METROPOLITAN NEW YORK
Passover Roundup
Russian Style: Russian-speaking families from the former Soviet Union are invited to join members of HaTsad HaRishon, or the First Step Program, for a first-night Seder. The Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, 7802 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn; $7, $25 families, reservations required. (718-331-6800, ext. 19)
For the Children: “Seder Surprise: Len Levitt and Friends Puppet Performance” is a show about a puppet family preparing for Passover that includes interactive games and a puppet rock band that belts out tunes about the holiday’s history. The show is ideal for children between the ages of 3 and 8. For its children’s celebration of Passover, the Jewish Museum also presents a drop-in arts & craft workshop in which children make a Passover puppet mobile to take home. The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave.; April 20, puppet show 2 p.m.; arts & crafts 1 p.m.-4 p.m.; $3 children, $10 adults, $8 members. (212-423-3271 or www.jewishmuseum.org)
On the Upper East Side, Online: Congregation Emanu-El, the world’s largest Reform congregation, invites the public to its services on the first night and first day of Passover, with Rabbi David Posner. The temple also broadcasts a pre-recorded Seder on the Internet. Temple Emanu-El, 1 E. 65th St.; April 16, 5:30 p.m., April 17, 10:30 a.m.; free, 24-hour hourly Internet broadcast begins April 16 at noon. (212-744-1400 or www.emanuelnyc.org)
Second-Night Seder: The Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue presents a second-night kosher Seder. Village Crown Restaurant, 96 Third Ave., Brooklyn; April 17, 8 p.m.; $85, reservations required. (212-929-6954)
Ashkenazic y Sephardic: The Young Israel of Fifth Avenue presents a first-night Sephardic Seder led by Devick Sellam and a second-night Ashkenazic Seder conducted by Rabbi Larry Goldstein. Each features the music and foods of its tradition. The Young Israel of Fifth Avenue, 3 W. 16th St.; April 16 and April 17, 8:30 p.m.; $40 per Seder, reservations required. (212-255-4826)
This Year in Brooklyn: The Bensonhurst Council of Jewish Organizations presents “Next Year in Jerusalem, This Year in Bensonhurst,” a four-course glatt kosher meal with Haggadot in English, Russian and Hebrew. Congregation Tifereth Torah, 83rd St. and 23rd Ave.; April 16, 7:45 p.m., April 17, 8 p.m.; $30, reservations required. (718-333-1834)
Room for Singles: Families and singles are invited to the Sutton Place Synagogue for services and a Seder led by Rabbi Allan Schranz and Cantor Dov Keren. Sutton Place Synagogue, 225 E. 51st St.; April 16 and April 17, services 6:45 p.m., Seder 7:30 p.m.; Seders $125, $65 children under 12, reservations required. (212-593-3300 or www.suttonplacesynagogue.org)
Film
Theresienstadt on Screen: In conjunction with the exhibition “The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz,” the Brooklyn Museum of Art presents “Movies @ the Museum” on two consecutive Sundays: April 20 and April 27. On the first Sunday, the lineup features four screenings. “The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City” (in German with English subtitles, 25 minutes) was created in 1944 by the Ministry of Propaganda of the Third Reich to show the Red Cross that Jews were being well-treated in the camps. Filmed in Theresienstadt, the film was a complete hoax, and most of the “cast” and the director were shot upon completion. The screening is followed by a discussion with Theresienstadt survivor Frederick Terna, an artist. Robert E. Frye’s “The Journey of Butterfly” (1992, 60 minutes) is a documentary about the American Boys Choir of Princeton’s 1991 trip to Theresienstadt in commemoration of the 15,000 children imprisoned there a half-century earlier. Karel Kachyna’s “The Last Butterfly” (1991, 106 minutes, some nudity) is a dramatization of the play created by mime Antoine Moreau after being commanded by the Gestapo to create “proof” of Theresiendstadt’s “model” ghetto status. Ilona Ziok’s 1999 documentary “Kurt Gerron’s Karussell” is about Kerron, a German-Jewish cabaret singer who rose to fame after starring in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” only to be deported to Theresienstadt, where he directed a cabaret called the Karussell. Brooklyn Museum of Art, 200 Eastern Parkway, April 20, 1 p.m.-6 p.m., museum Sun. hours 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; films free with museum admission, $6, $3 students and seniors, free members and children under 12. (718-638-5000 or www.brooklynmuseum.org)
Commemoration
Tribute to Fighters: Second-generation survivor Marcel Kashensky chairs a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. New York Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is the guest speaker, and there are readings of survivors’ writings — in English and Yiddish. Caroline Chanin sings songs of the Holocaust. Vladeck Hall, 74 Van Cortlandt Park South (entrance on Hillman Ave.), April 20, 11 a.m.; free. (718-796-9300)
Performance
A Job With Jest: Jerome Saibil and Eli Batalion are MC Cain and MC Abel in “Job: The Hip-Hop Musical,” a modern retelling of the biblical story, replete with rap and chutzpah. HERE Arts Center, 145 Sixth Ave., April 17-May 4, please call for times, $15-$18. (212-647-0202 or www.fdltproductions.com)
Reading
Bookish: Suzan E. Hagstrom discusses “Sara’s Children: The Destruction of Chmielnik,” about Sara Garfinkel’s five children, who during World War II were liberated from the death and eventually settled in the United States after the war’s end. Barnes & Noble Park Slope, 267 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn; April 22, 7:30 p.m., free. (718-832-9074 or 718-832-9066)
CALIFORNIA
Staging a Storyteller’s Life: “Because of You: The Life and Loves of Sholom Aleichem” is a play based on the prolific writer and humorist’s stories and letters and on recollections from those who knew him. Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 Fourth St. (between Wilshire and Arizona), Santa Monica; through May 25, Sat. 7 p.m., Sun. 6 p.m.; $22.50, reservations required. (301-394-9779, ext. 1 or www.santamonicaplayhouse.com)
Tribute to an Uprising: The Westside Jewish Community Center hosts a 60th anniversary commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and pays tribute to those killed during the Holocaust. The event includes the dedication of six memorial candles — one for each million Jewish dead — as well as reading of World War II-era poetry in English and Yiddish and a musical performance by the Workmen’s Circle Met Gezang Yiddish Chorus. It is sponsored by the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, Yiddishkayt L.A., Sholem Community, Los Angeles Yiddish Culture Club, Jewish Labor Committee, Emma Lazarus Jewish Women’s Club, Society for Humanistic Jewish Education, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Institute of Jewish Education, Labor Zionist Alliance and Meretz USA-Hashomer Hatzair. Westside Jewish Community Center, 5870 W. Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles; April 19, 8 p.m.; $5 suggested. (310-552-2007)
Last Chance: For the second night of Passover, klezmer revivalist Jeanette Lewicki (accordion and vocals) plays with the Gonifs — with clarinetist Peter Jaques and Rick Elmore on tuba — for one of her last West Coast shows before she makes her move to New York City. Boaz Accordions, 1041 Folger St., Berkeley; April 17, 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.; $10, $7 students and seniors, reservations recommended. (510-845-1429 or www.boazaccordions.com)
NEW JERSEY
‘The Last Bridge’: Based on the life of Holocaust survivor and dancer Barbara Ledermann, Wendy Kesselman’s “The Last Bridge” depicts the last hours a 17-year-old spends in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam with her family before using her “Aryan” appearance to “pass” as a gentile, thereby leaving behind both her family and the Nazis. At the heart of the performance is the young dancer’s relationship with a leader of the underground resistance movement. Kesselman received a Tony Award nomination for her adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick; through April 20, Tue.-Sat. 8 p.m., April 12 and April 19, 2 p.m.; $26-$50, reservations suggested. (732-246-7717 or www.georgestplayhouse.org)
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