Boris Lurie: Nothing to Do but Try!
Closing Nov 6: Come see our exhibition "Boris Lurie: Nothing to Do but Try!"
Centered around his earliest work, the so-called “War Series,” as well as never-before-exhibited objects and ephemera from Lurie’s personal archive, the exhibition presents a portrait of an artist reckoning with devastating trauma, haunting memories, and an elusive, lifelong quest for freedom.
“Nothing To Do But To Try is a remarkable opportunity to focus on Lurie’s earliest and most intimate confrontations with trauma, his most raw and unfiltered expressions. This depth of personal access to anyone is extraordinary, and perhaps particularly so for a Holocaust survivor, for whom traumatic silence was often the norm. Relentlessly pushing against silence, Lurie’s work was exceedingly honest: revealing the confidences, contradictions, and compulsions of a human being.” From our catalog essay entitled “The Certainty of Ruin and the Flaming Hope of Life”
Learn more about the show and plan your visit: https://bit.ly/3hZL83C
Dr. Bamberger's Torah
Meet Dr. Seligmann Baer Bamberger who, on the night of Kristallnacht, saved a Torah scroll from his synagogue – and as luck would have it, the Torah saved him in return.
Experience the global story of the Holocaust through the personal testimonies, objects, and photos of those who were there, like Seligmann, whose son tells us, “My father was not home because he was out saving the Torahs. So we say this Torah was instrumental in saving our family.” Have you ever been saved by an unlikely rescuer? Have you ever gone out of your way to save someone or something important?
Learn more about the exhibition and plan your visit to see the Bamberger Torah in our exhibition, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, at mjhnyc.org/visit.
Generation to Generation
Join us on November 15th for the Generation to Generation Dinner, celebrating 25 years of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Visit mjhnyc.org/gentogen to register.
From the Museum to you and yours, Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova u'Metuka -- a sweet, healthy, fruitful New Year! See you in 5783! 🍎🍯
Meet Henny Durmashkin Gurko, a soprano from a musical family who sang before, during, and after the Holocaust. Henny’s story, and her few concerts with Leonard Bernstein, will be featured in our new exhibition, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, opening for previews on June 30 and to the public on July 1st.
Experience the global story of the Holocaust through the personal testimonies, objects, and photos of those who were there, like Bernstein, who once said that music was his “response to violence.” What are your responses to violence?
Learn more & get tickets at https://mjhnyc.info/WhatHateCanDo
The hit, one-woman show "Becoming Dr. Ruth," starring Tovah Feldshuh will be available for a very special online viewing from June 6-12 in celebration of Dr. Ruth's birthday week! Don't miss this one chance to see the Museum's presentation of the show virtually. Get your tickets here: https://watch.eventive.org/becomingdrruth/play/628bd3aecc7c4c27dda6dfb3
Klara's Star - The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do
Meet Klara Wolf and her star, which will be featured in our new exhibition, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, opening for previews on June 30 and to the public on July 1.
Experience the global story of the Holocaust through the personal testimonies, objects, and photos of those who were there, like Klara, whose star, she told us, “was torn off my chest and put into my hand by a very young Russian soldier on the day of my liberation.” How do we define ourselves, or help others find moments of self-definition?
Learn more about the exhibition and get your tickets in advance at https://mjhnyc.info/TheHolocaust
Join us for our Annual Gathering of Remembrance on Sunday, April 24th. Together with community partners, survivors, musicians, family members, and we hope you, we will take time to remember and carry on the stories for future generations.
We're honored to have UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Temple Emanu-El Senior Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson join us to give remarks.
We will also hear performances by HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir, Cantor Joseph Malovany, Zalmen Mlotek, Zisl Slepovitch, Valeryia Sholokhova, and others.
Register for the virtual event at: https://mjhnyc.info/AGR2022
Isabel Wilkerson and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on "Caste"
Pulitzer Prize and National Humanities Medal winner Isabel Wilkerson joined the Museum last year to talk about her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which we're thinking about this Black History Month. Watch to learn about how the United States' subjugation of African American and indigenous people informed the Nazis' campaign to racialize and "other" Jews, about the history of eugenics and racism, and the interconnectedness of hate.
Holocaust Survivors Share One Thing They Want Future Generations to Know
We asked Holocaust survivors, "What is one thing you want to tell future generations?" Watch their answers and calls to action:
A Reading of "The Road of No Return" for International Holocaust Remembrance Day
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Jewish writers turned to pen and paper to reckon with the enormity of their loss. The stories they wrote—both fiction and nonfiction—bring to life the darkest moments of human history at the same time as they remind us of the human capacity for renewal and regeneration. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, join us for Mili Avital's reading of one of those stories, Rachel Haring Korn's "The Road of No Return."
Please consider making a donation to the Museum at https://mjhnyc.org/jan27donation. Your support helps us bring stories like this to audiences around the world so they can learn the lessons of the Holocaust.
A Reading of "A Wedding in Brownsville" for International Holocaust Remembrance Day
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Jewish writers turned to pen and paper to reckon with the enormity of their loss. The stories they wrote—both fiction and nonfiction—bring to life the darkest moments of human history at the same time as they remind us of the human capacity for renewal and regeneration. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, join us for Eleanor Reissa's reading of one of those stories, Isaac Bashevis Singer's "A Wedding in Brownsville."
Please consider making a donation to the Museum at https://mjhnyc.org/jan27donation. Your support helps us bring stories like this to audiences around the world so they can learn the lessons of the Holocaust.
Virtual Chanukah Journey through Israel with Julian Resnick
International March of the Living virtual Chanukah journey through Israel with Julian Resnick in our continuing webinar series on December 1, 2021 at 1:00PM ET.
Chanukah is the quintessential Jewish holiday as its meaning has continually, over the centuries, been reinterpreted, according to the needs of the Jews celebrating. From the Chalutzim (pioneers) returning to the Land of Israel at the end of the 19th Century and looking for Jewish Heroes of the Muscular type to Adam Sandler on “Saturday Night Live” singing “Put on your yarmulke, here comes Hanukkah! So much fun-akah, to celebrate Hanukkah!”
Or is there an essential meaning? We will wander around Israel with Julian Resnick, stopping eight times (for obvious reasons) to try and answer the question above and of course to have fun on an Israeli tiyul.
Julian was born in South Africa and made Aliyah to Israel in 1976. He is a bit of a dinosaur, being a Kibbutz Member (almost a dying breed) and lives on Kibbutz Tzora with his (not lost) tribe of wife, children and six grandchildren. He has been involved in Education all his adult life and has three Shlichuyot to London. San Francisco and NYC under his belt.
Learn more at https://www.motl.org/chanukah-israel-tour
Tovah Feldshuh and Dr. Ruth talking about Tovah's upcoming performance in Becoming Dr. Ruth at the Museum's theater Edmond J. Safra Hall. It opens Dec 4 and runs to Jan 2nd. Buy your tickets today mjhnyc.org/bdr #tovah #DrRuth #offbroadway #nyctheatre
Dr. Ruth on Her Kindertransport Train Ride to Switzerland
Long before Dr. Ruth was the dynamic, funny, and sex-positive icon we know and love, she was cheering up others during the darkest of times. At age 10, following her father's arrest by the Nazis, Ruth was sent to Switzerland via Kinderstransport. During the journey, the children were worried and sad, so Ruth cheered them up by making everyone sing.
This December at the Museum, discover Dr. Ruth's incredible story as Tony-nominated winning actress Tovah Feldshuh stars in Becoming Dr. Ruth. https://mjhnyc.info/ruth
Jewish Music Spotlight: Pete Rushefsky and Ilya Shneyveys
Pete Rushefsky and Ilya Shneyveys are leading klezmer performers and composers. In this pop-up concert in the Museum’s Edmond J. Safra Hall, Rushefsky, playing tsimbl (cimbalom or hammered dulcimer), and Shneyveys, playing accordion and piano, perform three klezmer medleys:
Medley 1: Traditional Klezmer Music for Tsimbl & Accordion
Medley 2: Traditional Klezmer Shers Collected by Moshe Beregovski
Medley 3: Flora Hora/Sirba Matey Matey - Klezmer Music From the Repertoire of Joseph Moskowitz
Rushefsky tours and records internationally with violinist Itzhak Perlman as part of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. A founder of the annual Yiddish New York festival, Rushefsky is also Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of diverse immigrant music traditions from around the world.
Shneyveys, originally from Latvia, is a founding member of Berlin’s famous Neukölln Klezmer Sessions and Shtetl Neukölln festival, as well as a long-time faculty member at Yiddish Summer Weimar. Shneyveys has performed and taught at Jewish festivals around the world, and is the artistic director and a founding member of the Yiddish psychedelic rock band Forshpil and a founding member of the Yiddish-Bavarian fusion project Alpen Klezmer.
Jewish Music Spotlight: Daniel Kahn
Daniel Kahn is a Detroit-born expat Jewish troubadour whose music mixes Yiddish, English, Russian, German, klezmer, and punk-folk.
His groups include The Painted Bird, Brothers Nazaroff, Semer Ensemble, and The Unternationale. He’s been featured across the screen and stage, including in “Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish” at the Museum, the hit Netflix series “Unorthodox,” and Carnegie Hall's “From Shtetl to Stage.” The Ashkenaz Foundation named Kahn the inaugural Theodore Bikel Artist-in-Residence, and in 2018 he received the Chane and Joseph Mlotek Award for Yiddish Continuity. He, his wife Yeva, and their son Leon are currently harboring in Hamburg.
In this pop-up concert recorded in Hamburg, Germany, Kahn performs “People Eater” by Solomon Small, “The New Russia or Nicolai's Downfall” by Solomon Small, and “Shtil, di nakht iz oysgeshternt” by Hirsh Glick.
Legacies: Daniel Libeskind
For Daniel Libeskind, architecture tells a story, similar to how his grandfather told stories in shtetls in Poland. Mr. Libeskind's own work has represented many important stories and memorials, including several Jewish Museums and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center.
Legacies: Dr. Albert Bourla
In February, we were honored to have Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla join us to discuss his Greek #Jewish heritage. His parents, who were #Holocaust survivors, taught him that their stories should be a celebration of life, not revenge.
Pickle Soup And Other Tales For The Curious
Oy vey! Klezmer for Kids!
Jewish Music Spotlight: Valeriya Sholokhova
Dr. Ruth invites you to the Young Friends Sunset Soiree
Legislative Update: Holocaust Education in New York State
Celebrating the Auschwitz Jewish Center