METROPOLITAN NEW YORK
Tribute
Poets on Postwar Poetry: Prolific poets Edward Hirsch, Alicia Ostriker and Gerald Stern read their own work and the work of Holocaust survivors in “Solace, Affirmation, Renewal: American Poetry After the Holocaust.” The reading is presented in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 18 First Place, Battery Park City; May 1, 7 p.m.; $15, $12 students, seniors and members, reservations recommended. (212-509-6130 or www.mjhnyc.org)
Performance
Sex in the Synagogue: For the first time, two radio plays by the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai are presented in English in a staged reading — with sound effects. “The Day Martin Buber Was Buried” is set in Jerusalem on the day of the philosopher’s funeral and tells the story of a man and woman whose love waxed, then waned in the Israeli city. “To Love in Jerusalem” is also about a couple, this one accused of frolicking sexually in the city’s religious sites, across the religious spectrum. The radio plays, translated by Noam Flinker and Burton Raffel, are directed by Adam Seelig. The 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave.; May 6, 8 p.m.; $16. (212-415-5500 or www.92ndsty.org)
Tall Tales: Ellen Gould brings her Emmy Award-winning one-woman show about her two grandmothers back to the stage for an evening of “Bubbe Meises.” Brooklyn College campus, Walt Whitman Theater, Flatbush and Nostrand Aves.; April 27, 2 p.m.; $25, reservations recommended. (718-951-4500 or www.brooklyncenter.org)
Neighbors: The Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre presents a staged reading of Leon Kobrin’s Yiddish comedy “Di Nekstdorike” (“The Girl Next Door”) — with English supertitles. Workmen’s Circle, 45 E. 33rd St., room 104; April 30, 7 p.m.; $15. (212-213-2120 or www.folksbiene.org)
Course
Religious Commonalities: In the Center for Religious Inquiry’s “Conversations in Judaism and Hinduism,” Rabbi Daniel Polish and Professor Rachel McDermott of Columbia University explore the similarities of two of the world’s great religions, focusing on sacred texts; festivals; the role of rebbe, tzadik and guru; image worship, and sacrifice. Saint Bartholomew’s Church, 109 E. 50th St.; May 1-May 29, Thursdays, 6:30 p.m.; $185 series. (212-378-0222)
Music
Beyond Language: The Jerusalem-based Victoria Hanna’s multimedia “TransLetters” stretches the boundaries of language and sound. It falls somewhere between performance art and music, setting classical Hebrew texts to everything from rap to electronica, while footage taken covertly at the women’s section of the Western Wall is screened as a backdrop. The work, a Storahtelling project, is a collaboration with installation artist Ori Kleiner, Integrated Media artist Amichai Wolf, and drummer Tamir Muskat, among others. Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St.; May 3, 9:30 p.m.; $12. (212-539-8778 or www.publictheater.org)
Film
Israel, the Early Years: Richard Trank’s “In Search of Peace, Part 1: 1948-1967” (Hebrew, English subtitles) chronicles the first half of Israel’s history. Written by Sir Martin Gilbert and Rabbi Marvin Hier and adapted by Trank, the film is part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Moriah Films series. Ha’aretz columnist Tom Segev, author of “The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust,” leads a post-screening discussion. Riverdale YM-YWHA, 5625 Arlington Ave., the Bronx; May 4, 1 p.m.; $10, $8 advance. (718-548-8200)
Exhibition
Shared History, Mixed Media: Created specifically for the Eldridge Street Synagogue, built in 1887, filmmaker Pearl Gluck and musician Basya Schechter’s “Trance” is a site-specific multimedia installation. Blending sounds and visuals recorded from the neighborhood immediately surrounding the synagogue, “Trance” illuminates and amplifies the vibrancy of the shared streets of the area’s Jewish and Asian communities. Schechter, founder of Pharaoh’s Daughter, and Gluck, whose documentary “Divan” premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival, perform as part of the opening-night reception. Eldridge Street Project, 12 Eldridge St.; opening reception April 30, 6 p.m.; exhibit through July 20, please call for hours. (212-978-8800 or www.eldridgestreet.org)
Staying In
The Joys of Daily Life: Some 4,000 Jews living in Luboml, Poland, a market town where yidishkayt thrived, were killed during World War II. Ron Steinman and Eileen Douglas’s “Luboml: My Heart Remembers” chronicles not the terror and destruction but the joys of the town’s pre-war day-to-day life under the Nazis using archival footage, personal effects and the recollections of two survivors who recently returned to their native shtetl. WLIW-TV (Channel 21), April 29, 10 p.m. (www.wliw.org)
CONNECTICUT
Yukking It Up: Comedian Avi Hoffman performs excerpts from his Broadway shows “Too Jewish?” and “Too Jewish Two” for the University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies’ Lillian Margulies Singer Lecture, an annual event dedicated to Jewish humor. Hoffman takes a humorous look at the lives of American Jews from the great wave of Lower East Side immigration to the days of Borscht Belt glory. University of Hartford, Lincoln Theater, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford; May 1, 7:30 p.m.; free, reservations required. (860-768-4963 or e-mail [email protected])
MASSACHUSETTS
Ringelblum’s Legacy: From September 1939 through January 1943, the “Oneg Shabbat” archive — created by historian-organizer Emmanuel Ringelblum — served as an underground network whose members were dedicated to the archive’s mission: creating a chronicle of daily life in the Warsaw Ghetto. While Ringelblum himself was murdered along with his family in the ghetto’s ruins, the underground archive’s materials — personal effects, artwork and historical documents — were unearthed from their hiding places amid the rubble. In the annual Melinda Rosenblatt Memorial Lecture, historian Samuel Kassow discusses the archive, the history of the Warsaw Ghetto and Ringelblum himself. Kassow is the Charles Northam professor of Judaic studies at Trinity College. National Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College campus, 1021 West St.; May 4, 2 p.m.; Amherst; free. (413-256-4900 or www.yiddishbookcenter.org)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Alarm Fires: “Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings” documents the outspoken response in the United States to the book burnings begun by German students six years before the start of the war. Among those targeted were Helen Keller, Ernest Hemingway and Albert Einstein in burnings that serve as a metaphor for repression and terror. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 30-October 13, daily 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., through June 12, Tue. and Thu. open till 8 p.m., except April 19; free. (202-488-0400)
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