acts are often rendered invisible or expunged from the record, magnifying and mimicking the violence itself. Finally, this talk ends with a proposition for archivists to “imagine otherwise,” that is, to conceive of and build a world in which communities that have historically been and are currently being marginalized due to white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, gender binaries, colonialism, and ableism are fully empowered to represent their past, construct their present, and envision their futures as forms of liberation.
Presented by:
archival leaders advocate: annual seminar at the center
http://archivalleaders.cjh.org/
book talk
And After the Fire - A Novel by Lauren Belfer
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book talk
reading group
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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reading group
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, May 30 in honor of Memorial Day.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, May 29 and Monday, May 30 in honor of Memorial Day.
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holidays and closures
lecture
The Rav in Israel
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lecture
lecture
An Erwin Schulhoff Retrospective with the Downtown Chamber Players
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lecture
workshop
Be your own Family History Archivist!
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workshop
film
With God against Man
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film
lecture
A Family Historian Uncovers Mysteries of 19th Century German-Jewish Immigrant Families
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lecture
exhibit opening
A Tribute to Sholem Aleichem
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exhibit opening
lecture
Sephardic Dynasties: Irish Crypto Rabbis with a Converso Twist
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lecture
lecture
New Directions in Jewish Music
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lecture
concert
John Zorn’s Score for Filmworks XX: Sholem Aleichem
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concert
celebration
From Casablanca to NYC: A Night of Moroccan Culture
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celebration
curator's tour
Odessa: Babel, Ladyzhensky, and the Soul of a City
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curator's tour
discussion
A Forgotten Genocide: The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-1919, and their Impact on Memory and Politics
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discussion
lecture
Family History Treasures at the National Archives
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lecture
tour
Focus on Family History at the Leo Baeck Institute
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tour
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
Leo Baeck Institute Family History Success Stories
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jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
special day-of-learning
Eichmann in Jerusalem: Hannah Arendt and the Banality of Evil
The full program description can be accessed by clicking here.
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special day-of-learning
concert
Music in Our Time: 2016
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concert
book talk
When Europe Was a Prison Camp - Father and Son Memoirs, 1940-1941, by Peter Schrag
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book talk
concert
From West to East: Music of Couperin, Franck, Faure and Dvorak
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concert
film
Persona Non Grata
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film
a one-act play and conversation
A Forbidden Conversation: Speaking, the Unspoken, and the Conversations on Israel in America
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a one-act play and conversation
book talk
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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book talk
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Saturday, April 30 for Passover.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Friday, April 29 for Passover.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center will close at 2:00pm on Thursday, April 28 for Erev Passover.
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holidays and closures
sidney krum young artists concert series
A Musical Journey from Russia
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sidney krum young artists concert series
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Sunday, April 24 for Passover.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Saturday, April 23 for Passover.
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holidays and closures
holidays and closures
The Center will close at 2:00pm on Friday, April 22 for Erev Passover.
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holidays and closures
book talk and food tastings
Kosher USA: How Coca-Cola Came to the Passover Seder and Other Tales of Modern Kosher Food
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book talk and food tastings
lecture
New Sounds of Old Judeo-Spanish Songs
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lecture
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
Forgetting Fathers: Untold Stories from an Orphaned Past
Speaker: David Marshall, PhD
In his book "Forgetting Fathers," Marshall weaves together the stories of his grandfather and great-grandfather with his own quest to solve the mystery of his family's past. Beginning as a search for his lost family name, he learns about his grandfather, who spent part of his childhood in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, and reconstructs the life and death of his great-grandfather, a Russian immigrant tailor on the Lower East Side who died at age thirty-six in a sanitarium for the treatment of mental and nervous diseases.
David Marshall is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at University of California, Santa Barbara.
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jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
opera
Nabucco
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opera
book talk
German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic - John M. Efron
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book talk
opera
Nabucco
Dates and times: April 14 (8 pm) and April 17 (8 pm).
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opera
panel discussion
The Image of the Haggadah
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panel discussion
lecture
"We cannot ignore this opportunity for service": Phi Epsilon Pi‘s Student Refugee Program, 1936-1940
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lecture
book talk
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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book talk
opera
Nabucco
Dates and times: April 12 (8 pm), April 14 (8 pm) and April 17 (8 pm).
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opera
live musical celebrating the opening of the 2016 baseball season
Jews on First (aka The Right Pitch): A Jewish Musical about More than Getting on Base
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live musical celebrating the opening of the 2016 baseball season
opera
Nabucco
Dates and times: April 10 (7 pm), April 12 (8 pm), April 14 (8 pm) and April 17 (8 pm).
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opera
exhibit opening and reception
Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom
Portugal was the “last hope” for those trying to escape Nazi oppression. Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese Consul-General in Bordeaux, France, courageously rescued thousands of refugees, many of them Jews, in the spring of 1940 by issuing visas contrary to the strict orders of his government.
A new exhibition in the American Sephardi Federation's Leon Levy Gallery, “Portugal, The Last Hope,” commemorates the 50th anniversary of Aristides de Sousa Mendes being posthumously named Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem.
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exhibit opening and reception
roundtable discussion
Yearning to Breathe Free: The Jewish Response to the Global Refugee Crisis
This event will take place at the Museum at Eldridge Street.
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roundtable discussion
opera
Nabucco
Dates and times: April 6 (3 pm), April 10 (7 pm), April 12 (8 pm), April 14 (8 pm) and April 17 (8 pm).
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opera
curator's tour
Odessa: Babel, Ladyzhensky, and the Soul of a City
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curator's tour
musical performance
Last Musik: Songs for Eternity featuring Ute Lemper
7:00pm Concert
8:30pm Dinner with the artists
Thirty years ago, Francesco Lotoro, an Italian musician, took on a unique challenge - to track down, transcribe and record all the music written in concentration camps. He has already collected 18,000 scores, among them are many masterpieces that without him would have disappeared. The concert is a benefit to support his quest for witnesses and survivors who may still be able to contribute long lost scores or melodies, and to help him create a digital archive and public home for this amazing collection.
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musical performance
lecture
The People and the Book - The World We Make with Words
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lecture
dramatic reading
Burning Words: A History Play by Peter Wortsman
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dramatic reading
symposium
In the Valley of David and Goliath: Digging Up Evidence on the United Monarchy
Join Yosef Garfinkel, Shalom Holtz and Lawrence Schiffman for presentations and a lively discussion about the excavations and discoveries at Khirbet Qeiyafa (Elah Fortress) near Jerusalem and what they suggest about the era and figure of King David and our understanding of the Bible.
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symposium
exhibit opening and discussion
Stolen Heart: The Theft of Jewish Property in Berlin’s Historic Center, 1933 - 1945
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exhibit opening and discussion
film and discussion
Watching the Moon at Night
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film and discussion
book talk
The New World Haggadah: A Passover Story for a Diverse America
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book talk
lecture
Mixed-Sex Dancing in Yiddish Culture and the YIVO Archives
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lecture
film screening and q&a with the director
France, Jewish Identity and the Holocaust: Yellow Stars of Tolerance and Cojot
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film screening and q&a with the director
concert
The Momenta String Quartet - Jewish Composers, Old and New
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concert
ny sephardic jewish film festival
For Sabbath and On the Banks of the Tigris
Director: Oron Cohen
Filmmaker Oron Cohen deftly films his Iraqi grandmother, Malka, while she teaches him how to make the traditional dish shes been perfecting since'50, kubba. A scented tribute to the women we all hold dear to our heartsour talented grandmothers.
On the Banks of the Tigris
Director: Marsha Emerman
When Majid Shokor escaped from Iraq he discovered that the songs he loved as a child in Baghdad have a hidden history. To find out more, Majid makes a bold journey from his home in Australia to Israel, countries in Europe, and Iraq to meet Iraqi musicians, hear their music and stories, and unite them in a concert celebrating coexistence.
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
lecture
Yiddish Culture and Interwar Paris: The 1937 World's Fair & The Modern Jewish Culture Pavilion
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lecture
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Arabic Film
Back in the day, when there were only a few television channels to choose from and when Israel and Egypt were at war, families across Israel would gather in their homes on Friday nights to watch old Arab-language classics. How did Israeli television obtain these films? Why were they shown? This unexpected documentary brings us the stars, the stories, and takes us directly into living rooms brimming with nostalgia.
Presented by:
ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Shore of Love
Layla Mourad, the widely popular Egyptian film diva whose Sephardi (and Ashkenazi) Jewish roots have largely been forgotten, stars in this musical romance as a beautiful, penniless girl with a voice from the heavens. She marries Adel, a rich young bachelor while their scheming families try to break them up. Released in'50 and considered a masterpiece of the Golden Age of Cinema in Egypt, this classic includes many of Mourads most memorable songs.
Presented by:
ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
My Emo Life
In this introspective, historical and contemplative narrative, Rafael Attias creates a poetic exploration of place and belonging, weaving together themes of generational and geographical displacement, family continuity, fatherhood, marriage, and aging.
Filmmaker in attendance for Q&A.
Followed by a Sneak Peek.
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Carvalho's Journey
A real life nineteenth century American Western adventure, Carvalhos Journey tells the extraordinary story of Solomon Nunes Carvalho (18151897), a Sephardic Jew born in Charleston, South Carolina, who became a ground-breaking photographer, artist, and pioneer in American history.
Filmmaker in attendance for Q&A.
Co-sponsored by the American Jewish Historical Society
Presented by:
ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Shattered Rhymes
A cinematic portrait of Algerian-born Moroccan-Israeli poet Erez Bitton, recipient of last years Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement and the first Sephardi to win the Israel Prize in Literature. The film explores the social, cultural, and political experience of Moroccan and other immigrants to Israel through Bittons poetry and life milestones, especially his tragic loss of eyesight at age 11.
Filmmaker in attendance for Q&A.
Presented by:
ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
A Song of Loves
Why was risqué Arab pop music in the synagogue? Because the Moroccan-born rabbi, David Buzaglo, took inspiration from every source. Considered the greatest Hebrew liturgical poet of the 20th century, Buzaglos poetry was innovative yet faithful to a musical tradition dating back to Andalusian Spain, and had a major impact on Maghrebi Jews. This film is an intimate look at his life and legacy, from his prolific period in the Diaspora through the piyyut revolution in Israel today
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Midnight Orchestra
In this cross-generational, interfaith comedy, the son of a once famous Jewish musician returns to his home country to bury his father. Aided by an eccentric cab driver , his search for the former members of his fathers band unexpectedly transforms his life forever. Starring Gad Elmaleh, Hassan El Fad, and Jade Chkif.
Followed by an After Party by ASFs Young Leadership BoardCharge of the After Party is included in the $25 ticket.
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Prince of Egypt
In this animated retelling of Shemot (Exodus) accompanied by the soulful singing of Israeli-Yemeni legend Ofra Haza, Egyptian Prince Moses discovers his roots as a Jewish slave and embarks on a quest to free his people from bondage.
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Oro Macht Frei
In nineteen forty three, the Nazi-allied Italian Social Republic issued an order of arrest for all Jews, who had already suffered under Mussolini's Racial Laws, in its territory. This riveting documentary explores the aftermath through the testimonies of nine Roman Jews, archival footage, family photos, and the perspectives of renowned historians.
Filmmakers in attendance for Q&A.
Co-presented by Centro Primo Levy
Presented by:
ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Beqassor
In this Bollywood classic featuring musical interludes, Pramila (aka Esther Abraham), a Baghdadi Jewish star and the First Miss India (1947), plays a young, naïve girl caught in the cross-fire of a deep-rooted sibling rivalry between her upright husband and her scheming brother-in-law. The brother-in-law exploits the girls trusting nature to falsely implicate her husband in a corruption case, and turns husband against wife by wrongly defaming her character.
Presented by:
ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
How to Win Enemies
Lucas is a young and handsome lawyer with a penchant for detective stories. Barbara is a lustful and smart lawyer who also loves literature. After a night together, Lucas awakes to find Barbara has gone, along with his financial savings. Determined to solve this mystery, Lucas finds himself in a captivating, twisted, romantic comedy plot.
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
ny sephardic jewish film festival
Opening Night
Ensemble
In 1942, Ahmad, an Imam from Paris, makes a life-changing decision to help save as many children as possible after Isaac, a young Jewish boy escaping a Nazi concentration camp, finds refuge in his mosque. Inspired by a true story.
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ny sephardic jewish film festival
lecture
Heritage Rediscovered: Slovakia 2016
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lecture
ruth gay seminar in jewish studies
Reclaiming the Cultural and Musical Heritage of the Karliner Hasidim
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ruth gay seminar in jewish studies
concert
Piano Fest: Music by Bach, Brahms, Barber, Mozart, Zaretsky, Stravinsky, Schnittke and Lavignac for 4, 6 and 8 hands
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concert
book talk
16th Street Book Club Meeting
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book talk
exhibit opening & panel discussion
Professional Jokers: Jewish Jesters from the Golden Age of American Comedy
In case you hadn't noticed, Jews have played a central role in American comedy. By the 1930s, acts like the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges became significant players in the world of comedy, launching a era during which Jewish comedians and writers became a major force in the world of humor. Dozens of legendary comics from Milton Berle to Jerry Lewis to Mel Brooks to Joan Rivers, among dozens and dozens of others, have earned a place in the pantheon of American comedy.
Presented by:
exhibit opening & panel discussion
lecture
The Rise of a New Judaism in Latin America
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lecture
exhibit opening
How a Poem Begins - Lynne Avadenka and the Poet Rahel
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exhibit opening
exhibition viewing and talk
Burning Words: The Battle of Books
6:30pm: Talk by Elisheva Carlebach, Columbia University
7:00pm: Wine and cheese reception
One of the earliest controversies in Jewish-Christian relations was the 16th-century debate over whether Jews should be allowed to publish books on Jewish theology. These discussions took place within the framework of the Renaissance and the rise of humanism, leading to a weakening of the Church’s influence on theology and science and emphasizing the importance of the individual. This talk will focus on Johann Reuchlin, a German scholar of the period, who strongly advocated in favor of Jewish books, stressing the importance of Jewish ideas in the Christian world. He appealed to fairness, reason and due process and was one of the first to place Jews alongside Christians as part of the discourse on legal and human rights.
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exhibition viewing and talk
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
From the Spanish Inquisition to the Present: A Search for Jewish Roots
Speaker: Genie Milgrom
Program : From the Spanish Inquisition to the Present: A Search for Jewish Roots
Genie Milgrom was born in Havana, Cuba, into a Roman Catholic family of Spanish Ancestry. She was always interested in her family genealogy, but when she learned of the possibility of having Converso Jewish roots, her search took on a deeper significance. In an unparalleled work of genealogy, she was able to fully document her unbroken maternal lineage back to 1480 Pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal. She is the author of My Fifteeen Grandmothers.
This meeting is co-sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation.
Also: at 12:30 in the Kovno Room, bring your brown-bag lunch for our Lunch & Learn. Genie Milgrom will be joining us to answer questions on Spanish & Portuguese citizenship and Jewish genealogy.
Presented by:
jewish genealogical society monthly meeting
lecture
Marc Chagall: Reflections of a Granddaughter
Poetry, letters and materials of Marc Chagall from YIVO’s collection will be on display.
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lecture
film and discussion
Flory's Flame
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film and discussion
holidays and closures
The Center is closed Monday, February 15th in honor of President's Day.
Presented by:
holidays and closures
a conversation
How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867-1940
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a conversation
book talk
The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great War Crime Trial
Join us for a talk with Lawrence Douglas about his new book.
Demjanjuk’s legal odyssey began in 1975, when American investigators received evidence alleging he had collaborated in Nazi genocide. Demjanjuk was twice stripped of his American citizenship and sentenced to death by a Jerusalem court —only to be cleared in one of the most notorious cases of mistaken identity in legal history.
Presented by:
book talk
book talk
16th Street Book Club Meeting
Presented by:
book talk
play with music
The Merchant of Venice
Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation invites you to experience David Serero’s Merchant of Venice, featuring a diverse cast and Sephardi music. The French-Moroccan baritone opera singer directs and stars (as Shylock) in his own Sephardi adaptation of Shakespeare’s play about love, commerce, and bigotry.
Dates and times: Wednesday, January 13, 3 pm, Sunday, January 17, 7 pm, Tuesday, January 19, 8 pm, Thursday, January 21, 3 pm.
Presented by:
play with music
theater program
A Modest Suggestion
In an anonymous conference room, in an anonymous city, an anonymous group of businessmen meet to discuss the next item on their agenda. As the four yes-men weigh the pros and cons of one pretty tough question, A Modest Suggestion asks: Why do racism and anti-Semitism exist? What does it mean to be Jewish? How does racism turn into violence? And, do Jews eat bacon?
The evening will provide a daring and thought-provoking discussion around some difficult topics - oh, and quite a few laughs too!
Presented by:
theater program
play with music
The Merchant of Venice
Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation invites you to experience David Serero’s Merchant of Venice, featuring a diverse cast and Sephardi music. The French-Moroccan baritone opera singer directs and stars (as Shylock) in his own Sephardi adaptation of Shakespeare’s play about love, commerce, and bigotry.
Dates and times: Wednesday, January 13, 3 pm, Sunday, January 17, 7 pm, Tuesday, January 19, 8 pm, Thursday, January 21, 3 pm.
Presented by:
play with music
holidays and closures
The Center is closed on Monday, January 18th in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Presented by:
holidays and closures
play with music
The Merchant of Venice
Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation invites you to experience David Serero’s Merchant of Venice, featuring a diverse cast and Sephardi music. The French-Moroccan baritone opera singer directs and stars (as Shylock) in his own Sephardi adaptation of Shakespeare’s play about love, commerce, and bigotry.
Dates and times: Wednesday, January 13, 3 pm, Sunday, January 17, 7 pm, Tuesday, January 19, 8 pm, Thursday, January 21, 3 pm.
Presented by:
play with music
play with music
The Merchant of Venice
Back by popular demand, the American Sephardi Federation invites you to experience David Serero’s Merchant of Venice, featuring a diverse cast and Sephardi music. The French-Moroccan baritone opera singer directs and stars (as Shylock) in his own Sephardi adaptation of Shakespeare’s play about love, commerce, and bigotry.
Dates and times: Wednesday, January 13, 3 pm, Sunday, January 17, 7 pm, Tuesday, January 19, 8 pm, Thursday, January 21, 3 pm.
Presented by:
play with music
symposium
Jewish Museums in the 21st Century
For more information please visit www.cjh.org/jewishmuseums
Presented by:
symposium
yivo-bard winter program on ashkenazi civilization keynote address
In Those Nightmarish Days: Ghetto Reportage and Holocaust Witnessing
Presented by:
yivo-bard winter program on ashkenazi civilization keynote address
