Annual Report - Center for Jewish History

C E N T E R F O R J E W I S H H I S T O R Y(left) Wallace Shawn discusses the film Manufacturing Consent. (below left) Discussion following the American Premiereof Yitzchak Rubin’s film Murder for Life, moderated by Susan Necheles, Esq., Chair, New York Women’s Criminal DefenseGroup. Panelists: Barry Scheck, Esq., Co-director, The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; andHon. David Trager, United States District Judge forthe Eastern District of New York. (right) ProfessorsHenry Louis Gates, Jr. and Alain Finkielkrautwere among the “Old Demons/New Debates” YIVOconference participants.SYMPOSIAJews & Justice. Sponsored by the David Berg Foundation and CJH.● How Judaism Shaped Western Democracy. With panelistsFania-Oz Sulzberger, Haifa University; Edward Rothstein,New York Times; Rabbi David Elleson, Hebrew UnionCollege; Michael Walzer, Princeton University.● Religious Controversy in the Presidential Campaign:Jewish Perspectives. With Al Vorspan, Senior VP for SocialJustice at Union of Reform Judaism; J.J. Goldberg, Editorin-Chief,Forward; William Rapfogel, Executive Director andCEO, Metropolitan Council on Poverty; Hannah Rosenthal,Executive Director Jewish Council on Public Affairs.●● Religion, Responsibilities and Relations: Responses toMel Gibson’s The Passion. With Paula Fredriksen, BostonUniversity; Rabbi Eugene Korn, Sister Mary Boys, UnionTheological Seminary.● The International Court of Justice and Israel’s Fence:Just Politics or Justice. With Ruth Teitel, NYC Law School;Richard Gladstone, International Court of Justice.● Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy ofModernity. Symposium with Gershon David Hundert, McGill University;Elisheva Carlebach, Queens College/CUNY; Allan Nadler, DrewUniversity; David G. Roskies, Jewish Theological Seminary of America.● Russian Arts Festival. Gallery talk by guest curator and festivalproducer Alexandre Gertsman. Participants include Russian artists,filmmakers, writers, musicians and art historians.FILMMONDAY NIGHT FILM SERIES. A discussion followed each film.The series Included such films as: ● Lens on French and BelgianJewry ●●●●● Anti-semitism: A History of Hatred ● Lens onLatin-American Jewry ●● Watermarks● Berga: Soldiers of Another War. American GIs trapped in thetragedy of the Holocaust. Screening and discussion with Bergasurvivors. Grace Guggenheim, producer; and Roger Cohen, foreigneditor of The New York Times.● The Jews of Amsterdam: A Great Community in a Small Country,with Philo Bregstein, director, screenwriter, editor; Dr. SalvadorBloemgarten, author; and Dr. Dienke Hondius, author, historian,sociologist. In collaboration with the Anne Frank Center, New Yorkand the National Center for Jewish Film, Brandeis University.●● 8th International Sephardic Film Festival: Sephardic Crossings.●● 9th International Sephardic Jewish Film Festival:Roots and Origins.●Partisans of Vilna World premiere of DVD edition.Discussion with Aviva Kempner, filmmaker; JoshWaletzky, director; and former partisans ChayaPalevsky and Eta Wrobel.● Isaac in America and The Cafeteria. Followed by discussion withAllan Nadler, Drew University.● My Song Goes ’Round the World. Film about Joseph Schmidt.MUSIC AND THEATERMusic Series sponsored by Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg and CJH— Maya Beiser’s Kinship— Hip Hop Khasene— Klezmer En Buenos Aires—Lerner Moguilevsky Dúo● Hoppla, Such is Life! Theater and music in roaring Twenties Berlin.Elysium-Between Two Continents.● Vienna: Jews and the City of Music concerts.— Hugo Kauder Memorial Concert. With Norman Dee (flute)and Josephine Chan Yung (piano).— The Cantor as Composer: Treasures of Viennese Liturgical Music.● The Cantor as Composer: Treasures of Viennese Liturgical Music.● Celebrating 350 Years of Jewish Life in America: A Tribute toGeorge and Ira Gershwin. Co-sponsored by the Sholom AleichemFoundation.● Bloomsday—Joyce-lite: The Jewish Side. Melding theater andliterature. With Kathleen Chalfant, Rufus Collins, Jerry Matz, andothers. Directed by Alan Adelson; written by James Joyce.Co-sponsors: Jewish Heritage Project and CJH.● Marc Blitzstein: Rallying With a Note. Leonard Lehrman, composer/performerand Helene Williams, singer. Hosted by musicalcommentator Robert Sherman. Sholom Aleichem Foundation.● Kinderszenen: Scenes from Childhood. Robin Hirsch’s performancecycle, Mosaics: Fragments of a Jewish Life.●● Z’vi: A New Electro-Acoustic Opera. By Richard Teitbaum.Richard Teitelbaum, keyboards; Adrienne Cooper and CantorJacob Ben Zion Mendelson, vocals; Omar Faruk Tekbilek, ney, percussion,zurna, vocals; David Krakauer, clarinet and bass clarinet;Zafer Tawil, oud, violin, and percussion.● Hazzanut: The Music of the Southern German Tradition. CantorErik L.F.Contzius, Temple Israel, New Rochelle and Cantor BruceHalev, Congregation Habonim. Co-sponsor LBI.● Lieder, Tchotchkes, and a Melodrama. Co-sponsored by MannesCollege of Music.● American Jewish Historical Society● American Sephardi Federation● Leo Baeck Institute● Yeshiva University Museum● YIVO Institute for Jewish Research23