This presentation by The Other Europeans Band will take you on a journey into a fascinating past and present, with live music, a film of the band's research trip to North Moldova, and comparisons of klezmer and lautari (Roma) repertoire and style, and musical fireworks.

Based on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short story, The Cafeteria is a moving film about Jewish refugees trying to escape their past in post-World War II New York City. 85 minutes, B&W.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, curator of the exhibition, "They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust," will present a gallery talk exploring the life and work of her father, Mayer Kirshenblatt. She considers the collaboration with her father on the exhibition and companion book a blessing and singular highlight of her career. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is a University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at New York University and author of many books including, Image before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland, 18641939 (with Lucjan Dobroszycki); Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage; The Art of Being Jewish in Modern Times (edited with Jonathan Karp) and Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust.

Tenor Richard Lenatsky performs the music of Vilna-born composer David Botwinik, accompanied by his son Alexander Botwinik (piano). David Botwinik will be present, and will sign copies of his newly released book of collected works, for sale after the concert.

Would you like to learn how to archive letters, postcards and photographs? In the Preserve Your Memories Workshop, Barbara Blumenthal, Rare Book Specialist at the Smith College Library, will show you how to safely preserve them for future generations. Pre-registration suggested.

Would you like to find out what a family letter, Would you like to find out what a family letter, postcard, journal or recipe says in Yiddish? Our Yiddish translators will open the door to your family history. Pre-registration suggested.

Inspired by the synagogues of pre-war Eastern Europe, The Klezmer Shul is rooted in Jewish liturgical melodic principles and emotionals intonations. This four-movement instrumental suite transmits the emotional power of synagogue singing without the use of words, incorporating elements of jazz, avant-garde, classical, klezmer, and folk music. Stu Brotman, string bass, basy, baraban; Cookie Segelstein, violin, viola; and Joshua Horowitz, 19th-century Budowitz button accordion, tsimbl have toured North America and Europe with their unique blend of traditional, newly arranged, and newly composed klezmer music. Reservations suggested.

Jewish food plays a central role in the American culinary experience, and there is no better example of this than the bagel and shmeer. California Shmeer (25 min.) looks at how a diverse population has adopted, blended, and even changed what once was a recognizable ethnic Jewish food into an often unrecognizable comfort food as American as pizza or tacos. In Gefilte Fish (15 min.) filmmaker Karen Silverstein captures three generations of women talking about and demonstrating how they make gefilte fish.

Maurice Schwartz's 1939 adaptation of the classic Sholem Aleichem story of Tevye centers on Khave, daughter of Tevye the Dairyman, who falls in love with Fedye, the son of a Ukranian peasant. The clash between tradition and modernity, parental authority and love, customs and enlightenment, are depicted in the context of the anti-Semitism of the rural community. Tevye's world is a microcosm of the larger world of Russian Jewry in the early 1900s. (96 min., B&W, Yiddish w/ new English subtitles.)

Filmmaker Slawomir Grunberg presents two different perspectives in his films about Jewish Poland. The Peretzniks (52 min.) tells the story of a Jewish school in Lodz that was closed in 1968 following the Communist anti-Semitic campaign. Memories of their youth in post-war Poland bind the graduates, who now live in the U.S., Israel, Sweden, Poland, and other countries. In Paint What You Remember (30 min.), Mayer Kirshenblatt recalls his childhood in prewar Apt, Poland, in conjunction with the exhibit "They Called Me Mayer July." A discussion follows the screenings. Reservations suggested.

This workshop focuses on writing and organizing a personal memoir. What should you include? How should you organize materials? Can you trust your memory? Led by Kitty Axelson, president of Modern Memoirs Inc. and founder of the Association of Personal Historians. Pre-registration suggested.

Professor David Shneer's newest project examines the stories of Lin Jaldati, Jalda Rebling, and a family of Dutch Jewish socialist Holocaust survivors, who were invited by the East German government to build Yiddish culture in the new Communist utopia.

Double Edge Theatre’s newest work is based upon the classic Russian folktale of both the firebird and the phoenix. The performance makes use of the indoor and outdoor spaces of the Book Center in a lively melding of atmospheres, myths, and themes. Drawing from the imagery of the evocative Jewish-Russian painter Marc Chagall, this piece was created by collaborators from Boston, Albuquerque, and Moscow, and features the renowned Russian actress Oksana Mysina. Part of the Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival.

Based on a short story by Anzia Yezierska's, Hungry Hearts tells of the Levin family's difficult transition from Eastern Europe to New York City's Lower East Side, capturing the hopes and hardships of Jewish immigrants in the New World. Restored by the National Center for Jewish Film.

Rabbi Strassfeld, co-editor of The Jewish Catalogs, explores his collection of Jewish food signs, menus, advertisements, and packaging. The themes of integration and separation, and assimilation and acculturation, are played out in the most basic component of life -- eating -- as demonstrated by the marketing of food to Jews in America.

This new ensemble uses Jewish musical tradition as a point of departure for creative exploration, new ensemble uses Jewish musical tradition as a point of departure for creative exploration, performing repertoire drawn from klezmer, Yiddish theater, and cantorial traditions, along with new compositions and improvisations based on Yiddish poetry and other sources. Founded by klezmer revivalist and composer Hankus Netsky, the group also features actress/singer Jessica Kate Meyer; flutist/composer Linda Jaye Chase; violinist Yaeko Mirando Elmaleh; and cellist/bassist/banjoist Andy Blickenderfer. Reservations suggested.

Featuring great music, live theater, film, authors, workshops and more! Schedule of Events

Historian and filmmaker Suzanne Wasserman presents her new documentary on the life and work of author Anzia Yezierska. Wasserman will introduce the film and answer questions following the screening. Reservations suggested.

A lively repertoire of traditional Yiddish songs meets unique compositions with Sarah Gordon and Yiddish Princess Unplugged! The young New York City band features powerful vocalist Sarah Gordon; the young klezmer star Michael Winograd on the synthesizer; and rising klezmer musicians Yoshie Fruchter on rhythm guitar, Avi Fox-Rosen on lead guitar, Ari Folman-Cohen on bass and Chris Berry on drums.

Author's talk with Matthew Goodman In this lively and wide-ranging discussion, Jewish-food writer Matthew Goodman will take a look at some of the unusual and unexpected ways in which Jewish food around the world evolved over time. He'll look at the influence of geography and immigration, discuss the crucial Jewish contributions to seemingly other-ethnic dishes such as fish and chips and eggplant parmagiana, and explain once and for all why it's so hard to find a good bagel anymore. In conjunction with the exhibit Esn! Jews and Food in America.

In the new graphic musical tragicomedy one man's casual obsession with the architecture and culture of coat checkrooms, ensnares him in a desperate struggle between employment agents, maître'ds, lovesick podiatrists, low-budget contractors, and paraphilic playboys. This piece is performed in concert to a projected backdrop of Katchor's evocative illustrations. Libretto, projections and direction by Ben Katchor. Music by Mark Mulcahy.

The all-star Redele Band composed of New York City-based emerging stars of the international klezmer stage, present ecstatic, soulful, original compositions and improvisations as well as old Jewish and Gypsy songs inspired by extensive travels in Romania and Hungary. Musicians include Jake Shulman-Ment, violin, vocals; Benjy Fox-Rosen, bass, vocals; Ben Holmes, trumpet; Art Bailey, accordion; Pete Rushefsky, tsimbl. Helen and Irving Memorial Concert.

Author's talk with Jayne Cohen Jayne Cohen, author of Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover's Treasury of Classics and Improvisations, a 2009 James Beard finalist in the International Books Category, explores Jewish food through the prism of Ashkenazi Jewish culture in conjunction with the new exhibit, Esn! Jews and Food in America.

Discussion led by Aaron Lansky, National Yiddish Book Center Originally published in 1913, The End of Everything is considered David Bergelson’s greatest work. A feminist classic, it is the Emma Bovary of modern Yiddish literature. Bergelson’s hypnotic prose is brought to life by the acclaimed translator Joseph Sherman in this first complete and accurate translation. More... Receive a 20% discount on this and other series titles from our bookstore.

Author's talk with bestselling author Francine Prose. Francine Prose is the author of many bestselling books of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. Her new book, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, explores the famous diary as literature, historical record and the implications of its legacy.

Scholar Esther Schor discusses The Universal Language: Zamenhof, Jews and the Making of Esperanto. The Esperanto movement was a modern, emancipated Jew's answer to an ancient quandary; how might language itself be used to promote understanding among nations and peoples? The history of Esperanto is that of a dream among nightmares-- Nazism, Stalinism, fascism, among others. But its remarkable endurance, especially in the Jewish State, has something to tell us about how to live as global citizens.

Discussion led by Olga Gershenson, University of Massachusetts One More Year is Sana Krasikov's extraordinary debut collection, illuminating the lives of immigrants from across the terrain of a collapsed Soviet Empire. With novelistic scope, Krasikov captures the fates of people-in search of love and prosperity-making their way in a world whose rules have changed. More... Receive a 20% discount on this and other series titles from our bookstore.

Conversation w/ Yiddish actors from the opening scene, led by LA Times Film Critic, Kenneth Turan A Serious Man is Academy Award-winning writer/directors Joel & Ethan Coen’s story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife that she is leaving him.

Kenneth Turan, film critic

Join us on for this exploration of the diverse ways cinema has depicted Jews from the silent era of the 1920s to contemporary films. Led by Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times and NPR Morning Edition film critic. April 16 - 18. Featuring: Silent film star Max Davidson with live musical accompaniment Maurice Schwartz's Uncle Moses Barry Levinson's Avalon and Liberty Heights The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man Click here for more information.

Experience music of the Eastern European Jewish wedding, traditional Jewish chamber and dance music. The musical approach and instrumentation (with clarinet, cimbalom and accordion) represents a blend of traditional European klezmer and classical performance practice.

Discussion led by Ilan Stavans, Amherst College This is one Shakespeare’s greatest plays, classified as a comedy. The plot involves Shylock, a greedy Jewish moneylender in Venice, who loses his beloved daughter when she elopes with a man who belongs to the virulently anti-Semitic surrounding culture. More... Receive a 20% discount on this and other series titles from our bookstore.

Discussion led by James Wald, Professor of Modern European Cultural History, Hampshire College. Is there a right way to remember Holocaust victims? Take a road trip with artist Gunter Demnig as he installs thousands of "stumbling stones" in pavements across Germany and Austria, creating the world's largest decentralized memorial. Each stone has a brass plate with details of the deported person who once lived there, a potent reminder to passers-by. Reaction differs from town to town and requests for more stones pour in. Part of the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival. Co-sponsored by the Posen Project for the Study of Secular Jewish History and Culture at Hampshire College. Doc. | 2007 | 75 min. | German w/ English subtitles | Director: Dorte Franke | PVJFF tickets accepted and sold at the door.

Discussion led by Jim Smethurst, University of Massachusetts Intertwining historical actors and fictional characters, Scottsboro is a powerful novel about race, class, sex, and a lie that refuses to die. More...
Receive a 20% discount on this and other series titles from our bookstore.

Dream Homes chronicles Joyce Zonana's quest to find a sense of home among people, foods, and places as far from her native Cairo as Oklahoma and Katrina-stricken New Orleans. More...
Receive a 20% discount on this and other series titles from our bookstore.

Stories by Ruth Behar
Photographs by Humberto Mayol

"A Journey to Jewish Cuba,” is a visual account of Ruth Behar’s journey back to Cuba to learn about the Jewish world that she and her family and thousands of Jews left behind after the revolution in 1959. Today’s Jewish Cuba is quite different from the Jewish Cuba of the 1950s. The community includes revolutionaries, born-again Jews, Afro-Cuban Jews, tango aficionados, and numerous fervent converts. Most are Jews by choice. They have converted because they are Jewish on their paternal rather than maternal side, or because they have married a person of Jewish descent. Like all Cubans on the island, they have scarce resources, but they have taken on the responsibility of guarding the Jewish legacy. Haunting black-and-white photographs by Humberto Mayol, a photojournalist based in Havana, are accompanied by poetic texts produced by Ruth Behar. The exhibit was produced at the University of Miami while Ruth Behar served as a Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professor in the Humanities during the spring of 2008. It was sponsored by the University of Miami, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean, the Department of Art and Art History, and supported by George Feldenkreis Program for Judaic Studies, the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Latin American Studies, and the Department of Anthropology. The exhibit grows out of Ruth Behar’s book, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba (Rutgers University Press, 2007), which has touched many readers in the short months since its publication in November. A reviewer in the Miami Herald says about Behar, “She lovingly intertwines her own thoughts and feelings with the more analytical observations of her profession. The result: a narrative that tugs at the heart." To learn about Ruth Behar’s work and see samples of Humberto Mayol’s photographs, please visit the website, www.ruthbehar.com.

Stories by Ruth Behar
Photographs by Humberto Mayol

"A Journey to Jewish Cuba,” is a visual account of Ruth Behar’s journey back to Cuba to learn about the Jewish world that she and her family and thousands of Jews left behind after the revolution in 1959. Today’s Jewish Cuba is quite different from the Jewish Cuba of the 1950s. The community includes revolutionaries, born-again Jews, Afro-Cuban Jews, tango aficionados, and numerous fervent converts. Most are Jews by choice. They have converted because they are Jewish on their paternal rather than maternal side, or because they have married a person of Jewish descent. Like all Cubans on the island, they have scarce resources, but they have taken on the responsibility of guarding the Jewish legacy. Haunting black-and-white photographs by Humberto Mayol, a photojournalist based in Havana, are accompanied by poetic texts produced by Ruth Behar. The exhibit was produced at the University of Miami while Ruth Behar served as a Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professor in the Humanities during the spring of 2008. It was sponsored by the University of Miami, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean, the Department of Art and Art History, and supported by George Feldenkreis Program for Judaic Studies, the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Latin American Studies, and the Department of Anthropology. The exhibit grows out of Ruth Behar’s book, An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba (Rutgers University Press, 2007), which has touched many readers in the short months since its publication in November. A reviewer in the Miami Herald says about Behar, “She lovingly intertwines her own thoughts and feelings with the more analytical observations of her profession. The result: a narrative that tugs at the heart." To learn about Ruth Behar’s work and see samples of Humberto Mayol’s photographs, please visit the website, www.ruthbehar.com.