Preserving Our History http://www.cjh.org/ en-us 2006 Center for Jewish History all rights reserved http://www.cjh.org/images/cjh_rss.jpg http://www.cjh.org/ Thursday, May 17, 2012: Is there just one Jewish approach to bioethics? A distinguished panel of leading Jewish clergy, scholars, and medical practitioners bring different perspectives and approaches to this question. Exhibition Viewing 6pm Program 6:30 pmhttp://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2007http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2007ProgramsSunday, May 20, 2012: Speaker: Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz The next time you pick up a piece of chocolate, consider that you are partaking in an aspect of Jewish history. There are some surprising Jewish connections with chocolate, including Jews in the early chocolate trade and early Jewish chocolate makers. Rabbi Prinz's forthcoming book, Jews on the Chocolate Trail, uniquely melds a popularity of chocolate with a fascination about Judaism. http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2023http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2023ProgramsTuesday, May 22, 2012: Shulamit Volkov will discuss her new book, Walther Rathenau: The Life of Weimar’s Fallen Statesman (Yale University Press, 2012). This deeply informed biography tells of a man who—both thoroughly German and unabashedly Jewish—rose to leadership in the German War-Ministry Department during the First World War, and later to the exalted position of foreign minister in the early days of the Weimar Republic. His achievement was unprecedented—no Jew in Germany had ever attained such high political rank. But Rathenau's success was marked by tragedy: within months he was assassinated by right-wing extremists seeking to destroy the newly formed Republic. Drawing on Rathenau's papers and on a depth of knowledge of both modern German and German-Jewish history, Shulamit Volkov creates a finely drawn portrait of this complex man who struggled with his Jewish identity and who treasured his otherness. Volkov also places Rathenau in the dual context of Weimar Germany and of Berlin’s financial and intellectual elite. Above all, she illuminates the complex social and psychological milieu of German Jewry in the period before Hitler’s rise to power.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2014http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2014ProgramsTuesday, May 22, 2012: Boundaries separating the natural from the supernatural dissolve as ill-fated pledges, unfulfilled passions, and untimely deaths ensnare two families in a tragic labyrinth of spiritual possession. The Dybbuk is based on the celebrated play of the same name by S. An-sky written during the turbulent years of 1912-1917 and inspired by An-sky’s ethnographic research of Jews living in the Polish-Russian countryside just before World War I. Yiddish, newly remastered with English subtitles by the National Center for Jewish Film.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/1967http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/1967ProgramsSunday, May 27, 2012: http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2019http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2019ProgramsMonday, May 28, 2012: http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2018http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2018ProgramsWednesday, May 30, 2012: Vassa Shevel and Inessa Zaretsky of the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble and a guest pianist, Ellen Braslavsky, will perform music for one and two pianos by J.S.Bach, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Witold Lutoslavsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Astor Piazzola and Inessa Zaretsky. This program is made possible through the generous support of Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Blavatnik.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/1960http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/1960ProgramsSunday, June 03, 2012: The Center for Jewish History launches its new Summer Sundays at the Center programming for families with the production of Jewish Books Cooking, a new children’s musical. The show is based on a dozen popular children’s books, with a group of young actors interpreting select scenes with original musical arrangements in vaudeville-style skits. Perfect for all ages.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2026http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2026ProgramsSunday, June 03, 2012: A felicitous blend of contemporary styles and a variety of vocal and instrumental combinations. With a rarely-heard piece by Leonard Bernstein (Piano Trio, for piano violin and cello); and works by Hugo Weisgall (selections from The Golden Peacock, a delicious set of Yiddish songs for soprano); Ben Yarmonlinsky (Menasche Songs, for baritone, set to texts by the late Samuel Menashe, who received the first “Neglected Master” award); Jody Rockmayer (Marsyas for harp and oboe, based on the Greek myth of Marsyas finding the aulos (oboe) created by Athena); and the award-winning composer Mark Zuckerman (Managerie for soprano, flute and piano, based on texts by the French poet Robert Desnos), this promises to be a stimulating and enjoyable program. http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2008http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2008ProgramsTuesday, June 05, 2012: Rebecca Kobrin, Columbia University, explores how Jewish immigrant banks were central to the daily economic lives of thousands of Yiddish speaking Jews on the Lower East Side and in Brownsville. These 'banks' not only helped East European Jews book passage to the United States, but they helped them engage and negotiate American capitalism, by providing them with loans, savings accounts, and means to transfer money abroad.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2009http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2009ProgramsSunday, June 10, 2012: Speaker: Valery Bazarov This lecture by Valery Bazarov, Director of the HIAS Family History and Location Services, will describe the content and significance of the case records held by the International Tracing Service (ITS), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and will consider the ways in which the Holocaust-era records of those agencies complement each other. The presentation will be illustrated with specific cases. The formal program will be preceded, from 12:30 to 1:30, by an informal meeting for the sharing of genealogical research stories and questions. http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2024http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2024ProgramsMonday, June 11, 2012: The AJHS Biennial Scholars Conference, chaired by Beth Wenger and Jeffrey Shandler, is a pioneering effort to broaden the scope of American Jewish History scholarship by incorporating perspectives from other fields and disciplines. Cutting-edge research presented by the leading scholars on American Jews. Visit www.ajhs.org for more information.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2011http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2011ProgramsTuesday, June 12, 2012: Novelists Dara Horn and Anna Solomon will discuss their works of historical fiction that focus on aspects of American Jewish life with moderator Josh Lambert. Both authors will read briefly from their work and discuss how they interrelate historical sources with the imaginative work of writing fiction. Dara Horn is the author of three novels, including All Other Nights, published in 2009 by W.W. Norton, which was selected as an Editors' Choice in the New York Times Book Review. Anna Solomon is the author of several short stories; her first novel, The Little Bride, published in 2011 by Riverhead Books, was selected as one of 2011's Best Adult Books for Teens by the School Library Journal. Josh Lambert is the academic director of the National Yiddish Book Center and a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2029http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2029ProgramsTuesday, June 12, 2012: The AJHS Biennial Scholars Conference, chaired by Beth Wenger and Jeffrey Shandler, is a pioneering effort to broaden the scope of American Jewish History scholarship by incorporating perspectives from other fields and disciplines. Cutting-edge research presented by the leading scholars on American Jews. Visit www.ajhs.org for more information.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2012http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2012ProgramsWednesday, June 13, 2012: The AJHS Biennial Scholars Conference, chaired by Beth Wenger and Jeffrey Shandler, is a pioneering effort to broaden the scope of American Jewish History scholarship by incorporating perspectives from other fields and disciplines. Cutting-edge research presented by the leading scholars on American Jews. Visit www.ajhs.org for more information.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2013http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2013ProgramsSunday, June 24, 2012: The League for Yiddish and YIVO Institute invite you to a program in memory of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter ZL. Dr. Kalman Weiser of York University, Toronto, will speak on Max Weinreich's Attitude to American Jews and the Beginnings of Yiddish Studies at American Universities in the 1940s. Musical program and refreshments included. This event is in YIDDISH.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2010http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2010ProgramsMonday, June 25, 2012: Bratislava, long known also as Pressburg, was for centuries an important center of Jewish life and learning which was virtually destroyed in the Holocaust and the post-war Communist period. Today it contains a vibrant Jewish community celebrating the rebirth of its cultural heritage. Dr. Maros Borsky, Director of the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center in Bratislava, will join us to discuss the significant events that are contributing to the community’s revitalization: the long-awaited opening of a new Jewish Community Museum in the city’s only extant synagogue, of which he serves as director and curator; the 250th anniversary of the birth of the prominent Bratislava rabbi and scholar Chatam Sofer whose burial site is an architectural landmark; and the Lost City project, the creation of a giant model of the Neolog synagogue which was demolished in 1969. A native of Bratislava, Dr. Maroš Borský studied art history and Jewish studies in Bratislava, Regensburg, London, Jerusalem and Heidelberg. From 2001 to 2006, Dr. Borský was the curator at the Slovak National Museum-Museum of Jewish Culture, where he founded and oversaw Synagoga Slovaca, the documentation project of synagogue architecture in Slovakia. Since 2006, Dr. Borský has been the Director of the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center in Bratislava. Dr. Borský is the vice president of the Jewish Community of Bratislava and founder of the Jewish Community Museum in Bratislava. http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2027http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2027ProgramsWednesday, July 11, 2012: Documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner will discuss her work making films about American Jews in a public conversation with University of Pennsylvania Professor Beth Wenger. Kempner will reflect on her choices of subjects and the ways that she uses historical sources in her films. She will also preview her current film-in-progress on the Rosenwald Schools. This film explores the life and work of Julius Rosenwald, the son of German-Jewish immigrants who became president and chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Co, focusing particularly on his effort to create more than 5000 schools for poor, rural African-American children in the South. Aviva Kempner's films include The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg. Her films investigate non-stereotypical images of Jews in history, focusing on lesser-known stories of Jewish heroes. She founded the Washington Jewish Film Festival in 1989 and writes film criticism and feature articles for numerous publications, including The Boston Globe, The Forward, Washington Jewish Week and The Washington Post.http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2028http://www.cjh.org/p/130/e/2028Programs