
Photo:
Marci Regan.
Museum of
Modern Art Exhibition Coordinator to Oversee Changing Exhibits at
Holocaust Museum Houston
HOUSTON, TX. Holocaust
Museum Houston has hired Marci Regan Dallas, formerly with New
York’s Museum of Modern Art, as director of changing exhibits for
the Houston museum. A Louisiana native, Dallas received her
bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in art history from
Louisiana State University. Upon graduation in 2000, she moved to
New York City, where she obtained an advanced certificate in
connoisseurship at Christie’s auction house. She has also done
graduate work in arts administration at New York University. She is
a graduate of St. Louis High School in Lake Charles Louisiana. She
had been an exhibition coordinator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
for the past 4 years. At MoMA, she was primarily responsible for
managing temporary, permanent and touring exhibitions. As director
of changing exhibits for Holocaust Museum Houston, she will be
responsible for planning and implementing the Museum’s temporary
exhibitions in its two main galleries and working closely with the
Changing Exhibits Committee to propose appropriate and meaningful
new exhibitions. Holocaust Museum Houston promotes awareness and
educates the public of the dangers of prejudice, hatred and violence
against the backdrop of the Holocaust by fostering remembrance,
understanding and education. Holocaust Museum Houston is free and
open to the public and is located in Houston's Museum District at
5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX 77004. For more information about
Holocaust Museum Houston, call 713-942-800.
To contact Holocaust Museum
Houston, e-mail
info@hmh.org
. Contact Ira D.
Perry at E-mail:
iperry@hmh.org
|
JEWISH YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS WANTED FOR HARD LABOR
AND THE SUMMER OF A LIFETIME
Jewish students and young adults from 16 to 25 are invited to
apply for the Volunteer Summer program of American Jewish World Service, a
seven-week overseas experience that puts young peoples' hands and hearts to
work in the developing world. The program promises intense physical labor in a
rural site with few amenities, a real-life exercise in tikkun olam ("repairing
the world"), the ideal at the core of AJWS' mission of grassroots sustainable
development. Volunteers work with AJWS partner organizations to help achieve
their goals and improve their communities. They live, work, travel and learn
with each other in an intensive group experience designed to challenge their
ideas about the developing world as well as each other. Four projects in
Africa, Asia and Latin America are being offered this year. Three projects are
for young adults 18-25, and one is for high school juniors and seniors.
Projects are hosted by AJWS-supported community-based organizations. This
year's projects are building a new school for a village in Ghana; constructing
new homes in an area hit by Hurricane Stan last fall in Guatemala; working on
a sustainable agriculture project in Thailand; and the high school group will
dig a potable water system in Honduras. The physical work is also enriched by
the spiritual work of the program. Group leaders hold daily educational
sessions that draw from the Torah, the Talmud and other Jewish texts, and put
them into a social justice context. Jews from the secular to the Orthodox are
welcomed and accommodated. Participants do not work on the Sabbath, and
participants' "Shabbat committees" are put in charge of designing each week's
service to reflect the different traditions among the group, and even the host
country. After returning home, volunteers participate in a domestic yearlong
program, which connects them as a virtual community online, and brings them
together for occasional retreats to discuss their experiences, receive
advocacy training, and plan how they can apply the lessons they learned abroad
to their lives at home. Many Volunteer Summer alumni have gone on to
spearhead independent activism in their communities, for which AJWS sometimes
provides microgrants. "This is a unique student volunteer program," says Leni
Silverstein, director of AJWS' service programs. "Not only does it give young
Jews an extensive experience overseas, it also inspires them to serve their
own communities when they come back." The application deadline is March 31.
For more information, contact Sonia Gordon-Walinsky at 1-800-889-7146 x 651,
or sgw@ajws.org. American Jewish World
Service 45 West 36th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Contact:
Ronni Strongin, 212-273-1657 or
rstrongin@ajws.org American Jewish World Service (AJWS) helps
people in Africa, Asia, and the Americas move beyond poverty, illiteracy,
disaster, and war. An international development organization engaged in
strategic grant making, volunteer service, and educational and advocacy
programs, AJWS supports over 200 development projects in 36 countries and
provides emergency assistance when disasters strike.
________________________________________________________________
YOUNG JUDAEA TO OFFER
NEW THREE-WEEK SUMMER PROGRAM IN ISRAEL
Also reinstitutes popular program
that begins in Italy and ends in Israel.

Photo:
Young Judaea summer program participants board
the Exodus for a once-in-a-lifetime
experience of arriving in the port of Haifa as thousands of refugees did
during World War II. With the strong revival of tourism to Israel, Young
Judaea has re-instituted this popular program.
In response to the demanding pace of modern
life, Young Judaea, the Zionist youth movement of Hadassah, the Women’s
Zionist Organization of America, will offer a shorter, more intensive summer
program beginning in 2006. Nofim, the three-week program designed for
young people who have a shorter period of time to spend in Israel, will offer
complete immersion in Israeli society and culture. Participants will gain a
deeper understanding of the Middle East by meeting Israeli youth, delving into
the culture and exploring the sights. In addition, they will also be able to
enjoy the outdoors by taking scenic hikes or going on kayaking excursions.
Also, due to the great popularity of Young Judaea summer programs, a program
is being offered for the first time in five years that incorporates a
once-in-a-lifetime experience of arriving in Israel by boat, recreating the
journey of the ma’apilim, the thousands of immigrants that came to the
land of Israel following the Holocaust. The Ma’apilim program begins in
Italy, where participants explore the rich history of Italian Jewry through a
three-day stay in historic Rome. Participants then sail the Mediterranean on
the ship, Exodus, playing games, attending workshops, socializing,
relaxing, and even meeting a survivor from the original historic voyage. The
program concludes with a dramatic landing in the port of Haifa followed by a
comprehensive five-week program in Israel. As further incentive to travel to
Israel this summer with Young Judaea, participants can even earn college
credits. By special arrangement with the Jewish Community High School, a
division of Gratz College of Philadelphia, students entering their junior or
senior year in Fall 2006 are eligible to receive three college credits. For
more information about Hadassah-sponsored Young Judaea programs in Israel,
call 800-725-0612.
Founded in
1909, Young Judaea was the first Zionist youth movement in the US, and since
1968 has been exclusively sponsored by
Hadassah. Young Judaea seeks to impart a strong Jewish and Zionist identity
to American Jewish youth of all
affiliations through its network of social, cultural, and educational
programs, camps and conventions. Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization
of America, is the largest Jewish, largest women’s and largest Zionist
organization in the US, and supports the Hadassah Medical Organization and
education and youth institutions in Israel. Hadassah’s domestic programs
include health education, volunteerism, social action and advocacy, Jewish
education and research, and forging partnerships with Israel. For more
information, please visit: www.youngjudaea.org
________________________________________________________________
Diaspora Female Students Unite in Song
for Disadvantaged Brides in Israel

Photo: Students singing at the 6th
Annual Kol Chatan V'Kol Kallah Choir Competition in Jerusalem.
A sellout crowd of more than 2000 female
students attended the sixth annual "Kol Chatan V'kol Kallah" Choir Competition
in Jerusalem on Saturday night, January 14th, 2006. Thirteen choirs
participated this year, representing Midreshet Moriah, Midreshet Lindenbaum,
Darchei Bina, Machon Gold, Michlala, Afikei Torah, Ba’er Miriam, Midreshet
Harovah, Midreshet Yeud, Tiferet, Orot Bat Tzion, Michlelet Mevaseret
Yerushalayim and Sha’alvim for Women. While officially a competition, there
was a spirit of camaraderie as the women united in song in order to raise
funds for needy Jerusalem brides, most of whom are orphans. Since the event
began seven years ago, over $70,000 has been distributed to appreciative
brides through Rabbanit Kapach, an Israel Prize winner recognized for her
wonderful work with the underprivileged in Israeli society. The evening was
filled with songs of hope for peace in Israel and amongst all people, as well
as prayers reflecting the transcendent sense of harmony, both literally and
figuratively, evident amongst the overflowing crowd.

Photo: Group of participants singing
at Kol Chatan V'kol Kallah" Choir Competition in Jerusalem on Saturday night.
It was a most delightful event.
First place was awarded to Michlala
which performed the "Jerusalem Medley", second place went to Darchei Bina
which dedicated one of their songs to the Gush Katif evacuees and third place
to Sha’alvim for Women. The evening included a d’var Torah by Dr. Karen Bacon,
Dean of Stern College for Women, and a presentation of various ethnic wedding
dresses which were modeled by the college-age students. "The choir competition
has developed into the largest, most powerful event for female students
studying in Israel for the year. It sends a moving message of unity,
encourages the students to express their talents and raises awareness of the
importance of chesed and social justice. In many communities, it is
common to spend thousands of dollars on weddings, so helping those brides who
can't afford a basic wedding will hopefully inspire our students to take steps
to make our society a just and caring one," said Meital Bonchek, KEDMA's
Executive Director. "It was truly memorable to hear the unified voices of over
2000 students singing Hatikva with such emotion at the end of the evening,"
she said. "Such experiences are probably more effective than any lectures on
Judaism and Zionism in giving students a sense of the beauty of our religion
and our country." The Choir competition was coordinated and sponsored by KEDMA,
a student organization which empowers overseas students studying in Israel to
run social action programs and campaigns, in conjunction with Yeshiva
University and Partnership 2000 - UJA Federation of New York. Contact:
Meital Bonchek,
kedma2@netvision.net.il
________________________________________________________________
Release Time Winter Camp Makes A Difference
Photo:
Release Time children and their counselors on an ice skating rink.
J ust
a few short weeks ago Kingston, NY was the site of a life-altering, joyous
gathering. Release Time - a project of NCFJE (National Committee for the
Furtherance of Jewish Education) gave 25 public school children the chance
to spend a fun-filled week learning about their Jewish Heritage. The NCFJE’s
Released Time Program, run by Rabbi Shazak Zirkind, reaches out to lost
Jewish youngsters and exposes them to the beauty and truth of their heritage
and religion. Each day of the exciting and energizing week of Release
Time winter camp, started with davening and learning, followed by a day-trip
to somewhere special.

Photo: Release Time children enjoying
learning.
The trips were the perfect opportunity for the
children to bond with their devoted counselors as well as experience some of
the exciting things to do all around Kingston. After spending a full
day in Ulster County, the winter camp participants enjoyed an evening
program of story and song. The children feasted on three delicious meals
each day which were prepared by Rebbetzin Leah Hecht. “It is extremely
rewarding knowing that the week of fun a public school child has in Release
Time camp can turn out to be an inspiration for a lifetime,” said Rabbi
Zirkind, Release Time director. This project, a joint venture of Cong.
Agudas Achim/Chabad of Ulster County, NCFJE, F.R.E.E. (Friends of Refugees
of Eastern Europe), was a big success. Rabbi Yitzchok Hecht, spiritual
leader of Cong. Agudas Achim, and host to the camp said “It was very
inspirational to see children so interested and involved in learning about
their heritage.”
For more information about our program or to help us reach out and bring
public school children closer to their heritage, contact Rabbi Shea Hecht
718-735-0200.
________________________________________________________________
Online Exhibit
Connects Jewish Feminism and American History in Landmark Project
from Jewish Women’s Archive
At
the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA), losing history means
losing ground. That’s the impetus behind a pioneering initiative
called “Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution” that examines
the phenomenon of Jewish women’s significant contributions
to a movement that has changed our world. JWA historians and
educators worried that with the passage of time, vital information
about Jewish women’s contributions to the movement called Second
Wave feminism was being lost. “We needed to stem that tide,” says
JWA Executive Director Gail Twersky Reimer, Ph.D. The result is a
multi-vocal, inspirational, and egalitarian online exhibit
at www.jwa.org that is consistent with the Web itself as a medium.
The exhibit marks a major stage in the evolution of JWA as a
virtual archive. Feminism of the late 1960s and 1970s was one of
the most dramatic social movements in American history, with
many Jewish women among those who led the movement and worked to
advance its ideals.
“Jewish
Women and the Feminist Revolution brings the story of Jewish
feminism into the story of American feminism for the first time,
connecting their histories in a landmark project,” explains
curator Judith Rosenbaum, Ph.D. “Our goal has been to create an
interactive exhibit that is multi-layered and rich in content–one
that vividly exploits the potential of the Internet to educate and
inspire young people today.” Visitors to www.jwa.org/feminism will
experience the web in a new way. In a single site JWA has
preserved for future generations artifacts, documents, video
clips, radio news reports, images, art, sounds, and fragments of
memories that convey Jewish women’s roles as activists and the
impact of feminism on the Jewish community. “With it we’ve
begun to invite women to become their own historians and help
build a virtual collection out of privately-owned materials that
document an important chapter in Jewish women’s history. This
represents the crux of JWA’s identity and growth as an
organization,” Reimer notes. Jewish women whose lives were
transformed in that era, and who themselves transformed society,
are aging – some gloriously so. Sadly, some are also dying. Along
with the loss of these vibrant, brave women, material letters,
notes, papers and other items that documented their experiences
are also disappearing or in danger of disappearing. The artifacts
come from 74 Jewish women who have played significant roles in
American and Jewish feminism. Curated by Rosenbaum, JWA Director
of Education, with exhibit designer Cindy Miller, the exhibit
delves into the meanings of feminism and its legacies to
contemporary and future generations of Jewish women. They have
been working together on the project since May 2004. With funding
from Dorot Foundation and the Charles H. Revson Foundation , the
exhibit now serves as the foundation upon which additional project
components will be built to educate the public, and promote
participation and dialogue concerning American feminism and
feminism in the Jewish community past, present, and future. The
JWA is a national, nonprofit organization with headquarters in
Brookline, MA. Its mission is to uncover, chronicle, and transmit
the rich legacy of Jewish women and their contributions to the
world. Since 1995, JWA has been an innovator in its use of the
virtual world for academic, cultural, archival, and educational
purposes. Among the women featured in the exhibit are Reform Rabbi
Sally Priesand and Conservative Rabbi Amy Eilberg, the first
American women to be ordained rabbis in their respective
movements. Among others included are: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the
first Jewish woman to be named a Supreme Court Justice; Gloria
Steinem, pioneering feminist activist and founder
of Ms. Magazine: Blu Greenberg, pioneer in Orthodox Jewish
feminism and a founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA);
Judy Chicago, feminist artist and creator of feminist art projects
including The Dinner Party; and Gerda Lerner, a pioneer in the
field of women’s history and founder of the first graduate program
in women’s history at Sarah Lawrence College.
The participants are: Judith Rosenbaum, Ph.D, Exhibit
Curator JEWISH WOMEN AND THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION. Judith
Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is Director of Education at the Jewish Women’s
Archive. Rosenbaum earned a B.A. summa cum laude in History from
Yale University and a Ph.D. in American Civilization, with a
specialty in women's history, from Brown University. The recipient
of a Fulbright Fellowship, she has taught women's studies and
Jewish studies at Brown, Boston University, Hebrew College and the
Adult Learning Collaborative of Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
Contributors to Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution.
Rachel Adler: feminist theologian of Judaism, author of
Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics (1998), and
Professor of Modern Jewish Thought and Judaism and Gender at
Hebrew Union College-Los Angeles. Joyce Antler: abortion
rights activist in 1970s, Professor of American Jewish History and
Culture at Brandeis University, and the author of The Journey
Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America (1998) and the editor
of America and I: Short Stories by American Jewish Women Writers
(1991). A Founding Board member of the Jewish Women's Archive,
Antler
also serves as Chair of the Jewish Women's Archive's Academic
Advisory Council. Helene Aylon: eco-feminist artist and
creator of Jewish-themed installations including “The Liberation
of G-d” and “My Bridal Chamber.” Gay Block: feminist
photographer, whose projects include an exhibit on girls at summer
camps, portraits of women spiritual leaders, and portraits of
Holocaust rescuers. Heather Booth: founder of the Jane
underground abortion counseling service in Chicago and organizer
of Women’s Radical Action Program, the first campus women’s group
in the country. Booth was the founding Director and is now
President of the Midwest Academy, a national center that trains
leaders building citizen-based organizations. Marla
Brettschneider: feminist theorist and activist for
multicultural Jewish feminism, and Associate Professor of
Political Philosophy and Feminist Theory at the University of New
Hampshire. She is the author of The Narrow Bridge: Jewish Views on
Multiculturalism (1996). Esther Broner: writer, lecturer,
and Jewish feminist ceremonialist. Her books include A Weave of
Women (1978) and The Telling (1993). Shifra Bronznick:
founding president of Advancing Women Professionals
and the Jewish Community (AWP), her work focuses on cracking the
glass ceiling of Jewish communal and professional life. Susan
Brownmiller: journalist and activist on issues of feminism and
violence against women, and author of Against Our Will: Men,
Women, and Rape (1975), Femininity (1984), and In Our Time: Memoir
of a Revolution (1999). Aviva Cantor: early Jewish feminist
activist, co-founder of Lilith magazine (1976), and author of
Jewish Women/Jewish Men The Legacy of Patriarchy in Jewish Life
(1995). Nina Beth Cardin: a Conservative rabbi and Director
of Jewish Life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater
Baltimore; the former editorial committee chairperson and former
editor of Sh’ma: a Journal of Jewish Responsibility and author of
books including Tears of Sadness, Seeds of Hope: a Jewish
spiritual companion to infertility and pregnancy loss (1999).
Kim Chernin: feminist writer and psychoanalyst, author of
books including In My Mother’s House (1983) and The Flame Bearers
(1986). Phyllis Chesler: feminist psychologist, co-founder
of the Association for Women in Psychology and the National
Women’s Health Network, and author of Women and Madness (1972),
among other works.
Judy Chicago: feminist artist and creator of feminist art
projects including Womanhouse, The Dinner Party, and the Birth
Project. Tamara Cohen: community activist and an innovator
of feminist rituals and liturgy. Dianne Cohler-Esses: first
female rabbi from the Syrian community. She is currently senior
educator of the Bronfman Youth Fellowship, a member of the
Skirball Institute faculty, and a member of the think tank Common
Judaism. Rachel Cowan: a Reform rabbi, former Director of
the Jewish Life program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and a
founder of the Jewish Healing Network. Barbara Dobkin:
founder of Ma'yan, The Jewish Women's Project at the Jewish
Community Center of the Upper West Side in New York City, and
founding Chair of the Jewish Women’s Archive. Ellen DuBois:
feminist scholar of 19th century women’s history and Professor of
History at UCLA. Her books include Unequal Sisters: A Reader in
Multicultural U.S. Women's History (1990). Ophira Edut:
Third-wave feminist activist and co-founder of HUES (Hear Us
Emerging Sisters), a national magazine for young women, and author
of Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image
(2000). Amy Eilberg: first woman ordained as a rabbi by the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Rabbi Eilberg currently
serves as Co-Director of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual
Direction. She offers spiritual direction to individuals and
groups in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sue Levi Elwell: a Reform
rabbi, Director of the Pennsylvania Council of the UAHC, and the
founding director of the American Jewish Congress Feminist Center
in Los Angeles. Eve Ensler: playwright and author of The
Vagina Monologues, and activist on issues of violence against
women. Marcia Falk: Jewish feminist liturgist, poet, and
translator. She is the author of The Book of Blessings (1996), a
bilingual re-creation of Jewish prayer in poetic forms, written
from a nonhierarchical, gender-inclusive perspective. Merle
Feld: widely published Jewish feminist poet, award-winning
playwright, activist, and educator who has pioneered teaching
writing as a spiritual practice. Her memoir, A Spiritual Life: A
Jewish Feminist Journey (2000), explores personal religious
search, the life of the family, social justice work and
heightening awareness in our everyday lives. She is founding
director of the Rabbinic Writing Institute. Debbie Friedman:
singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose music has deeply
influenced Jewish song and liturgy. Sonia Pressman Fuentes:
first female attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a founder of the
National Organization for Women (NOW). Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
first Jewish woman to serve as a United States Supreme Court
Justice. Maralee Gordon: Rabbi of McHenry County Jewish
Congregation in Illinois, founder and editor of Lilith's Rib and a
founder of Chicago's radical Jewish collective Chutzpah. Sally
Gottesman: founder of Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women’s and
Gender Studies, and a management consultant to not-for-profit
organizations. She now serves as the Founding Chair of Moving
Traditions: The Jewish Gender and Lifecycle Initiative. Lynn
Gottlieb: a Jewish Renewal rabbi, storyteller, and Jewish
feminist activist. Blu Greenberg: pioneer in Orthodox
Jewish feminism and a founder of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist
Alliance (JOFA). Her books include On Women and Judaism: A View
from Tradition and How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household
(1981). Gloria Greenfield: a founder of Persephone Press –
a leading feminist publisher of the 1970s-80s – and coordinator of
a national conference on women’s spirituality in 1976. Rivka
Haut: founder of the International Committee for Women of the
Wall, and director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance’s
Agunah Advocacy Project, she a co-edited Daughters of the King:
Women and the Synagogue (1992). Nancy Miriam Hawley: a
founder of the Boston Women’s Health Collective, the authors of
Our Bodies, Ourselves. Diana Mara Henry: feminist
photojournalist who served as the unofficial photographer of Bella
Abzug and the official photographer of the first National Women’s
Conference held in 1977 in Houston. Susannah Heschel:
Jewish feminist activist and editor of On Being a Jewish
Feminist: A Reader (1983), and the Chair of Jewish Studies at
Dartmouth. Nicole Hollander: cartoonist and creator of
Sylvia, an internationally syndicated cartoon strip. Florence
Howe: A founder and emerita publisher/director of The Feminist
Press at the City University of New York. Paula Hyman: a
founding member of the Jewish feminist activist group Ezrat Nashim
and pioneer in Jewish women’s studies. She was the first woman to
hold an academic chair in Judaic Studies and remains the Lucy
Moses Professor of Jewish History at Yale. Her books include The
Jewish Woman in America (1976); Gender and Assimilation in Modern
Jewish History (1995); and the two-volume encyclopedia Jewish
Women in America (1998). Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz: social
justice activist and Jewish poet and writer. She currently teaches
in Urban Studies at Queens College. Her books include The Issue Is
Power: Essays on Women, Jews, Violence, and Resistance (1992), and
(co-edited) The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology (1986).
Evelyn Fox Keller: Professor of Science, Technology, and
Society at MIT, and pioneering scholar in issues of gender and
science. Her books include Secrets of Life/Secrets of Death:
Essays on Language, Gender and Science (1992) and Reflections on
Gender and Science (1985). Loolwa Khazzoom: An advocate for
multiculturalism within the Jewish community, and the editor of
The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and
Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage (2003). Clare Kinberg: A
founder and managing editor of Bridges: A Journal for Jewish
Feminists and Our Friends. Francine Klagsbrun: author,
editor, and columnist, who often writes and lectures on women’s
issues. She was editor of the best-selling book Free To Be…You and
Me (1974). Sharon Kleinbaum: Rabbi of Congregation Beth
Simchat Torah, the largest Lesbian and Gay synagogue in the world.
Madeleine Kunin: the first female governor of Vermont, and
former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland. Lori Lefkowitz:
founder of Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women’s and Gender Studies
and the Sadie Gottesman and Arlene Gottesman Reff
Professor of Gender and Judaism at the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College. Gerda Lerner: A pioneer in the field of
women’s history and founder of the first graduate program in
women’s history, at Sarah Lawrence College. Ann F. Lewis:
Director of Communications for Senator Hillary Clinton and former
Counselor to President Clinton and Director of Communications at
the White House. Belda Lindenbaum: Orthodox feminist
activist and influential philanthropist. Ruth Messinger:
former Manhattan Borough President and New York City mayoral
candidate, and current president of the American Jewish World
Service. Deena Metzger: a writer, teacher, and healer, and
author of books including Tree: Essays and Pieces (1997) and
What Dinah Thought (1999). Cheryl Moch: a founding board
member of the Jewish Feminist Organization, and a writer and
playwright. Sheryl Baron Nestel: conference coordinator for
the first National Conference of Jewish Women, held in New
York City in February, 1973. She now teaches in the Department of
Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Joan
Nestle: writer, lesbian activist, and founder of the Lesbian
Herstory Archives. Her books include The Persistent Desire: A
Femme-Butch Reader (1992) and A Fragile Union (1998). Marge
Piercy: poet, novelist, and activist, and author of books
including: Small Changes (1973), Woman on the Edge of Time (1976),
He, She, and It (1991), and The Art of Blessing the Day (1999).
Judith Plaskow: feminist theologian, a founder of the B’not
Esh Jewish feminist spirituality collective, and author of
Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective
(1990) and The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism,
Judaism, and Sexual Ethics 1972-2003 (2005).Letty Cottin
Pogrebin: writer, activist, and a founder of Ms. magazine. Her
books include Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in
America (1991) and Three Daughters (2002). Sally Priesand:
first woman to be ordained a rabbi in America. She has been
spiritual leader of Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls, New
Jersey, since 1981. Joan Roth: photographer whose images
depict a powerful and unique portrait of Jewish women worldwide.
Her published books include Jewish Women: A World of Tradition and
Change (1995) and The Jews of Ethiopia: Last Days of an Ancient
Community – A Photo Journey (2004). Susan Weidman Schneider:
a founder and editor of Lilith Magazine, and author of Jewish and
Female: Choices and Changes in our Lives Today (1984). Barbara
Seaman: women’s health activist and journalist, a founder of
the National Women’s Health Network, and author of books including
The Doctor’s Case Against the Pill (1969) and The Greatest
Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth
(2003). Lynn Sherr: news correspondent and investigative
reporter, specializing in women’s issues and social change. Her
books include Susan B. Anthony Slept Here: A Guide to American
Women’s Landmarks (co-author, 1994) and Failure is Impossible:
Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words (1996). Alix Kates Shulman:
feminist writer and activist, and author of books including
Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen (1969) and Burning Questions (1979).
Joan Snyder: feminist painter, first known for her series
of “Stroke” paintings completed in the 1970s. These were included
in the Whitney Museum 1973 Biennial and the Corcoran Gallery 1975
Biennial, and were the basis of her first solo shows in New York
City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Marcia Cohn Spiegel:
author and community activist who works to create change in the
attitudes of the Jewish Community towards addiction, violence, and
sexual abuse. Gloria Steinem: pioneering feminist activist,
spokesperson, and writer, and a founder of Ms. magazine. Her books
include Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983) and
Revolution from Within:A Book of Self-Esteem (1992). Catherine
Steiner-Adair: a clinical and consulting psychologist;
Director of Education and Prevention at the Klarman Eating
Disorders Center at McLean Hospital, and former director of
education, prevention, and outreach at the Harvard Eating
Disorders Center. Meredith Tax: writer and activist and
author of books including Rivington Street (1982), and The Rising
of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1880-191I
(1980). Savina Teubal: a biblical scholar and founding
president of Sarah's Tent: Sheltering Creative Jewish
Spirituality; she created Simchat Hochmah, a Jewish eldering
ceremony. Her books include Sarah the Priestess: the First
Matriarch of Genesis (1984). Nina Totenberg: legal
correspondent for National Public Radio. Ruth Weisberg:
visual artist and Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Southern
California, and the artist for the Central Conference of American
Rabbi’s (the Reform Movement) new Haggadah. Naomi Weisstein:
a founder of the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, the
Chicago Women’s Liberation Rock Band, and American Women in
Psychology, and psychology researcher and author of the
groundbreaking article “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche as Scientific Law,
or Psychology Constructs the Female” (1968).
For more information, please
contact: Sue C. Kelman, Director, Marketing/ Communication,
Email: skelman@jwa.org
________________________________________________________________
ELIAS CANETTI: A SPANISH
POET OF GERMAN LANGUAGE
A
Celebration of the Nobel Laureate On His Centennial Anniversary
presented at the Center for Jewish History
       
Elias Caneti (July 25, 1905-August 14, 1954). Click on each photo. It
is a treat!
Photo:
Elias Caneti.
Behind
the accessible smoothness of his autobiography, there is a reserve
which, twisting and taking on disguise, conceals an unsuspected
otherness, an ungraspable and unconceivable identity. (…) Both of
them are teaching us, day in and day out, how to unmask the mad
delusion of power and of death, and both remind us of a statement in
“The Human Province:”
“Everyone is the center of the world. Everyone.” Claudio Magris,
author of the “Danube,” winner of the 2001 Erasmus Prize.
T he American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck
Institute, and Centro Primo Levi at the Center for Jewish History
are presenting day-long festivities to mark the centennial year of
writer, intellectual, and Nobel Laureate, Elias Canetti. With
special events dedicated in several European cities to honor
Canetti’s 100th anniversary this past year, the Center
for Jewish History represents the only venue in the US to pay homage
to one of the great revolutionary thinkers of the 20th
century. The Center for Jewish History is located at 15 West 16
Street, New York City. Elias Canetti’s considerable reputation, and
one that is especially revered by his peers, is based largely on his
articulation – outside of ephemeral ideologies and short-lived
battles – of the way in which totalitarian rulers come to power
through the mythical culture of historical heroes.
  Photos
from L to R: #1. Caneti in 1904, the child. #3. Caneti the man and
the poet.
Through films, readings, and
talks by preeminent scholars at the Center, audiences will be given
a rare opportunity to participate in a dialogue exploring the link
between Canetti’s Sephardic roots and his Mittlel European identity
that formed the basis for his ideas. Of all his contemporaries,
Canetti is the one who by the very nature of his persona and his
writings, most drastically defies general expectation and eludes
specific explanation. The internationally acclaimed Italian author,
Claudio Magris, will lead the talks in exploring the man and his
work. Speakers from the academic community will examine Canetti’s
life-long reticence to be public, his eclectic; quasi-Renaissance
interest for the human experience as a whole; his annoyance at
ethnic labels; the almost disorienting absence in his writing of any
obvious rhetoric and any ready-made morale; the unemotional way in
which he analyzes the ability of humans to commit horrors; all of
which contributed to alienating Canetti from the wider readership he
so richly deserved. Yet, writers and intellectuals with an
international perspective, e.g. the late Susan Sontag or Salman
Rushdie have been able to treasure these traits and have written
beautifully of the importance of Canetti’s thought, placing his work
into an immediate relation to American culture. This event is
presented by the Primo Levi Center, the Leo Baeck Institute, and the
American Sephardi Federation and is made possible through the
generous contributions of The Cahnman Foundation, the Italian
Cultural Institute, and the New York Council for the Humanities, a
State affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Photo:
The tomb stele of Caneti in Zurich.
P rogram
schedule: Sunday, October 30, 2005 , Brunch time film screening , 12
noon - ELIAS CANETTI by Thomas Honickel, Germany, 2005. (60 min.,
German w/English subtitles. U.S. premiere). Talks and debates
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm , Gloria Ascher,
Tufts University , Michael
Taussig, Columbia University
, Dagmar Barnouw, University of
Southern California , Robert
Elbaz, University of Haifa
. Readings,
lecture, and public dialogue
7:30 pm - An evening salon on Elias Canetti with Claudio Magris and
other guests. Introduced and moderated by Liliane Weissberg,
University of Pennsylvania.
For reservations,
please call the Center for Jewish History Box Office at 917-606-8200.
Film & talks: $20 and $10 students /faculty, and members of LBI and
ASF. Evening lecture: $20 and $10 students/faculty, and members
of LBI and ASF. The Date Palm Café will remain open all day. All-day
Pass: $35 (includes 10% discount at the bookstore and café). This
event is presented by the Primo Levi Center, the Leo Baeck Institute,
and the American Sephardi Federation and is made possible through the
generous contributions of The Cahnman Foundation, the Italian Cultural
Institute, and the New York Council for the Humanities, a State
affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The following
organizations have contributed to the outreach for this symposium:
Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center, Institute for the
Humanities at New York University, the Goethe Institute New York, the
Deutsches Haus at NYU, and the National Book Foundation.The Canetti
Centennial Celebration is being presented as part of the Gisella Levi
Cahnman Open Seminar Series at the Center for Jewish History, which
brings together international scholars and public audiences. It is
made possible through the support of the Cahnman Foundation, the
Italian Cultural Institute and the New York Council for the
Humanities, a State affiliate of the National Endowment for the
Humanities. For further information and a complete press packet,
including biographical information on Elias Canetti, Cluadio Magris
and speakers, visit
www.cjh.org.
You may also contact Natalia Indrimi, Program Curator for the Center
for Jewish History at 212-294-8314,
nindrimi@cjh.org.
Biographical
Information on Elias Canetti AND HIS WORK
Novelist, essayist, sociologist, and playwright, Elias Canetti, was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981. Canetti was born in
Roustschouk, a small port in Bulgaria on the river Danube, into a
well-to-do Jewish family of Sephardic descent. His parents Jacques
Canetti and Mathilde Canetti run an amateur theater. One of his
brothers became a famed producer who launched among others, Georges
Brassens, Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, and Boris Vian. At age
six, his family moved to Manchester, England. After the death of his
father, his mother took the family to Vienna. From 1916 to 1921
Canetti studied in Zürich, and produced his first literary work.
During a visit to Berlin in 1928 he met Bertolt Brecht, Isaak Babel,
and George Grosz, and started to plan a series of novels on the
subject of human madness. He graduated in 1929 with a Ph.D. in
chemistry from the University of Vienna, where he became exposed to
the salon of Karl Kraus and met his lifelong companion Venethiana
Taubner-Calderon. In 1938 he fled to Paris and a year later to
England, where he lived for the rest of his life. Canetti has
defined himself by defining his languages: “A Spanish poet of German
language;” “The only literary person in whom the languages of the
two great expulsions are found in close proximity."

The dialogue between his
Sephardic roots and his Mittel-European identity is essential to his
self-perception, and at the same time is what makes his experience
completely foreign to many, Jews and non-Jews. His place in the
history of ideas is twice removed from the current “center:” The
entire historical memory he represents is rooted in the exile from
Spain and the successful resettlement all across Europe and the
Ottoman Empire of a highly sophisticated, integrated, and
multifaceted strand of the people of the book. Canetti’s mental map
lies on the European-Ottoman axle, which, by the end of World War I,
had been supplanted by the Soviet-American axle. Secondly,
even in the face of what he defines as “Hitler’s most monstrous
undertaking,” Canetti chooses to continue his battle against “the
culture of the survivor,” which his people, the Jews of Spain, had
always, even as
conversos,
refused to accept as a possible way of life. To understand Canetti,
his fierce rejection of death, and the adoring exploration of life
in all its forms, colors, inventive as well as destructive
manifestations, his non-normative, ever-open approach to the queries
of the mind, we must understand the Sephardic perspective on history
and the way in which Inquisition changed the face of Europe.
Furthermore, from the Sephardic tradition of sages, healers,
thinkers, and practitioners of all trades of life, Canetti draws a
form of humility that has long been won over by the “culture of the
survivor.” It’s a humility that at the same time regards one’ self
as a respected given, valuable part of the creation, but not as a
primary object of one’s own inquiry.
A humility
thanks to which one’s ego does not need to be harnessed, because it is
simply understood as one of the many points of view co-existing in the
universe. It is precisely in this perspective that his three
autobiographical works can be better understood, not as a way to
conceal his “true” (and possibly mystifying) self, as most critics
lament, but as a way to use facts from one’s relatively (un)important
life, to disclose a broader human reality. This background is equally
relevant to fully appreciate Canetti’s masterpiece,
Auto-da-Fé.
Auto-da-fé is a puzzling work.
It is a modern epic on the folly brought about by the separation of
the book from the world. Unlike Bradbury’s
Fahrenheit 451, however,
Auto-da-Fé
does not entrust to the book per se any saving power. While composing
some of the most heartbreaking paragraphs on book burning, Canetti
clearly sees that the book is an instrument, a means of expression and
communication, but is not the primary source of life. Nor can be
called upon as a justification for isolation or death. For Canetti
the ultimate responsibility to communicate and renew life rests with
no other but man.
THE
SPEAKERS
Gloria
Joyce Ascher was born
in the Bronx, New York of parents from Izmir, Turkey. Descended from
the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, she grew up in the Sephardic
(Judeo-Spanish) tradition. She attended the Bronx High School of
Science, Hunter College (B.A., summa cum laude), the University of
Bonn, Germany (Fulbright Grant), and Yale University (M.A., Ph.D.,
Germanic Languages and Literatures). She is the co-director of the
Program in Judaic Studies at Tufts University. Her Ladino
(Judeo-Spanish) Language and Culture course is the only one offered by
a US college. Gloria Ascher also teaches German and Scandinavian
literature. She is a writer and composer. Her poems are included in
the trilingual (Judeo-Spanish, German, and Turkish) anthology of
Sephardic poetry published in Austria in 2002 as part of the series
“Lyrik der Wenigerheiten” (poetry of minority peoples). Ascher’s
translation of Matilde Koén-Sarano’s two-volume Ladino grammar text
(2002, 2003) is the only Ladino grammar available in English.
Dr.
Professor Dagmar Barnouw
Dr. Barnouw
is a professor of German and Comparative
Literature at the University of Southern California. She has taught at
Brown University, University of Texas and as a guest professor at
numerous German universities, notably a semester at Rostock
University. Her research and teaching has been interdisciplinary,
extending into the fields of historiography, anthropology, sociology,
political science, the history and theory of documentary photography,
and more recently also clinical and cognitive psychology. She is the
author of 11 books, including studies of Eduard Moerikes poetry, the
cultural politics of Thomas Mann, of Elias Canetti's poetic
anthropology and sociology of death (1979 and 1996), on utopian
discourse from Thomas More to feminist science fiction (1985); her
books published in the US include
Weimar Intellectuals and the Threat of Modernity
(1988); Visible Spaces: Hannah
Arendt and the German-Jewish Experience
(1990); Critical Realism:
History, Photography, and the Work of Siegfried Kracauer
(1994); Germany 1945 Views of
War and Violence (1997);
Naipaul’s Strangers (2003).
Her current book project is The
Uses of Remorse: Memory and Politics in Postwar Germany
which begins with
a critical comparative discussion of fundamentalisms in political
Zionism and Islam.
Professor of German and Comparative
Literature, (Ph.D. Yale University). Fields of research and teaching:
the intellectual history and theory of cultural and political
modernity (18th to 21st century), Dagmar Barnouw came to USC's
Departments of German and Comparative Literature in 1988 from
positions as Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Brown
University (1981-1985; Associateprofessor 1979-1981) and the
University at Texas at Austin (1985-1988). She has taught as a guest
professor at numerous German universities, notably a semester at
Rostock University (German Democratic Republic, 1982. Her numerous
grants and awards include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
(1983/84), a Getty Senior Research Fellowship (1993/94), a Humboldt
Senior Research Award Fellowship (1997/98); two Phi Kappa Phi USC
Faculty Recognition Book Awards (1991 and 1998); a USC Associates
Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship (1998) and a variety
of book prizes and nominations including Choice's "Outstanding
Academic Book of 1990" and the Maine Photographic Workshops Award,
Best Critical Photographic Study (1997) . Her research and teaching
has been interdisciplinary, extending into the fields of
historiography, anthropology, sociology, political science, the
history and theory of documentary photography, and more recently also
clinical and cognitive psychology. She is the author of 11 books,
including studies of Eduard Moerikes poetry, the cultural politics of
Thomas Mann, of Elias Canetti's poetic anthropology and sociology of
death (1979 and 1996), on utopian discourse from Thomas More to
feminist science fiction (1985); her books published in the US include
Weimar Intellectuals and the Threat of Modernity (1988);
Visible Spaces: Hannah Arendt and the German-Jewish Experience
(1990); Critical Realism: History, Photography, and the Work of
Siegfried Kracauer (1994); Germany 1945 Views of War and
Violence (1997); Naipaul’s Strangers (2003). In a large
number of essays and research articles she has explored contemporary
cultural and political issues in the context of their history,
including questions of feminism, technocracy and the politics of
identity, modernity and documentarism (verbal and photographic), the
cultural politics of memory, and most recently the growing power of
fundamentalisms in both Western and non-Western political culture. Her
current book project is The Uses of Remorse: Memory and Politics in
Postwar Germany which begins with a critical comparative
discussion of fundamentalisms in political Zionism and Islam.
Born in Morocco
under French colonization,
Robert Elbaz
is professor and chairman of French studies at the University of
Haifa. He received his PhD. in comparative literature from McGill
University. A literary critic and a fascinating reader of Maghrebian,
Mediterranean, and Sephardic literature of the 20th
century, Elbaz wrote on extensively on authors such as Tahar Ben-Jelloun,
Albert Memmi, Mouloud
Feraoun, Rachid Mimouni, Albert Cohen, Elias Canetti. Robart Elbaz’
interests span from semiotics to 19th century political
theory and many of his studies wrestle with the notion of marginality
in the narrative of the contemporary global world. The shifting of
cultural paradigms and power centers from Europe and the former
Ottoman Empire to the United States and former Soviet Union provides
the backdrop for some of his work on the theory of autobiography and
the changing nature of the self. His new book, Literature and Society
in Elias Canetti will be published in January.
Photo: Claudio
Magris
An
internationally acclaimed writer, scholar and public figure,
Claudio Magris
began his literary career in 1963 when, at the age of 24, he published
his first book,
Il mito absburgo nella
letteratura austriaca moderna (The Hapsburg Myth in Modern Austrian
Literature).
One of the last commentators of Central European intellectual history.
Magris has significantly contributed to contextualize for a broad
readership the works of such writers as Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von
Hofmansthal, Karl Kraus, Franz Kafka, Elias Canetti, and Joseph Roth.
Their
books, collectively and individually, document the dissolution of the
Hapsburg Empire and reveal the existential predicament of individuals
faced with the cultural crisis of a once monolithic social order.
Magris's most critically acclaimed works are
Danube,
published in Italy in 1986 and in the United States in 1989, and
Microcosms,
which was published in Italy in 1997 where it won the Strega Prize,
Italy's top literary award; it was published in English by Harvill
Press.
Michael
Taussig is a
professor of anthropology at Columbia University and is considered one
of the most eminent cultural anthropologists and public intellectuals
working in the United States today. With an international reputation
for scholarly work that crosses disciplinary boundaries, addresses
contemporary issues and is innovatively engaged with the process of
writing and performance, Professor Taussig speaks to and writes for a
broad audience within and outside the academy. An Australian by birth
and originally trained in medicine at the University of Sydney,
Professor Taussig's internationally renowned major works have been
stimulated by continuing fieldwork in South America, principally
Colombia, over more than thirty years. His writing has addressed areas
of theoretical interest in the social sciences and humanities apart
from anthropology, including geography, history, political science,
cultural studies, post-colonial studies, international studies and
creative writing. Taussig has talked about Elias Canetti in relation
to ethnological concepts expressed in
Crowds and Power.
Since Michael Taussig began fieldwork in 1969 in
Colombia his writing has spanned different issues in roughly the
following order: two books in Spanish for local people on the history
of slavery and its aftermath, and books and articles in academic
journals on 1) commercialization of agriculture, 2) slavery, 3)
hunger, 4) the popular manifestations of the working of commodity
fetishism, 5) the impact of colonialism (historical and contemporary)
on "shamanism" and folk healing, 6) the relevance of modernism and
post-modernist aesthetics for the understanding of ritual, 7) the
making, talking, and writing of terror, 8) mimesis in relation to
sympathetic magic, state fetishism, and secrecy, and 9) defacement.
Much of his work is an attempt to develop new forms of cultural
artifactuality in the writing itself. His two most recent books are
Law
in a Lawless Land: Diary of a Limpieza (The New Press, 2003),
and My Cocaine Museum (Chicago U.P., 2004).
Liliane
Weissberg
is professor of Germanic languages and literatures at University of
Pennsylvania. She is an extensively published scholar and frequent
lecturer both in the U.S. and abroad. After completing her M.A. at the
Freie Universität Berlin, she earned her A.M. and Ph.D. in comparative
literature from Harvard. She arrived at Penn from Johns Hopkins
University in 1989 and was named the Joseph B. Glossberg Term
Professor in the Humanities (Almanac
October 21, 2003). She has had visiting appointments at universities
throughout Germany. Before her current term as graduate chair of the
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Liliane Weissberg
served for seven years as chair of the Program in Comparative
Literature and Literary Theory. She teaches a wide range of
undergraduate and graduate courses and is a member of the Center for
Folklore and Ethnography, the graduate group in art history, the
Jewish Studies Program, and the Women's Studies Program. Her
commitment to teaching was recognized in 2003 with a Lindback Award (Almanac
April 22, 2003).
Dr.
Liliane Weissberg, Professor of
German and Comparative Literature, has been reappointed the Joseph
B. Glossberg Term Professor in the Humanities, a title she has held
since 1998. After completing her M.A. at the Freie Universität Berlin,
Dr. Weissberg earned both her A.M. and Ph.D. in comparative
literature at Harvard University. Before
coming to Penn in 1989, Dr. Weissberg taught at Harvard University,
Hochschule der Künste Berlin, and The Johns Hopkins University. In
addition to her faculty position in the department of Germanic
Languages and Literatures, she is a member of the Center for Folklore
and Ethnography, the Jewish Studies Program, the art history graduate
group, and the advisory committee in Women's Studies. Since 1986, Dr.
Weissberg has held visiting appointments throughout Germany, including
a professorship at Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg this
past summer. Dr. Weissberg's research interests include German,
American, and French literature; literary theory; aesthetics; and
cultural studies. To address themes of German-Jewish literary and
cultural tradition, her recent work focuses on Jewish women writers of
the early 19th century. Distinguished scholarship in these fields has
earned her fellowships from the American Philosophical Society, the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for
the Humanities, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture as well
as recognition from the Netherlands-America Association. In April, Dr.
Weissberg received a Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
Award to honor her commitment to teaching excellence. In addition
to publishing close to 100 articles, she has authored or edited ten
books and recently completed a monograph entitled Approaching
Gentility: Early German-Jewish Autobiography and the Quest for
Acculturation. She currently serves as general editor of the book
series Kritik: German Literary Theory and Cultural Studies and
is on the editorial boards of the Lessing Yearbook, Poe
Studies, and Medienkultur. Dr. Weissberg has shared her
expert commentary on BBC WorldServices and CBC in Toronto broadcasts.
Contact:
Natalia Indrimi, Program Curator,
212-294-8314;
nindrimi@cjh.org
Eric Katzman, Public Relations,
212-294-8252;
ekatzman@cjh.org
|
|
Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama
December 02, 2005 - April 02, 2006 at
The Jewish Museum.
1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York. Phone: 212.423.3200

Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama
is the first major museum show ever devoted to the great French actress
(1844-1923). Over the course of a remarkable sixty-year career, “the
Divine Sarah” established herself as the premier tragedienne in the
West. Her very name became synonymous with acting and, long after her
death, it continues to exercise a powerful spell on performers and
audiences around the world. Born five years after the invention of
photography, Bernhardt pioneered the use of modern technologies to
disseminate her image, and was the first major stage actress to star in
films.
Sarah Bernhardt embodied the art of the Belle Époque. The exhibition
will illuminate the life and art of this remarkable performer through
over 250 spectacular and rarely seen objects in all media—painting,
sculpture, photography, costumes, stage designs, Art Nouveau theater
posters and jewelry, her furniture and personal effects, as well as a
recording of her voice and selected films in which she starred. Drawing
on public and private collections in America and Europe, Sarah
Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama will explore celebrity, theatrical
style, biography, politics, fashion, and taste.
Exhibition highlights include: a selection of rare photographs of Sarah
Bernhardt by the pioneering French photographer Félix Nadar taken when
the actress was no more than twenty and had no reputation; other vintage
photographs of the actress in such famous roles as Hamlet, Camille,
Cleopatra, and Joan of Arc; sumptuous posters by the Art Nouveau
designers, Alphonse Mucha and Jules Chéret; a splendid crown studded
with pearls designed by Alphonse Mucha and executed by René Lalique; an
infamous publicity photograph of Bernhardt posing in her coffin (c.
1880); a letter Sarah Bernhardt wrote to Emile Zola in support of his
defense of Alfred Dreyfus; a lithograph by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec of
Sarah Bernhardt as the tragic heroine in Phèdre; paintings of the
actress by prominent contemporaries; costumes including a
gold-embroidered cape and a jewel-encrusted crown for Théodora as
well as jeweled bracelets for Cleopatra; items from Bernhardt’s
personal wardrobe including an elegant ermine capelet, multi-colored
embroidered kid gloves and a feathered fan; examples of sculpture by
Sarah Bernhardt; a rare audio recording (c. 1900) of the actress
performing an Edmond Rostand play, L’Aiglon (The Eaglet), about
the son of Napoleon Bonaparte; film excerpts of the actress at home and
performing such roles as Camille and Queen Elizabeth, highlighted by her
first film - of the duel scene from Hamlet - made in 1900.
Also featured in the exhibition is a handkerchief embroidered with
“Sarah,” which has been passed down from Bernhardt to a distinguished
line of American actresses, including Helen Hayes, Julie Harris, Susan
Strasberg, and Cherry Jones. The daughter and niece of Jewish
courtesans, Bernhardt was baptized a Catholic, but was mercilessly
attacked by the popular press for her supposedly Jewish features and
behavior. She was a staunch defender of Alfred Dreyfus and wrote a
letter in support of Emile Zola’s publication of J’Accuse. At the
same time she was a revered national figure, patriotically serving
France during the Franco-Prussian War and World War I.
Bernhardt had an extraordinary trajectory from her beginnings at the
Comédie Française to international stardom. In 1880 she undertook the
first of nine American tours, which not only established an enduring
relationship with audiences in this country but also with American
theatrical pioneers like the Shubert brothers. Her brilliantly
orchestrated career included the ownership of theaters and the
supervision of each of her productions; it was also the product of her
savvy cultivation of her public image. Her prescient deployment of
technology extended to the first recording of her famous “golden voice”
by Thomas Alva Edison at Menlo Park, New Jersey. Bernhardt was also the
first major actress to perform on film, a technological novelty that at
the time had little artistic cachet. To spectacular international
acclaim, she went on to star in eight movies. Among the most represented
personages of her time, this extremely thin, frizzy-haired belle
juive fascinated her contemporaries: she sat for many of the most
fashionable artists of her time, was perhaps the most photographed woman
in the world, and attached her name to products ranging from hair
curlers to liqueurs. As if this were not enough, Bernhardt was herself a
sculptor and painter, which simultaneously heightened her fame and made
people suspicious of her manifold talents. Bernhardt’s larger-than-life
persona and her extraordinary success as actor and entrepreneur
established the template for Hollywood icons as we know them. She was an
inspiration for such figures as Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, John
Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and the contemporary stand-up comic, Sandra
Bernhard, among others.
_______________________________
THE POPE,
THE CHIEF RABBI, AND JEWISH ORPHANS AFTER THE HOLOCAUST” TOPIC OF FEB. 2
NYU LECTURE
Michael Marrus, a professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of
Toronto, will deliver “The Pope, the Chief Rabbi, and Jewish Orphans
after the Holocaust” on Thurs., Feb. 2, 5:30 p.m., at New York
University’s Rosenthal Pavilion, 10th Floor, Kimmel Center for
University Life (60 Washington Sq. South at LaGuardia Place). The
lecture is co-sponsored by NYU’s Taub Center for Israel Studies as well
as NYU’s Program in Religious
Studies and the university’s Catholic Center. The event is free and open
to the public, but space is limited. The public should RSVP to
fas.taubcenter@nyu.edu
or 212.998.8981. Reporters interested in attending should contact
James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or
james.devitt@nyu.edu. Marrus’
published works include: The Unwanted: European Refugees in the
Twentieth Century; The Holocaust in History; and Vichy France and the
Jews (with Robert Paxton).
How to get there: New York University’s Rosenthal Pavilion, 10th Floor,
Kimmel Center for University Life (60 Washington Sq. South at LaGuardia
Place) [Subway Lines: A, B, C, D, E, F, V (West 4th Street); N, R, W
(8th Street); 6 (Astor Place)]
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Taub Center for Israel Studies, established in 2003,
is one of the few
university-based research centers dedicated to the study of modern
Israel and its recent history, society, and politics. The Taub
Center supports lectures, seminars, scholarly colloquia, and other
special programs for students, faculty, and the community. The
Center was established with a gift from the Henry and Marilyn Taub
Foundation.
___________________________________
Henry Roth Centennial Celebration
The New York Public Library 42nd Street & Fifth Avenue, New York City,
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
'Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Henry Roth (1906-2006)'. The life
and work of noted American novelist, Henry Roth, recognized for his
masterpiece Call it Sleep (1934), and Mercy of a Rude Stream
(1993-1997), will be honored during a centennial celebration sponsored
by the American Jewish Historical Society, which houses the Henry Roth
Archives, the New York Public Library, and City College, Roth's alma
mater. Discussions and live readings will be presented by two panels of
distinguished professors, writers, critics, and literary notables,
including Roth's son and his long-time publisher. Featured speakers:
Mark Mirsky, novelist and CCNY professor. Steve Kellman, a professor of
English (University of Texas, El Paso) and author of a new Henry Roth
biography. Author, Morris Dickstein, a distinguished professor of
English at Queens college. New York Times contributor, critic and
novelist, Daphne Merkin, among others. New York Public Library, 42nd St.
Fifth Ave., NYC. Free. Open to the public. Pre-registration requested.
Contact freidus@nypl.org or
call 212-930-0601. For schedule information, visit www.ajhs.org.
_______________________________
Jewish Author Explores Her Iranian
Roots
A Discussion of Historic Issues with Roya Hakakian, Author of JOURNEY FROM
THE LAND OF NO: A GIRLHOOD CAUGHT IN REVOLUTIONARY IRAN
As America's presence in the Middle East continues, attention has started
to shift toward Iran. Iranian society is one that has remained a mystery to most
Americans. Roya Hakakian provides a rare window into this world in her memoir
Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran (Three
Rivers Press, 2004). Hakakian, an Iranian Jewish woman, invites her readers to
share her experience growing up during the Iranian revolution and her
immigration to the United States in 1985. Hakakian will talk about her story as
part of the Looking Back, Facing Forward book series at the Museum of Jewish
Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust on Wednesday, January 25 at 7 p.m.
This program is free with a suggested donation. "Journey from the Land of
No is an immensely moving, extraordinarily eloquent, and passionate memoir. Its
author begins what one may prophesy as a major literary career," said literary
critic Harold Bloom.
Roya Hakakian is a co-founder of the Iranian Human Rights Detention Center, as
well as a documentary filmmaker and journalist. She has collaborated on over a
dozen hours of programming for some of the most prestigious journalism units on
network television, including 60 Minutes Sunday and 60 Minutes II, A& E's
"Travels With Harry" hour, ABC Documentary Specials with Peter Jennings,
Discovery, and The Learning Channel. Commissioned by UNICEF, Hakakian's most
recent film, Armed and Innocent, on the subject of the involvement of underage
children in wars around the world, has been selected among best short
documentaries at several festivals, most recently as an official entry of the
2003 Telluride Mountain Film Festival. The Looking Back, Facing Forward series
is co-sponsored by the Forward, and is moderated by its features editor Gabriel
Sanders. The series will continue on Wednesday, February 22 with author Tony
Michels discussing his monograph, A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in
New York (Harvard University Press, 2005). The Museum's three-floor Core
Exhibition educates people of all ages and backgrounds about the rich tapestry
of Jewish life over the past century--before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Current special exhibitions include: Ours To Fight For: American Jews in the
Second World War, which explores the lives of Jewish men and women who served
during WWII; Bukharan Odyssey, photographs by Zion Ozeri of one of the world's
most exotic and colorful communities; and Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and
the Holocaust, which tells the remarkable stories of the Nazis' most vulnerable
victims-Jewish children. The Museum offers visitors a vibrant public program
schedule in its Edmond J. Safra Hall. It is also home to Andy Goldsworthy's
Garden of Stones. The Museum receives general operating support from the New
York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and is a founding member of the
Museums of Lower Manhattan.
Contact: Ari D. Geller, Public Relations Manager, Museum of Jewish Heritage - A
Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 36 Battery Place - New York, NY 10280 P.
646.437.4339 - F. 646.437.4341 -
ageller@mjhnyc.org
__________________________________
Why Can't a
Woman Be More Like a Man?
A Provocative Lecture and Discussion of
Gender and Physiology
Wednesday, February 15 at 7:30 pm,
sponsored by The Village Temple Sisterhood at 33 East 12th Street,
between Broadway and University Place, Subways: 4,5,6, L, N, R to Union
Square.
By Janet Falk, The Village Temple Sisterhood
It’s not only their genitalia that make men and women
different anatomically. Their hearts and brains also have distinctive
characteristics. But physicians are not usually aware of these
differences. According to Dr. Marianne J. Legato, MD, FACP, Director,
Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine at Columbia University, “Unless
they are focusing on the reproductive system, most doctors have a
tendency to treat patients as though they were all the same sex: male.”
Dr. Legato’s lecture, “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?,” is
sponsored by the Village Temple Sisterhood on Wednesday, February 15th
at 7:30 p.m. at the Village Temple. A suggested donation of $5.00 is
requested.
The Village Temple Sisterhood is a multi-generational group of dynamic
women. It serves the Village Temple community by offering supportive
programs that enhance the warmth of worship services and the
connectedness of all Jews. It also presents lectures and organizes other
events throughout the year, often in conjunction with holidays. Monthly
meetings are designed to inform and inspire members, and all women and
men of the Village Temple are welcome to attend. From Mid-Summer Night's
Supper to Chanukah Brunch to the annual Street Fair fundraiser,
Sisterhood members are actively translating the principles of Judaism
into concern and action. For further information on this event or other
Village Temple Sisterhood programs, contact Janet Falk, 212-677- 5770.
___________________________________
March 2006
events occurring at the JCC of Mid-Westchester, 999 Wilmot Road,
Scarsdale NY 10583.
ISRAELI FOLK DANCING with Uri Aqua
Instruction, requests and open session. Learn the latest dances and old
favorites. DATE: Ongoing Tuesdays through June. TIME: 7:30-10:00pm .
FEE: $8.50 members/$10.50 nonmembers per class. CONTACT: Sheila Sturmer,
Director, (914) 472-3300 ext. 351.
ISRAELI ART SHOW AND SALE: EXPRESSIONS ‘06 Works by Meisler,
Ebgi, Shemu, Sakstier, Abukassis, Bloch, Agam, Denis and others.
Opening reception, Sunday, March 5th, 1-4 pm. DATE: March 4 – March 12.
FEE: FREE. CONTACT: Sheila Sturmer, Director, (914) 472-3300 ext. 351
JCC HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE. Gifts for children and adults, including
jewelry, toys, pocketbooks, stationery and more, will be available.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 2006. TIME: 9:00am-2:00pm. CONTACT: Julie
Dorfman, Director, 472-3300, x 412.
SEDER PLATE WORKSHOP. Adorn your Passover table with your
family’s one-of-a-kind Seder plate. DATE: Sunday, March 5, 2006. TIME:
1:30-3:00pm. FEE: $40. CONTACT: Tobe Sevush, Director, 472-3300, x 346.
JCC DANCE SCHOOL AND WESTCHESTER THEATRE OF DANCE ANNUAL CONCERT:
“ADVENTURES WITH MADELINE”. A dance concert for children of all
age. DATE: Saturday March 25th. TIME: 8:00 pm performance.
Sunday March 26th. TIME: 1:00 & 4:00 pm performances. FEE: Sat March
25th Members: $20*/ Non-Members: $25* (* includes dessert reception
immediately following performance) Sun March 26th Members: $15/
Non-Members: $20. LOCATION: The Bendheim Performing Arts Center.
CONTACT: Jayne Santoro Viltz, Director, 472-3300 ext. 320.
Contact: Cynthia
Blustein blusteinc@jcca.org ,
Director, Marketing and Communications, JCC of Mid-Westchester/Bendheim
Performing Arts Center, 999 Wilmot Road, Scarsdale NY. Tel: 914-472-3300
ext. 304
_________________________________________
JNF Connects Students with the Land of
Israel on Tu B'Shevat
New nationwide raffle offers a free ticket to
Israel

Photo:
Students from The Ramaz
School enjoy a Tu B'Shevat Seder.
On February 13, 2006, the holiday of
Tu B’Shevat will come alive for students across the country who
participate in Jewish National Fund’s annual “Tu B’Shevat in the
Schools” educational program. Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year for
Trees, falls on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat and
marks the time when trees begin to drink in the rainfall of the new
year. It is a celebration of spring’s rebirth and renewal, and an
appreciation of the interconnectedness of man and nature. "Over the
years, this holiday has taken on the theme of planting trees in Israel,
making it JNF's holiday," said Bob Levine, JNF's National Vice President
for Education. "Perhaps no other organization is as strongly associated
with a holiday as JNF is with Tu B'Shevat. Over the past 105 years,
Jews have come together to plant over 240 million trees through JNF,
providing luscious belts of green covering more than 250,000 acres of
land in Israel." “Tu B’Shevat in the Schools” gives children the
opportunity to reinforce their connection and dedication to the land of
Israel by planting trees in honor or in memory of someone special. JNF
will provide tree envelopes for each student in participating schools.
The first planting is $18, and each additional tree is only $10.
Students and honorees will receive specially designed certificates
commemorating the plantings.
New to the program this year
are two exciting contests. Students who order at least one $18 tree
will be entered into a nationwide raffle for a free ticket to Israel.
Each school that has either 25% student participation or submits $2,000
worth of tree orders will be entered into a separate raffle for another
ticket to Israel. Last year, 7,091 students from more than 860 schools
participated in JNF’s “Tu B’Shevat in the Schools” program.
Additional materials to be sent to
schools include posters and copies of the Tu B’Shevat issue of JNF’s
educational newsletters -- A New Leaf for students in grades
1-4 and Growing Up!, a new version for students in grades
5-8. Participating
schools may also order JNF’s special Haggada |